Cindy's shoe meets Politico's butt

Pity the poor folk who think reading Politico makes them informed, when all it does is show them what sort of Republican-crafted talking points will be showing up on the TV news shows in a few days.

Here’s a recent, and particularly apt, example:

If you read this Politico piece by Tim Mak about the Thursday evening meeting of the New York Real Estate Board, you’d likely be thinking that all of New York is in a towering rage over the dirty filthy Communist hippies defiling a public space:

Dowtown New Yorkers furious with the continued presence of the Occupy Wall Street protesters vented angrily at a community board meeting Thursday, according to reports.

The desire to complain about the demonstrators was so widespread that the line to speak at the meeting wound its way outside the board’s office and into the street, the New York Post said. At least several hundred people showed up to the board meeting.

But if you read Cynthia Kouril’s liveblog of the meeting, you’d know that the majority of the people that spoke at the meeting were strongly in favor of Occupy Wall Street — and said that the excessive police presence and blockading, ridiculously out of proportion to the “threat” posed by persons dedicated to civil protest, was the real problem:

7:45 PM EST

Two young people from OWS get up and point out that they are Occupying on behalf of everybody, not just themselves.

A gentleman from 120 Cedar Street supports OWS and says that the real noise problem is the jackhammers drilling all the time.

7″47 PM EST

Mr. Cedar Street wants to put pressure on the City to allow porta potties.

Another woman says she lives in area and the real problem is the police. They won’t let her pass through on her bike to get home. She supports OWS.

Yet another WASPY patrician looking woman says that she has been made a prisoner in her own apt, but not by OWS, by the police. She thinks they are overreacting. She supports OWS

7:50 PM EST

71 year old woman says police barricades are endangering her life, not OWS.

Local merchant complains about the barricades too. Say the barricades are disrupting business not OWS.

Go to Cynthia’s post and read the whole thing.

The upshot is the protesters are allowed to stay — and will likely get something they’ve wanted for a while, permission to have porta-potties on site.

Hey, Politico and Murdoch Post: Looks like most of the folks lined up to attend the New York Real Estate Board meeting were fans, not foes, of Occupy Wall Street. Why did you go out of your way to imply otherwise? Hmmm?

UPDATE: Politico‘s Tim Mak responds to an FDL reader, listing the various sources he cites. What he doesn’t mention is what Dakine01 points out: that one of his sources, the NBC New York story, backs up the FDL liveblog in most respects — in part by including that which Mak doesn’t mention, for instance this quote from one of the many area business owners and residents in attendance who said that the real problem isn’t the protesters, but the police barricades:

Some said the inconvenience associated with the protest is more a product of the police response. Vincent Alessi, who helps manage Bobby Vans Steakhouse, said business was down 50 percent at certain hours because police have placed metal barricades in front of his restaurant.

“That’s the NYPD,” Alessi said. “The protesters have been peaceful. They march by the restaurant, no one causes any damage.”

The fact that the result of the meeting is in line with the OWS proposal, and the Board’s resplution includes a declaration of support for OWS, really tells the tale of who got it right.


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