Lessons of a Police Chief: Militarization Is a Mistake

Members of the Oakland Police Department, which is facing a lawsuit for using excessive force against Occupy Oakland protesters, 11/02/11. (photo: flickr)

By Norm Stamper, Yes! Magazine

17 November 11

The police chief who oversaw Seattle's crackdown on WTO protesters learned the dangers of militarization. His advice for a creating a police force that truly serves and protects communities.

hey came from all over, tens of thousands of demonstrators from around the world, protesting the economic and moral pitfalls of globalization. Our mission as members of the Seattle Police Department? To safeguard people and property—in that order. Things went well the first day. We were praised for our friendliness and restraint—though some politicians were apoplectic at our refusal to make mass arrests for the actions of a few.

Then came day two. Early in the morning, large contingents of demonstrators began to converge at a key downtown intersection. They sat down and refused to budge. Their numbers grew. A labor march would soon add additional thousands to the mix.

“We have to clear the intersection,” said the field commander. “We have to clear the intersection,” the operations commander agreed, from his bunker in the Public Safety Building. Standing alone on the edge of the crowd, I, the chief of police, said to myself, “We have to clear the intersection.”

I’m convinced it is possible to create a smart organizational alternative to the paramilitary bureaucracy that is American policing.

Why?

Because of all the what-ifs. What if a fire breaks out in the Sheraton across the street? What if a woman goes into labor on the seventeenth floor of the hotel? What if a heart patient goes into cardiac arrest in the high-rise on the corner? What if there’s a stabbing, a shooting, a serious-injury traffic accident? How would an aid car, fire engine or police cruiser get through that sea of people? The cop in me supported the decision to clear the intersection. But the chief in me should have vetoed it. And he certainly should have forbidden the indiscriminate use of tear gas to accomplish it, no matter how many warnings we barked through the bullhorn.

My support for a militaristic solution caused all hell to break loose. Rocks, bottles and newspaper racks went flying. Windows were smashed, stores were looted, fires lighted; and more gas filled the streets, with some cops clearly overreacting, escalating and prolonging the conflict. The “Battle in Seattle,” as the WTO protests and their aftermath came to be known, was a huge setback—for the protesters, my cops, the community.

More than a decade later, the police response to the Occupy movement, most disturbingly visible in Oakland—where scenes resembled a war zone and where a marine remains in serious condition from a police projectile—brings into sharp relief the acute and chronic problems of American law enforcement. Seattle might have served as a cautionary tale, but instead, US police forces have become increasingly militarized, and it’s showing in cities everywhere: the NYPD “white shirt” coating innocent people with pepper spray, the arrests of two student journalists at Occupy Atlanta, the declaration of public property as off-limits and the arrests of protesters for “trespassing.”

The paramilitary bureaucracy and the culture it engenders—a black-and-white world in which police unions serve above all to protect the brotherhood—is worse today than it was in the 1990s. Such agencies inevitably view protesters as the enemy. And young people, poor people and people of color will forever experience the institution as an abusive, militaristic force—not just during demonstrations but every day, in neighborhoods across the country.

Much of the problem is rooted in a rigid command-and-control hierarchy based on the military model. American police forces are beholden to archaic internal systems of authority whose rules emphasize bureaucratic regulations over conduct on the streets. An officer’s hair length, the shine on his shoes and the condition of his car are more important than whether he treats a burglary victim or a sex worker with dignity and respect. In the interest of “discipline,” too many police bosses treat their frontline officers as dependent children, which helps explain why many of them behave more like juvenile delinquents than mature, competent professionals. It also helps to explain why persistent, patterned misconduct, including racism, sexism, homophobia, brutality, perjury and corruption, do not go away, no matter how many blue-ribbon panels are commissioned or how much training is provided.

External political factors are also to blame, such as the continuing madness of the drug war. Last year police arrested 1.6 million nonviolent drug offenders. In New York City alone almost 50,000 people (overwhelmingly black, Latino or poor) were busted for possession of small amounts of marijuana—some of it, we have recently learned, planted by narcotics officers. The counterproductive response to 9/11, in which the federal government began providing military equipment and training even to some of the smallest rural departments, has fueled the militarization of police forces. Everyday policing is characterized by a SWAT mentality, every other 911 call a military mission. What emerges is a picture of a vital public-safety institution perpetually at war with its own people. The tragic results—raids gone bad, wrong houses hit, innocent people and family pets shot and killed by police—are chronicled in Radley Balko’s excellent 2006 report Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.

Even as police officers help to safeguard the power and profits of the 1 percent, police officers are part of the 99 percent.

It is ironic that those police officers who are busting up the Occupy protesters are themselves victims of the same social ills the demonstrators are combating: corporate greed; the slackening of essential regulatory systems; and the abject failure of all three branches of government to safeguard civil liberties and to protect, if not provide, basic human needs like health, housing, education and more. With cities and states struggling to balance the budget while continuing to deliver public safety, many cops are finding themselves out of work. And, as many Occupy protesters have pointed out, even as police officers help to safeguard the power and profits of the 1 percent, police officers are part of the 99 percent.

There will always be situations—an armed and barricaded suspect, a man with a knife to his wife’s throat, a school-shooting rampage—that require disciplined, military-like operations. But most of what police are called upon to do, day in and day out, requires patience, diplomacy and interpersonal skills. I’m convinced it is possible to create a smart organizational alternative to the paramilitary bureaucracy that is American policing. But that will not happen unless, even as we cull “bad apples” from our police forces, we recognize that the barrel itself is rotten.

Imagine the community and its cops united in the effort to responsibly “police” the Occupy movement.

Assuming the necessity of radical structural reform, how do we proceed? By building a progressive police organization, created by rank-and-file officers, “civilian” employees and community representatives. Such an effort would include plans to flatten hierarchies; create a true citizen review board with investigative and subpoena powers; and ensure community participation in all operations, including policy-making, program development, priority-setting and crisis management. In short, cops and citizens would forge an authentic partnership in policing the city. And because partners do not act unilaterally, they would be compelled to keep each other informed, and to build trust and mutual respect—qualities sorely missing from the current equation.

It will not be easy. In fact, failure is assured if we lack the political will to win the support of police chiefs and their elected bosses, if we are unable to influence or neutralize police unions, if we don’t have the courage to move beyond the endless justifications for maintaining the status quo. But imagine the community and its cops united in the effort to responsibly “police” the Occupy movement. Picture thousands of people gathered to press grievances against their government and the corporations, under the watchful, sympathetic protection of their partners in blue.

---

Norm Stamper was Seattle’s police chief from 1994 to 2000, and a police officer for 34 years. He is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and the author of Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing. He wrote this article for the Nation.

Herman Badillo Back With The Democrats

November 16, 2011 2:35 PM

BY Celeste Katz

They say you can’t go home again. But that isn’t true when home is the Democratic Party and you're Herman Badillo.

Our Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke reports:

Badillo announced this morning that he's switching parties.

“Today, I am proudly announcing that I am returning to my political roots and am rejoining the Democratic Party, the party that was my political home for most of my life. It was as a Democrat that I was elected as the first United States Congressman of Puerto Rican origin in the history of the nation. It was as a Democrat that I served as the first Borough President of Hispanic origin in the history of New York City. It was as a Democrat that I served as the first Hispanic Deputy Mayor in New York City in the administration of Edward I. Koch. And, it was as a Democrat that I ran for Mayor of New York City three times,” Badillo wrote in an emailed announcement.

Of course, it was as a Republican that Badillo ran against, and lost to -- Mayor Bloomberg in the 2001 GOP primary.

But if you are Badillo, probably better not to mention that. It was as a right-leaning Democrat that he served as educational advisor to Mayor Giuliani and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of CUNY.

Badillo cited changing the educational system and helping close the achievement gap as area that he wants to impact by switching parties.

“As many know, a burning passion of mine and something I have been trying to accomplish for many years, in different capacities, has been to improve the educational system in New York City. More particularly to seek ways to close the educational gap between Hispanics and Blacks and other ethnic groups,” Badillo wrote. “This is the particular area that I want to address in the future and I believe that my involvement can best be accomplished by returning to the Democratic Party.”

The last time that Badillo held an elected office was in 1977, when he resigned from Congress in order to become a deputy mayor to Ed Koch. In 2006, Badillo joined the conservative Manhattan Institute as a senior fellow writing about immigration issues.

When Puerto Rican political pioneer Badillo last switched parties – from Democrat to Republican – in 1998, it was seen as a turning point for the Latino vote. The vote still hasn’t turned.

In his 1998 announcement, Badillo, an avid jogger, said that he wanted to "conduct a marathon on behalf of the Republican Party, not just here, but all over the country.” This time, the 82-year-old is presumably not attempting to run a countrywide marathon.

The New York Times

Cara Buckley writes: “The anti-Wall Street protests, which are being driven from their urban encampments across the nation, now face a pivotal challenge: With their outposts gone, will their movement wither?”

Halbfinger & Barbaro recap the crackdown in the park.

Baker & Goldstein look at NYPD’s execution of the raid: “Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly was at the center, his presence underscoring how the operation was fraught with challenges for the Police Department. There could be no repeat of episodes in recent weeks, like the pepper-spraying of protesters, that violated department rules and created a firestorm of public sympathy for the squatters.”

Noah Rosenberg follows the corruption trial of Bronx City Councilman Larry Seabrook – and the testimony of Bronx fixer Stanley Schlein.

Michael Grynbaum notes that MTA honcho Joe Lhota once wanted the city to have control of the subway system.

A Militarized Force Takes to Zuccotti for the Economic Elite

Reader Supported News | 15 November 11 PM

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

---

Charles P. Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "It was, as all of these things have been, a fully militarized operation, launched with a maximum of surprise by armored tactical police who even brought a helicopter, in case they needed air support. They also uncrated all their exotic toys for the occasion. The operation netted the police about 100 arrests, and it is being said that it went off peacefully, although accounts on that do vary. (Keeping the press out while the action is being taken is a particular tell.) The action followed several days of similar operations in Oakland, and Denver, and St. Louis, and a particularly nasty bit of business in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where authorities appeared to require a tactical unit with automatic weapons to protect an abandoned building. All of them took the place by surprise, and in the middle of the night. These are basic military tactics."
READ MORE

Journalists Detained in Occupy Wall Street Raid
Meghan Barr and Colleen Long, Associated Press
Barr and Long report: "Reporter Karen Matthews and photographer Seth Wenig of The Associated Press in New York were taken into custody along with about eight other people after they followed protesters through an opening in a chain-link fence into a park, according to an AP reporter and other witnesses. Matthew Lysiak of the Daily News of New York was also arrested at the park, according to witnesses and the Daily News. Julie Walker, a freelance radio journalist, told the AP she was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge while walking several blocks north of Zuccotti Park after covering the raid that evicted protesters from the two-month encampment. She said an officer grabbed her arm twice and arrested her after she asked for the officer's name and badge number. 'I told them I'm a reporter,' said Walker, who was working for National Public Radio. 'I had my recorder on before he ripped it out of my hand.' Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the NYPD's policy of keeping the media back, saying it was intended to keep them out of harm's way."
READ MORE

Why I quit the mainstream media

Topic
(YFP Salute Natasha Lennard. Reporters call themselves objectiive my answer to the is "To be objective you must be a vegetable."

Occupy Wall Street

Tuesday, Nov 15, 2011 7:45 AM EST

Journalism must break the chains of objectivity and report truth -- and the Occupy movement led me to do just that

By Natasha Lennard

Protesters sit with arms linked on New York's Brooklyn Bridge before police began making arrests on Oct. 1 and author Natasha Lennard.

Topics:Occupy Wall Street, Media Criticism

I was in complete agreement when, last month, the triumvirate of right-wing firebrands Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Andrew Breitbart all condemned me for being more than just a journalist. They are correct, and I agree with every pundit who argues that I have no place in the mainstream media.

On Oct. 14, I appeared on a panel at the radical, feminist Blue Stockings bookstore in New York’s Lower East Side. Hosted by Jacobin Magazine, the discussion addressed left-wing politics and strategy. During the event, I criticized old-left styles of organizing and praised — with some ardor — the experimental nature of Occupy Wall Street. I also dropped “F-bombs” in abundance.

Stumbling out of the bookstore onto Allen Street after the debate, I hugged an old friend, who has been heavily committed to Occupy activities in New York. “I think I just watched you lose your job,” he said.

“I know,” I replied, with a smile.

The job he was referring to was a sporadic freelance gig with the New York Times. I had contributed in previous weeks to its Occupy Wall Street coverage and, notably, I had been arrested while reporting on the Brooklyn Bridge.

A video of my appearance on the panel was picked up by a reporter at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government, and the fallout led to the Times publicly stating that they had “no plans” to use me for future OWS coverage. (Although I had already pulled away from reporting for the Times on the issue, having decided only days before the debate that I would rather take an opinionated stance.)

As the Times publicly noted, they found no problem with any of the reporting I had done for them on OWS. Indeed, a court hearing upheld that I had been on the Brooklyn Bridge as a professional journalist and as such, deserved to have the disorderly conduct charge against me dismissed. The only reason I was on the Brooklyn Bridge that day was as a reporter, gathering and relaying information on what I saw, and nothing else. However, as has become clear, if I — or any other journalist — want to express a strong opinion on a political matter, I cannot contemporaneously report for a mainstream publication.

In my view, it now makes little sense to be objective about Occupy Wall Street and its various, amorphous iterations across the country. As Matt Taibbi wrote recently in Rolling Stone about learning to love OWS: “People don’t know exactly what they want, but as one friend of mine put it, they know one thing: FUCK THIS SHIT! We want something different: a different life, with different values, or at least a chance at different values.”

If the diffuse and experimental disruptions, discussions, assemblies, occupations, strikes, marches, chants and more that constitute OWS are primarily coherent only in so far as they agree that the current status quo, rife with inequity and cruelty, is wrong — I cannot but consider myself in agreement. As such, it would be disingenuous to play the “objective reporter.”

I am incredibly lucky to have interned and worked for institutions like the New York Times and Politico; the training, exposure and practice that these publications offer are in many ways unparalleled. But it is also with some pride that I have stopped writing for publications that aim for journalistic objectivity.

There is a loose analogy here with how Occupy Wall Street’s structure stands at odds with mainstream, electoral politics. Many of those involved in Occupy Wall Street have, with excellent cause, expressed dissatisfaction with representative politics in this country. In response, occupiers have sought new political spaces and interactions; they have taken politics into their own hands.

Similarly, if the mainstream media prides itself on reporting the facts, I have found too many problems with what does or does not get to be a fact — or what rises to the level of a fact they believe to be worth reporting — to be part of such a machine. Going forward, I want to take responsibility for my voice and the facts that I choose and relay. I want them to instigate change.

Breitbart, Beck and friends are correct in saying I’m more than just a journalist. They are wrong in saying I’m an activist – that means something specific, in my mind. But if by “more” they mean I am a journalist in agreement with those across the country who think “Fuck this shit” when it comes to a system upholding inequality and alienation for all but a few, then they are right. This — and my proclivity for dropping “F-bombs,” once again — is the reason the mainstream media and I have parted ways.

Close

Raw Video: Occupy Protesters Make Their Case

Alan Levine, a lawyer for the occupy Wall Street demonstrators, has told a state court judge that the protesters have a free speech right to remain in the square. (Nov. 15)

OWS: Bloomberg's Waterloo?

Why didn't the NYC government negotiate with the OWS activists toward a non-violent resolution of what it claims were problems with the encampment? Have we come to a state of affairs where the powers that be only rely on force and power? Are they conceding that they have no rational ground for their power except 'might makes right'?

OWS at Zuccotti Park on November 14. As shown in this video the park is kept clean, there is a library, as well as their press and social media. On Monday evening Mayor Bloomberg and his Police Department destroyed their library and their information center at Zuccotti Park, without warning to the occupiers. As of 4:49 pm today a judge order that the protesters can return to the park without overnight gear.

Watch the following video (2) Nov-15-11


video (1) by Rafael Martínez Alequín (Nov. 14-11)

This video was taken on November 15, after the New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, unleashed his police force against OWS protesters. Today, inside Zuccotti Park are the NYPD as an occupy force . The protesters were evicted in violation of their constitutional rights.

video (2) by Rafael Martínez Alequín

Timothy Karr: Mayor Bloomberg's First Amendment Problem
In the two months since the Occupy movement began 25 journalists have been arrested covering events across the country. More than half of these arrests have occurred in New York City, including 13 journalist arrests in the last week.

Media Blackout on Mayor Bloomberg's Raid on Zuccotti Park

Mayor Michael Bloomberg suspends the First Amendment.

(photo: Andrew Burton/Reuters)

By Barbara Morrill, Daily Kos

15 November 11

hen New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to stage a middle of the night raid on the Occupy Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park, there was one thing he didn't want ... media coverage. So Bloomberg said screw the First Amendment:

New York Observer Politics Reporter Hunter Walker:

I was blocked from viewing nypd raid at #occupywallstreet along with reporters from cnbc, nbc, cbs, wsj and reuters #mediablackout

New York Times Reporter Brian Stelter:

I'm w/ a NY Post reporter who says he was roughed up by riot police as Zuccotti was cleared. He thinks violence was "completely deliberate."

Mother Jones reporter Josh Harkinson:

Cops just violently shoved me away as I tried to shoot this man in a stretcher being loaded into ambulance http://twitpic.com/7efa2v

And from the gothamist:

During our coverage of the eviction of the Occupy Wall Street protesters early this morning, a NPR reporter, a New York Times reporter, and a city councilmember were arrested. Airspace in Lower Manhattan was closed to CBS and NBC news choppers by the NYPD, a New York Post reporter was allegedly put in a "choke hold" by the police, a NBC reporter's press pass was confiscated and a large group of reporters and protesters were hit with pepper spray. According to the eviction notice, the park was merely "cleaned and restored for its intended use." If this is the case, why were so few people permitted to view it?

So what was the rationale behind Bloomberg's crackdown on a free media? It was to "protect" them ... apparently from freely exercising their First Amendment rights.

But why worry about the Constitution when you're busy ignoring a court order?

At 6:30AM this morning, following a midnight police raid evicting protesters from Zuccotti Park, Justice Lucy Billings issued an order requiring the protesters to be readmitted to Zuccotti Park with their tents. ThinkProgress just spoke to one of the plantiff's attorney's, Gideon Orion Oliver, who confirmed that the order was served on Mayor Bloomberg and the other defendants via fax at 7:50AM. During his 8AM press conference, Mayor Bloomberg seemed to acknowledge he was familar with the temporary restraining order, but claimed that he had not been served and was keeping the park closed. As of this writing, Zuccotti Park remains closed to protesters in direct contradiction of Justice Billing's order.

God bless Michael Bloomberg's version of America.

Court Order Allows Occupy Wall Street Protesters Back

Occupy Wall Street protesters regroup in Foley Square after New York City police in riot gear removed them from Zuccotti Park early in the morning on November 15, 2011. (photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

By Colleen Long, Verena Dobnik, Associated Press

15 November 11

A New York judge issued a temporary restraining order allowing protesters to return to Zuccotti Park only hours after police forcibly removed them.To read the document click here. -- CW/RSN

undreds of police officers in riot gear raided Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, evicting dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters from what has become the epicenter of the worldwide movement protesting corporate greed and economic inequality.

Hours later, the National Lawyers Guild obtained a court order allowing Occupy Wall Street protesters to return with tents to the park. The guild said the injunction prevents the city from enforcing park rules on Occupy Wall Street protesters.

At a morning news conference at City Hall, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city knew about the court order but had not seen it and would go to court to fight it. He said the city wants to protect people's rights, but if a choice must be made, it will protect public safety.

About 70 people were arrested overnight, including some who chained themselves together, while officers cleared the park so that sanitation crews could clean it.

By 9 a.m., the park was power-washed clean. Police in riot gear still ringed the public space, waiting for orders to reopen it.

The city told protesters at the two-month-old encampment they could come back after the cleaning, but under new tougher rules, including no tents, sleeping bags or tarps, which would effectively put an end to the encampment if enforced.

Bloomberg said the evacuation was conducted in the middle of the night "to reduce the risk of confrontation in the park, and to minimize disruption to the surrounding neighborhood."

"The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day," Bloomberg said. "Ever since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with, as the park has been taken over by protesters, making it unavailable to anyone else."

Concerns about health and safety issues at Occupy Wall Street camps around the country have intensified, and protesters have been ordered to take down their shelters, adhere to curfews and relocate so that parks can be cleaned.

Hundreds of former Zuccotti Park residents and their supporters marched along Lower Manhattan before dawn Tuesday.

Some paused and locked arms outside the City Hall gates but left peacefully when police in riot gear appeared on the scene. About 300 to 400 kept moving along the sidewalks, taking care not to block them.

Bloomberg: Park Occupiers Must Follow Rules

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city plans on letting protesters back into Zuccotti Park but insists they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments. (Nov. 15)

Zuccotti Park Evacuated; More Than 70 Arrested

November 15, 2011 8:28 AM

BY Celeste Katz

Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters moved to Foley Square in downtown Manhattan this morning after helmeted, baton-wielding police evicted them from Zuccotti Park overnight.

Bloomberg: The park will remain closed until the city can "clarify the situation." "We welcome them back in."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com#ixzz1dmaA3ba1

Our Daily News team reports:

During a three-hour General Assembly meeting, the demonstrators plotted their possible next moves — including marches on Canal St. or on Wall St.

They also discussed marching to NYPD headquarters or occupying Manhattan Criminal Court in solidarity with the 70 to 100 protesters who were arrested during the raid.

Cleaning crews descended on Zuccotti Park and scrubbed every flat surface while scores of cops kept everyone out with metal barricades.

As of 7 a.m., there were no protesters in the park — just employees of Brookfield Properties, which owns the property and asked for the cleanout.

“That was my home,” said Shane Stoops, 23, a protester from Seattle who said he had been at Zuccotti since the dawn of the protest Sept. 17.

“You see all those garbage trucks? That’s where I live now. They took my life...all my clothes, my four-man tent and mattress, all of my books and three years of drawings.”

FOLLOW OUR LIVE COVERAGE RIGHT NOW

Mayor Bloomberg said that once the cleaning is finished, the anti-greed movement can return to Zuccotti, but protesters will not be allowed to rebuild their tent city.

“Unfortunately, the park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others,” the mayor said in a statement about five hours after the raid.

“Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags. Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments.”

The eviction began around 1 a.m. when a horde of cops surrounded the park and used a bullhorn to notify protesters that sanitation trucks would be clearing out the site.

“If you fail to immediately leave the park, you will be subject to arrest," they said.

The protesters were defiant at first, chanting: "Whose park? Our park! No retreat. No surrender!"

"When the cops closed in, people tried to hold on to one another. Cops pulled people out, but we went back in," said Jose Mediaville, 29, a former Marine from Brooklyn. "A white shirt got frustrated. He yelled, 'Come on, let's do this.'

"I tried to avoid them, but they got me. They smashed people in the hands and broke the human chain. They lifted me up and threw me out like a rag doll," he said.

"If they think this is the end of it, they're crazy," Steve Iskovitz, 51, a mental health counselor from Pittsburgh, said. "People will strike back."

Police began tearing up the tents wholesale by about 1:45 a.m. after throwing reporters out of the park and corralling the protesters in the center.

"The police have us surrounded," Tyrone Greenfield, 23, of Brooklyn, said as sanitation workers tossed tents into dumpsters.

One young man wearing a gas mask tore up the notice after a cop handed it to him.

"Everybody stay calm, the police want you to become violent," protesters shouted. "Do not become violent. Pass the message."

One protester, 32, who gave his name as Daryl W, called his mother. "We're about to be raided I just thought I'd let you know I love you bye," he said.

"They don't even obey their own rules," Frank Olivo, Bronx, 21, said. "What they're doing is against the law."

Some protesters sang the Beatles song "Revolution." Helicopters flew noisily overhead.

"I have not broken the law tonight," yelled protester Eamon O'Rourke as cops stuffed him into a squad car.

Occupy Wall Street sent out a message on Twitter that said cops were using pepper spray.

City Council member Ydanis Rodriguez was arrested, and a tweet alleged he was beaten and bleeding.

"They took oaths to protect and serve," Jason Lee, 36 of Brooklyn, said. "They broke that oath tonight. They destroyed what we built. That's tyranny by any definition."

Paul Kostora, head of the medical tent, said he was working with a patient when police pulled him away.

"They pulled me out stethoscope, white coat and all as I was telling them I have a patient in there," he said. "One girl has a heart condition and wasn't feeling well. They manhandled her and threw her on the ground."

By 3:30 a.m., cops had cleared the kitchen area of the park, where protesters had formed a human chain, cuffed those arrested with plastic ties and loaded them in vans.

The showdown came after protesters had vowed to "shut down Wall St." on Thursday to mark two months of occupation. "It's still on. It'll be bigger than ever. People are mobilizing now. They're wounded now and preparing for comeback," said Matt Baldwin.

Blogger Banned Again: Mayor Bloomberg Puts End To Questions from Gadfly

November 14, 2011 5:32 PM

BY Erin Einhorn

City Hall reporters were stunned last year when Mayor Bloomberg suddenly lifted his personal ban on taking questions from gadfly blogger Rafael Martinez Alequin and called on him in a Blue Room press conference.

Since then, the mayor has taken other questions from Rafi, though usually with a look of hesitation on his face since Rafi’s questions can sometimes be on the aggressive side – and sometimes seem a bit out of left field.

That ended Monday, however, when Bloomberg signaled that Rafi had gone too far by comparing Herman Cain’s recent problems with sexual harassment to the Mayor’s history with such complaints.

Bloomberg refused to answer – and vowed to never call on Rafi again.

Here the exchange:

Bloomberg, calling on Rafi: Why am I doing this? I have no idea. It’s sunny out and what the heck.

Rafi: “You’re a wonderful guy, um”

Bloomberg: Thank you. I think that’s the end to that. We’ll go on to next…

Rafi: You’ve been following the Republican debate. What do you have in common with Herman Cain?

Bloomberg: Uh, I don’t know. I haven’t watched any of the debates. I’ve just, I don’t have time at home to do that. My understanding is that he makes thick crust pizza and I like thin crust pizza so we don’t have that in common. After that, I just don’t know what his views are.

Rafi: What about sexual harassment? You both have something in common.

Bloomberg: I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think that’s true and I think that’s the last time.

Share

'SNL' Mocks Rick Perry's GOP

Occupy Wall Street crowd blankets Zuccotti Park with kindness

Tears in the eyes of a protester after stranger brings him warmth

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Originally Published: Sunday, November 13 2011, 2:00 AM

Marcus Santos for New York Daily News

Marsha Spencer knits during Occupy Wall Street protest.

I am among the protesters at Zuccotti Park for the start of the weekend. There is an important reason for today and that is tomorrow and the days that will follow because they are steps towards real change in this city. This is the place where it all started and now this stirs from the city to the state and out to the country. And soon coming everywhere as sure as you breathe the air.

Across the country political protesters put out an energy not seen recently. In New York, by all measurements, their support is in numbers that will be suffocating for anybody standing against the movement.

Why? Because we have too many easy rich and too many stumbling poor. Clearly the evidence grows that the populace will not abide this much longer. This is the judgment found in many magazines and newspapers except one — one owned by foreigners from London and Australia, most of them flagrantly dumb as a (New York) post.

Right now as I walked through the crowd at Zuccotti Park, here was Chris Reider, who will be 50 next month. He is from Freeport, on Long Island. To get here was a bit of a tussle with transit seats. He is 6-feet-6 and weighs a smart 345. He is a security man for the park and does absolutely anything, from cleaning up with a big broom to brooming any unruly. We don't hurt nobody, he guaranteed yesterday.

Then there is Karin Hofmann in a chair against the fence at the edge of Zuccotti Park on the side that runs along Liberty St. She is knitting with a big needle. She works on scarves for the protesters, or anything for the upcoming cold, and does it from earliest morning until the dark shuts out her ability to keep going.

Sometimes, she says, “the police put the car lights on us and the glare is too much for me to see. I stop and go home.”

The glare comes from police vehicles parked in a row on the other side of Liberty St., their noses facing the park. By count in the afternoon there are 14 patrol cars, 11 trucks of various sizes and one motorcycle. There is no need for that intimidating fleet, nor has there been any need for approximately forever.

This overreaction of the police reflects the most foolish fears of the irreverent young that rise from the old with stiff limbs and brains creaking and minds misremembering.

In a chair by the fence, knitting away, was a young woman whose name we leave out because of our kindness. What's your name, ma’am? She answers, “Florida.” I ask, where are you from? She answers, “One roommate.” The interviewer moves on to a lively woman one chair over.

While knitting, Karin Hofmann testified to a happening on a patch of the park just behind her chair:

“It was about 10 last night and, as I said, it was too dark to knit so I left. While I was gone, one tall guy who was outside the park somewhere and got arrested for being alive came back here but had no place to sleep. He turned around looking and saw nothing. He was so exhausted that he drops to the ground and goes asleep. He had nothing on for the cold.

“When he woke up, about 7 or so, he had a good thick cover over him. He was standing there with a blanket wrapped around him. Don't know who left the blanket. Somebody at night had seen him and got a blanket and came back and covered him. The one who did that left no name. He just brought a blanket and went back into the night.

“He still had tears in his eyes when I saw him. He told me about it. He is a tall, grateful guy. Somebody who caused all the great thankful emotion just brought a blanket and did not wake the poor sleeping guy. The guy who put it over him let the blanket speak for the act.’’

What was his name? I asked the knitter, Karin.

“I don't know the man who was covered. I don't know who left the blanket.”

Isn't that nice? Wonderful. Things like this happen around here.

jbreslin@nydailynews.com

Topless Protesters at Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Portland showdown: Protesters flood city park in fight with police over eviction

Protesters faced midnight deadline to abandon encampment at two city parks or face possible arrest

BY The Associated Press

Originally Published: Sunday, November 13 2011, 9:01 AM
Updated: Sunday, November 13 2011, 11:20 AM

Natalie Behring/Getty Images

A man waves an American flag at a rally at the Occupy Portland camp.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Anti-Wall Street protesters and their supporters flooded a city park area in Portland early Sunday in defiance of an eviction order, and authorities elsewhere stepped up pressure against the demonstrators, arresting nearly two dozen.

Crowds converged on two adjacent downtown Portland parks where protesters are camped after city officials set a midnight Saturday deadline to disperse. Hours later, protesters remained though by dawn Sunday the crowd had thinned and obeyed police orders to clear the street and take down a makeshift barricades.

At one point overnight, the crowd swelled to thousands.

Organizers said they hoped enough people will join them to make it difficult if not impossible for police to carry through on any eviction.

"Occupy the street," one organizer said through a bull horn. "Remain peaceful and aware. We have strength in holding the streets."

Demonstrators had used pallets and old furniture, wood debris and even a bicycle to set up makeshift barricades on either end of a street that runs through the encampment, apparently in an attempt to block traffic. The barricades later were taken down by protesters.

Mayor Sam Adams had ordered the camp shut down, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment's attraction of drug users and thieves.

On Sunday at an impromptu news conference, he defended his order, saying it is his job to enforce the law and keep the peace. "This is not a game," he said.

He also noted that implementing the eviction order may require more patience.

Police wear helmets as they observe a rally at the Occupy Portland camp.(Natalie Behring/Getty Images)

"Giving the order that the parks will be closed to the public is putting my foot down. Enforcing will take time," he said.

Police numbers shifted throughout the night, but they showed no signs of moving against the protesters.

Around 4 a.m., a line of about 200 police stretched across a street and in front of a federal courthouse. Protesters facing them appeared to be in a festive spirits with some banging on plastic pails, another clanging a cowbell while others danced in the streets as a man juggled nearby.

Officials said that one officer suffered minor injuries when he was hit by some kind of projectile in the leg.

Police had prepared for a possible clash, warning that dozens of anarchists may be planning a confrontation with authorities. Officers seized pieces of cement blocks Friday, saying they were told some demonstrators had plans to use them as weapons against police. They said they believe some demonstrators are building shields and trying to collect gas masks.

"We'll take action that's appropriate, when it's appropriate," police spokesman Lt. Robert King told The Associated Press.

"We are not going to engage in confrontation for a misdemeanor," he said, noting that is the legal violation for remaining in the park after midnight.

It appeared earlier that about 200 campers planned to get arrested. But police action seemed less likely after the crowds swelled the parks in the early morning.

In the hours leading up to midnight, protesters held general assembly meetings where they talked about what to do when the deadline came. The also repeated the main message of Occupy Wall Street movement of peaceful resistance to income inequality and what they see as corporate greed.

As those speeches were going on, some snacked on coffee and burritos as others sang protest song. About 60 bicycle riders circled the camp repeatedly to show support.

"We are a peaceful resistance," said rider Chico Tallman, a 63-year-old accountant. "But we're fed up with the direction the country is going. It's all about profit."

On Saturday, Occupy Portland protesters dismantled large sections of their encampment, but dozens of tents remained after midnight.

For the second time in as many days, Oakland city officials warned protesters Saturday that they do not have the right to camp in the plaza in front of City Hall and face immediate arrest.

The eviction notices come as officials across the country urged an end to similar gatherings in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire.

Demands for Oakland protesters to pack up increased after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the encampment site.

"Your activities are injurious to health, obstruct the free use of property, interfering with the comfortable enjoyment of (Frank Ogawa Plaza), and unlawfully obstruct the free passage or use of a public park or square," the notice read.

Oakland officials first issued the eviction notice Friday after first pleading with protesters to leave the encampment.

Police officials have said a preliminary investigation suggested the shooting resulted from a fight between two groups of men at or near the encampment. Investigators do not know if the men in the fight were associated with Occupy Oakland, but protesters said there was no connection between the shooting and the camp.

The shooting occurred the same day a 35-year-old military veteran apparently committed suicide in a tent at a Burlington, Vt., Occupy encampment. Police said a preliminary investigation showed the veteran fatally shot himself in the head. They said the death raised questions about whether the protest would be allowed to continue.

In Salt Lake City, police arrested 19 people Saturday when protesters refused to leave a park a day after a man was found dead inside his tent at the encampment.

The arrests came after police moved into the park early in the evening where protesters had been ordered to leave by the end of the day. About 150 people had been living in the camp there for weeks.

Authorities in Denver forced protesters to leave a downtown encampment and arrested four people for interfering with officers who removed illegally pitched tents, said police spokesman Sonny Jackson.

Jackson said police had advised protesters since Wednesday that their tents in Civic Center Park and on a nearby sidewalk were illegal.

Violence marked the protest in San Francisco Saturday where police said two demonstrators attacked two police officers in separate incidents during a march.

Police spokesman Carlos Manfredi said a protester slashed an officer's hand with a pen knife while another protester shoved an officer, causing facial cuts. He said neither officer was seriously hurt, and the assailants couldn't be located.

Meanwhile, in Southern California a small group of protesters braved soggy weather on Saturday to gather for the first time under the banner of Occupy Inland Empire. Members of Occupy movements in Fontana, Redlands, Riverside, and other nearby towns marched past banks and in front of San Bernardino City Hall in what they called a "visibility action," The Sun newspaper reported.

It’s hard to see the ‘animals’ of Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park from the luxury of a warm office

Protesters are not the uncooth pack that some would like you to believe they are.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Saturday, November 5 2011, 7:37 PM

John Minchillo/AP

An Occupy Wall Street protester braves the cold in Zuccotti Park on Saturday. Protest organizers are preparing the camp for the impending bitter New York winter by erecting military-grade tents and renting portable toilets.

I am starting the day reading the paper while I'm walking to the subway to go downtown to cheer a new gathering of the Wall Street protesters. The entire city is just starting to be convinced that these crowds are going to change things and forever. Just follow the numbers and energy of the people.

Still, the people you thought would be first to tell the country all about this are news people. But they have stayed seated in the office. These desks in a warm office save some newsmen from going out to the site where they would have to get cold and push through the crowds of protesters. That is work — and they are not so busy at that.

Instead, they’re telling another kind of story.

The New York Post had a front-page headline on Thursday for the city:

“Enough! Post Editorial. Mr. Mayor, it is time to reclaim Zuccotti Park — and New York City’s dignity.”

The paper’s ownership comes out of Australia and LondonEngland. The owner is Rupert Murdoch, who is friendly with New York politicians who fall down when they get a glimpse of his money.

On Friday, the New York Post runs a front page that screams:

“Occupy Wall Street animals go wild. ...”

I am standing in the middle of Eighth Ave. and after reading the start of this paper I became busy reading other parts while standing there. A bus had to stop dead or leave me in the same condition.

Underneath the headline, a big photo of a bald man in blue throwing a left hand at some much younger guy in the park. Inside the paper, there were two pages showing a fight between two senseless and homeless men. Following were two more pages of people being called morons and animals.

But actually walking around Zuccotti Park, you find the scene pleasant and moderate. The large crowds coming here now are filled with children walking in front of their parents. At the park, Bill Dobbs was found with his transportation, a big black bike. He was with Nikita, who is 44 and looks a lot younger. She was sitting on a desk under a tent as you walk onto the grounds. She works full-time in physical training in the Bronx. Any time she has left, you can find her here at the information desk. Like just about everybody else around the park, she draws no pay for this.

There was a reason to see her and watch her life amid the crowds in this park. There was a delightful energy that ran through it all, and that was important to witness.

There is no question that some of the young women say they have suffered sexual attacks. Walk through the great happy crowd and you find it not perfect toward young women, maybe, but nowhere near the newspaper screams of great molestation unfolding. You probably have more of that happening on Park Slope in Brooklyn.

The mayor we have, Bloomberg, must have said a thousand times that he wants the park turned empty and for a lot of good reasons. The ones using the park are not perfectly good like he is. He is different. He is good. And the mayor has long ago stopped searching his life for perfection because it simply bursts from his head and his body.

On Friday, Zuccotti Park was crowded all day and into night with the young and old, including several hundred who remain in the park at night and stay in low tents of nylon set down in rows. They sleep wrapped in thermal covers.

They were helped to stay warm yesterday by Brian, who is from New Jersey. He sits on a bike on a raised platform like this bike I’m on, a stationary, doing what I am doing now — pedaling without taking a break — and why? The bike creates power to replace the generators they no longer have since the cops came in at night and took them all away because the head cops and fire chiefs and the like announced that the place was a fire danger.

Walk through the park and you come upon what has become a fixture.

Sitting in chairs with their laps filled with wool were two women who had been in this park from the start, 37 days as of yesterday. Here is Marsha Spencer who lives in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan. She sits with hardly a word out of her as these big needles in her hands work on thick wool face masks, knitting colorful lines of red and blue into a white background.

Sitting a couple of feet away with the same concentration was Karin, and her last name is hers and not yours. She is from the East Village and knits here every day.

We stop when the sky becomes too dark for us to work our needles, Karin said.

This is molestation? Lawlessness? These are animals? Morons?

That’s another kind of story, all right.

Is Occupy Wall Street too white?

Not really. It represents black and Latino interests better than the Obama administration

By Arun Gupta

Occupy Wall Street protesters during a rally in Chicago (Credit: AP/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Topics:Occupy Wall Street, Race

There is some truth to the contention that the nationwide Occupy Wall Street is largely a white-led movement, as indicated in a recent Maynard Institute article by Nadra Kareem Nittle. But claiming there are “few people of color among the participants,” as Nittle does, is simply not true.

I say that as someone who was present when the Occupy Wall Street began in New York on Sept. 17 and who has visited 15 occupation sites around the country. I was at Zuccotti Park almost every day for the first three weeks of the occupation and I saw it transition from a movement almost exclusively of white youth to a broad left movement to a multiracial movement and finally to something that represents the composition of this country more accurately than almost any other social phenomenon we can imagine.

Nittle mentions a Fordham University survey that found that by mid-October participants in Zuccotti Park were 68 percent white and 27 percent black, Latino and Asian. While white participation is significantly above the percentage of whites in New York City, this number is actually very close to the national picture of a population that is 72 percent white, according to the 2010 census data. And while Occupy Wall Street is in New York, it’s very much a national and international movement. In my three weeks there I talked to people from at least 10 other states around the country who had come to New York solely to participate in Occupy Wall Street. (As for the other survey Nittle cites on occupywallst.org that calculated the racial composition of visitors to the website at 81.2 percent white, it’s almost useless as a scientific measure because it appears to have been a self-selecting survey.)

In the last month, I have traveled to 14 other occupations around the Eastern half of the United States, including Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Charleston, W.Va., Lexington, Ky., and Nashville. And the only thing I can conclude is not to make any sweeping generalizations of the Occupy Wall Street movement, such as Nittle’s claim that people of color are few among the participants.

For one, even a rudimentary examination of Occupy Wall Street in New York City would reveal that numerous unions with significant black and Latino rank and file or leadership are heavily involved in the movement. This includes TWU Local 100, SEIU Local 1199, National Nurses United, the United Federation of Teachers and many more. Second, a slew of people of color community groups are heavily involved in the movement, and there are also Occupy movements led by people of color in New York City like Occupy the Bronx and Occupy Harlem. There is a people of color committee at OccupyDC in Washington.

On Oct. 5, the day of the big labor and student walkout, protest and rally that drew well over 30,000 people, large numbers of African-American and Latino New Yorkers joined in. Nittle does interview one scholar who notes that participation “is a function of resources, whether that’s voting or having the time to go to a march. It’s hard to go out and occupy if you’re working a job at KFC and baby-sitting your sister’s kids.”

That was true of the crowd on Oct. 5. I interviewed five black and Latino demonstrators that day alone. For four of them, it was obvious why they could not be camping out at Zuccotti: They had jobs or school and children to attend to, but they made the time to be there that afternoon and saw the movement as their movement because it spoke directly to their political concerns and realities.

Outside of New York City, in small-city occupations like Allentown, Pa., Youngstown, Ohio, and Lexington, Ky., there are real problems of racial composition that are not being addressed. But these are also small movements with extremely limited resources.

In contrast, in Philadelphia, a huge percentage of occupiers were African-American, perhaps 50 percent, though it is constantly shifting. Detroit was more complicated because that city’s black community has been so devastated. The composition of occupiers appeared to be about half African-American as well, but far fewer were participating in the General Assembly on the day I visited. It seemed many African-Americans at the occupation were homeless or impoverished and did not have the cultural capital to fully participate in the movement, but of the 10 African-Americans I talked to, all said they supported “the cause” or were part of the Occupy movement there. And Occupy Detroit organizers are fully aware of this divide and trying to address it.

Occupy Pittsburgh was at least 20 percent African-American, all of whom were very active in the work and activities there. Baltimore was heavily African-American when I visited about four weeks ago, and D.C. also had a large African-American contingent. Chicago was much harder to classify, even though I spent four days there, because they did not have a designated space, so it was much more fluid.

Nonetheless, it does appear there is not significant participation from various Latino communities outside of New York City. Part of that may be linguistic and cultural barriers the individual Occupy movements have not adequately addressed, and part of that is probably due to the fact that many Latinos feel under attack because of their actual or perceived immigration status and keep a low public profile.

Nittle’s beef is ultimately with the media for not covering this aspect of the movement, and she is right about that. But beating up on the mainstream media is like playing basketball against a two-legged frog: You’ll win every time. At the same time, be careful what you wish for. If we do probe deeper we will discover some unpleasant realities.

In New York City, I asked interviewees from low-income, people-of-color communities if there is much involvement from their neighborhoods. Two people from the Bronx, one from Brooklyn and one from upper Manhattan said there was little participation because – and this was in their words – people in their communities were largely “ignorant and uneducated.” One blamed it on the media for presenting the protesters as a bunch of “smelly, noisy hippies.” Then again, this is more than a month ago and many people-of-color groups are active from these same neighborhoods, so one cannot make a sweeping conclusion about one neighborhood like the South Bronx or Harlem.

Still, one can say this is a movement largely led by white youth, which is obvious if you spend a few hours at almost any occupation. But largely does not mean completely, and it does not mean there are not all sorts of age, gender and racial variations according to the day of the week, the region and the particular politics and organizing strategies of each occupation.

This is about politics, not race

One last caveat: Do not judge a movement by its numbers. It’s still about the politics. The base of the Democratic Party is around 40 percent people of color, perhaps even more. Nonetheless, the Obama administration’s policies have devastated people of color, and the Democratic Party has been hostile to the plight of the poor for 20 years, who are disproportionately black and Latino.

This is the party that ended welfare, oversaw a huge increase in policing and prisons during the 1990s, has comforted Wall Street as the subprime crisis has decimated people-of-color communities, has failed to address the jobs, healthcare, student debt or immigration crisis in any way that helps the poor or low-income communities. This is a party that is waging six separate wars, defends a trillion-dollar annual military budget and still wants to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

So just because there is a large people-of-color composition in an organization does not translate into politics that address those communities’ needs. If we take a look at the politics of Occupy Wall Street, it is the only meaningful force in America that is directly addressing the crises in the black and Latino communities and offering viable solutions. And that’s what ultimately matters.

Browse Movies Upload Venezuela Vows All-Out Hunt for Nationals' Ramos

The government sent top investigators Thursday to hunt for Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, whose abduction has shaken Venezuela's elite athletes and focused attention on the nation's sharp rise in kidnappings for ransom. (Nov. 10)

The New York Times

Ben Weiser reports: “William F. Boyland Jr., a Democratic assemblyman from one of Brooklyn’s most prominent political families, was acquitted on Thursday of conspiring to take $175,000 in bribes in return for using his influence on behalf of a health care organization that runs hospitals in Queens and Brooklyn.”

Colin Moynihan writes: “An associate of a Bronx city councilman testified on Thursday that the councilman, Larry B. Seabrook, regularly asked a political organization that he was affiliated with to reimburse him for a variety of expenses.”

David Chen notes: “Facing mounting criticism from the City Council and a lawsuit from advocates for the homeless, the Bloomberg administration on Thursday postponed until next month the imposition of tighter rules for homeless people seeking shelter.”

Fertility Center Asks Couple If They Want Some Cheap Eggs From A Real Fucked Up Chick

News in Brief

November 11, 2011 | ISSUE 47•45

CINCINNATI—Saying they could save a few bucks, a fertility counselor asked Anita and Joe Jansen Monday if they wished to consider far more affordable donor eggs from a totally fucked-up chick. "Seriously, you can get these things for 40, 50 percent less if you’re okay with a donor who's absolutely batshit insane," said Dr. Susan Rowling, pointing her index finger at the side of her head and twirling it in a circle. "I'm not sure how someone this plainly bonkers slipped through our screening process, but our mistake can save you a bundle." Rowling added that the donor was totally schizo and definitely a cutter but that there was no guarantee those traits would be passed onto the child.

Finally, a Judge Stands Up to Wall Street

Matt Taibbi talks about US politics. (photo: Robin Holland)

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

10 November 11

ederal judge Jed Rakoff, a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office here in New York, is fast becoming a sort of legal hero of our time. He showed that again yesterday when he shat all over the SEC's latest dirty settlement with serial fraud offender Citigroup, refusing to let the captured regulatory agency sweep yet another case of high-level criminal malfeasance under the rug.

The SEC had brought an action against Citigroup for misleading investors about the way a certain package of mortgage-backed assets had been chosen. The case is very similar to the notorious Abacus case involving Goldman Sachs, in which Goldman allowed short-selling billionaire John Paulson (who was betting against the package) to pick the assets, then told a pair of European banks that the "designed to fail" package they were buying had been put together independently.

This case was similar, but worse. Here, Citi similarly told investors a package of mortgages had been chosen independently, when in fact Citi itself had chosen the stuff and was betting against the whole pile.

This whole transaction actually combined a number of Goldman-style misdeeds, since the bank both lied to investors and also bet against its own product and its own customers. In the deal, Citi made a $160 million profit, while its customers lost $700 million.

Goldman, in the Abacus case, got fined $550 million. In this worse case, the SEC was trying to settle with Citi for just $285 million. Judge Rakoff balked at the settlement and particularly balked at the SEC's decision to allow Citi off without any admission of wrongdoing. He also mocked the SEC's decision to describe the crime as "negligence" instead of intentional fraud, taking the entirely rational position that there's no way a bank making $160 million ripping off its customers can conceivably be described as an accident.

"Why should the court impose a judgment in a case in which the SEC alleges a serious securities fraud but the defendant neither admits nor denies wrongdoing?" And this: "How can a securities fraud of this nature and magnitude be the result simply of negligence?"

Rakoff of course is right - the settlement is nuts. If you take Citi's $160 million profit on the deal into consideration, what we're talking about then is a $125 million fine for causing $700 million in damages. That, and no admission of wrongdoing.

Just imagine a mugger who steals $70 from some lady's wallet being sentenced to walk free after paying back twelve bucks. Magritte himself could not devise a more surreal take on criminal justice.

It gets worse. Over the last decade, Citi has repeatedly been caught committing a variety of offenses, and time after time the bank has been dragged into court and slapped with injunctions demanding that they refrain from ever engaging the same practices ever again. Over and over again, they've completely blown off the injunctions, with no consequences from the state - which does nothing except issue new (soon-to-be-ignored-again) injunctions.

In this current case, this particular unit at Citi had already been slapped with two different SEC cease-and-desist orders barring it from violating certain securities laws. Here's a summary from Bloomberg:

The commission already had two cease-and-desist orders in place against the same Citigroup unit, barring future violations of the same section of the securities laws that the company now stands accused of breaking again. One of those orders came in a 2005 settlement, the other in a 2006 case. The SEC's complaint last month didn't mention either order, as if the entire agency suffered from amnesia.

The SEC's latest allegations also could have triggered a violation of a court injunction that Citigroup agreed to in 2003, as part of a $400 million settlement over allegedly fraudulent analyst-research reports. Injunctions are more serious than SEC orders, because violations can lead to contempt-of-court charges.

But the SEC avoided the issue of the 2003 injunction by charging Citi with a different type of fraud. But, as Bloomberg points out, it probably wouldn't have mattered much if they had accused Citi of violating the 2003 injunction, since the bank had already done that once and not been punished for it:

In December 2008, the SEC for the second time accused Citigroup of breaking the same section of the law covered by the 2003 injunction, over its sales of so-called auction-rate securities. Instead of trying to enforce the existing court order, the SEC got yet another one barring the same kinds of fraud violations in the future.

So to recap: a unit of Citigroup, having repeatedly violated the same laws and having repeatedly violated the SEC's own cease-and-desist orders and injunctions, is dragged into court one more time for committing a massive fraud.

And what does the SEC do? It doesn't even bring up Citi's history of ignoring the SEC's own order, slaps the bank with a fractional fine, refuses to target any individuals, allows the bank to walk away without an admission of wrongdoing, and puts a cherry on the top by describing the $160 million heist not as a crime, but as unintentional negligence.

BRING OUT THE SOFT CUSHIONS! The SEC gets rough with Citigroup.

Imagine a car thief who, when caught driving a stolen Lexus, tells the police he simply stepped into the wrong car and drove off by mistake. Now imagine he tells the same story when, two years later, he's caught screaming over the GW bridge in a stolen Mercedes.

Then, two years after that, he's caught on the Cross-Bronx Expressway blasting the stereo in a boosted 7-series BMW. Cops ask him for an explanation. "I must have gotten in the wrong car by mistake," he says, shrugging. And the cops buy the story and send him home without a charge.

That's roughly what we're dealing with with this SEC action. To extend the metaphor just a little further - let's say that BMW wasn't even the only car he accidentally drove away that day, but the cops didn't bother with the others. In the latest Citi case, the $700 million fraud was just one of many dicey CDOs marketed by that unit of Citi. But the SEC chose to address just that one case in its settlement.

Rakoff quite correctly took issue with all of this. From Jonathan Weil's Bloomberg piece:

"What does the SEC do to maintain compliance?" Additionally, [Rakoff] asked: "How many contempt proceedings against large financial entities has the SEC brought in the past decade as a result of violations of prior consent judgments?" We'll see if the SEC finds any.

Rakoff gained some notoriety a few years ago when he rejected as inadequate an SEC settlement with Bank of America, which was accused of misleading shareholders about the size of the bonuses paid out by Merrill Lynch, the investment bank BofA was in the process of acquiring. Rakoff dismissed the original $33 million fine as "half-baked justice," although he eventually approved a $150 million fine.

The amazing thing about the wave of corruption that has overtaken the financial services industry is that most of it couldn't happen without virtually every player at every level signing off on these deals. From the ratings agencies to the law firms to the accounting firms to the regulators to the bank executives themselves, everybody had to be on board in order for a lot of these fraud schemes to work.

Judges are a part of that picture, and too often, members of the bench sign off on dirty deals made between banks and regulators when the law says that such settlements must be "fair, reasonable, adequate and in the public interest."

It's great that Rakoff is behaving as any decent human being would and rejecting these disgusting settlements. But equally disturbing is the fact that more judges haven't done the same thing. Are people with backbones really that rare?

The New York Times

Colin Moynihan reports: “A key prosecution witness in the corruption trial of City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook had been expected to testify that Mr. Seabrook had solicited kickbacks. But the witness appeared to surprise prosecutors on Wednesday when he said that Mr. Seabrook had not.”

Hernandez & Chen note: “John C. Liu, the New York City comptroller, is declining to reveal the identities of the people who raise money for his campaign, despite a pledge several weeks ago to do so after reports of irregularities in his fund-raising operation.”

David Halbfinger writes: “The Bloomberg administration spent millions of dollars to put custom-made GPS tracking units in fire and garbage trucks, only to have vehicles inexplicably show up on computer screens as if they had sunk to the bottom of Long Island Sound or New York Harbor, the city comptroller has found.”

Thomas Kaplan notes: “Facing an increasingly worrisome budget and eager for additional political allies, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday celebrated Democratic triumphs in several important local government races, calling the election results ‘a big victory for the people of the state.’ “

Fernanda Santos writes: “Merryl H. Tisch, chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, is not interested in running for mayor, despite the buzz that has circulated in recent weeks about her possible candidacy.”