Bryan, a former New York cop, is annoyed by the NYPD brass blatantly ignoring New York State law and their own policy handbook. He especially points out that pepper-spraying someone in the eyes and hitting someone on the head with a truncheon are both actions that can result in permanent injury to the victim and thus are explicitly prohibited both in the NYPD policy manual and in New York state law.
I suppose what surprises me is just how blatant the NYPD is when it comes to committing illegal actions. It's not as if they have to do anything illegal in order to deal with the protests and protesters. They have plenty of experience with handling these kinds of things in a manner that complies with both the law and with their own policies that end up with protesters *not* having a nice day. So why the senseless violations of law and policy? It doesn't make sense, unless they're trying to gain support for OccupyWallStreet, which if that's what they're trying to do, they're doing a heckuva job, Bloomie.
-- Badtux the Law-and-order Penguin
I have to assume it's not carefully thought out, and is a purely emotional reaction: Hatred bred of fear. The fear comes from higher up the chain... originating at the top levels of banking. I imagine the political appointees in their blood-spattered white shirts have had their livelihoods threatened by the existence of the protesters.
ReplyDeleteThe NYPD is simply doing what its corporate overlords demand: "get rid of those DFHs so we can go back to our three-martini lunches in peace and quiet."
ReplyDeleteBTW, half the time, the captcha shows as just an empty box... any suggestions?
Back in the good old days protests were done with guns and clubs, they were effective too.
ReplyDeleteIntimidation is the reason. It's a test of wills. Is the American populace, minus the hard-core professional protesters, of course, dedicated enough to sustain a movement in the face of publicized neat-downs? Because the brutality works in the po-leece's favour in that regard. Who knows? It might be enough to scare off the people who still have something left to lose.
ReplyDeleteI went to the Oct. 15 Occupy action in Vancouver, BTW. Nice day, pleasant, diverse crowd, well-behaved. They're Canadians, after all. Most of them seemed a bit shy about chanting shouts as we trooped through the business district. No pig pressure here. It hasn't gotten serious. Can still be disregarded as the malcontent hippie folk festival.
Mr. 681, when I get a blank Captcha box, I first save a flash memory copy of what I wrote, then hit "Preview." That almost always prompts Blogger to give me a Captcha.
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