How dare the poor people complain! The wealthy must be protected at all costs!
The arrests took place when a large group of
marchers, participating in a second week of
protests by the Occupy Wall Street movement, broke
off from others on the bridge's pedestrian walkway
and headed across the Brooklyn-bound lanes.
"More than 500 were arrested on the Brooklyn
Bridge late this afternoon after multiple warnings
by police were given to protesters to stay on the
pedestrian walkway," a police spokesman said.
"Some complied and took the walkway without being
arrested. Others locked arms and proceeded on the
Brooklyn-bound vehicular roadway and were
arrested," he added
> This article is misleading. It makes the protesters seem like they caused the incident by blocking traffic. The group was led onto the bridge where police kettled them in and arrested them 1 by 1.
1. There was no problem as long as people stayed on the sidewalk.
2. A small number of protestors left the sidewalk and took to the street, chanting that they were going to take the bridge.
3. Police told them to get out of the street or they would be arrested.
4. At some point, the police were walking in the street, and the protestors in the street were following them.
5. People on the sidewalk farther back or not yet on the bridge saw that, and thought the the police were given the protestors an escort in the street and that it was OK therefore to walk in the street.
These protestors really need to get better organized. When they decided to head across the bridge, they should have made it clear that the plan was to stay on the sidewalk. The leaders knew this, but apparently it was not communicated to the masses.
You can stop a war by protesting, as all it takes is an executive order from the President. It's a concrete measure. If they were protesting for a bill to stop bailouts, and give the bailout money directly to tax payers (which can filter up to banks), then it might be worth protesting for. If they wanted some specific legislation passed, it could work. But unless there is some step that Congress feels pressured to do, they are just a disorganized and unplacatable rabble, which can only be ignored, or contained by force.
There is a fundamental sickness in the system. A giant, rhizomic structure of venality and corruption that has undercut and basically replaced the system I, as an American, have been raised to believe is the proper form of government, with a government where all activity is dictated by power wielding corporate interests. Greed has become the dominant ideology; all branches of government and the media have become subsumed by it. A just and functional society is not and will never be an emergent property of a greed-based system.