Pam Martens tells us that "Financial Giants Put New York City Cops On Their Payroll" in part of the title of her article "Who Do the White Shirt Police Report to at Occupy Wall Street Protests?" See note 1,
Ms. Martens tells us that "Videos are springing up across the internet showing uniformed members of the New York Police Department in white shirts (as opposed to the typical NYPD blue uniforms) pepper spraying and brutalizing peaceful, nonthreatening protestors attempting to take part in the Occupy Wall Street marches."
She further explains that "started by the Rudy Guliani administration in New York City in 1998, the Paid Detail Unit was created and it allows the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street corporations, including those repeatedly charged with crimes, to order up a flank of New York's finest with the ease of dialing the deli for a pastrami on rye."
"The corporations pay an average of $37 an hour (no medical, no pension benefit, no overtime pay) for a member of the NYPD, with gun, handcuffs and the ability to arrest."
"New York City gets a 10 percent administrative fee on top of the $37 per hour paid to the police. The City's 2011 budget called for $1,184,000 in Paid Detail fees, meaning private corporations were paying wages of $11.8 million to police participating in the Paid Detail Unit. The program has more than doubled in revenue to the city since 2002."
"The taxpayer has paid for the training of the rent-a-cop, his uniform and gun, and will pick up the legal tab for lawsuits stemming from the police personnel following illegal instructions from its corporate master."
Do we owe Ms. Martens a huge thank you for her information?
We say yes!
If the 1% can do this, so can the 99%!
We propose that Occupy and citizens' protests nationwide investigate and determine the availability of "White Shirts' hired by their protest group to protect and validate that the actions and specific protests have been conducted within the expected bounds.
The Occupy White Shirts can also be asked to intercede if illegal harassment and or changes are being made by any Corporate White Shirts.
As Ms. Martens describes how "In April 2001, I was arrested and incarcerated by the NYPD while peacefully handing out flyers on a public sidewalk outside of the Citigroup shareholders meeting," we have an example of how an Occupy White Shirt would have helped.
"A mysterious, mature, white shirted inspector who ordered my arrest on the sidewalk, and refused to give his first name, disappeared from the police report when it was filed, blaming the arrest instead on a young police officer." An Occupy White Shirt would have been able to intercede on Ms. Marten's and others, behalf.
"The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a Federal lawsuit on my behalf (Martens v. Giuliani) and we learned that the NYPD had arbitrarily established a policy to arrest and hold for 72 hours any person protesting in a group of 20 or more. The case was settled for a modest monetary award and the repeal by the NYPD of this unconstitutional and despicable practice."
As Ms. Martens has told us; We the People, "the taxpayer, has paid for the training of the rent-a-cop, his uniform and gun" and We the People can pay for our freedoms to be protected while the Corporations pay for them be denied.
Note 1:
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