A tale of two cities
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)
In New York, Mayor Bloomberg is sending in the police to mace and bludgeon protesters and journalists alike:
MYFOXNY.COM – While covering the Occupy Wall Street protests on Wednesday night, Fox 5 photographer Roy Isen was hit in the eyes by mace from a police officer and Fox 5 reporter Dick Brennan was hit by an officer’s baton.
The protests on Wall Street continued to grow all day. The rallies and their participants are showing no signs of slowing down.
In the evening, crowds surged past barriers and NYPD officers moved in to contain the protesters. By many accounts, mayhem broke out.
Officers, many wearing white shorts indicating supervisor rank, swatted protesters with batons and sprayed them with mace, video from the scene showed.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles, mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is officially backing the protests, handing out rain ponchos to the protesters:
The five-day old campout demonstration outside Los Angeles City Hall to protest Wall Street greed is getting official thumbs up from the city.
City News Service says the office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa distributed 100 rain ponchos to the demonstrators on Wednesday while seven of the 15 councilmembers voted in favor of a resolution in support of the Occupy LA protest.
The resolution, which is slated for a final vote next week, called the protest “a peaceful and vibrant exercise in First Amendment rights.”
This is the difference between a city beholden to the vampires in the financial sector, and a city that isn’t. It’s the difference between a mayor with a community organizing and civic activism background, and a mayor beloved of the corrupt Third Way crowd who “earned” his chops playing games with other people’s money. It’s the difference between real progressivism, and authoritarian conservatism with a happy, socially liberal smile on its face.
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