Appearing on Wednesday night's broadcast of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, author Errol Louis, an anchor at NY1 News, explained how the New York Police Department has actually been a major motivating force for "Occupy Wall Street" and the 99 Percent movement.
The most startling example of police violence came just after the beginning of "Occupy Wall Street," when two young girls were , seemingly for no reason at all. There have since been numerous other instances where force applied .
"They are a very professional organization, they drill all the time, they're very self-reflective," Louis explained. "They take their command staff, the guys in the white shirts, they take them to meetings and they review video tape and so forth. I know the commissioner can't be happy about this. Nobody in the command staff can be happy about what is happening.
"But to be fair about it, this is the point of a demonstration, to put people in an uncomfortable if not impossible situation and have the thing play out, and that's what you're demonstrating. You're demonstrating that law and order as traditionally enforced, and the sense of the social structure, and the needs and the demands of these protesters are not compatible. The best way to illustrate that are these repeatedly staged situations. Whichever side acts wrongly sort-of loses that confrontation."
This video was broadcast by Current TV on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011.
Photo: Flickr user WarmSleepy.
