"Peaceful Authoritarianism"

Nevermind that this article is mostly about Occupy NOLA. It captures, quite well, the dismissive soft bully tactics we've come to recognize as this administration's M.O.

While no skulls were cracked or elderly women pepper-sprayed, there was no shortage of brazen behavior on the part of a mayor that has proven particularly smug in his treatment of Occupy. Meanwhile, the fact that he demanded congratulations for breaking camp “peacefully” demonstrates the increasingly authoritarian nature of the American political class.

I always said the saving grace of the Nagin years was that none of those people was as competent as they were evil which helped to mitigate the damage a bit. This group is a good deal more competent.

Many times

Good grief

Many people have joined Occupy NOLA only to leave with their hopes for the movement shattered. I myself became frustrated and left many times with no intention of returning.

What now?

Gambit's Charles Maldonado wraps up the Duncan Plaza Occupy protest that ended last night with two (sort of) arrests but no real incident to speak of.

The final eviction of Occupy New Orleans won’t gain the national notoriety of New York or Portland or other cities where police officers (with better reputations than the NOPD) seemed almost gleeful at getting their chance to crack hippie skull.

But that doesn’t mean that what happened in Duncan Plaza this past week or the two-month-long occupation preceding it, wasn’t important. It is, and not (or at least not only) because of the sort of abstract, dinner-conversationey First Amendment issues — whether the protesters had a right to camp there forever, whether that is or should be considered protected speech.

Occupy in general is a story about income inequality, corporate ethics and influence in government, all of those things to which it’s diligently managed to, finally, draw our attention. Occupy New Orleans and the people in it, however, touched on major problems (maybe all of them except, happily, the murder rate) specific to this city. It’s a City Hall story, meaning local government and what it can and should be doing, not the actual location of the encampment.

If it's true, as Maldonado claims, that Occupy NOLA truly called attention to New Orleans' most pressing problems of income inequality and influence in government (and I would dispute that it actually did this but that's for another time) the question then is, what next?

If the movement is more important than the actual encampment, then shouldn't that movement continue now that the camp has been broken up? Will it? Or was Occupy NOLA really just a loose combination of chronic attention-seeking "activists", itinerant rail kids, and mentally ill homeless who, thanks to a momentary fad born out of a completely different kind of event in New York City, were temporarily co-located?

The very fact that Occupy NOLA was as incident-free and peaceful as it was should tell you something about how little it managed to threaten the authority structure. Indeed it's only really being moved now because Mitch wants the area around City Hall and the Superdome looking extra vagrant-free during the upcoming Bowl games. Otherwise, the camp could have been ignored indefinitely.

Okay release the drone

Figured this would happen. It kind of felt like the temporary restraining order was in place only because Mitch and Serpas had pissed off the judge last time around.

NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge has refused to issue a preliminary injunction that would allow "Occupy New Orleans" protesters to continue camping out in a park across from City Hall.

U.S. District Judge Lance Africk also on Tuesday rescinded a temporary restraining order that permitted protesters to stay in Duncan Plaza while they sought an injunction.

Being dicks

Just because they must have figured this would be their last opportunity to mess with people, I guess.

Lawyer Davida Finger, who represents the protesters, filed a supplemental memorandum this morning saying that two officers entered Duncan Plaza during "the early morning hours," turned on a spotlight and told protesters they were in violation of the restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey a week ago. Zainey's restraining order -- which came just hours after police evicted the protesters -- allowed the protesters to reoccupy the park, on a 24-hour basis, for another week. The order expires tonight at 10 p.m.

Welcome (back) to the Occupation

And the game is back on for the 10 or 15 people who have been camping in Duncan Plaza and aren't just random homeless people or gutter punks.

CBD - The city's early morning eviction of Occupy NOLA This afternoon, U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey ruled in favor of Occupy New Orleans, granting a 7-day temporary restraining order that would allow protesters to remain in Duncan Plaza at all hours of the day until next Tuesday. The ruling came two hours after lawyers for the City and the Occupy Wall Street offshoot entered the judge's chambers for a hearing on the matter.

My best guess is the judge wasn't too happy with Mitch and Serpas running the protesters out of the park before a scheduled ruling on their request for an injunction.

He laid out several conditions for the protesters: They are prohibited from using open flames, electrical cords, and they cannot carry weapons or have pets at the site. Two portable toilets also have to be kept at the site, and must be provided by the Occupiers. Student lawyers that have been working with the protesters already agreed to provide one toilet.

The port-o-lets I understand. Not so sure if the other conditions are justified. Anyway I like I said, I think this is more a slap on the wrist to Mitch for jumping the gun than anything else. I fully expect the City will get what it wants eventually.

Mitch de-occupies Duncan Plaza overnight

Kind of a weird internet fail sincethis is the first I'm seeing anything about that happening. Nothing on talk radio this morning either.

Update: Coverage and pictures at NOLADef

Also at Uptown Messenger

Upperdate: Here's the T-P story I think the reason I'm running behind on this this morning is I depend on Bob DelGiorno to tell me what's happening when I get up.

Also see here the city attorney's and the occupiers' legal representatives are meeting in a Federal judges chambers right now. I can't imagine that will come to much.

The only question I have here is, since Mitch is saying the issue is camping overnight in a park after hours, would the city allow the protesters to occupy the park during its so-called "open" hours? My suspicion is this is all about clearing out the park before the Sugar Bowl and so I'm guessing Mitch would have to then find a new excuse to do that.

Words we will hold the Mayor to in 2012

Mitch speaking yesterday,

"I am giving notice on behalf of the city of New Orleans that we need to enforce the law now. At some point in time, if they refuse to leave, I will initiate some action"

We look forward to seeing the Mayor finally initiate some action on the St. Charles Avenue neutral grounds this Carnival season.

Getting too close to big time tourist season for comfort

Looks like Mitch and Serpas are getting ready to pepper spray some hippies out of the way so we can look all nice and pretty during the New Year's/Sugar Bowl/National Championship stretch coming up. Stay tuned.

Update: Yep. Kicking 'em out. Perhaps as early as tonight.

If they're looking for somewhere to go next, I'd suggest they try the illegally private public space on Newcomb Boulevard.

"Privately owned public spaces"

Weird legal territory we're getting into with this stuff.

When the Occupy Wall Street demonstration began on September 17, protesters were quickly blocked from Wall Street and settled into nearby Zuccotti Park for their occupation. But as this morning’s near-eviction by New York Police at the behest of owners Brookfield Properties made clear, Zuccotti isn’t a public park with all the free speech protections that come with public property; rather, it’s a privately owned public space.

Privately owned public spaces have proliferated in the past several decades—there are almost 550 in New York City—as a result of zoning concessions the city grants to real estate developers: in exchange for setting aside a nominally public space, property owners such as Brookfield are allowed to bypass height or setback restrictions on their buildings.

But the problem with privately owned public spaces is that they’re no substitution for purely public spaces, because First Amendment protections don’t really apply when the owners of a space are non-governmental.

I don't think any private enterprise owns Duncan Plaza which means, then, that the #OccupyNOLA protesters haven't been faithfully emulating their New York counterparts. Where could they relocate such that they are more in sync with the movement? Where are New Orleans' "privately owned public spaces"?

Piazza D'Italia is interesting in that it is more or less the inverse of what we're looking for. It is owned and maintained by a city run "Development Corporation" but mainly serves as an adornment to the Lowes Hotel making it more of a publicly owned private space.

Our beloved Mr. Peanut Park comes close but it's really more of a billboard than an amenity.

K&B Plaza is just a privately owned office park. Also nobody ever goes there.

Then there's Champions Square which is mostly a state-financed operation through the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District and overseen by SMG. All of which is to say it's a free-money-for-Tom-Benson machine and therefore a publicly financed public space producing a private profit at a vast public expense.

So I'm still kind of stumped here. Is there a local analog to Zuccotti Park's "public-private" partnership? Where in New Orleans do we find the appearance of a public space except with no real obligation to respect the rights of citizens a public good carries with it? That sounds sort of like what Mike Bloomberg is paying Kira Orange-Jones to do to our public schools. The concept is being imported from New York after all.

Clean Teaming all over #OccupyNOLA's behind

Well now that New York City Mayor (and Louisiana school privatization advocate) Michael Bloomberg has reminded a Sandusky-obsessed America that Occupy Wall Street was still going on, speculation has begun as to where the next crackdown might occur.

Rumors have been swirling around various Occupy camps that a series of major crackdowns in recent days -- spanning from New York to Denver to Oakland, with several others in between -- were being done on the orders of Washington. That's unlikely.

But in an interview with BBC News, Oakland Mayor casually admitted that she had participated in a conference call with officials from 18 cities to discuss the OWS movement, tactics for managing its camps, etc.

No word anywhere on which cities might be coordinating their crackdowns although some protest groups are already taking preventive measures.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that Mitch Landrieu saw fit to call out our local Occupy camp while unveiling his anti-litter initiative yesterday.

Landrieu also served notice that the clock is ticking on the Occupy NOLA encampment that's been established across from City Hall in Duncan Plaza.

"We think that we have been a great host to Occupy NOLA," he said. "They have been there in a peaceful way. But at some point in time, we've got to say 'Look, you've worn out your welcome.'

"At some point in time, it's going to get beyond just a First Amendment expression."

While Landrieu did not offer a timetable, he said the protesters likely will be asked to leave "sooner rather than later."

It doesn't appear as though the Mayor saw fit to elaborate as to what "getting beyond First Amendment expression" actually means much less where he derives his certainty that such a threshold will soon be passed. But it would seem that plans are in the works to "Trash Dat" #Occupy camp "sooner rather than later" regardless.

Update: Glad to see Gambit thinking along the same lines here. Mitch may be looking to disperse OccupyNOLA before the end of the month.

"May have"

But who's counting, really?

NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) - New Orleans police have made the first arrest at the Occupy New Orleans gathering.

A man who threatened another person with a machete and forced the victim to leave the park was arrested on Wednesday.

Cmdr. Jeff Walls, of the New Orleans Police Department, says the incident with the machete was the first one where someone was arrested at the camp.

Police say the man may have been a homeless man not associated with Occupy New Orleans..

It's what the fashionable revolutionaries are doing

My favorite paragraph from this NOLAdef account of #Occupy Duncan Plaza

In this pre-meeting facilitators decided that the human microphone method should be used. In New York City amplifiers are banned in public parks. The human microphone method is a practical way of amplifying sound without electricity. The speaker says three to four words at a time, and then those who can hear the speaker repeat the words. It’s easy to see how this can be beneficial with larger crowds, but there were only two hundred people present, and the facilitators had a loudspeaker.

Fooled again

This is obviously not the week I'm gonna crank out the Saints post any earlier than I have been. Part of the problem is, while I've had time to collect facts and links and germs of ideas, I rarely have had more than 5 minutes free to sit and write without being interrupted. Maybe I'll have some time tomorrow but it's looking like I've got a lot on the schedule there too.

Also it doesn't help that this opening scene from last night's South Park premiere captures my general state of motivation lately. More so than usual, I mean.

Ass Burgers
Get More: SOUTH
PARKmore...

So that's that.

Meanwhile, reports from today's #Occupy event suggest that it was moderately well attended but also pretty uneventful, or even, in the words of one eyewitness "boring, Sidney, boring!"

Still I've found it diverting enough to look through some of the photos.


Photo by Flickr user Artbymags



I think this is probably my favorite because it combines the grammatically and contextually confounding phrase "Who Dat? We Dat" with a store bought Guy Fawkes masks which has the double benefit of being both a tired cliche and a modest profit center for mega-corporation Time-Warner who has trademarked the image. The improvised fleur-de-lis on the forehead isn't actually necessary to make the image any more lame or predictable but I do appreciate the extra effort there.

Welcome to the occupation

The kids got a permit.

A group of protesters calling themselves "Occupy New Orleans" will march across the city today before setting up an "encampment" at Duncan Plaza across from City Hall where some say they plan to live for months. Inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" protests, which began in New York City three weeks ago and have since spread to at least 80 other cities, the group is demonstrating against what it sees as the disproportionate power wielded by corporations and the rich.

Mainly what this means is that if NOPD wants to misbehave they'll have to cite the noise ordinance instead. Or they could treat it like a St. Joseph's Day parade and just move in without any pretext whatsoever.

And if none of that goes as badly as we know it can, we understand Jackie Clarkson is prepared to drop buckets of water on Duncan Plaza from a helicopter.