1 00:00:00,036 --> 00:00:25,505 [Musical intro] 2 00:00:25,613 --> 00:00:35,867 I'm Paul Levinson, and welcome to Light On Light Through, episode 87, Occupy Wall Street Chronicles, Part 1. 3 00:00:37,275 --> 00:00:44,096 Well, it's Thanksgiving Day in America, that's November 24th 2011. 4 00:00:44,667 --> 00:00:51,552 And I thought this would be a good time to share with you some of the 15 blog posts 5 00:00:51,552 --> 00:01:00,891 that I've been writing about Occupy Wall Street since the end of September and up until a few days ago. 6 00:01:01,316 --> 00:01:07,153 And because I expect Occupy Wall Street in the United States and all over the world to continue, 7 00:01:07,184 --> 00:01:12,099 that's why I'm calling these chronicles Part One. 8 00:01:12,268 --> 00:01:20,630 But to give you just a tiny bit of background: it was back in February of this year 2011 that I first made the point 9 00:01:20,692 --> 00:01:30,476 that the Arab Spring was really a fulfillment of Marshall McLuhan's idea that we are living in a global village. 10 00:01:30,492 --> 00:01:37,115 McLuhan made that point back in 1962 in the Gutenberg Galaxy, but back then, 11 00:01:37,115 --> 00:01:45,153 it was more of a prediction, a projection, a metaphor, than a description of an actual reality. 12 00:01:46,195 --> 00:01:53,700 But it seemed clear to me, in the Arab spring, that the use of mobile phones 13 00:01:53,700 --> 00:02:00,894 and the various Facebook, Twitter and YouTube connections and apps 14 00:02:00,894 --> 00:02:07,420 allowed people in Cairo and other places in the Middle East 15 00:02:07,420 --> 00:02:12,566 to not only help organize their events out in the street, 16 00:02:12,566 --> 00:02:22,540 but to send videos, YouTube videos of various things that were actually happening at these events,, 17 00:02:22,540 --> 00:02:29,470 including some of the brutality of the government responses to these gatherings. 18 00:02:29,470 --> 00:02:35,943 So, with that in mind, I wasn't surprised at all to see the same sort of thing begin 19 00:02:35,943 --> 00:02:40,450 to happen here in the United States and elsewhere in the world. 20 00:02:40,450 --> 00:02:48,235 Actualy, I was in Barcelona in May of this year and I saw, out on the Rambla, demonstrators 21 00:02:48,330 --> 00:02:53,358 - they called themselves then the May 15th movement - and it was interesting to me, 22 00:02:53,358 --> 00:02:59,825 because Spain is a democracy. Egypt was not, still is not as a matter of fact, 23 00:03:00,409 --> 00:03:04,755 but it was much the same as the Arab Spring. 24 00:03:04,755 --> 00:03:12,508 And so, I decided to take a careful look at what was happening in the Occupy Wall Street movements 25 00:03:12,597 --> 00:03:17,855 here, in the United States, when they began to emerge in September. 26 00:03:18,224 --> 00:03:22,970 And what I am going to read to you are a series of 15 or so blog posts. 27 00:03:23,032 --> 00:03:29,282 I'll mention the date that each of the post was first made, and then I'll read the post to you. 28 00:03:29,682 --> 00:03:39,485 Each post has a headline, and that, I hope, will give you an idea of some of the perspectives 29 00:03:40,193 --> 00:03:47,566 that apply to Occupy Wall Street, or at least, some of my perspectives. 30 00:03:48,289 --> 00:03:49,605 So we'll begin. 31 00:03:49,620 --> 00:03:52,782 Tuesday, September 27, 2011. 32 00:03:53,063 --> 00:04:00,902 "New York City Police disgraced themselves in brutal treatment of Wall Street protesters." 33 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:08,302 I've lived in New York City all of my life, and I've never been a big fan of our police. 34 00:04:08,302 --> 00:04:13,727 As a teenager, I was roughed up by cops in their search for firecrackers. 35 00:04:13,727 --> 00:04:19,321 I saw them point blank attack protesters in the Vietnam War era. 36 00:04:19,428 --> 00:04:27,705 I 've heard first hand, from friends I believe, about NYPD double-standard treatment of African-Americans. 37 00:04:28,199 --> 00:04:35,690 And their shooting to death of Amadou Diallo who was unarmed, and their sodomizing of Abner Louima 38 00:04:35,690 --> 00:04:40,205 (two separate incidents), were beyond horrendous. 39 00:04:40,775 --> 00:04:47,642 But the NYPD have reached a new low in mass, continuing violation of human beings and human rights 40 00:04:47,657 --> 00:04:50,995 in their response to the Occupy Wall Street protesters. 41 00:04:50,995 --> 00:04:55,769 These are not isolated cases of cops gone crazy. 42 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:04,757 The tear-gassing of people behind barricades, the throwing to the ground of protesters who have no weapons and pose no threat, 43 00:05:05,051 --> 00:05:13,745 is a systematic, widespread attack on human decency, the First Amendment and its guarantee of peaceful assembly, 44 00:05:13,745 --> 00:05:20,952 as well as on the bodies and spirits of protesters expressing their non-violent opinion. 45 00:05:21,911 --> 00:05:32,157 Police Commissioner Kelly, in New York City, justifiably takes pride in how well the NYPD have defended New Yorkers from terrorist attacks. 46 00:05:32,542 --> 00:05:42,748 He should also take pride in, or at very least insist upon, the NYPD defending and protecting the rights of New Yorkers 47 00:05:42,748 --> 00:05:48,833 and any one who visits our city to express his or her opinion. 48 00:05:49,963 --> 00:05:56,394 Based on what has happened so far, Police Commissioner Kelly obviously does not. 49 00:05:56,985 --> 00:06:05,800 Mayor Bloomberg should replace him with someone who can grasp the difference between a criminal and a peaceful protester, 50 00:06:06,088 --> 00:06:16,322 between throwing a protester violently to the ground versus firmly escorting the protester off any unlawfully occupied premises. 51 00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:27,549 Social media - or, what I call new new media - are empowering people not only in the Middle East, but all over the world, including here in America. 52 00:06:28,195 --> 00:06:33,679 We have a right to express our critique of Wall Street and the sad pass in the economy 53 00:06:33,917 --> 00:06:38,838 - the financial disaster - Wall Street moguls have brought us to. 54 00:06:39,438 --> 00:06:49,054 Mayors would be wise to respect this and restrain out-of-control police, lest the voters boot them out of office in the next election. 55 00:06:49,792 --> 00:06:53,732 And the Federal government would be wise to do something constructive, 56 00:06:53,732 --> 00:07:01,024 and bring any police officer who violates the rights of protesters up on charges. 57 00:07:01,717 --> 00:07:11,348 And mainstream news media - I'm talking to you, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC 58 00:07:12,110 --> 00:07:16,518 - what is taking you so long to catch up with the sustained coverage 59 00:07:16,549 --> 00:07:25,349 Keith Olbermann has been giving this spectacle of police misconduct on his Countdown show on Current TV?