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You Can Arrest an Idea
The bankers slept well. Their homes in Beverly Hills were not spotlighted by a noisy swarm of police helicopters, searchlights burning through the sanctity of the night, harassing the forlorn City Hall encampment of those who dared protest the banks’ seizure of our government. I live within sight of the iconic Los Angeles City Hall, and at first I thought it was being used once again as a movie location, given the massive police presence, as if an alien invasion was being thwarted.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, right, and Police Chief Charlie Beck survey the park after members of Occupy Lose Angeles were successfully cleared out their camp by more than 1,400 police officers in riot gear at City Hall early Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011.Not eager to test the resilience of my new heart valve, I hesitated until the first crack of dawn to visit the place where former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and I had spoken weeks before at a teach-in on the origins of the economic crisis. I described the scene back then as a Jeffersonian moment, exactly the kind of peaceful assembly to redress grievances that the Founders of our nation enshrined in the Bill of Rights. But at 5 a.m. Wednesday there was only a graveyard of democratic hope. The protesters were gone, 200 arrested for exercising their constitutional rights, and only the television crews stayed to pick over the carcass of tents, books and posters, including one I pulled from the debris that read “99% you can’t arrest an idea.” Actually, you can, and the bankers have, as a result, been able to reoccupy Los Angeles’ City Hall and every other contested outpost of power throughout the nation.
The liberal Democratic mayor, a past president of the Southern California ACLU, was pleased with the efficiency of the “community policing” approach of his police department. “I said that here in L.A. we’d chart a different path, and we did,” Antonio Villaraigosa boasted. However, the result was the same as elsewhere; the bankers were protected from the scorn they so richly deserve and there will no longer be a visible monument to the pain that they have caused. To ensure a pristine, amoral town square, huge concrete-anchored fences were quickly installed to prevent further access to the public space surrounding City Hall.
Of course the traditional cardboard encampments of the homeless three blocks away, a sprawling and constant feature of life in downtown Los Angeles, remained undisturbed. Sanitation and safety issues are of no concern as long as such manifestations of deep societal inequality are so far from the corridors of power as to be, in effect, invisible.
Such profound contradictions in the application of state power seemed not at all to bother the first wave of government workers arriving at the various local, state and federal office buildings. I lined up with some of the early birds at the employee entrance to City Hall—the closed public entrance had a forbidding police presence—and told the guard that I was there with a literary offering for the mayor, whom I have long known.
My gesture was quite pathetic. I brought him a copy of my book “The Great American Stickup,” which he had once claimed to have read and admired, to remind him that he should be arresting the real criminals rather than the victims of their financial swindles. For a confirmation of that point, I also intended to present the mayor with the transcript of U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff’s ruling this week rejecting the sweetheart deal between the SEC and Citigroup. The settlement, one of dozens like it offered to the banks, would have let Citigroup off the hook for a pittance in fines in return for closing cases involving immense corruption on the part of the bankers, who would not have to admit guilt for their crimes.
And crimes they clearly are, far beyond the scope of pitching a tent in a public park. As Judge Rakoff stated, the Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Citigroup with “a substantial securities fraud” in the sale of a billion dollars’ worth of toxic securities that were designed to fail and which the bank had bet against. Rakoff, who has handled a number of these cases, complained that Citigroup, like the other major banks, is a recidivist. Citigroup had already paid fines for four similar scams. The judge observed that “although this would appear tantamount to an allegation of knowing and fraudulent intent, the SEC, for reasons of its own, chose to charge Citigroup only with negligence” despite the far more serious charges called for in securities law.
The failure of the SEC or any other government agency to hold the banks accountable provides the essential justification for citizen action of the sort the Occupy movement has offered. In his concluding summary, Rakoff stated: “Finally, in any case like this that touches on the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives, there is an overriding public interest in knowing the truth. In much of the world, propaganda reigns, and truth is confined to secretive, fearful whispers. Even in our nation, apologists for suppressing or obscuring the truth may always be found.”
Count the liberal mayor of Los Angeles, a man I have respected and voted for, as one of those apologists for suppressing truth in the name of civic order. As I meekly allowed myself to be ordered about by the police clearing the area so that the concrete barriers could be installed, I wondered whether I had not been reduced to the status of a fearful whisperer.
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40 Comments so far
Show All"I wondered whether I had not been reduced to the status of a fearful whisperer"
Most of us are nothing more than fearful whisperers, but that's better than nothing. Let's keep talking, as more and more people are receptive to the message that the criminals are in charge, and something needs to change. Awareness is the first step.
here's the deal with cowards
they are cowards
cowards die a thousand deaths
cowards bow to their betters
cowards wait like - well cowards - for better men to take action
amerika is a nation of cowards
simple as that
i got your back, joe....
It could be that the whispers are gathering into a storm that is going to ravage the foundations of the american experiment.
I've always said that you can't bomb an idea, or a belief. But look at all the destruction and deaths of innocents in Iraq and Afganistan, bombed to kingdom come for just such transient things. So now I believe that on this Earth, as in Hell (which I've always believed is the here and now) nothing is safe from the unleashed minions of the dark side.
Occupiers and Palestinians are the victims of the same US media.
Dear Robert Scheer - take heart in the best sense of the meanings - as so many of us have taken heart in your witness work
The problem of silencing in fear can never last, its remedy is listening to the ever present alternatives in creative emergence. The earth murmurs to us on a constant basis, the wisdom of resonances coursing through every pulse and medium of life despite the bluster that misinformation seeks to obscure. The ignorance of such attempts is patent as presupposition about climate stability, the integrated nature of life crumble and become the language of mother earth in corrective actions.
No lie can last forever.
They may be able to arrest the physical manifestation of an idea, but they cannot kill the idea itself. The idea is our strength, and the basis of a successful reversal of the status quo.
A mass movement into a single truly progressive political organization seems to me to be the most feasible way, and possibly the only way, to bring about real change in the 21st century.
port_lookout
Keep on telling the truth whenever and wherever you can...We can cuss and discuss for just so long. The Progressive Community needs a "Joshua Moment".
Trans:
Not being biblically inclined, I had to look up 'Joshua Moment', which I understand to be 'moving from vision to strategy'. I think that is exactly what is needed.
Strangely, there seems to be little interest here on CD, or anywhere on the internet as far as I've been able to determine, in a discussion of strategies designed to replace the status quo. The occupations are excellent vehicles to awaken the public, but I think not sufficient in themselves to bring about the basic and permanent changes that are needed.
Are you ready to dump these collaborator democrats, Robert?
I remember your debates with Ralf Nader. Dump the dems (and repukes)!!!!!
Thank you, Robert Scheer. You are precious to us, tenaciously lighting up the truth for all to see. (Villaraigosa is a Democrat--we know what that means: faithful servitor ot the brutal, soulless planetary scourge--unrestrained Capitalism).
"HailCODEPINK"
Robert Scheer has yet to accurately denounce the democrat arm of the machine. Even in this article, he is trying to save a politician because that corrupt politician has a "D" after his name.
"Precious"?
Hardly.
Bordering on vapid - is what I think.
Birdbrain -- Did you read the article? Scheer paints Villaraigosa as a smug hypocrite betraying all the values he supposedly believes in so that the bankers and state power can be protected from the people.
Hardly seems like an endorsement of the "liberal Democratic mayor" but perhaps anything short of simple sloganeering is "vapid" in your world.
Scheer writes --
'I pulled [a poster] from the debris that read “99% you can’t arrest an idea.” Actually, you can, and the bankers have, as a result, been able to reoccupy Los Angeles’ City Hall and every other contested outpost of power throughout the nation.'
Villaraigosa comes across as the fraud and Judas like political figure he is. A factotum for the banks and an enemy of the 99%. Indeed, very much like Obama.
"Count the liberal mayor of Los Angeles, a man I have respected and voted for, as one of those apologists for suppressing truth in the name of civic order."
Seems pretty definitive to me but too subtle, I suppose, for some.
"Randy G"
You are correct about this being too "subtle," "for some".
Scheer wanted to try to save the mayor from himself. How you see the mayor is how I see the mayor, but there really is nothing in this article to convince me that Scheer (a believer in chronic Lesser-evilism) would not support the re-election of his mayor (and Obama).
Until Scheer takes a clear, hard stance against these corporate owned criminals, I can only see this as another attempt by him at trying to save them from themselves.
All of the democrats are hypocrites who pretend to support the bill of rights, but simultaneously keep their party gnawing away at it.
Scheer criticizes them, but still supports them in elections.
Keep whispering...
The ongoing assault on truth by a corrupt system of control and its arrest of protesters of this condition rather than the myriad perpetrators of massive financial fraud suggests clearly the moral rot and decay of the foundation of the shining city on a hill where the corrupt politicians "do business". It's just another sunny day in Calvin Coolidge's America.
“…fearful whisperer” – Goddess forbid!
Is it really too much to ask for one mayor to say “Hey, get one of your general assemblies together and let’s go sit in my office and talk. I’m probably not going to be able to really enact anything that will fulfill any items on your agenda, but I can give you the respect to sit down and talk to you. Not spray you like a weed and treat you like a criminal. Because I acknowledge you have real, deep needs.” ---- Ahh, but there’s the rub – once you acknowledge and thereby in some way validate something, you give it power.
"Arrested Development" could have been the title of this article.
if the reaction of city governments was anything else than what it has been-there probably would have been little need for the movement to begin with. It is the inherent rot of the system that is being laid bare. The same can be said for how the movement has caused cities to confront the "unpleasantness" of the homeless.
The key to future success is easy to see- and a lot of work to accomplish. The movement must embrace ever widening circles of people. The middle class- or what's left of it must see the movement as a necessity for its own survival. The collaborative, participatory model evident to anyone who has bothered to participate in the movement, must be broadened and strengthened to include the broader community. Our culture has forgotten what it means to live in community. While we form temporary associations based on mutual self interest, most of us don't know how to leverage the vast power of collective human creativity to create change. The movement is about empowerment. The state is about disempowerment and control. Which do you chose to embrace? One path leads to destruction and devalues human life and creativity. The other path is uncertain, messy and frought with risk. You choose.
Well said LJG.
If we remain divided, we will remain conquered. If one looks at how "individualism" is so promoted in its totality as a virtue and that we have bought into all its aspects of it hook, line and sinker, I'd say the roots of our crisis are all there to see. We are far more divided, isolated from one another, than related. How often do we meet our neighbor or help our neighbor? Do we even know our neighbor? These seeds of our cultural behavior were planted before our birth.
Really think about it...would we sacrifice for one another if it came down to it? Could we as individualistic Americans give of ourselves and collaborate if it came down to life or death? Could we cooperate like the thousands who gathered in Tahrir to overthrow despotism and tyranny?.... Perhaps that spirit which was alive in the encampments spooked the elite. But beyond the encampments, are there enough people to engage in this spirit? I have my doubts.
The time has really come to question the legitamacy of the electoral process. The American ideal of the "consent of the governed" has been shown to be just so much hogwash... (But New American Hogwash - At least we have clean pigs!)
Consider, from the war-escalating former "community organizer" in the white house, to the former "past president of Southern California ACLU" that sits in City Hall and sicced the police to evacuate us from the premises, we are sold out at every turn. Reportedly, the City had offered 50-100 beds for the homeless when "negotiating" to have us move the the encampment. There are, on any given night, 10s of thousands of homeless Angelenos on City streets, many just blocks from City Hall.
So it appears, when it really matters, anyone actually elected withing this Corporate-Media-Electoral process is either corrupted by the system, or a fraud from the get-go. How else to explain the constant kow-towing to the Banking/Business/Developement community by this former ACLU executive?
The City Council had issued a resolution which stated after the Whereases:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, with the concurrence of the Mayor, that by the adoption of this Resolution, the City of Los Angeles hereby stands in SUPPORT for the continuation of the peaceful and vibrant exercise in First Amendment Rights carried out by "Occupy Los Angeles"...
This was never rescinded. The Mayor made some phoney noises about children in the encampment... Mr. Mayor, are you so concerned about the 1000s of homeless families just blocks away? He complained about the destruction of the lawn, what about the destruction of the lives and livelihoods of his fellow citizens and the curtailment of their First Amendment rights? Rights which his own City Council acknowledged were being excercized in their Resolution.
I, for one, DO NOT CONSENT. I do not consent to foreclosures issued by bailed-out institutions. I do not consent to having my First Amendment rights curtailed. I do not consent to a military budget larger than the world's combined engaged in illegal wars throughout the globe. I do not consent to the war on some drugs. I do not consent to torture. I do not consent to duplicitous polititions. And I do not consent to the fraudulent media-circus faux "elections" where the two-party duopoly limits the choices to between Tweedledum and Tweedledummer.
Right On, Zero G!!! And I further do not consent to the bullshit rhetoric of apologist dipshits like our president, that mayor, and 99% of the 'elected' shills in D. C. They will not kill this idea of dignity for all, as long as a few of us maintain the passion so clearly shown in your post. Revolutions are begun, carried through, and won - not by the majority, who always sit on their asses waiting to see the outcome, but by the 20% builders in any society. People like you, sir. And, I hope, like me.
Dear Birdbrain, As you know, Common Dreams is not the place to look for radical analysis, but that doesn't mean its useless. If you re-read the article you will see that Villariagosa the Democrat does not appear in a favorable light. Do you really think Scheer's depiction of the newly sanitized public space in contrast with the homeless area three blocks away is "vapid?" Have you read his book?
I appreciate Scheer's condemnation of these actions, but Scheer needs to come out and openly reject the democrats.
For too long he has been apologizing for their obvious crimes against democracy.
Are you voting democrat Bob?
"HailCODEPINK"
Scheer has a history of criticizing and then supporting in elections what he criticizes.
He will not really commit to change. He is typical of the delusional people who still support the corporate-owned-and-controlled democrats.
He could do so much to help, but instead he sabotages real progress because he lacks integrity.
Violent confrontation was avoided in LA by announcing a time for the police sweep, which invited a support group of witnesses, but when the sweep did not take place, the witnesses went home -- and the sweep was accomplished when the witnesses were absent.
The stories of Obama, Villaraigosa and others should convince future reformers of the futility of "changing the system from within" because being inside the system substitutes the rhetoric of "progress" for meaningful change -- while the graveyards continue to fill with victims whose complaints go unheard.
OWS is a lifeboat called Hope, filled with progressives that want real change...floating on the Sea of Change. Then there are the democrat, MS Liberals like Scheer, Reich, KVH, and the others, that are now drowning in their lies, struggling to swim towards the boat, wanting onboard...fingers clawing, slapping at the sides... "Let us in. Save us! We are just like you!" they yell. Once in the boat, they turn into the democratic/warmongering capitalist devils they are at heart. And once again, they sink the boat called Hope.
“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good” –Mahatma Gandhi
And your point is.......?
And destructive facts keeps on ticking away at our lives
http://nationalpriorities.org/en/
Occupy the Homeless!
I miss the porta-potties most of all. If downtown LA had more public restrooms, maybe it wouldn't reek so much of urine. The hypocrisy of this mayor is palpable--here is a man who has hardened his heart to human suffering and who gladly kowtows to the interests of Wallstreet at the expense of the people he was elected to serve. How much did the City end up spending just since Thanksgiving, I wonder, to arrest 300 peaceful protestors? That money would have been better spent on porta-potties. At least then we would know it was for shit.
One big difference between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives attack liberals and liberals attack each other.
The lesser of two evils is STILL evil.........become real!
I've always been amused at the people who vote for the lesser of two evils, and then expect good things to come of it. I vote for candidates who share my values, and when they lose, am never surprised that things get worse.
Elites have long counted on the people tiring of self-rule and self-determination, and falling back in exhaustion/despair on the job bait laid by the elites. The job bait is a trick, an illusion, the job not really existing until the people take the bait. Stay away from the elite' job bait, and your real job will manifest in your very own local economy. You will own your job, you will own your production, your will own your market, you will own your economy, you will own your public policy and your public institutions, and you will own your fair share of the society.
Simple choice. Which will it be?
This is a concerted effort throughout the country coordinated by the Dept. of Homeland Security. Nothing more. Your favorites Dems and Repubs brought us to this. Bankers who commit crimes walk away laughing at people being pepper sprayed and trussed up and hauled off to jail. Until, we the people decide to take back our government this will continue. Vote for anyone except the two parties. Give what you can to support independent candidates. $25 is not alot for your freedom.
this boss of los angeles currently serves as a president...
of the united states conference of mayors...
an organization quite fond of its fine corporate tie-ins...
gives an “occupied” city's government a call or questionnaire...
its business council consists of greedy wall street associates...
from bank of america... to morgan chase... and g.e...
more than one hundred companies pay thousands due annually...
leaving conflicts of interest evicting protest assemblies!...
~~~
http://occupywallst.org
The paying of fines to avoid criminal prosecution is insane. Convictions with penalties of large fines, and jail time.
We need public (court) declarations of the banks criminality.
Can I steal and then pay a fine to avoid criminal investigations and jail time? Those who offer these deals should be the subject of a criminal investigation. The judge who rejected the offer should have put the SEC people on notice that they are criminals for making such an offer.