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Sunday, October 23, 2011

Anti-Democracy In Action

WallBroadStsIntersection of Wall and Broad Streets

AFTER 911, NYC put tank barriers on Wall and Broad Streets.* After Occupy Wall Street started, the Police closed the roadbeds on a few blocks of Wall and Broad to pedestrians. Whatever happened to free speech and free assembly?

This shows the oversized influence of the 1%. (The only other closed streets in Manhattan that I can think of are around the Police HQ.) Let's hope that after we tax them, some of the 1% move away.

* Note to NYC Police: tank barriers won't stop airplanes. 

V&V: New York the New Namibia Redux? & What's the good of rich people if you can't tax them?
V&V: Optimistic About Radical Democracy
V&V: Mayor Bloomberg, Tear Down These Walls!

October 23, 2011 in Architecture, Current Affairs, New York, Urbanism | Permalink

Comments

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Since the 1% and their law enforcement minions are making it so hard to occupy wall street, what if we turned the mission around? "Contain Wall Street" has a ring to it that many of us commies, socialists, or democratic thinkers could readily endorse. They've got the barricades erected, so "we" can't be accused of disrupting traffic if we don't let anyone out. I gotta wonder why the vast majority of Americans, who have been financially sodomized for the past 3o years, aren't outraged.

Posted by: Lee Rosenblum at Oct 24, 2011 10:47:00 AM

The same thing has happened in London where Paternoster Square has been closed to the public. It turns out it isn't public space at all.

Posted by: Matthew at Oct 24, 2011 10:56:06 AM

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