6 replies to this topic

[MercFlyer]

There is an interesting social movement going on in New York. For over two weeks now Wall Street has been peacefully occupied by a large crowd of people protesting the financial practices that have brought upon this recession. The mainstream media has reported little to nothing of what is happening. Live video feed is streaming on http://www.livestrea...gn=footerlinks.

[Stone in Shoe Bob]

You may be please to hear, it made the evening news here in the UK, something about the blocking of the Brooklyn Bridge, I think it is all part of the same protest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...brooklyn_bridge

[MercFlyer]

Yesterday the NYPD arrested over 500 people on the Brooklyn Bridge and shuttled them around the city for most of the night in city buses. Right now I am watching people from Spain explaining how they went about their revolution, I thank the world for helping us to change.

[ahofer]

The "occupation" is directly across the street from my office. During the week they have never had anything close to 500 people. Thursday they were so few that when they went around on their neighborhood march there was a one-to-one police:protester ratio. Maybe 50-60 protesters.

I'm quite sympathetic with a few of the ideas that might be part of such a movement. Unfortunately, the actual demonstrators have no coherent ideas, just a potpourri of old and bad ones. They are socialists, Ron Paul supporters, animal rights activists, union agitators and a few simply needy and confused. They are demonstrating *nowhere near* the offices of the banks to which they apparently object. When asked what their demands are, they produce blank stares and gibberish. They haven't marched West to Goldman, and they haven't gone to park Avenue in the '40s where JP Morgan, Citibank and others have their headquarters. Or to Bryant Park, where Bank of America is. My own firm, a bank, is on the small side, didn't take (or need) TARP money and and would have benefited tremendously if the government hadn't resuscitated our competitors, so it is truly ironic they are camped out in front of us. Lower Manhattan is mostly the 'plumbing' of financial services. It's kind of funny, because neither we nor they know what they are doing in our neighborhood. If the goal is to inconvenience lower Manhattan residents and operations professionals - misson accomplished!.

Two weekends ago, some clown police officer, Anthony Bologna (Tony Baloney!), pepper-sprayed a bunch of protesters without justification, and it was caught on multiple video cameras. This gave them a bit of momentum for a day or two. This weekend, the police flubbed the Brooklyn Bridge arrests, and wrestled several peaceful protesters to the curb. Soon this "anti wall street" demonstration may end up being more about police and photography rights than the influence of finance in our government.

It will be interesting to see where this takes them tomorrow.

[awindofchange]

I agree that reform needs to be done, but just complaining about the obvious problem isn't going to solve anything. Instead of shouting hatred, submit plans. This is the only way that things will be changed.

[Aerochic]

I agree that reform needs to be done, but just complaining about the obvious problem isn't going to solve anything. Instead of shouting hatred, submit plans. This is the only way that things will be changed.

I couldn't agree more!

[stroke survivor]

I agree that reform needs to be done, but just complaining about the obvious problem isn't going to solve anything. Instead of shouting hatred, submit plans. This is the only way that things will be changed.

Sounds like most of the present politicians - too busy being reelected to solve any problems!!!