The stench, at first, overwhelms you. If one has ever traveled in the New York City subway system at peak usage in the ripest time of summer, you would recognize the scent. Urine. Garbage. Filth. It grows more pungent as you approach from blocks away. This is not to discredit “New York's Strongest,” the men and women of the city's Sanitation Department – unsung heroes who clean up whatever mess is left behind. They do one hell of a job, but shit still piles up.
The odor of the Occupation of Zuccotti Park announces itself blocks before you come to the location.
It is not yet 8 o'clock A.M., not much past 7:30 in fact, when Jimmy and I make our way past Zuccotti Park. Jimmy faithfully catches the 6:26 train every morning from a New Jersey suburb each morning to get to work. He works an accountant for a European bank's affiliate in New York. According to the “Occupiers,” he is among the 1% of Americans that are taking advantage of the 99% of The Rest Of Us.
“Those (expletive deleted) don't bother me much in the mornings,” he explains. The hard-core protesters are usually still asleep when he shows up for work. “For that matter,” he adds, “Most of them are pretty oblivious by the time I head home.” Jimmy usually works 12-14 hour days, and has precious few hours to spend with his loved ones. The only “protest” that is vocalized at this early morning hour comes from a reveler, who has likely over-imbibed from the night before. The denizens of the “tent city” in Zuccotti Park are still sound asleep. Jimmy goes to work. I scope out the people in Zuccotti Park.
Wall Street “Fat Cats” are their targets. However, the victims of the taunts from the OccupyWallStreet protestors tend to be guys like my friend Jimmy. Jimmy barely ekes out a living. He makes just enough to afford a mortgage and to set aside a little something for his children's education. His wife works as a teacher, and his 9-year old son an 5-year old daughter both attend public schools. The loss of either income would cripple Jimmy's family.
Folks from Latvia might appreciate the situation. There is a strong current of dissatisfaction , good people saddled with debt, faced with diminished job prospects, unemployment – angry at people who have manipulated The System. Latvians in Riga staged similar protests, building tent cities in parks, gathering together in an effort to thwart those who would corrupt the system – The Oligarchs – the powerful rich status quo. In Riga, the “Have-Nots” took to the streets and to the polls to defeat the “Haves” who have systematically manipulated things to their advantage.
There exists an interesting dynamic among the people participating in the demonstrations in New York. There are many, who similarly feel that they have been disenfranchised. There are also many among the actually disenfranchised who struggle to enjoin the discussion.
At the outset of the #OccupyWallStreet movement, a Free Kitchen was established to feed the growing mob that came to the park, The kitchen soon became overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people. The organizers soon became resentful of the needy who came to enjoy the charity. There are those that accuse City Authorities of steering the Homeless and the Wretched Refuse to the park to relieve the burden from the public shelters.
Personally, I am not happy to be here. This is a place that wounds my soul. A new building is being built a block away, they call it The Freedom Tower. I knew it as The World Trade Center. It has become to be known as “Ground Zero.” A block away, once two towers stood. They are gone now, never to return. Too many of my friends perished here.
This place, Zuccotti Park, was once known as Liberty Plaza Park. I once worked in the Twin Towers, back in the day. Instead of paying “Manhattan Prices” for meals, my workmates and I would “brown-bag” our lunches and enjoy them in this park, weather permitting. It was a different place back then. As a result of the 9/11 Attack, most of this park was devastated. The trees were all razed. The tables, the benches .. all gone. In the days following 9/11 this place was employed as a triage center. The business across the street, which now houses an upscale Gentleman's Clothing Store, was used as a makeshift morgue. Human Remains were stacked there like cord-wood.
Now, as the unwashed masses awaken, I am told that this is a place where justice will be served. On June 1, 2006, the park reopened after an $8 million renovation designed by Cooper, Robertson & Partners. It was renamed Zuccotti Park in honor of John E. Zuccotti, former City Planning Commission chairman and CEO of Brookfield Properties, the owner of the private park.
There is a certain dichotomy that exists between those who have come to lend their voice to the situation at hand, and those who would simply choose to take advantage of things. It is a fine line, yet it is not easily recognizable – there are always shades of gray.
On the East side of the park, facing Broadway, are the hard-core believers. The former director of New York ACORN, Jon Kest, and his top aides are now busy working at protest events for New York Communities for Change (NYCC). That organization was created in late 2009 when some ACORN offices disbanded and reorganized under new names.
They are followers of the NYCC community organization that portends to be the main organizers of this entire affair. The “Westies,” in the part of the park near Cedar Street seems to be occupied by, for a better word, anarchists. The “Organizers,” (or “Okupanti” as I like to call them) seem to be better organized – yet they have a certain agenda attached to them. To be fair, I do not hold the other side in any higher esteem. The other side seems to thrive on chaos and confusion. I fear that they would like little more than to take the disaffected masses and turn them terroristic – akin to what has been seen in G7 and other riots.
It is completely ironic that the followers of Georgy Soros, who has abused his financial resources to bankrupt entire countries, makes attempts to recruit people to help him bring down sovereign nations. Please, don't be a tool!
And then there are the people stuck in the middle.
A lot of folks have come, not only to state their dissatisfaction, but to support a growing and vibrant community. Some have even gone so far as to compare the “Occupy Wall Street” movement an extension of the “Woodstock Experience,”
“Like Woodstock?” says Ari, a Human Resources exec for a major Wall Street firm.. “Woodstock my ass!.” A sexagenarian from Staten Island, Ari, is set to retire in a few short years. “I was there, man. Woodstock was about people coming together. This... this is something different.”
The New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan holds a special place in the hearts of Latvians. In the post World War 2 years many latvian refugees made their way to this rough-and-tumble corner of NY City. Chief among these people building a better life for their families were a group of poets, musicians, and artisans who lived and congregated in this neighborhood. They surely would be warmed to know that an elderly lady named Maureen was hard at work knitting wool , yes folks, actual wool, ... be it for scarves or for sweaters, to keep her fellow protesters warm at night.
Sadly, there have been incidents that have brought discredit to the movement.
Lauren, a pretty blonde woman from the suburbs, was sleeping in one of the tents when she awoke to find herself being groped. An unknown man had laid down beside her as she slept, and reached up under her clothing to fondle her. She successfully fended off this attack, but did not initially report it to police. It was only after the same man had been caught molesting another woman in the park several days later did she finally speak up. Lauren believes she has been victimized more by the New York City Police Department than she was by her assailant. She claims that the due process of filing the report and the administration of justice has been severely lacking. Consequently, the Occupy Wall Street protestors who have already been arrested and booked for petty crimes such as blocking entryways to have adamantly refused any and all plea bargains to expedite their cases. They insist to have their hearings duly adjudicated by law, each and every one of them. This slows down the justice system and enables the real criminals, as those who molested Lauren, to escape justice.
The “East-Side” clique makes attempts to police the private park. Were Zuccotti Park a public park, the NYPD would have the authority to shut the place down after 10:00 p.m. ( 22:00). However, as a private property, Zuccotti Park is exempt from certain restrictions. As long as the “Occupiers” do not engage in deliberately harmful activity, they are generally safe from persecution. Many, however, believe that it would take little provocation for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to order New York's Finest to clear the area.
Most recently, under the pretext of public safety, the New York City Fire Department ( a.k.a. New York's Finest) participated in a raid wherein generators and gas-operated heaters were confiscated in the name of public safety. This has caused much resentment among the demonstrators in Zuccotti Park, as they believe that this was an attempt to force them out of the park as the temperatures fell and the onset of winter conditions ensued.
I think Kevin, who is an Accountant keeping the the Big Firms honest, said it best. “Why the f*ck are they demonstrating against people like me? This all started with nonsense like the “Community Reinvestment Act of 1978. On paper, it was a great idea – it created Fannie May and Freddie Mac. Who made out on that? Think – Real Estate. Imagine, if you will, what is 5% from a Billion dollars? Ask yourself... where did all these Billions of Dollars go?”
Are the politics surrounding the #OccupyWallStreet movement convoluted? Yes Indeed.
Is there a right or wrong answer? No. Is it a left versus right thing? Not exactly. People from all over the political spectrum are equally dissatisfied with the way the country is going.
(First Published in “Jauno Laiks” on 11/11/11)
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