Dear Dirty America

From Kevin Gosztola’s live blogging of the Occupy Wall Street escapade:

The first instance of police making mass arrests of Occupy Wall Street protesters happened yesterday. Police had not detained a large group of protesters before, preferring to arbitrarily pick off individuals they thought warranted arrest. The harassment, intimidation and violence on display on the streets of New York City yesterday moved a number of major news outlets to roll on down to Liberty Park (Zuccotti Park), where the occupation has been taking place, to interview those who had survived the NYPD crackdown on dissent during the afternoon.

At one point, it appeared the occupation was going to be dispersed and pushed out of the park. An “eviction notice” flier was handed out to protesters in the park by police. It was discovered the paper had no legal force behind it after a lawyer was contacted but yet after the march, where 80-100 were arrested, police surrounded the encampment and it was suspected the occupation would be shut down at 10 pm or 11:30 pm or some time late in the night. But, Occupy Wall Street survived and they are still a great presence in lower Manhattan.

I smell a Kent State coming on. I hope I’m wrong. Bloomberg and his NYPD thugs get more violent every day, yet the idea to Occupy Wall Street retains its strength, and possibly the idea is becoming stronger. When will the police provoke violence from the Occupiers and then heavily retaliate? Macing innocent, peaceful protesters is ugly and asking to spark widespread violence. Thankfully, the Right people kept their cool, even while being assaulted by police.

The tensions run high enough in this country that people may very well refuse to leave Liberty Plaza, no matter how many of them get maced or groped or thrown to the ground by police. What will Bloomberg do then? Call in the troops?

The shot of mace that ushered in the revolution