You probably don’t need me to tell you that Mayor Bloomberg has ordered OWS demonstrators to leave Zuccotti Park “for cleaning”, and when they come back they must come equipped in a way that will make it impossible to stay. I smell a big fat Republican rat! In the following excerpt, Van Jones fights back.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is making a cowardly attempt to end Occupy Wall Street, the anchor of a movement that has captured the hearts and minds of the country in just four weeks. Tomorrow at 7 a.m., under Bloomberg’s orders, the NYPD will evict the 99%.
Unless we stop that from happening.
We have very little time to act. There are at least three things you can do right now:
- SIGN THIS PETITION now. MoveOn.org has started a major petition drive to tell Mayor Bloomberg: "Respect the protesters’ First Amendment rights. Don’t try to evict Occupy Wall Street." The petition will be put in the hands of the occupiers TONIGHT, and then delivered to the mayor. A massive stack of signatures will show Occupy Wall Street and Bloomberg that the nation stands with the 99%, not the 1%.
- Tell everyone you know in the New York area that they should head to Zuccotti Park at 6:00 AM tomorrow (Friday Oct 14) to prevent Bloomberg from evicting the protesters. If enough people literally stand with the protesters, Bloomberg could back down.
- Call 311 (if you live in New York City) or 212-NEW-YORK (if you live elsewhere in the US) and demand that Bloomberg back down from interfering with the occupiers’ brave stand on behalf of the 99% of us.
The mayor’s justification for this eviction is a ruse. Bloomberg says authorities need to "clean" the park. Meanwhile, he refuses to acknowledge that Occupy Wall Street has a functioning sanitation detail, just as they’ve self-organized every other aspect of their dignified, intentional community (including a working library).
Bloomberg says the protestors may return after the "cleaning," but this also is less than honest. Upon returning to the park, occupiers must follow rules that make the occupation impossible: no camping; no sleeping bags; no tents; no lying down; no storage of personal property.
Make no mistake — this is an eviction. Winter is coming, and the occupiers cannot continue without the ability to stay safe, warm, and dry… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Huffington Post>
I urge you to sign the petition and, if local, participate in the other activities.
Keith Olbermann covered this story in two segments on Countdown. In the first, he interviews attorney Gideon Oliver.
I have to plug Portland, Oregon for coming to a negotiated settlement of the difficulties here. In the second, Keith interviews journalist Matt Taibbi.
I commend the demonstrators for their resolve, and pray that they do not respond with violence, if assaulted by police supervisors again.
Once again, please sign that petition!
18 Responses to “Van Jones Fights Back”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I have already signed moveon’s petition, along with several others. I urge everyone to do the same. Tweet, share on facebook and any other social media you have access to. Call Bloomberg’s office, email your friends. Anything you do matters. Nothing is too small and nothing is too big.
I’m shaking my head in disbelief because this really is what fascism looks like. this is what a police state looks like. It will not get better unless we do the work of standing up for our rights.
Thanks Maria!
You’re right!
We’ve reached 99% of our new goal of 300,000 signers!
from CNN: A cleaning planned for the Manhattan park where “Occupy Wall Street” protesters have camped out for weeks has been postponed, a move that averts a showdown between demonstrators and police.
The New York mayor’s office said Brookfield Properties, the owners of Zuccotti Park, told the city late Thursday the scheduled cleaning is off for now and “for the time being” they are “withdrawing their request” made earlier in the week for police assistance during the cleaning operation.
I think he saw his political career going down the tubes if he did it.
On the news last night I saw the occupiers cleaning. They were even shining the water fountains. so, what needed cleaning?
Excellent!
I signed several different petitions last night as well as calling the office of the Mayor and leaving a message – I’ve said all along that we’re on Bloomy’s home turf, his harem – he feels very threatened and it appears he wants to go to any ends to expel the demonstrators from the park! I was going to go down to there this morning, but because of my frail health and the threat of violence decided against it – there has been an angry response from both sides and the area is in a bit of crisis – the “clean-up” was cancelled this morning, but the provocation has created an extremely volatile situation!
Probably a good idea. health has been a limiting factor for me as well.
ps – the demonstrators have left the park and gone to Wall St – which has been barricaded with brute force from cops – they’ve protected the NYSE – but finally the demonstrators have reached the site of the “fan” where the shit is flying!
See today’s top article.
The more “they” feel threatened- tho more scared- the higher the risk of violence– I have signed etc– all I can do– if I were able I would go there too!!
Thanks Phyllis!
Last night Mayor Bloomberg attended a gala dinner at the posh Cipriani restaurant located in the Wall Street district. He was serenaded by several hundred OWS folks singing “Hell No – We Won’t Go!”
The Mayor exited by the back door.
Thanks Nameless! Where have I heard that chant before? 😉
When you consider that it only took 1 day/night for Vancouver, BC ‘demonstrators’ to trash part of the downtown core back in June during what is erroneously called the Stanley Cup riots, this OWS has been a paragon of civility. And that’s the way it should be in order to stay credible to the cause. Any violence I have seen so far has been instigated by police — Bologna pepper spraying at random in New York; white shirts throwing people against the walls and trying to intimidate the protesters; white shirts using their batons as baseball clubs against protesters who were not attacking them; and others.
I keep coming back to Mahatma Gandhi’s words “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
I signed the petition yesterday.
Keep coming back there. It’s a good place to be.
Given the state of our country’s legal system, for me there are still some open questions about liability exposure the park’s owners might have. I was hoping that an answer might be forthcoming from Keith’s interviews or comments, but I heard nothing definitive.
Paul, that’s a good question, and I don’t know.
Signed!
Thanks, Lisa!