#OccupyWallStreet: What happened to the 5,000 volume People's Library

[Fire Walk With Me]

I wanted to bring together a few pieces of information which reveal the story.

How wonderful is it that people cared enough to donate and organize a public library of over 5,000 volumes in such a short time? It is the core of human concern, of human giving. But as we know, the park was raided by police and private security and all personal property was seized under falsehood given by police. All items were quickly thrown without regard into the multiple garbage trucks brought by police. Understanding that something was wrong, protesters at one point even blocked the path of one such garbage truck for an extended period of time.

A friend who lives near Zuccotti posted this on Facebook:

Bloomberg said this a.m. that people can go pick up their stuff that was taken from the park last night from the Sanitation Dept. garage on the west side. But the Sanit crews were told to treat it all as trash and they dumped and destroyed much of it including not only the OWS Library >5k of books but all the medical supplies in the med tent. I've heard people who were there last night say the garbage men were taking things home saying "this would just go to the landfill if I didn't take it" when told it was private property.

Proof:

As the two men talked, a sweaty-faced man wearing a neon vest over a business suit walked up and started tearing protest signs off the wall."I couldn't wait," he said. "Destroying things never felt so good."

"Really," someone said, almost inflecting the word as a question.

"They're fucking assholes," the guy in the suit shot back.

Another guy came up to Eddie. "How are we about hooking up the fire hydrants?" he asked. "We talkin' to somebody?"

"Do it. Do it," Eddie said over the roar of a garbage truck.

The green vests are Brookfield Properties executives and private security. Brookfield owns Zuccotti park. They are the ones seen in this video throwing a protester over a barricade onto the cement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xzfcJqV6uks

and along with police, punching a woman in the face. She had peskily been proffering actual court orders to allow protesters back into the park. Occurs at 1:45.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxR8VHFvsl8&list=FLmbtpDQcIb2UFYtrWBjFCkA&index=9&feature=plpp_video

































Sources:

Hell Hath No Fury
What is left of the 5000+ volumn People's Library -- (dial-up warning)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2323217


Exclusive Video: Inside Police Lines at the Occupy Wall Street Eviction
Amid this morning's crackdown on Zuccotti Park, I was one of the only reporters bearing witness.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/11/occupy-wall-street-police-raid-eviction


Brookfield Properties Security Calls Me a Faggot at Zuccotti Park
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4CI3OFYB_U


One photo from cryptome.org

[SoDesuKa]

1. Lasting Damage

The smugness of the city workers as they carried off people's belongings and threw them into the trash is going to cause lingering after effects. This adds insult to injury, so that people won't just move on from this once actual political leadership emerges. Bloomberg stopped being a Guy Out For Himself, and is now changed status to Person Needing Re-Education. This applies to the people who support Bloomberg or hail the destruction of the camp as necessary. They're not longer simply Low Consciousness, but persons in need of instruction.

[freshwest]

6. Sad that these were union workers doing this to those who are supporting working people.

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. a sweaty-faced man wearing a neon vest over a business suit--"Destroying things never felt so good."

Fahrenheit 451, anyone?

a sweaty-faced man wearing a neon vest over a business suit walked up and started tearing protest signs off the wall."I couldn't wait," he said. "Destroying things never felt so good."

[sabrina 1]

13. Yes, what was the name of the cop in Fhrenheit 451? I used

to call one of my rightwing adversaries 'Captain .... ' during the Bush administration. He hated it. Was it Nimo?

Anyhow, I agree with you.

[freshwest]

7. dupe

[Selatius]

2. The only thing they didn't do was toss the books onto a pile and burn them.

I guess it would've looked too much something like what the nazis did, so they just threw them away. Today's fascists are more image-aware than their predecessors. They have managed to engineer the veneer of democracy but have restricted the choice between no change and negative change. They have engineered a propaganda machine to look like a conglomeration of different views and news channels but are mostly owned and controlled by the wealthiest shareholders instead of an old-fashioned ministry of propaganda, and what's worse is people buy into the messaging and vote against their own interests. They don't even have to liquidate members of the opposition in concentration camps anymore. The prisons they build instead are prisons of ignorance, prisons of the mind.

Goering was right. All you have to do is scare people enough, and they'll gladly give away their own freedom for the sake of security.

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. They'll do that electronically by filtering the Internet using the new Stop Online Piracy Act

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2346109
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2284667

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Extra bit:

Thanks GX for the link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_destroyed_libraries,_archives_and_museums

List of destroyed libraries, archives and museums

Occupy Wall Street Library (aka, The People's Library) New York City United States November 15, 2011 NYPD Library emptied into dumpsters<24>. Approximately 5500 books destroyed. Often referred to as Bloomberg's Bibliocide.

[slipslidingaway]

4. knr nt

[Kaleko]

5. Fuel for the fire

that will consume the 1 %. The strategy seems to be orchestrated attempts to nip the Occupy movement in the bud by using brutal intimidation tactics on selected protesters so as to set an example for the rest of the 99%. Scare the people to death and off the streets where their voices can be heard.

A little bird tells me that this will backfire. Boomerang... baby, big time.

[csziggy]

8. Does any one know where the catalog of the books was kept?

The other day Rachel Maddow said that it had been cataloged on LibraryThing. I went to look for the list but couldn't find what name it might have been under.

I doubt I have any books on their list, but I would be willing to see if I could replace any.

[C. lupus familiaris]

15. OWS Library catalog

They are adding to their Library Thing catalog right now! :D

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/OWSLibrary

If you look several pages back, you'll see earlier entry dates. I don't know, but it doesn't look like any were deleted.


This is the Occupy Wall Street Library website:

http://peopleslibrary.wordpress.com/about/

mailing address, links, etc. It says they are happy to accept all books. :)

[csziggy]

16. Thanks - I search for OWS but I guess LibraryThing expects exactness

I used to have several copies of some books they might like and I have a large library. I'll have to see what I still have and what I am willing to give up.

Looking at the shelves - I only have one copy of the old Legal First Aid left - I used to have a dozen or so. But I probably have more recent books they would enjoy.

Thanks!

[Fire Walk With Me]

19. Thanks and Welcome to DU!

:hi::toast:

[Leopolds Ghost]

11. Was no one in the media tracking this story? This renders my previous post obsolete:

Asking if anyone cared about the library, which the mayor's office released photos to
explicitly state the books had not been destroyed. And then proceeded to destroy them?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2324509

It got zero replies.

[Fire Walk With Me]

18. Archived, too late to Kick it, sorry. Thanks for linking it to increase the information!

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. Excellent related info:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2341711

[sabrina 1]

14. Too late to rec. They wreck things, OWS builds things.

I wonder if they know how they will viewed by history? These images will be around 100 years from now. And they are on the wrong side of history, as were many others before them.

[csziggy]

17. Occupy Wall Street Library Blog - add to links

http://peopleslibrary.wordpress.com/

From the entry at the top of the page:

Not long ago people across the country were in an uproar over a man’s attempt to burn a holy book, but Mayor Bloomberg tossed dozens of holy books into dumpsters on the 15th. Now that roaring is coming from the lions, Patience and Fortitude, who guard the entry to the very library where Mayor Bloomberg cavorted on the 7th. The 99% have shown tremendous patience and fortitude as individuals such as Mayor Bloomberg have used their money to exert an undemocratic influence over our politics and lives, but we sit idly no longer.