We spend half a million dollars so this cop can beat up women.
A lot of leftie writers gripe that the Occupy Wall Street movement of the mid-aughts accomplished nothing, because, I guess, sparkle fingers didn’t unleash a Leninist revolution in Obama’s America. I disagree—it changed the discourse on income inequality, paving the way for the campaign of Bernie Sanders and the rousing success of the Squad. That last part is debatable, given that Sanders didn’t come close to winning. But here’s what’s not. The Occupy protests created a space for people who’d never had unpleasant interactions with cops (white people who code as professional class), very unpleasant interactions with cops.
A friend of mine, a pretty, middle-aged white woman was just standing in the street when a smirking officer edged his police car toward her until it pushed against her legs. Another friend, a young, white college student, was kettled on the Brooklyn bridge in the pouring rain (famously the protestors sang Rihanna’s “Umbrella”). Some sergeant grabbed my arm and flung me aside like a rag doll. “Hey!” I thought.
A lot of the officers were just bored, milling around and staring at their phones, much as the subway cops do now. A handful would give a furtive sign of support like a head nod or thumbs up. But, there was a fairly large number who seemed to view the protests as an insult to their mothers. What kind of fascist OCD makes police so wedded to the status quo, despite the relatively low likelihood they’ll ever go on Jamie Dimon’s yacht?
Well, it’s obvious. Policing is one of the very few professions (firefighting is probably the only other one) that offer financial security, even financial bonanzas, and status, to people outside of the financial and/or cultural elite.
Enter Gerard V. Dowling. He really likes to beat up protestors, mostly women.
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