Why Bloomberg Had To Attack Occupy Wall Street
by Mark Naison | special to NewBlackMan
Occupy Wall Street is Under Attack by a huge force while the subways have been closed, along with the Brooklyn Bridge. Here are some key components of the Bloomberg policies that might explain what the Mayor has to take such extreme measure to crush
Dissent:
1) Subsidize luxury housing in Brooklyn and Manhattan and concentrate all affordable housing in the hyper-segregated sections of the Bronx and East New York.
2) Undermine public education by closing schools over the opposition of parents students teachers and community members and replace them with charter schools that promote rote learning, obedience and militarized discipline for the children of the poor.
3) When a movement finally arises that challenges the Mayor's plan to turn Manhattan and parts of North Brooklyn into a city for the wealthy of the globe at the expense of the city's working class, middle class and poor who live in the outer boroughs, you close the bridges and subways, bar the press and crush that movement with Riot Police, pepper spray, water hoses.
Not since 9/11 have the police of this city been mobilized to this degree.
And for what?
Democracy has been under attack in this city for some time. Now even the illusion of Democracy has been removed.
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Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of two books, Communists in Harlem During the Depressionand White Boy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oral histories Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life From the 1930’s to the 1960’s.
