I really would like to know what the NYPD is thinking. Last night at Zuccotti Park, in front of hundreds watching (with at least a thousand protesters present), NYPD TARU used an industrial concrete demolition saw to remove a young woman's bicycle from a lamp post.
Apparently the cyclist was ordered by police to remove her bicycle from it's hitch on the curb at Broadway (between Liberty and Cedar), and as an alternative to compliance, she elected to chain HERSELF to the bicycle. We should all be grateful that the same heavy-duty lock pick wasn't employed to free her, as well.
To be clear: Arrest is part of civil disobedience. Thoreau willingly spent his night in the clink, knowing that he would be jailed for refusal to pay the "poll tax" (which he opposed for its use to fund the US war with Mexico). When activists break the law as an act of protest, legal consequences should be expected. Walking with head held high to one's cell is an ethical assertion - as in: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." John Bunyan
The imagery and dialogue surrounding such is the powerful instrument of groups engaging direct action for social and political change, and the NYPD should damn well know this. Yet they continue to stage photo ops in confrontation with Occupy Wall Street participants that makes a feast for a vapid media and an American public increasingly wary of their State.
If this Occupy movement truly is a show-down with greed, then there will be a point police as well soldiers, even bureaucrats must make a choice about their loyalties and interests, and fight like hell to make things change or fight like hell to keep them. But unless the police are in fact pushing us toward a breaking-point by antagonizing peaceful protesters to elicit their own worst press, the NYPD would be well-advised to pick their battles with kids with iron-on "A" patches and girls in cute bright helmets parking their bicycles. Officers, you look like bullies, many of your comrades are ashamed, you all indeed should be. Yes, all.
If you are a police officer and hate what's happening, you either act to stop it, or you protect it.