Parallel police manuals: one for how to protect the rich and the other detailing how to deal with the poor

allison kilkenny writes about the occupy protests at the ports and in front of goldman sachs yesterday...

It was strange to see a large police response for such relatively tame acts of civil disobedience, but that's become a theme of Occupy Wall Street. The 30:1 police-to-protester ratio is a familiar theme of these kinds of protests, but only, of course, if the protest target has something to do with the financial district in New York City or major companies' import-export practices. When activists in New York City chose East New York as the site of their protest, very few police officers turned out to monitor the event. Those who did show up allowed protesters to march down the middle of the street, disrupt traffic, and block the roadways outside of homes.

If Occupiers attempted similar behavior in the financial district, police would arrest them en masse. That's not mere speculation. That exact scenario occurs every time protesters stray into Manhattan streets, and I've personally witnesses an NYPD officer tear the press pass off a foreign cameraman's neck when he went into the street to film police activity.

It almost seems as though there are parallel police manuals: one for how to protect the rich and the other detailing how to deal with the poor.

just another clear example of what it means to be the 99%...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet