Social Activism
Mayor Bloomberg versus Occupy Wall Street

VIDEO Special Comment: The Hero Of Occupy, Mike Bloomberg

COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Special Comment: The Hero Of Occupy, Mike Bloomberg

You heard me.

In any other context, I'd be calling on Michael Bloomberg to resign as Mayor of New York. The ham-handed handling of Occupy Wall Street by Bloomberg and his minions, from its first week to last night, reflects the kind of short-sightedness and ignorance of this country's laws, history, and principles, that can truly only be offered by a man with an obscenely large amount of money and an obscenely small amount of conscience.

But history tells us that the dumber The Establishment gets, the more obvious its repression becomes, and the more popular it makes the movements it seeks to crush. In short:

Democracy has been protected, not merely by the strenuous efforts of those of us who cherish it. But mostly, and most profoundly, by the limitless stupidity of those who would ration it, keep it for themselves and themselves alone -- or destroy it.

My Special Comment tonight on Countdown will trace Bloomberg's forebears in over-reach and under-thought: everybody from Mayor Daley of Chicago, to Governor Rhodes of Ohio, to Joe McCarthy, and George Grenville.

If George Grenville doesn't ring a bell, google him. He had one of the Top 10 Worst Brilliant Ideas in history.

Anyway, a preview of my call for us to appreciate just what Million-Bucks-A-Minute-Mike has done for the cause:

Who else but a cliche like Bloomberg could take a protest beginning to grow a little stale around the edges, and vault it back into the headlines, complete with mortifying scenes of police dressed up as storm-troopers, carrying military weapons, using figurative bazookas to kill figurative mosquitoes?

Who else but an archetype like Bloomberg could claim a group of protestors were making too much noise in a residential area, then choose to try to disperse them by bringing out LRAD Audio Cannons, machines that send painful waves of sound indiscriminately over the very same residential area?

Who else but a cartoon like Bloomberg could have become rich creating a multi-billion dollar media company, and then authorize illegally preventing reporters from witnessing police actions he claims were utterly legal, and then authorize the arrest of four reporters at a Church?...

Who else but a hypocrite like Bloomberg could have overridden by backroom-deal with the New York City Council, the results of two separate referendums limiting those in his office to just two terms as Mayor, so he could serve a third term, and then had his police arrest, beat up, and incarcerate, a member of the New York City Council?...

Michael Bloomberg is the 12th richest man in America, which is a reminder that money can't buy you love, brains, or foresight.

And what Bloomberg did last night, and the fact that a new poll shows 58% of those throughout New York state believe protestors not only have the right to protest, but they have the right to stay overnight in the parks of the cities of the state, and the boost his midnight police riot at Zuccotti Park will give Occupy here and elsewhere, is a reminder that at least in this country, we can still take comfort that not everything bears a pricetag, and nothing preserves Democracy better than the stupidity of its opponents.