Perhaps We Should Thank Them

Oct 18th, 2011

Tom Engelhardt notes the correlation between extreme police behavior in New York City and the rapid expansion of support for Occupy Wall Street:

"Their stakeout in Zuccotti Park is geared to extreme acts, suicide bombers, and terrorism, as well as to a conception of protest and opposition as alien and enemy-like. They are trying to herd, lock in, and possibly strangle a phenomenon that bears no relation to any of this. They are, that is, policing the wrong thing, which is why every act of pepper spraying or swing of the truncheon, every aggressive act (as in the recent eviction threat to “clean” the park) blows back on them and only increases the size and coverage of the movement."

That the authorities haven't learned this by now is stunning.