Occupy Buffalo Evicted

Occupy Buffalo II

Occupy Buffalo, by Flickr user Nykino 2011

Last night, the Buffalo police moved in to evict Occupy Buffalo. The group’s permit to remain in Niagara Square had expired, and the city decided not to renew it. One is tempted to wonder why they were evicted, considering that they weren’t really bothering anyone.

Then again, “not bothering anyone” may not be the best strategy for demonstrating against the plutonomy and crony corporatist corruption. The Occupy movement can be thanked for bringing the patent unfairness of the U.S. tax code to light, and how it is especially designed to benefit the wealthiest 1% at the rest of our expense.

Were it not for the Occupy movement, the very serious problem that Mitt Romney has with respect to his very limited, very curious tax disclosure would not be a “thing”. Now, it’s not only a “thing”, but a thing that is the very embodiment of what Occupy was all about, and the American middle class is pissed.

9 comments

  • Why were they evicted? Seems likely that Cuomo’s $1 Billions for Buffalo came with some strings attached.

    Here’s the full story…

    At 2AM about 100 Buffalo Police arrived, some in riot gear, flanked by an armored urban assault vehicle. Protestors were informed that the city had decided to clear the park and that they must leave immediately or face arrest.

    10 Occupiers engaged in civil disobedience and were arrested.

    Officers refused to allow protestors into the square to remove their personal property. Protestors were told that the gear would be taken into custody and they would be allowed to recover it tomorrow. Frontloaders then flattened and bulldozed the camp. The contents were tossed into large dump trucks. A large donated tent where Occupiers gave out free meals every day for 4 months was thrown away. Every single Occupier had their personal belongings destroyed. For some of the homeless population present, it was everything they owned.

    During their 4 months in Niagara Square, Occupy Buffalo protestors have remained entirely peaceful and have not destroyed a single piece of property.

    I sure hope our Buffalo news sources do their duty and investigate the state of peoples private property tomorrow at the retrieval location.

    If you want to watch the whole eviction heres a link: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/20165687

    oh and the assault vehicle: http://oi41.tinypic.com/bej78o.jpg

  • The protest had gone rather stale. This should re-energize it.

  • “…considering that they weren’t really bothering anyone.”

    You don’t spend much time with what pass for plutocrats in Buffalo do you?

  • Channel 2 news is reporting that the city offered them a 5 week permit extension and the occupiers turned it down, so it may be a bit inaccurate to report that “the city decided not to renew it”.

  • Actually at this point they were pretty much bothering everyone who had to see the Square on a daily basis.

    They knew that their agreement had ended and it was time to head back to mom and dad’s house or the alley that they used to sleep in.

  • If they expended the same amount of energy trying to better themselves we would all be better served. Try becoming a productive citizen. Now the the poor, mistreated, beated by Mayor Brown’s Storm Troopers have to go back to Mom & Dad’s place in Williamsville & back to a meaningful life of freeloading. This little piggie cried “wee wee wee” al the way home. They make me want to heave.

  • You know what makes me want to heave? People who kick around easy targets like the OWS crowd because of their blind ass-kissing faith in Corporate America.

  • I walk by every couple of weeks to see what is going on. Recently it looked like the circus moved on and left behind those that couldn’t meet the strict requirements of becoming a carny.
    Just awful, and frankly if you want a movement for change, what was left out there was not going to make it happen. Most people believe the basic premise that certain people are making far too much money risking other people’s money and getting bailed out when they f-up, but the situation at the square was not addressing much of anything at this point other than the fringe folks had a place to hacky sack.

    Plus they got their extension offer, I guess they thought they had a stronger position to negotiate from, can’t imagine what the conversation was like, but I think they may have played their hand wrong.

  • @JAC….they were offered the 5 week permit extension on the condition that they would permanently end the occupation at that time.
    I think it’s shameful that the city did that. The occupiers could not have been more peaceful. Particularly not to let them collect their personal property, and then destroy it. There was no reason for that.
    Shame on Byron Brown and the City of Buffalo.

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