Police Attack on Wall Street Protesters is a Waste of Tax Dollars

In addition to the serious civil liberties and Constitutional questions the seemingly  unprovoked New York City Police Department attacks on peaceful Wall Street protestors raises, there is also the issue of wasted taxpayer money.

The massive police presence must cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. These police assaults and arrests will involve expensive trials, costing the City millions of dollars. When the cases are thrown out of court, or dismissed, as they usually are when the police illegally attack demonstrators, the City will be sued, and taxpayer money will be paid in multi-million dollar settlements to the wronged demonstrators.

All of this at a time when the City has fired teachers, and more than 7,000 classrooms are over-crowded.

I call on Mayor Bloomberg, Councilman Halloran, and Council Speaker Quinn to start an immediate investigation to determine who issued orders to illegally interfere with the Constitutional rights to assemble and to seek redress of grievances. I call on the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. to prosecute the police officials involved. You can see who they are and what they did from the videos that are available on YouTube.

Mayor Bloomberg, Councilman Halloran, Speaker Quinn, and Mr. Vance, if you really care about fundamental American rights, please use your influence to make sure the guilty police officials and officers are brought to justice. And if you really care about government waste, please use your influence to make sure our tax dollars are never wasted like this again.