OCCUPY WallStreet... Shifting the Blame.....

[rsmith6621]

[Divine Discontent]

1. there ya go pointing out the truth again! :)

http://www.zazzle.com/republicans_2012_keeping_millions_out_of_work_bumper_sticker-128002960205017719

[dana_b]

2. almost a " LOL" moment

almost...

[Drix]

3. What is the point of the arrests?

If you could block access to the bridge before the protesters arrived and avoid the expense to tax payers of holding and processing them why wouldn't you do it? That doesn't seem like a sound crowd management or fiscal policy to allow protesters to break the law when a few crowd control measures could have been taken to avoid the situation entirely. Are the police trying to make a political point, exhibit command and control, mete out punishment for embarrassing Bolongna? What gives?

[Luminous Animal]

4. To try to break the will of the protesters.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

5. well, the organizers were planning to use the pedestrian path

not the road, they actually advocated AGAINST using the road so why should the police have blocked the access? Seriously, just because nobody runs up to you and tells you 'don't do this' doesn't mean you have gotten permission to do it.

[Drix]

10. Because police should be trained in crowd control?

There is a science to crowd control. Relying on the leaderless "organizers" of a long form flash mob does not seem like sound policy for crowd management. There are people responsible for devising plans to handle situations like this, just like for bank robberies, hostage situations, and car chases. The days of just having a police line of riot helmets and billy clubs and whatever happens, happens is long gone.

[progressoid]

6. Wow.

Just wow.

[girl gone mad]

7. k & r

[Tsiyu]

8. Dayum

Pissin' in their pants, they be.

They thought Tony Baloney was gonna nip it in the bud.

Nice capture, rsmith6621

[Kaleko]

9. K & R

[sabrina 1]

11. Take a look at the guy who edited it:

Al Baker: Talk to the Newsroom: Police Bureau Chief

A native of Brooklyn and a resident of Manhattan, Mr. Baker took over his current post in the fall of 2005. He joined The Times in May 2000 as a reporter on the Metropolitan Desk and his first assignments were covering Westchester County as well as the financial crisis in Nassau County, on Long Island.

After Sept. 11, 2001, he moved into assignments covering security and the Police Department through December 2002, when he went to work in New York’s statehouse bureau in Albany. There he wrote about politics and government, focusing on the state’s budget woes, until October 2005.

He then returned to police headquarters, in Lower Manhattan, a place steeped in his family history: His father, Lieutenant Alfred J. Baker, is a retired citywide supervisor in the N.Y.P.D. Emergency Service Unit.

It was like a military operation. They let them on the bridge, then trapped them and would not let them go. Had they let them go, there would have been no problem.

I wonder who called Al Baker to tell him to edit the article to make the protesters look bad? His dad maybe? And we're supposed to trust the media!