TIME'S Person Of The Year is "The Protestor"

Today, TIME magazine named its Person of the Year and it's actually more than one.  "The Protestor" is their "person" who has had the biggest effect on the world's event in 2011.  I thought they might be more specific, like chosing "the 99%", the phrase that has been popularized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, or the young men and women who bravely brought about an Arab Spring.  But I think using the more general term is actually more apt, in that it shows what a remarkable and broad range of protest this tumultuous year has seen around the world.

In fact, just two days ago, protestors took to the streets of Moscow to express their anger over what has been called a fixed Russian election, where longtime leader Vladamir Putin's party remained in power despite popular unrest. In some ways, it seems the world has a bit of a protesting virus that just keeps spreading.  First it was the Middle East, where protests in one country seemed to inspire those in another, eventually leading to the unthinkable toppling of Egypt's longtime leader Mubarak.  In the US, who would have guessed that the handful of original protestors who camped out in a park a couple blocks from Wall Street would have sparked a national movement encompassing thousands of people in less than a couple months?  

One of the main runners-up for TIME's honor this year was Admiral McRaven, who orchestrated the attack that killed Osama Bin Laden.  But the death of the leader of a weakened and increasingly marginalized Al Qaeda is less momentous than the birth of a global movement in which the masses, in the still-prophetic words of the fictional Howard Beale, are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore.

Pressing The NYPD On Their Treatment Of Press

When the Occupy Wall Street-ers were evicted in the middle of the night from Zucotti Park last week, the most shocking thing to me about the operation was the fact that the police forbid the media from covering it.  They said that they did it out of concern for their safety but it doesn't take a genius to figure out the real reason was that the mayor did not want pictures of it all over the morning papers/TV/blogs.  And there weren't. There were only reports that the protestors had been evicted.

Well today, the press is fighting back against this egregious violation of the First Amendment. The TIMES media blog today reports that 13 news organizations along with 10 journalistic unions have filed complaints with the NYPD and have asked for a full investigation into the events of November 15th.  In addition to the enforced media blackout, there were also 10 journalists who were arrested that day and multiple reporters who were roughed up and impeded from covering a major news story.

This is beyond shocking in a democratic society.  The police and the mayor's tactics on that day are more reminiscent of what goes on in China than in the United States.  Let's hope a full investigation is launched into police misconduct and that the city takes responsibility for violating the rights of citizens that it is supposed to be upholding.

Police Tactics At UC-Davis Cause A Firestorm

Over the weekend, a firestorm erupted over a viral video of a UC-Davis campus policeman casually pepper-spraying non-violent student protesters sitting on a campus walkway.  It's one of the strangest and most shocking videos of police misconduct to come out of all the "Occupy" protests these fall and it is causing a massive reaction, with calls for the chancellor of the school to resign.  (This AM she said she will not leave her post.)

There is a very thoughtful article in this morning's Washington Post on the question of who police are protecting and how they are being viewed very differently these days by those they are supposed to protect.  Simply put, police used to be people you were told as a child to ask for help but now they are a force to be avoided at all costs.  I would have to agree with this assessment, especially here in NYC where the police have become a self-acknowledged para-military force, larger than the standing army of some countries in South America.  I find myself often crossing the street to avoid police officers, knowing that saying the wrong thing or often looking at them the wrong way can lead to trouble. 

This video popularity and the massive response to it seems to hit on an issue central to life in the post-9/11 era.  We have ceded so much power to police and other authorities to protect us from terrorism yet more and more it appears we have also handed over our basic human rights as well.  Maybe this and other videos circulating the web these days can serve as a turning point in returning the balance of power in this country to where it rightfully and constitutionally belongs; with the people.

Occupy Wall Street vs. The Empire

Yesterday, the Occupy Wall Street movement celebrated their 2-month anniversary with a massive action in lower Manhattan.  One unofficial estimate heard on a NYPD radio scanner put the crowd size near 30,000.  However, the day was not without incident.  More than 200 people were arrested as protestors, now without a home in Zuccotti Park after being evicted Tuesday night, took to Foley Park, the subways and the Brooklyn Bridge to educate the 99% about the financial inequities in the country today.

While there is nothing funny about the often extreme tactics of NYPD, someone has found a way to infuse a touch of humor into the situation.  There has been much comment about how police here and in other cities resemble storm troopers in the STAR WARS films. Well, now an internet genius has morphed the police batons into light sabres to make the point. Now we just need someone to Photoshop Bloomberg's face onto that of the Emperor...that would be awesome!