Tag Archive for wal street. protesters

Analysis: Occupy 2.0 Emerges Lean and Mean

from Cynical Times

Analysis: Occupy 2.0 Emerges Lean and Mean

… Transformed movement spotlights Wall Street church

by Victor Epstein
Published: December 18, 2011
A group of handcuffed Americans sat inside a fenced enclosure in Lower Manhattan on a blustery Saturday afternoon, their hands bound tightly behind them as fellow Occupy Wall Street protesters shouted words of support and thanks.

Their crime?

Challenging the public image of one of the chief beneficiaries of a New York City political machine dominated by real estate interests, Wall Street bankers and powerful religious institutions. The script reads like something out of Oliver Twist. However, instead of asking for a second bowl of gruel, the detainees had the effrontery to ask permission to spend the frigid Northeast winter living outside in a vacant lot just blocks from the Hudson River.

The lot belongs to Trinity Church, a wealthy institution that’s located a block from the New York Stock Exchange and counts some of the world’s biggest bankers among its supporters. In theory, the church exists to champion the needy, but in reality it has become one of the city’s largest landowners – a tool of the 1% – with an astounding real estate portfolio of more than $10 billion.  . . . continue