Anybody questioning the validity of the need for some kind of central information resource, misunderstands the nature of long-term activity, nevermind protest.

Yes, definitely don’t. We wouldn’t want them reading anything that might make them start questioning the leftist progressive orthodoxy all their professors taught them.

Collecting and sharing literature that educates citizens on their rights and the true state of the nation perfectly fulfills the mission of the Occupy Movement. The books are not available only to those who can show a proof of tent residence; they are there to offer all citizens the literature they may be interested in better understanding the challenges this nation faces and how to formulate actions and programs to rebuild a stronger democracy that has a chance of surviving into the 22nd century.

I continue to be surprised at criticism leveled at Occupy such as, “They’re just not doing anything constructive! Where’s their cohesive message?” When I read these criticisms, I wonder whether those who make them recall the utterly silent, stultifying environment of the years that saw the Judiciary corrupt our electoral system and select the President of the USA.

Were they part of the large, but entirely ignored, group of Americans who protested the legislature’s jingoistic, fear-driven embrace of the transparently false casus belli that involved the US in an extended “non-war” that solely benefited the members of the administration and their corporate associates? manipulation of truth that resulted in our extended involvement in two “non-wars”? OVer the last decade, did they commiserate with friends over the progressive eradication of fundamental constitutional rights? Did they note the progressive privatization of public spaces as government re-directed tax revenue from infrastructure to war and financial incentives to the wealthy?

After ten years of dialogue entirely defined and driven by Rovian doctrine, OWS has changed the nature of public conversations. The Occupy Movement marks the beginning of an arduous process of addressing the overwhelming number of problems facing a democracy turned kleptocracy. 

Libraries and schools have been prominent victims in the war on education and social programs that were instrumental in making this country the flawed but uniquely wonderful nation it was. Creating and maintaining libraries in occupied public space seems perfectly logical and germane to the Occupy Movement. 

And why is everyone so damned upset over a library?! It’s a library. You know, with books and magazines that can be shared and discussed? I owe most of my education to the public library. Harold Bloom, Alfred Kazin, even that hypocritical twat Ayn Rand, have proudly claimed the same.

Occupy Bull Pasture
Feedlot 27
Lawrence, KS 66044

I love me some libraries, books, OWS, protests, and I’m disgusted with cops, but come on. Why would a smart librarian waste time working on such an obviously unsustainable “library”?

I don’t see that those are mutually exclusive. They’re doing long term civil disobedience by turning parks into places to live.

See other comments about the constitutionality of reasonable time/place/means restrictions.

“If you define assembly as something more, and of greater duration, than a public meeting lasting a few hours, it fits just fine. So we’ll keep Liberty Square and the People’s Library, thanks for your concern!”

Keeping requires taking, and therein lies the problem. Public space is shared. That means nobody gets to just take it over, however sympathetic the cause. 

If you want to donate your old books, give them to a prison, halfway house or shelter in your community. Brighten somebody’s day who is in a shitty living situation.

I was down in Zuccotti Park on Tuesday night, the evening after the park was “cleared”. I met one of the librarians, who was holding up a sign that said “The Library Is Open”. Here’s a link to my Creative Commons photo of the sign, along with a write up of what I saw involving the library that night.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyrides/6355083001/in/photostream

Later that night, the NYPD told the librarians that they couldn’t set up the library, because laying out books on the groud was a violation of the new park “rules”. An altercation broke out between the librarians and the police. I shot a video of what happened. Unfortuately it’s a bit dark, but you can clearly hear the protestors comments which are hilarious, amazing, on point and funny (also NSFW). The altercation ended with a everyone in the crowd chanting “Books! Books! Books!” which I thought was brilliant and wholly appropriate. Here’s a link to the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHGTD1vI5uk

That shit is just Tea Bagger, ultra-fundamentalist, Libertarian bullshit.

Irony of ironies – you know who could fix that gap in your education as well as help you with your detailed research into the US Constitution and the collected study of it, and that bit of grammar that’s in question, and give you some help finding resources about historical protest movements of the past – from suffragettes to the summer of love?

Answer – A Librarian… :-)

http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=used+book+stores&find_loc=New+York%2C+NY

the police were just showing that they didn’t care about the occupiers’ property

Think very, very hard about the irony in this train of thought. “Occupation” is the very definition of disregarding the property rights of others – why expect better treatment going the other direction?

P.S. It may be pedantic (“overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching”), but so is Constitutional interpretation. That’s just how it goes.

Well, what goes around comes around. The occupiers showed that they don’t give a damn about private property, by essentially appropriating  Zuccotti Park (which is private property) for their own use, so they shouldn’t be too outraged that the authorities apparently agree with them on that point.

In any case, the constitution also says that SCOTUS gets the final say on implementation of the constitution, and it’s been upheld that reasonable, content-neutral, time/place/manner restrictions can be placed on assembly, provided they meet several criteria (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/timeplacemanner.htm). Does saying that you can’t just turn a public park into an open-ended, 24/7 tent city sound so unreasonable?

I’m sure they will find your book very ‘Absorbing’ when visiting the chemical toilets !