Joe Catron:
>I'm with the cops on some of these. When your chosen protest is a public
encampment in public space, you run the risk of having to deal with the
actual public. >And it is in no sense the proper duty of the NYPD to decide
who does and does not attend it, what they do there (within obvious
limits), etc. These whiners, who >are bellyaching to the media that police
are acting as if theirs is an unpermitted gathering and they actually don't
have a legal basis for exclusive use of the park, >need a kick in the pants
an an explanation of what an "occupation" actually is.
John Gulick: OK Joe, but isn't it the case that the NYPD has been deliberately steering the mentally disturbed (sic) homeless to Zuccotti so as to create havoc there and raise calls for "order" to be restored. It'shardly as if this is about the occupiers being unwilling to fully deal with "the public" in some organic sense. (I have no idea really but, I'm guess that the occupiers have some methods for coping withcontingencies such as these, even if you and I may deem these too loose and disorganized.)