Daily News cheers Occupy Wall Street raid, until Daily News reporter is arrested

"Bravo" says New York newspaper to NYPD eviction, just before the NYPD jails one of their own

Published November 15, 2011 6:07PM (EST)

New York City police officers arrest a protestor affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement as he tries to return to Zuccotti Park, in New York November 15, 2011.          (Eduardo Munoz / Reuters)
New York City police officers arrest a protestor affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement as he tries to return to Zuccotti Park, in New York November 15, 2011. (Eduardo Munoz / Reuters)

When the NYPD, on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's orders, raided and evicted Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park last night, the editors of the New York Daily News, the city's ostensibly liberal tabloid newspaper, cheered.

"Bravo to Bloomberg's Occupy Wall Street eviction," goes the headline on its editorial published this morning.

The fact that the eviction was done in violation of a court order doesn't bother them:

The amorphous agglomeration known as Occupy Wall Street had transformed a space intended for open community access into a round-the-clock shantytown — and they claimed that the First Amendment guaranteed their right to do as they pleased.

This is not constitutional wisdom. This is self-important, self-indulgent bilge. And a Manhattan Supreme Court justice who ordered a halt to the eviction pending a hearing needs to emphatically so state.

They seem totally uninterested in the NYPD's excessively violent tactics, including the harassment, abuse and arrest of various reporters, which doesn't get a mention in the editorial. Then a Daily News reporter was arrested, along with at least two other reporters.

Now, according to the Daily News Twitter feed, at least, the NYPD's behavior is "alarming." The newspaper has alerted its attorney.

The Daily News is owned and published by billionaire real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman.


By Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene

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Media Media Criticism Michael Bloomberg Nypd Occupy Wall Street Police