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11.16.11 - 1:52 PM
Fire the Guy!
New York videographer and activist Joey Boots was filming down at Zuccotti Park when one of the stone-faced Brookfield Properties guards - evidently unfamiliar with the concept of "film" ie: "documentation" - decided to enliven the conversation by randomly hurling an epithet. Now a lot of people are looking to I.D. - ie: fire - the guy.
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58 Comments so far
Show AllI don't care if "this faggot" is a set designer, the rentacop should be fired. Who are these people and do we have to obey them?
Joe,
I agree with your post -- the rent-a-cop, regardless, should be fired!
Hi Joe,
I don't know the precise answers to your questions, but I heard Bloomberg in an interview or press conference stating that "private security" would be taking over security at Zuccotti Park/Liberty Square.
This issue needs to be addressed through the lawyers who are helping us at the Square. Who are these guys? And, do we have to obey them?
The videographer is right -- without any identification, other than a vest that looks like they are road workers, who, exactly are they? And, for whom do they work? I saw these men last night inside the square during the General Assembly. At the time, I didn't connect the fact that they weren't wearing cop uniforms -- blues, or white shirts.
The 1% of the 1% just keep showing their true colors -- this is fascist in nature.
Maybe, Pam Martens at counterpunch will do a story on this issue. She's the journalist who unveiled the PAID DETAIL cops in NYC, i.e. Barnes & Noble, etc.
Someone else on this thread brought up the issue of how much public money is being funneled into private security in NYC. That's another good question!
Ten bucks says the 'security' at Zucotti Park is being provided by the NYPD 'Paid Duty Detail'.
You can feel their contempt in that video. I wouldn't be surprised if they were off duty cops working on the side. That is very common. Their hatred of themselves and this movement just ooozes off their faces.
Brookfield piece of shit, soon it will be hired killers like black water protecting the one percent. Killing Americans for fucking fun!
"Killing Americans for fucking fun"...
Don't forget for profit. :)
And tell me something... why did you choose to say "Killing Americans" instead of "Killing People"? Is it that you value American lives over others? Is it ok when blackwater mercenaries kill Iraqis or Afgans?
Oh, stop! What the hell is wrong with you, give it a break. Do you also correct spelling?
Only if you are a republican war monger, that means killing for profit.
I was beginning to think that was Xe(formerly blackwater). It was disturbing how those guys wouldn't say who they worked for until the guy at the end. Scary. On guy said he does that in his "off" time, so they probably are cops by day. They're also exactly the kind of people I would expect Xe to hire.
More often than not, it is the lackeys of power who are more vicious in their 'practice' of power than their handlers.
US cities are moving increasingly toward "private security" groups, SWAT teams and tank-like armored vehicles. It would seem that these people ... typical "goons" ... are a taste of the future.
Get him fired? Those guys will be watching this video and giving each other high fives. That guy will probably be promoted. He is not a public employee and so does not need to be cognizant of humanity. This travesty is part of the privatization of 'services'. The trend today is to privatize everything, and to hire mercenaries, like Blackwater/Xe, and Birchfield, to subdue the American citizenry. Thugs like these respect only money and violence, and they know that we are a non-violent movement. So for them, we are like helpless girls that they can rape at will, knowing there will be no repercussions. What is coming is necessary, but I fear it.
This is what fascism looks...and sounds...like.
These are police officers or military, moonlighting in private security corps. This incident has just opened a huge story about the essence of Occupy that must be told.
Don't just ID this one guy and have him fired, but look into who are these corps, who exactly are they hiring (these guys belong to some fraternal and/or religious order,) what is the legal system that is taking precedent with these security activities, what are the public's legal rights to pubic/private space, what public $ are being spent on these apparently, private capital-rights spaces, etc.
These public/private partnerships, like this "park," and all the legal shenanigans afforded to corps and their respective minions, are the gateway understanding of how privatizing education, libraries, water system, sewer systems, roadways, parks/spaces, etc, impact and essentially take away actual human citizens rights. Thank you religio-fascist homophobe for this very important lesson.
Someone posted on here that it wasn't the enraged cops that scared her because real state violence is cool and unemotional.
I am gay. And I am less offended by this fashion disaster's comments than I am that a private security firm is now policing the streets of New York City, and with such heartless goons.
It was me that made the comment you are referring to.
AND, since Zucotti Park is privately owned this is no different to other privately owned places having private security.
I don't like private security because there is little to no accountability for actions, just in case someone wants to know.
Interesting the hoon has on a vest. Read an article a while ago about a study that showed people give unfounded deferrence to people with vests .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14720101
Nothing new here with private security contractors (goons). Recall the role of the Pinkerton Detective Agency as anti-labor goon squads in the struggles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In hard economic times, there is no problem finding sadists who are willing to be the hounds of big money. Tony Vodvarka
since when is occupy wall street all about getting people in the 99% fired?
It's just about holding the foot soldiers to the 1% accountable for their fascist actions. As far as this security guard goes, the laws against harrassment due to gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. are still in force, and this security guard should be fired because the company will fear a lawsuit that will come out of this. This type of harrassment is easy to bring to trial --- even these days --- and get a verdict in the victim's favor.
So are we going to have to hire the Mafia to protect us from out of control contractors and militarized police? How crazy are we getting, here?
Good question bluehorse, but we probably can't afford them.
You just described the history of organized labor in the US.___ Federal Labor Law was passed by angry mobs of workers in black boots and ball bats with shady friends demanding legal protections against robber barons and the thugs they hire. The Pinkerton Security Force was and still is, a thug-for-hire team to control organized groups. I've run into these guys before, if it's them.
From Wiki:
Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security guarding to private military contracting work. At its height, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency employed more agents than there were members of the standing army of the United States of America, causing the state of Ohio to outlaw the agency due to fears it could be hired as a private army or militia.[citation needed] Pinkerton was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world at the height of its power.[1]
During the labor unrest of the late 19th century and early 20th century, businessmen hired the Pinkerton Agency to provide agents that would infiltrate unions, to supply guards to keep strikers and suspected unionists out of factories, and sometimes to recruit goon squads to intimidate workers. The best known such confrontation was the Homestead Strike of 1892, in which Pinkerton agents were called in to enforce the strikebreaking measures of Henry Clay Frick, acting on behalf of Andrew Carnegie, who was abroad; the ensuing conflicts between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led to several deaths on both sides. The Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania, as well as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
Now I know we don't have any jobs to fight over this time, but that's the Bank Empire's fault, not ours.
A good movie to rent if you can find it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.I.S.T.
Fictional flick based on the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa. Make Popcorn. It's a hoot.
TJ
Sue them, Joey Boots -- you will win!!!!
No, he won't
What will end up happening is he will have to go to court to force the property owner to disclose the name of the company providing 'security'. Then he will have to sue the security company for their personnel records, and find out who was working that day. Then he will have to sue both the property owner and the security company for damages. That will give the security company the opportunity to counter-sue for loss of profit and interfering with their commerce.
To cut to the chase, Joey Boots doesn't have the deep pockets necessary to carry through with the prosecution. And the property owners, the security company, and the goon all know that.
All bullies are frightened children. Look at them--scared shitless--afraid to say who they are or who they work for. Must be a hell of a way to make a living. One thing for sure--they don't work for the people. The standard M.O. of the 1% is to hire the most depraved of the 99% to control the "good" people. These people kill for pleasure, and there is no limit to the number of lives they are willing to sacrifice in order to keep what they have stolen. Stay strong occupiers. New chant for the pigs: I know right from wrong! Do you?
Keep at them, they will show their true colors. Way to go Joey Boots, but you know you are poking a tiger with a stick, so watch your back. If these protests continue, the powers will call another Kent State. Maybe they will use a drone this time. Come to think of it maybe the skinhead is a drone!
Just remember kids, the Kent State shootings never happened. The video was faked. No actual citizens were harmed in the production of the 70's. That is all.
These security people are a fine example of the country we are leaving to our children. Sorry Kids.
Yeah Jimmy,
No Citizen's Commons exist because everything is privatized now. No Town Square, just a Big Casino in it's place with mobsters for security.
That's why I left. These guys aren't our country. They're Wall Street Mafia, and their Godfather Bloomberg the Banker fiend says it's O.K. that they are as anonymous as the Oakland trigger cop who shot that poor kid with the camera. This is intolerable.
No I.D. badge? No Name? No Number? You're not a credible source of authority. For all we know, you're a Bruce Willis "Jackal" impostor cop. Maybe OWS needs a militia after all, to protect the public from anonymous impostors, like these men in black who pretend to have no supervisor and reluctantly mumble their employer's name an hour later. Reminds me of a song by Blue Oyster Cult: Take Me Away".
Strange shapes light up the night
Never seen them though I hope I might
Don't ask if they are real
The men in black, their lips are sealed
Fantasy it fills my mind
To leave this place before my time
Release myself from earthly care
My dream may be your nightmare
I turn my hopes up to the sky
I'd like to know before I die
Memories will slowly fade
I lift my eyes and say
Come on, take me away
Come on, take me away
Come here, girl, close to me
A thousand stars your eye can see
First star we see tonight
I wish I may I wish I might
I turn my hopes up to the sky
I'd like to know before I die
Memories will slowly fade
I lift my eyes and say
Come on, take me away
Come on, take me away
I turn my hopes up to the sky
I'd like to know before I die
Memories will slowly fade
I lift my eyes and say
Come on, take me away
TJ
haha, i guess that's why they don't talk. because when they do they say stupid shit like that. lol.
Another rebuke to the apologist claim that thugs like this guy are just victims of the system, forced to take a bad job to provide for their families during hard times.
Made me sick to watch. Absolutely no accountability to the public.
And our tax paying dollars are paying these mindless drones.
All of them (brown shirts), are brain dead puppets, can't get a real job and have so much pent up anger and rage the private contractor position is the only place they are valued. And they don't even realize the manipulation of this system has manufactured them through all forms of control to be the block heads they are.
According to comments on youtube, the guy did get fired.
We're stuck in an angry reality that we've allowed to flourish.
We eat garbage food, listen to garbage news, and we become garbage.
We give up responsibility and control, and this is what happens.
Why is the skinhead with the funny glasses looking at Mr. Boots's crotch?
He's doing so from deep, deep, deep in the closet....
Something tells me that those dudes are not just ordinary rent-a-cops.
Maybe they're with Blackwater. Welcome to New Iraq.
What kind of legal authority do these creepy characters have if they are not even willing to identify themselves or the name of their security firm? They're saying they can enforce the law without being traceable? I would (also) say the entire firm has to go - and whatever license they have to practice as a security group should be removed.
I heard "Patrick Devon" when the so-called supervisor initially identified himself, and then, refused to do so.
It's interesting that this anonymous thug knew the videographer was gay. Does he stalk gay forums and publications? Was the filmmaker wearing something that said, "Stonewall" ? Or does he call anyone exercising their Constitutional rights "a faggot"? Unbelievable but very believable too.
Bloomberg is a disgrace and a hypocrite. Call him and tell him.
It isn't that they are not willing to identify themselves...obviously, they are not REQUIRED to do so.
You know, 'Faggot' is the all purpose derisive hateful thing to say to a male. Whether you know they are queer or not. It is still the least valued human minority on the planet. A queer male. Openly gay men scare the living shit out of these guys. They simply cannot understand why a man would surrender his male privilege status, status that has come from thousands of years of raping and killing, merely to openly acknowledge who they love.
Out of respect for Abby and others at Common Dreams I'll delete this inadvertent duplication-- thanks to all.
Abby is a "Stalinist." Damn. Hey, she sure fooled me. Why can't I picture the choir boy and man of Russian steel saying "cool"? Likely it's because it wouldn't happen. Try Leon Trotsky. He did have a better sense of humor and he was like or not on our side.
OK. Come to think of it so was this other terrible fellow. Hey, who beat the hell out of the German war machine? I'm still not going to apologize to anybody that one of my uncles fought on the same said as the Red Army-- not even close. I was sorry when we sided with our eartwhile enemies over our true allies, but that's another story. It was a big mistake and we've surea as hell paid for it. It doens't take a Henry Wallace to figure that one out.
Left and right have never been morally equivalent. Let's stop being so naive.
Oh, and as to men raping, killing, and all the rest. Men and women actually did nothing of the sort for 88 to 90 millennia of modern human existence. Do read Andrew Whiten or any other worthwhile evolutionary psychologist. Many anthropologists coud tell you the same. Biologists could do likewise. No it's not natural to kill, rape, or anthing of the sort. It only started in the last half dozen to dozen millennia even in Europe, that dark continent. Hierarchies especially empires have created hell on Earth for all.
Watching this video made my day.
Watching this coward get his homophobic bullshit called, right there
on camera...was damn beautiful to see.
I love the way that this man didn't just let it slide either. Took it to his
supervisor, and then, for added measure got a final shot of the man
cowering in fear.
No, there'll be no high-fives for him while watching this with the fellas.
Huh. Interesting. A real life redneck in New Yawk Citee. Make that UNEMPLOYED redneck in New Yawk Citee.
...except that he'll find another job in a heartbeat because he's just the guy they are all looking for. this video is his reh-zoo-may.
that Mr Boots is a homosexual I can respect.
that he is a veteran I cannot.
Here's what I get from this video:
These goons just can't WAIT to start blowing people's heads off.
xe-blackwater / israeli security contractors / specialops
track em down. file a police report for hate speech
This is all so very weird. It's almost A Clockwork Orange isn't it?
According to this site, the guy was fired:
http://www.back2stonewall.com/2011/11/update-security-guard-called-gay-veteran-faggot-occupy-wall-street-fired.html
A lot of those security guards seem to be of indeterminate species. It reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon with two boxers in the ring getting ready for the fight. One of them is a hulking creature covered in body hair, with a low, protruding brow. The other is saying to his trainer "I don't fight him 'til I hear him talk!"