Flashes of Quincy

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The tents had been raised in the northeast quadrant of the park but, according to people I talked to, when the police came they swept in through the southeast, their path going through a whole bunch of demonstrators who had nothing to do with the tents. I don’t understand why the police would do that if they didn’t want a confrontation. Of course I’ve not heard the police version of events.

But my point is this: Whether the police should or should not have been deployed, whether they acted well or poorly, the police are not the story. The police did not explode the financial system, the police did not create collateralized debt obligations or talk people into taking out home loans they didn’t understand at interest rates they couldn’t pay, and the police are not the campaign donors who are in effect paying politicians to roll back attempts to regulate such behavior. And pitching tents, which is what triggered the police action, not only did not result in any discussion of investment banks and mortgage lenders and unemployment, it didn’t result in any discussion of the homeless, either: the discussion, among the protesters and in the press, is about skirmishes between police and demonstrators. Police conduct/misconduct does bring some attention and energy to the movement — there were more protesters milling about today than I expected — but that hardly helps to get the message out.

Frank Kogan