By:
Tom Hanahoe, Terence Conway and John Monaghan - Village
On September 17 2011, hundreds of Americans gathered in New York’s Wall Street district, the very hub of American and global capitalism. Calling themselves the Occupy Wall Street movement, they set up a protest encampment, which soon spawned similarly themed protests in over 100 US cities around the world.
Within months, most Occupy camps around the world – including camps in Ireland – had been forcibly closed by police. In the US, over 6,000 protestors were arrested. Some were batoned or pepper-sprayed.
A movement that encompassed around fifty countries was being suppressed. State power – using police power – was crushing People Power.
A few weeks ago, on the day the Dáil reconvened after its lengthy summer recess, a few protest groups gathered outside the gates. The following day’s Irish Times carried a front-page photograph of a woman being carried from the scene by five members of the Garda Public Order Unit (POU) – its riot squad. Why? Did she pose a physical threat to gardaí, to members of the public or to members of the Dáil?
Posted Date:
30 January 2015