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.

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!