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This is why the ‘Occupy Wall Steer’ protestors have been camping in Zuccotti Park for the past two months. Sorry, I meant had. For, in case you hadn’t heard, the camp was demolished on Tuesday morning, over a hundred and forty people arrested, and now tents, sleeping bags and ‘lying down’ are banned in the area. How can you ban lying down? It sounds insane, right? And yet that is what the United States of America, land of the free and defender of human rights (yeah, okay) has decided is one of the best ways to deal with the protesters. Apparently, the actions are not against the First Amendment to the US constitution. Which one is that, again? Oh, yes, the one that prohibits the making of any law interfering with the right to assemble peacefully. Wait…
Interestingly, the same Amendment also prohibits any laws infringing on the freedom of the press, and while no laws, as such, have been made to this effect, journalists were barred from the raid on Tuesday morning, and several reporters detained in police custody.
I will, however, stop myself before I simply go on a rant about everything USA-related and take a more objective stance. Right, so the camp has been described as looking like a slum. The problem? Yes, okay, this might be unsanitary and unsightly… but the fact is that many people, even in the ‘affluent’ United States have to live in slum-like conditions every day because they fall out of the degrading welfare net of the governmental system. The problem, therefore, is that the residents of New York did not like being reminded that such situations are part of a daily reality for people. Life was easier for them when they could ignore such social problems and just get on with living their individual lives. I hate to use the word bourgeois - I’m not sure it technically exists as a concept as originally conceived anymore - but I can’t help but think it when I read that people are more concerned about being able to eat their lunch in the park in peace, than worrying about the social issues of their country. By all means protest, people say, but don’t do it where we can see you; or where we want to go to relax from our day at the office. God forbid we should actually feel implicated in the system.
That is the problem, though, isn’t it. We are implicated in the system - and yet, there is very little we feel we can do about it. Most of the businesses in the vicinity of the camp (the ones claiming to have been adversely affected) are only trying to make a living. It is not their fault the system is faulty, all they can do is try and make the best of it. As opposed to getting ‘more’ than their share, it is a case of getting any share at all. It is unfair to penalise such people who maybe cannot afford to take time off work to protest. They might agree with the protestors and their cause, but if their businesses do not succeed, they may struggle to have a roof to live under, or money to pay for their health insurance (the NHS may be a bit rubbish, but at least we have it).
The same song from Miss Saigon asks, ‘what other place can compare’ to America?
What other place indeed.
I wonder how many nights the protesters can stay standing up in Zuccotti Park.
You seem to write from the position that the freedom to protest for so long is more important than the freedom of everyone else to enjoy PUBLIC space.
But surely you can't limit freedom? You either have the right to protest, or you don't. If people don't like it, they have the freedom to go to another PUBLIC place.
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