Flip-Flopping Bloomberg Plans to Clean House at Protest Site

[drakonyx]

Michael Bloomberg has done another about-face. Now he's telling Occupy Wall Street protesters they must leave Zuccotti Park tomorrow, ostensibly to clean the park.

Just three days ago, we reported that Bloomberg had told the protesters they could stay as long as they wanted. His words seemed clear enough: "The bottom line is - people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we'll allow them to," Bloomberg said. "If they break the laws, then, we're going to do what we're supposed to do: enforce the laws."

But we also asked, at the end of that sentence, the following question: Whether this amount to a tacit green light for police to crack down on the most insignificant of alleged violations remains to be seen.

It doesn't remain to be seen anymore. Our skepticism, it seems, was more than warranted: Police aren't cracking down on insignificant violations; they're cracking down without even bothering to allege that any violations took place. One should hardly be surprised, given that Bloomberg - just days before vowing to let the protesters stay - condemned them on the basis that they were "trying to take the jobs from the people working in the city."

When Bloomberg was asked this week how long the Occupy Wall Street protesters would be allowed to stay at Zuccotti Park, he said, "I think part of it has probably to do with the weather." Now we know exactly what he meant. He’s ordering them out. And he's trying to force them to quit protesting altogether by depriving them of any protection against the elements - tents, sleeping bags, etc. – when they return.

http://www.theprovocation.net/2011/10/flip-flopping-bloomberg-plans-to-clean.html

[PoliticAverse]

1. They are trying to finesse them out. n/t

[ArcticFox]

2. Can't they relocate to somewhere else?

I seriously think that would make the most strategic sense. To get up every week or so, pick up everything, and melt into the subways, only to reappear at a new location hours later, set up a full encampment, and continue the protest from there.

Keep the authorities off balance.

If you stay in one place too long, they'll find a way to defeat you.