Wall St. protests

[redandguilty]

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/video-appears-to-show-protesters-being-pepper-sprayed/

I didn't realize the protests were gaining this kind of ground. Anyone else paying attention to this?

I wonder what the protesters actually want. There is anger, but no demands.

 

[Michchamp]

yes.

you wonder what they want?

there was a lot that needed to be done to straighten wall street out, which should've been obvious to anyone with half a brain by 2008.

wall street essentially owns both political parties, so they were able to prevent any reforms from being carried out. Dodd-Frank was toothless, as was all other legislation.

the banks were able to ensure obama's econ team was kept in the dark, or replaced with wall street insiders... Elizabeth Warren was stonewalled...

so... people have to protest in hopes that they can offset wall street's massive lobby power, control of the media & PR power (every major news outlet is owned/run by a large corporation which are closely intertwined with wall street banks).

 

[hockeywings]

It's about damn time people stood up at least.

 

[redandguilty]

yes.

you wonder what they want?

there was a lot that needed to be done to straighten wall street out, which should've been obvious to anyone with half a brain by 2008.

wall street essentially owns both political parties, so they were able to prevent any reforms from being carried out. Dodd-Frank was toothless, as was all other legislation.

the banks were able to ensure obama's econ team was kept in the dark, or replaced with wall street insiders... Elizabeth Warren was stonewalled...

so... people have to protest in hopes that they can offset wall street's massive lobby power, control of the media & PR power (every major news outlet is owned/run by a large corporation which are closely intertwined with wall street banks).

Yeah, I get and support all that. What I meant was that messages like that are usually one time rallies. This is like a sit in...we're going to stay here until...what?

 

[Michchamp]

it's hard to find coverage of it, and even harder to find any article that asks WHY they are protesting and what they hope to accomplish. go figure, right?

I've had to look at blogs. I just checked a couple sites to see if they are even mentioning it... the ChicagoTribune & Freep aren't at all. You have to dig into the NYC coverage at the NYT, and they have a few articles about it.

the general angle is that they are foolish and bad, and getting arrested for it.

I found this article in the Guardian that goes a little further: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/25/occupy-wall-street-protest?newsfeed=true

for more detailed coverage, I've had to read posts on twitter, or
blogs: http://mctracey.com/2011/09/25/brian-stelter-and-the-pathology-of-objectivity/

 

[Michchamp]

Go to their site: https://occupywallst.org/

Straight from the horse's mouth: <blockquote>Our Mission

On the 17th of September, we want to see 20,000 people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.

Like our brothers and sisters in Egypt, Greece, Spain, and Iceland, we plan to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America. We also encourage the use of nonviolence to achieve our ends and maximize the safety of all participants.
Who is Occupy Wall Street?

Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.

The original call for this occupation was published by Adbusters in July; since then, many individuals across the country have stepped up to organize this event, such as the people of the NYC General Assembly and US Day of Rage. There'll also be similar occupations in the near future such as October2011 in Freedom Plaza, Washington D.C. </blockquote>so there you have it.

 

[Michchamp]

are you familiar with what the NY Attorney general is doing right now?

This article is a good summary of it:http://www.salon.com/news/wall_street/index.html?story=/politics/feature/2011/09/25/schneiderman

 

[Michchamp]

I started thinking about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Hat_Riot , but it doesn't look like Wall Street will need to bring out their own thugs to rough up the protesters... the NYPD is already on the job.

 

[redandguilty]

That's for the links MC. I'm really surprised that more isn't showing up on my google news page.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Just a bunch of whiney young people with no jobs.

 

[redandguilty]

A claim made on the Occupy Wall St. website

Today we received reports that over one hundred blue collar police refused to come into work in solidarity with our movement

 

[Mitchrapp]

Yeah sure they did, lol.

 

[hockeywings]

How dare the worker class stage protests! Don't they know that they are supposed to accept wall street thugs paying half the percent in taxes they do?

Capital gains tax - max 15%
Income tax - max 33%

 

[Michchamp]

A claim made on the Occupy Wall St. website

Today we received reports that over one hundred blue collar police refused to come into work in solidarity with our movement

on FireDogLake, they cited a source that claimed the rank-and-file police looked uncomfortable doing some of the things they were ordered to do. Most, if not all of the pictures where the cops were hitting/shoving/tackling protestors the cops had white shirts on, which they said in the NYPD denotes higher ranking cops. The beat cops that patrol the streets were NOT comfortable roughing peaceful protestors up.

 

[Mitchrapp]

How do you know they were peaceful?

 

[Michchamp]

link: http://my.firedoglake.com/cindykouril/2011/09/26/contrast-how-right-wing-protestors-are-treated-by-nyc/

 

[Mitchrapp]

Not sure how that says they were peaceful.

 

[Michchamp]

Mitch[/color]]Not sure how that says they were peaceful.

was posting that in response to Red's comment.

but, if any of them were breaking shit, you can be sure it would be all over the news right now, to tar them as some sort of "extremists" who don't appreciate all the wonderful things this country has done for them, and don't spend every second of every day thinking about how they love big brother Uncle Sam like you do.

the fact that they've been largely ignored is proof enough for me.

 

[hockeywings]

violence would be on the news, peaceful wouldn't.

 

[redandguilty]

I think the lack of coverage shows that corporate influence trumps any partisan bias of the media.