Mid-Week Post

For some reason, the "occupiers" have either returned or were never forced out. Why?

Occupy Wall Street protesters hope to rebound on Thursday with a march on the New York Stock Exchange to show their battle against economic inequality still has life after they were evicted from a nearby park.

Most rallies by the two-month-old movement have numbered in the hundreds of people in New York but protesters and city officials expect thousands of demonstrators to pour into the Wall Street area from 7 a.m. to try to stop workers from getting to their desks in the financial district.

It will be a test of whether Occupy Wall Street and the loose-knit global alliance it inspired will flag or grow after police cleared a camp of hundreds of protesters from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan on Tuesday.

The first sentence of this article exhibits the same kind of childish bias that one often sees in the popular press. The article writer has not only taken a side (therefore chucking away objectivity) but has also painted the "Occupy..." events as ones having a legitimate and well-defined purpose.


Like "no snitching":

Crime in Occupy Wall Street's encampment Zucotti Park might be worse than the public realizes. According to The New York Post, crime at the park, which included a homeless man allegedly pulling a knife during an argument as well as claims of sexual assaults, is so out of control many protesters have resorted to a "stop snitching" rule. In fact, reports The Post, one NYPD officer said, that much of the crime goes unreported as a result. “What’s happening in there is staying in there," said the New York City cop. 

Similarly, Occupy Baltimore protesters reportedly passed out pamphlets telling demonstrators not to report sexual assaults to police. After receiving much criticism, Occupy Baltimore later revised their policy but, according to the Baltimore Sun, the policy still does not encourage involving law enforcement after a sexual assault happens within the Baltimore occupy encampment.  

Occupy Wall Street's security team has been at odds with organizers for quiet some time. The night before New York City occupiers marched on Times Square, OWS security volunteers complained to OWS organizers that only a handful of OWS security individuals were keeping watch of the entire park and working 30 hours straight with no relief.

The security team said that Occupy Wall Street had a 1 percent crime rate and too many OWS protesters were just "sitting there doing [their] thing" and "not doing [their part]" to help with security.

OWS security seems to be fighting an uphill battle, as the General Assembly within OWS apparently thinks a priority for the security group at OWS is to be renamed and not rough up disruptors within Zucotti Park. 

"Because this is such an inclusive society, that we’re creating here... that we’ve evolved into, or that we were from the beginning, it draws everyone. It draws everyone, except maybe the super-rich. So when it draws everyone, you’re dealing with everyone’s conditioning...everyone’s f****d up conditioning," OWS facilitator John Friesen told me last week.

"Everyone’s like, ‘I’m out for me and myself.’ You know that kind of instinct and people are unruly and people are violent and people make threats. So that debate has been going on between people on the security team, which people want to be renamed the ‘de-escalation team.’There is 'peace keepers'. There is 'mediators,'" Friesen said. 

Utter hogwash.


The more plausible reason for the eruption of crime of all sorts is that self-serving, self-important, over-privileged, largely white, affluent and completely insincere people think they can do whatever they like and have been allowed that indulgence by weak-willed politicians and drooling media. How long has this "occupation" gone on? How many rapes, thefts, threats, drug overdoses, insults and acts of violence have there been?


(gracias, El Barto and SDA)




If the anti-bullying groups have such a stranglehold foothold in schools, what are they going to do about this?

Asian Americans endure far more bullying at US schools than members of other ethnic groups, with teenagers of the community three times as likely to face taunts on the Internet, new data shows.

Policymakers see a range of reasons for the harassment, including language barriers faced by some Asian American students and a spike in racial abuse following the September 11, 2001 attacks against children perceived as Muslim.

"This data is absolutely unacceptable and it must change. Our children have to be able to go to school free of fear," US Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday during a forum at the Center for American Progress think-tank.

The research, to be released on Saturday, found that 54 percent of Asian American teenagers said they were bullied in the classroom, sharply above the 31.3 percent of whites who reported being picked on.

I realise anti-bullying has a gay monopoly but surely there is some sort of ribbon or something for this.


Vaguely related:

Japan's national anthem was roundly booed by a seemingly capacity crowd in Pyongyang Tuesday as the former colonial power took on North Korea in a dead rubber World Cup qualifier.

Live television footage from the hermit nation showed tens of thousands of North Korean fans at the Kim Il Sung stadium booing loudly as the Japanese national anthem was played ahead of the match.

Bad form, North Korea. Bad form.


The parents of a disabled girl find out she is being tormented by her teachers:

The parents of a 14-year-old special-needs student in Ohio say they hid a recording device on the girl to prove a teacher and school aide were bullying her.

Media outlets report the parents complained to school officials last year about the alleged bullying in the Miami Trace district, about 50 kilometres southwest of Columbus.

Then the parents secretly recorded audio of the instructors.

In the recording, the aide tells the girl she's dumb and says: "It's no wonder you don't have friends. No wonder nobody likes you because you lie, cheat."

The district superintendent tells the Washington Court House Record Herald that the aide resigned.

The Ohio Department of Education decided to suspend the teacher's licence for a year unless she completes special training.

"Special training" nothing. Her behaviour is nothing short of disgusting. I wouldn't be surprised if the union thwarted the much-needed firing with the promise of "special training". Anyone can fake sincerity and re-education, on principle, is just wrong. If one really wants this woman to learn her lesson, fire her.




And now, some cool stuff:  a robotic bear that slaps you when you snore, a man who knows how to bounce back, and a man who delivered candy.