Intro: "Today 200-plus people were arrested before 1:00 p.m. in New York City for participating in peaceful, related to Occupy Wall Street, which has seen perhaps its most trying turn of events in the past week. Among those arrested was retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis (pictured above), who said, 'All the cops are just workers for the one percent, and they don't even realize they're being exploited.'"
Retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis, handcuffed, forced to sit on the ground, and arrested by New York City police, 11/17/11. (photo: Death and Taxes)
Police Captain Joins Occupy Protest, Arrested
18 November 11
"As soon as I'm let out of jail, I'll be right back here and they'll have to arrest me again." - Ray Lewis
oday 200-plus people were arrested before 1:00 p.m. in New York City for participating in peaceful, non-violent protests related to Occupy Wall Street, which has seen perhaps its most trying turn of events in the past week. Among those arrested was retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis (pictured above), who said, "All the cops are just workers for the one percent, and they don't even realize they're being exploited."
Ray Lewis, who retired in 2004, has a lot of interesting things to say, and I want you to hear as much of it as possible.
“They complained about the park being dirty," he said over the OWS Livefeed last night. "Here they are worrying about dirty parks when people are starving to death, where people are freezing, where people are sleeping in subways and they're concerned about a dirty park. That's obnoxious, it's arrogant, it's ignorant, it's disgusting."
What does that say about NYPD's credibility? This guy did not run the police department of Anytown, USA - he ran the police department in Philadelphia, a city that can only be compared to a few other American cities in terms of size and scope, namely New York.
And that is where the heart of the protest has returned, after switching coasts and residing in Oakland, California for a moment. Not to detract from other occupations, but the mother of them all has returned to pivotal status.
Mayor Bloomberg has taken full responsibility for the NYPD's actions two days ago. Last night Keith Olberman called for Mayor Bloomberg to resign. What does that say about him, that on national television his resignation is being requested?
To give an idea why Olberman took it to this level, an Associated Press report issued less than an hour ago reports that protesters were "bloodied during the arrests" today. Forget the question of legitimacy, the tactics are wrong.
Peaceful, verbal negotiation is systematically being rejected as a viable tactic in favor of physical aggression.
In another excerpt from a late night (circa 2 a.m.) interview done over OWS Livestream, Ray Lewis said the following about police tactics:
You should, by law, only use force to protect someone's life or to protect them from being bodily injured. If you're not protecting somebody's life or protecting them from bodily injury, there's no need to use force. And the number one thing that they always have in their favor that they seldom use is negotiation - continue to talk, and talk and talk to people. You have nothing to lose by that. This bullrush - what happened last night is totally uncalled for when they did not use negotiation long enough.
He is referring to the eviction, during which protesters were maimed, their property destroyed, and for what? Cleanliness? That reasoning is an insult to 1st Amendment rights, Mayor Bloomberg.
Today marks two months of Occupy Wall Street, and the authorities have made their position clear. New York City is at fever pitch.
Inform yourself, talk to your friends and family, understand that popular movements in the United States are fundamentally American. "Every generation needs a new revolution." - Thomas Jefferson.
We skipped a couple generations, but this one has found its revolution in Occupy Everywhere. Next time you hear someone dismiss the Occupy movement as a bunch of hippies, remember Ray Lewis.
If you are thinking about donating to an occupation, organizers of Occupy Wall Street encourage you to donate to other chapters - as it were - since in Manhattan they have already received ample resources.
And for your viewing pleasure, the man himself, Ray Lewis:
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Comments
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It's called R E S P E C T. Sorry, for your police mentality. I did not cause this problem. I am trying to correct the government's failure to stop an economic malaise. This environment has been created by corporate greed and a lacking social conscience of a group dedicated to becoming or remaining wealthy at any cost. Many good citizens of America are in great personal danger from the effects of these vicious conditions. At the very least please, let us practice our 1st amendment right without the fear mongering.
Ray Lewis understands OWS, he is my new hero.
enought to thank you today.
If you're 'anarchist', then
allow me to kiss your anar.
Takes courage plus to boot the money grabbers out. Just ask a man/God named Jesus.
And if you think rubber bullets can't be lethel, think again...
you must of been trained in government schools to spew something that shallow and false.
''money dosent talk it swears,propagan da,all is phony''/Bob Dylan
Too many and that is why these kids are open season for predators. Student loans should be like FEMA Loans, fair. If you have a job after school then they should work with you.
Get the sleaze bags to pay up. They are like deadbeat child support abusers. Time to get the loans past due, paid up
Something is terribly wrong in this culture, terribly wrong. I have quit spending any money on anything that is not essential for survival. I am using all the 'leftover' or 'saved' money to pay down my children's debt. Paid off their cars and I am working on the mortgage of one son. It is time to stop feeding the corporate beast. Time to think of our families as a corporate group.
I am sorry for your son's situation and hope you can help him get rid of the loan. Every dime we keep from the 1% makes the other 99% stronger. You would be surprised what you can eliminate from spending--start ing with the conspicuous consumption called Christmas.
FALSE
I work every week for a pay check and I want protected from gangs who think their existence grants then a right to take my property and my life from me.
That includes politicians who grant huge sums of our money to their corporate friends and
That includes the squatter/occupi ers who also have no right to my life/property.
So what's your point.
I'm mixed up here -you have some pros and cons, so please elaborate (most respectfully). We have a good, rich, expressive language, why not use it to explain yourself more fully?!
Think about it.
Martinfre you are wrong in many things. I would like to know how do you work (trained by Bernie Madoff or Wall Street)? If you still have your property and life, then you have to belong to the 1% or wanabee...
I know enough about Maddoff and Wall street to know that compared to the FED (Federal Reserve Bank) Bernie is not even small potatoes.
I also know that at least the greed of the 1% you appear to despise was either created or stolen -
The creators wealth is earned because We choose to vote for them with our dollars for their goods.
Recovering Stolen wealth is one of the few things government should be doing not participating in the theft of wealth like the bail outs.
FINALLY a policeman who understands that the POLICE are PART of the 99%! Can the POLICE UNIONS start educating their members to this??? "Cops are workers for the 1% and they don't even recognize it."
I wish he was the Mayor.
It is here for all the world to see, America -- a
"Police State", and the man who seems to the own the property known as New York -- Mr. Bloomberg.
Let's not think that all policemen are our enemies. They may for now be following orders but Captain Lewis is on the front lines of changing that. Policemen are part of the 99%.
And yes, he is what a real man looks like, just as the guy with the scruffy beard asking him a question in the vid is a real man standing up for the values and the promise of America.
So they can't camp out in Zuccotti. BFD. They knew they had only temporary tenure from the start. And yeah, Tony Boloney's name will live in infamy along with whoever pepper sprayed the old lady. But where to go from here?
Disperse and organize.
Isn't it time to start collecting signatures for the recall of Mayor Bloomberg?
Lot of these people are being told they will get bonuses, they will go up Political ladder, when in reality they will be laid off just like those who are on desk duty. Mentality preyed on, strings pulled.
I remember picture from the 60's of lovely girl who placed a flower in the end of a gun. I remember, which many here do not nor OWS..Kent State. Time we as Government Officials remember No One is a Winner in War. If you are threatening us in the USA, remember the next to come and fight, will not care about the USA. You will be on other side of those barricades if you continue on this Road. World is Watching, Warlords are ready to Pounce. Killing a Dictator is nothing, their Soldiers are still out there. You need us, You need us to save the USA. Your corporations won't save you. They will sell to the New Kids on the Block, they do now!
Turn your attitudes around, We aren't the Bad Guys. You are laying us wide open to Assault. Think of all those Countries with Nuclear Weapons who want a Piece of Us, how close many of them are. Time to rethink who the Enemy is...it looks like the 1% are setting you all up like Ducks in a Pond.
OWS has to change America this time. As a forty year voter, I feel impotent. It's sad that Viagra cannot help with that feeling. I guess Bob Dole lied about that as well.
There is 2000 working hours in one year.
That means that his assets increased
with 2,2 million Dollars per hour.
Kick him out and give his job to an
unemployed without money who needs
a job and a salary.
One of the core pillars of the New Deal was the establishment of structural and legal regulation that would prevent rampant greed from dominating financial markets in the future. FDR understood the absolute need for strong checks on greed, because he understood greed's destructive power. If unchecked, it could (and did) suborn the plutarchy we're living under now, an economic atmosphere lethally toxic to the 99%.
Both atrophied parties are responsible and accountable for this degradation. Any thinking American knows this. We MUST: 1) Get obscene wealth out of politics. Gut Citizens United by passing new laws. Join GetMoneyOut.org . Re-elect Obama so he can take back SCOTUS in second term. 2) Elect Reps. committed to #1, and throw out ALL OTHERS! 3) Re-establish structural and legal regulation of Wall Street and Big Banks. Provide resources for enforcement. Stop revolving door appointments of Wall Street stooges to key regulatory posts. 4) CUT DEFENSE SPENDING by an order of magnitude unseen in many decades.
These can be valid OWS demands!
Be that as it may, I completely agree with you that greed must be "regulated." Very few, relatively speaking, succeed at eradicating it.
The thing about desire/attachme nt is that there is no satiation point; it simply breeds more of the same.
Same goes for buying pot from the mexicans...only buy from American growers!
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