Truly Stupid
In one final burst of stupidity before the reality of what can happen to them, the Казаки pulled this bone-headed stunt, Naomi Wolf: how I was arrested at Occupy Wall Street. “Last night I was arrested in my home town, outside an event to which I had been invited, for standing lawfully on the sidewalk in an evening gown.”
I don’t guess it occurred to the “white shirt” in charge of this farce that arresting authors who are media personalities and have invitations to events that feature the governor of New York just might be a bad idea.
In her account she mentioned seeing about 40 ‘white shirts’, which is an astoundingly high number in a department with only 35,000 total uniformed personnel. The NYPD seems to be extremely ‘top heavy’, and should be slimmed down.
This report was via Jams O’Donnell in comments who has a great catch at his place. That means that Occupy Wall Street has representation on every continent.
5 comments
Bryan here’s the moment of her arrest captured in glorious technicolor!
http://youtu.be/pt7pIhapo1o
Well maybe not glorious….
Perhaps and Occupy ISS next!
So, they are arresting people for impeding pedestrians on the sidewalk, and then arresting people for being pedestrians on sidewalks that they are apparently renting to private parties through a permit process.
A public right-of-way is just that, public, and they are going to have to be sued to recognize that reality.
I just read Naomi Wolf’s account of events, and wow, did the police ever pick on the wrong person! But after Bologna was “punished” with only 10 days lost vacation, I have no confidence this event will be any more satisfactorily resolved.
Bryan, I am approaching my limit. I have a lifelong commitment to obeying the law, but I am not committed to obeying an unlawful order by an officer of the law, and it seems likely that sooner or later all of us whose sympathies are with the Occupy community will find ourselves faced with the same choice Ms. Wolf faced: yield to a threat of illegal force or find ourselves falsely arrested for standing our ground.
I really, really don’t like where this is going.
The lost days are nothing, Steve, it is the loss of his defense that he was doing his job. Badtux has mentioned this a couple of times – if you don’t follow the official policy and procedure you are on your own in court, and responsible for your own attorney and any judgment. He is in exactly the same situation as that ‘super-hero’ you posted on, just another citizen with no special privileges.
Naomi Wolf is a real New Yorker, and they should have known she was going to be a problem as soon as they heard her accent.
Steve, I obey the law, but not arbitrary rules dreamed up on the fly by someone in a uniform. I don’t yield now, and never have. I have been shot at, shot up, and shot down. I went through SERE training. I don’t scare worth a damn. I used up my lifetime allotment of fear a long time ago. These days I just get annoyed. BTW, I got counseling after POW training, as the instructors said my attitude would have resulted in my death. It didn’t bother me much, as I can’t change who I am – a PITA for people in authority positions.