A little over 6 hours of well read text, available on BARD, and well
worth reading. This story would make a great Movie. But mostly it
gives flesh to the bones we already see. Beyond telling us much of
what we already suspect, Mary Trump exposes how the long term family
dynamics impact the minds of those caught up in them. We all are far
more controlled by our social morays that we want to admit. As she
views her own father's struggle to escape the family, Mary Trump
paints a picture that we can all learn from. Our claim of being "self
made" or the "rugged individual", are simply not true. We all have
been controlled to one degree or another, by our own propaganda.
Anyway, the book gives flesh and breath to Donald Trump and to all of
us, in a sense.
Carl Jarvis
dn’t be on the sidewalk so walk on the street, then
as soon as we got on the street they ambushed us.”
One unnamed city official told the press that Mayor Bill de Blasio
approved of the attack, long planned by the NYPD.
That evening, dozens OCH supporters held a march downtown in the driving
rain to retake City Hall Park, but de Blasio’s cops blockaded entry.
In the process of the attack, cops threw away homeless people’s
possessions and camp supplies, which included food and books.
The camp’s homeless reflected the city’s homeless crisis under de
Blasio, a product of systemic racism. 80,000 are without a permanent
home, including 20,000 children.
Jawanza James Williams, the director of organizing for Vocal New York,
told BuzzFeed News that the city was “pressure-washing away the messages
of freedom, Black Lives, a world without police and prisons, in the same
ways that workers pressure-wash away the spilled blood of Black people
murdered by police for now hundreds of years.”
Williams said that even with the diminishing OCH population after the
June 30 budget vote, “The activities of political education continued,
direct actions outside of the camp continued, celebrations and
performances continued, art creation, and cultural production in general.”
OCH took inspiration from the 2011 anti-corporate movement, Occupy Wall
Street (OWS) in Zuccotti Park, aka “Liberty Plaza,” located a few blocks
from City Hall.
In 2011, the then-Public Advocate, Bill de Blasio, loudly defended the
free speech rights of OWS, under attack by billionaire Mayor Michael
Bloomberg. Also supporting Occupy Wall Street were several unions,
including TWU Local 100, NY’s subway and bus workers.
Soon however, Bloomberg teamed up with President Obama and the national
police departments to smash Occupy. Mayor Bloomberg used a phony
pretense for shutting down OWS, citing “health issues,” despite the
regular volunteer cleaning of Zuccotti Park. Bloomberg’s “health issues”
were trotted-out once again this past month, this time by de Blasio, as
reason to crush OCH.
Although denied by de Blasio, many pointed to the Mayor’s desire to
forestall President Trump’s threat to send in federal agents to NYC, a
la Portland, as part of the Mayor’s underlying reason to shut down OCH.
Trump’s threats were also a possible motive for his week-long curfew in
early June, beyond de Blasio’s defense of so-called “property rights” of
big chain stores. De Blasio now boasts that he will bring court action
against Trump’s federal agents invading NYC.
Whatever the reason, de Blasio boasts that he, “always respect[s] the
right to protest,” an assertion proven false by the NYPD’s early morning
storming of OCH on June 30 at 5 a.m., the day of the vote on the NYPD
budget.
As peaceful OCH protesters chanted, “Why the riot gear? There’s no riot
here!,” de Blasio’s goons descended on the park.
“We were dancing in the street one minute, and the next minute they were
beating the shit out of us,” Jet, 23, told Gothamist. “It wasn’t human.”
NYPD officers in riot gear rushed protestors, arresting two and injuring
several others.
One protester that morning told public radio that he witnessed a young
woman break her leg in a barrier, as cops pinned protesters. “They were
beating me every way they could, but all I could see was her leg bent in
a way it shouldn’t have been.”
But by linking arms and with tremendous bravery, OCH managed to prevent
a police rout and held their ground.
Occupy City Hall
Occupy City Hall or Abolition Plaza was located in a park immediately
adjacent to NY City Hall. It was founded on June 24 by hundreds of
anti-racist activists, including the non-profit VOCAL NY, which demanded
a $1 billion cut in next year’s NYPD budget. Some in OCH were calling
for abolishing the NYPD.
The NY City Council, dominated by Democrats, passed a $1 billion cut on
June 30. The so-called cut, with the backing of the mayor, a
self-described “Democratic Socialist,” was a sham, essentially
transferring $1 billion to the Education Department to oversee policing
in schools. City Comptroller Scott Stringer called the changes in police
spending “a bait-and-switch and a paper-thin excuse for reform.”
The budgetary reform, plus police practice reforms recently enacted by
the City and State were the ruling class’s panicked reaction to the size
and militancy of mass mobilizations. But, in no way can some of these
necessary reforms (if ever properly enforced under capitalism!) ever
eliminate systemic cop racism, the product of a sick U.S. capitalist
system, or more fundamentally, change who has control of the police: the
capitalists or the working class and oppressed communities? (“NY Cop
Reforms? The Whole System Has to Go!” in July SA)
Socialist Action says, “Disarm, disband and dismantle the racist cops!
Black community control of the police!”
Socialist Action News
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Carl Sagan
“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of
wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who
pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human
beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather
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structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes
and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
