Tuesday, November 15, 2011

All Dressed Up and No Place to Go

Mayor Gets it Right on Occupy

Mayor Richards got it right by letting Rochester "occupy" people stay in Washington Square Park.   Doing it deprived them of the only coherent "issue" any of the occupy groups have.

They pick a fight with local authorities over something specific to their encampment -- whether they can stay overnight, or put up signs, or whatever.   Then, when the authorities push back, it's, "To the barricades!"   Suddenly they have a cause and a goal.   And something to do.

As I wrote recently, "occupy" exists only in relation to the amount of police attention it gets.

Looks like the Mayor figured this out.   "You want to camp in the park? ... So camp in the park."

Which leaves occupiers scratching their heads and wondering, "What do we do now?"

5 comments:

AllanBlockhead said...

Good analysis, as usual. Are you suggesting that Mayor Bloomberg made a mistake by considering public health and safety issues? Not sure, though, how many of your readers frequent Washington Square Park, or whatever it's called.

Any early observations as to how the 2012 Congressional elections might shape up?

Philbrick said...

Lucy's our "occupy" expert. I'll let her figure out Bloomberg's move.

As for 2012 Comgressional elections, nobody can say anything useful until we see the new districts. It all starts with that.

Lucy said...

Can't second guess Blooomberg. He had to call it like he saw it, regarding danger, public health risk, etc. But this gave occupiers a way out of a ridiculous situation they created, but had no exit strategy for.

Now the NY occupiers can say they're martyrs. If left alone, it would have fizzled out as the cold came. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it a bit ironic that Richards has accorded more respect and benefits to the Occupiers than he did to the 700 RG&E workers who were thrown out on the street after he pocketed $10 Million for selling the company?

Anonymous said...

Is Emily Good part of this group?