Occupy has a Mayor!

[ellenrr]

well that is what de Blasio is being called (New York City mayor as of yesterday):
"Occupy's mayor"

of course Occupy does not engage in electoral or partisan politics, but I like that he visited the encampment, and that he ran largely on a platform of being against economic inequality.

I don't put much faith in ANY politician, but still...

I much prefer him to that idiot Bloomberg.

and I can't find the reference, but another winner - controller? - is said to be an Occupy supporter.

[starroute]

1. Will he stop calling out the cops on them?

That's going to be the real test. Mayors, like presidents, quickly come up against entrenched interests, and the police force that Bloomberg described as his own private army is likely to be very quick to challenge de Blasio's authority.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-06/democrat-de-blasio-wins-nyc-mayor-s-race-in-landslide-over-lhota.html

Even before taking office on New Year’s Day, de Blasio’s first tasks will be choosing his deputy mayors and the heads of the city’s 34,000-officer police department; its 1.1 million-student school system; and the office that manages its $70 billion a year budget and $40 billion of general-obligation debt.

For police commissioner, de Blasio has said he’s considering former NYPD Commissioner William Bratton, who’s also run departments in Boston and Los Angeles, and NYPD Chief Philip Banks III, the department’s highest-ranking uniformed officer. He said he’s seeking someone with a plan to reduce stop-and-frisk tactics while suppressing crime and improving community relations.


On edit: An interesting article about Bratton here:
http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_1_william-bratton.html

And this on Banks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/nyregion/philip-banks-iii-is-appointed-police-department-chief.html?_r=1&

[ellenrr]

2. you're right about that.

I never get too excited about any position - bec. even supposing De Blasio is a "good guy" and I don't know about him -
they are always hemmed in by the system, which is why electoral politics is something I don't spend much time thinking about.

I remember when I was in Houston people got all excited bec. Houston got its first African-American police chief. I wasn't excited. I knew that anyone - in order to get to that position - has a set of values that I do not agree with. And he was as bad as any other police chief.