Who Do the Police Serve?

Today, Occupy Wall Street protesters called for a National Day of Action and planned to shut down Wall Street.  I’ve watched some of the live streaming coming in from that this morning. The police were out in full force barricading access to the area. They are now limiting access to some streets and subways stations to only those with corporate ID’s who work there. Press or anyone else are not being let through.

Now, to me this seems like a clear violation civil liberties. One of the videos had an interview with a guy who was just trying to get to a subway station. He wasn’t down there for the protest, but the police refused to let him through the barricade.

There were no justification for the barricades and police action. The protests have remained peaceful. Being on hand in case something happens wouldn’t be uncalled for. Or preventing people from actually going inside the stock exchange.

But cutting off access to public streets, subways, parks and buildings? There’s no legal justification for that. When they cleared the protesters out of Zuccotti park, an injunction was filed by the state supreme court ordering the police to let the protesters back in until a hearing could be held. The hearing eventually sided with the mayor’s eviction order, but the police ignored the injunction in the interrum.

This is the kind of abuse of power that the whole Occupy movement is about. Instead of protecting the people’s right to peacefully assemble and protest, the police are being used to protect Wall Street remaining open and unbothered.