This is a reminder of why Bloomberg’s willful and deliberate destruction of the #occupy wall street People’s Library was such a symbolic moment.
“One of the first acts of a tyrant is to destroy a library.” - Stephen Fry.
(Source: megalosaur, via ladyplebian)
Don’t let the media have you fooled. This is what really happened to the protesters property after the OWS raid last week.
The NYPD smashed/broke laptops, camera’s, tents, all electronics, bikes, etc. and took $5,000 of cash from a man’s backpack. That was all the money he had left to get by.
The cops are now facing legal charges for violating their own rules and not giving protesters receipts for materials “confiscated”.
(via enlighteningnews)
This is what a police state looks like.
Bloomberg must go.
When the NYPD performed a militarized raid of Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011, they threw the 5,554 books in the People’s Library (and the tent, donated by author Patti Smith) into a trash compactor. In response to the outrage over the destruction of books, Bloomberg’s office tweeted a disingenuous picture of the books and laptops being “safely stored” at the Department of Sanitation. However, when #OWS librarians arrived with an inventory of the books, they confirmed that most of the books were missing or damaged or soiled beyond use because of the trash compactor.
This is what a police state looks like.
Bloomberg must go.
What the NYPD and Michael Bloomberg think of donated books.
(via them-and-us)
According to reporters who have been arrested or who have had their cameras, phones and laptops confiscated, the NYPD has been wiping them clean of all data.
Who smashed the laptops confiscated from Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15? Hmm… I wonder.
On the destruction of the Occupy Wall Street library — why attacking libraries is especially terrible.
(Source: composition-book)
Books are like people
When the NYPD raided the Occupy Wall Street Encampment at Zuccotti Park this morning, they tossed the 5,554 books that were assembled from donations into The People’s Library, an extemporaneous institution with a proper librarian and its own website, into dumpsters.
According to the story as reported this morning on mediabistro.com: “According to the city’s eviction notice, the “property will be stored at the Department of Sanitation parking garage at 650 West 57th St.” But the librarians dispute this: “it was clear from the livestream and witnesses inside the park that the property was destroyed by police and DSNY workers before it was thrown in dumpsters.”
The People’s Library, set into the North East corner of the Park near the corner of Broadway and Liberty Street, was one of the most beautiful aspects of the occupation site.
The legality of the eviction is being ejudicated (after the barn door…) as I type, but the city junked everything nonetheless. I hope and I believe that Occupy Wall Street will be back there, and will figure out a new way to outwit the authorities. But if anyone thinks that once set into motion, there couldn’t have been anyway for the police to preserve the books, a story occurs to me. [read on…]
…
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-Udi Aloni, Israeli filmmaker and theorist, in response to the news that the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg had destroyed the People’s Library at Zuccotti Park. (via kardashit
)
“This open philosophy stands in stark opposition to the world of corporate culture. Trashing the library was symbolic of what the combined forces of Bloomberg and the NYPD feel about learning and the society in which we live.” (Indeed, Mayor Bloomberg, who claimed full responsibility for the raid’s execution, had to know about the library. Yet his “minutely planned raid” - as the New York Times described it - shovelled thousands of books into garbage trucks to be carted away to the nearest sanitation facility).
As soon as he heard about the library, [Udi Aloni’s] thoughts turned to Heinrich Heine, the great 19th century German poet and critic, who exclaimed in his Almansor the famous words: “Where they burn books, they’ll ultimately burn people too”.
Of course, New York City isn’t burning books, but for Aloni, carting them away in garbage trucks is not that far removed. “When they disrespect books, they disrespect humankind, and when they destroy books, they destroy the spirit of humanity. The library was great because people gave more than they took. OWS was not just a place for activism, but also a place for education and rethinking; not for just blathering on when you don’t know, but being humble and willing to learn. By taking out the library, they’ve tried to stop that crucial process.”
(Source: wifeofwrath)
The media complained that #OCCUPYWALLSTREET needed better quotations and protest signage. So we came up with some ideas about corruption from Wall Street to K Street. Here's our critique of the media coverage, too. Please share.
