A group of 20 or so Occupy Wall Streeters has set up shop in the plaza outside the Trump International Hotel & Tower on 61st and Broadway to try to shame the CEO of Goldman Sachs, who lives across the Street at 15 CPW.
The group has been there for about a month, according to Chris Phillips, one of the Occupy guys we spoke to recently and to the group’s Facebook page. Phillips said the area outside the Trump tower is publicly available private space (just like Zuccotti Park was), so they’re legally allowed to be there.
Today the group wrote this on its Facebook page:
“Half way through Day 27, we have music being played, great discussions taking place, and tons of positive outreach happening! Come join us at 61st and Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, and tune into Occupy Universe on Ustream at 9pm for our nightly stream.”
The Facebook page has also featured content like a photo of the Federal Reserve with the words “The Federal Reserve, a privately owned Rothschild Central Banking Cartel,” which one commenter noted has an Anti-Semitic connotation. The Anti-Defamation League has more here on the myth of Rothschild control of the Fed: “In the literature of bigots, the name Rothschild is a trigger for the most explosive of anti-Semitic tremors, and it usually sets off a litany of other Jewish names.”
On November 10, they planned a rally to storm the gates of 15 CPW. “Bring a FAKE pitchfork or torch and join our Toy Mob. Come prepared to make insane amounts of noise.”
This weekend, the Occupy group had put up signs behind their sleeping bags attacking Goldman, like the one below above comparing the bank to a squid (a popular article after the financial crisis called Goldman a “vampire squid.”) When we talked last week, Phillips said the group had no plans to leave anytime soon.
The encampment has gotten virtually no media coverage at all. It’s a strange time to hold the protest, given that other Occupy groups have gotten huge praise for organizing relief efforts in areas hit hard by Hurricane Sandy.
Maybe somebody should tell them that 61st and Broadway is not midtown Manhattan. The neighborhood names in Manhattan are pretty self explanatory. Perhaps it’s time for them to go back home to their parents’.
Maybe they should go back to school , I’m sure their parents would want that instead of being home.
Re: “…This weekend, the Occupy group had put up signs behind their sleeping bags attacking Goldman…. When we talked last week, Phillips said the group had no plans to leave anytime soon.”
AWRRRR…sorry to burst your self-righteous bubble, Occupiers, by presenting facts, but you MIGHT want to take note of the following:
1) Yes, Goldman is BIG CAPITALISM PERSONIFIED, with all its evils and all its benefits.
2) Yes, Goldman’s CEO lives in 15 C.P.W., near which you have sprawled your collection of unwashed bedding, tattered childishly-scrawled signs, and other detritus. But unless he decides to take the subway to work and thus walk past your little trash-heaps, he will probably never be aware of you. Unfortunately, THE REST OF US ARE!! VERY MUCH SO!!
3) And, Yes, sadly, your little temper-tantrum of a protest will have zero impact…except perhaps to provide a really ugly counterpoint to the beauty that is nearby Central Park, Columbus Circle, The Time-Warner Center, Central Park South, etc.
SO HERE’S A THOUGHT: INSTEAD OF SITTING ON YOUR BUTTS OUT THERE PLAYING DEFIANT TODDLERS, WHY NOT VOLUNTEER TO HELP REAL PEOPLE WHO COULD USE A HAND? Maybe find out how to volunteer to work with lonely seniors, or the homeless, or at-risk kids.
WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT GOLDMAN HAS DONE, BY INVESTING ALMOST $10M TO HELP THE KIDS IN “JUVI” a.k.a. RIKERS ISLAND YOUTH DETENTION CENTER!!!!!!
READ THESE ITEMS TO SEE HOW GOLDMAN IS LESS A “VAMPIRE SQUID” THAN YOUR MISGUIDED DALLIANCE WITH SOCIAL PROTEST IS.
AND STOP MESSING-UP A BEAUTIFUL BLOCK!
STORIES FOLLOW: IF LINKS DO NOT WORK SIMPLY COPY AND PASTE INTO YOUR BROWSER’S ADDRESS BAR.
Goldman Sachs To Invest $9.6 Million In Rikers Island Jail Program
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/goldman-sachs-to-invest-9_n_1732436.html
Goldman to Invest in City Jail Program, Profiting if Recidivism Falls Sharply
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/nyregion/goldman-to-invest-in-new-york-city-jail-program.html
Goldman Sachs Invests In Rikers Island
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/166043/goldman-sachs-invests-in-rikers-island
If Occupy Goldman Sachs accomplishes nothing else, it’s made one local resident admit that the majority of people who live in the palaces along Central Park West get at least part of their income from for profit prisons.
It reminds me of that scene in Stendhal’s Red and the Black where Julian Sorel is dining with a corrupt prison warden, the guests drinking champagne and gorging themselves on fatty food while the starving prisoners are singing next door. Or, better yet, like something out of Dickens.
I think I love you. I have been thinking the same exact thing every day I have to walk by. I especially get disgusted when they are on their Iphones or IPads. They have no idea what real people who have lost their jobs are going through…not sitting on their asses like these kids.
Get a job! You are all a blight on the hood. Go back to your own neighborhood and bug those people, or don’t they care either?
You say “It’s a strange time to hold the protest”
Forgetting that according to your article this occupation preceded Sandy.
Perhaps you might re-phrase that “Its strange that the occupation didn’t cease during the Noreaster to help with the Occupy Sandy efforts”
While I agree with some of the goals, harassing someone at their home is plain wrong. Go down to 200 West Street and knock yourself out.
“harassing someone at their home is plain wrong.”
Just like foreclosing on people’s homes bankrupted by the same bank that wrecked the economy by gambling with the home they are foreclosing on is wrong?
These guys must go home to their parents’ suburban mansions on the weekends, since I walk my dog around there all the time on the weekends and have never seen them.
this is a problem…hanging out in front of Trump tower instead of 15 CPW. Go hang out in front of the CEO’s Home instead of this sideshow – literally.
So for profit prisons now count as “helping troubled youth.” LOL.
Listen up all you spineless pseudo-intellectual scumbags.
Welcome to America. Where it should be encouraged to speak out publicly about white collar crime, encouraged to organize and assemble freely, as is GUARANTEED BY THE CONSTITUTION, something none of you seem to give a damn about.
Welcome to reality, where your hatred is transparent and impotent, a sad pathetic collection of unoriginal cliche media soundbytes. A blooper reel of Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.
Welcome to a world where people are not satisfied just sitting around indoors watching TV.
Sorry to burst your self-righteous little bubbles, but your ranks are turning against you. How is it you think we’ve managed to successfully hold the space for so long?
The answer: Being respectful and peaceful as much as possible, developing strong relationships with people in the neighborhood.
Welcome to America, founded on revolution, an unpleasant fact for you I’m sure.
We are Americans, using our freedom of speech and assembly. Get used to it. You’re in America, remember?