Originally posted Jan. 14 on MichaelMoore.com.
“What rights do we have?” “Why do we have to change our lifestyle to
allow for people to block our streets and stop us from going to
restaurants, meetings, salons, etc. Enough is enough, what about our
rights?…My wife cannot go to the spa after work and we have stopped
going out to eat…”
This whining letter from a member of Washington D.C.’s 1%, which was
among the documents we received at the PCJF in response to our recent
FOIA requests, was apparently attention-grabbing enough to be circulated
and shared between the D.C. Mayor’s office and the D.C. Chief of Police
as they contemplated whether to follow the example of other big-city
mayors and law enforcement agencies and try to close down an Occupy
encampment in the nation’s capital.
When the 1% speaks (or just whines) — politicians listen. “Whose streets?” “Their streets” it seems.
In the wake of apparently coordinated police raids and evictions on
Occupy encampments around the country, the Partnership for Civil Justice
Fund has undertaken a major Freedom of Information Act initiative. We
are working to force public disclosure of government documents on
coordination and discussion between federal and local law enforcement
and Mayors’ offices in the assault against the Occupy movement.
Instead of pandering to the rich, the banks and corporate power maybe
it’s time to listen to the people – including those who not only
“cannot go to the spa” but can’t feed their kids and can’t pay their
mortgage.
The Occupy movement has taken root because there are forty seven
million people in the United States who live under the official poverty
line – cruelly calculated at only $22,000 for a family of four. In 2010
alone, banks foreclosed on 3.8 million families. Three million people
are completely homeless during part of the year. Forty million people
are unemployed or severely underemployed. And over the last three
decades the richest 1 percent of Americans have seen their incomes grow
by an average of 275 percent.
More documents will be forthcoming soon from the FOIA requests about the coordinated crackdown against the Occupy movement.
In the wake of the mass false arrests, the unbridled police violence
and waves of pepper spray, remember the tragedy facing the 1%.
Be sure to tell your friends who may be unemployed or foreclosed or
unable to pay their student loans that the 1% — as we now know — have
been more injured than any of us were ever aware. They can’t get to the spa.
