No, I'm not being facetious or hyperbolic. In their effort to "clean up" (Newspeak for "evict and intimidate") the Zuccotti Park OWS crowd last night, the police tossed over 5,000 books into dump trucks. Those books were private donations by people who happened to give a shit about educating their fellow men and women in the ways of the world. Thanks to what amounts to police state politics they are gone, and they are not coming back. If I had to assume a cost of the lost items I'd make it somewhere in the twenty-five to thirty thousand dollar range. I don't know about you, but for us that several semesters worth of book budgeting.
From Media Bistro:
The Occupy Wall Street librarians have been tweeting the eviction all night: “NYPD destroying american cultural history, they’re destroying the documents, the books, the artwork of an event in our nation’s history … Right now, the NYPD are throwing over 5,000 books from our library into a dumpster. Will they burn them? … Call 311 or 212-639-9675 now and ask why Mayor Bloomberg is throwing the 5,554 books from our library into a dumpster.”
From the NY Times:
The operation in and around Zuccotti Park was intended to empty the birthplace of a protest movement that has inspired hundreds of tent cities from coast to coast. On Monday in Oakland, Calif., hundreds of police officers raided the main encampment there, arresting 33 people. Protesters returned later in the day. But the Oakland police said no one would be allowed to sleep there anymore, and promised to clear a second camp nearby.
And, since a picture is worth a thousand words, from Animal New York:
Occupy Wall Street Getting Raided by NYPD
The one bright spot in all this mishegos is the fact that the courts are fimly on the side of the occupiers, at least when it comes to illegal random seizures of their belongings and space. Bloomberg is trying to nullify that, too.
So bite me, Mike Bloomberg. Bite me hard.
Recent Comments