Making ends meet

From an ABC News report by Olivia Katrandjia on the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg put it all into perspective for his protectorate.

“The protesters are protesting against people who make $40,000 to $50,000 a year who are struggling to make ends meet. That’s the bottom line,” Bloomberg said.

When asked how the NYPD would handle protests, Bloomberg said that while people have the right to protest, others also have the right “to walk down the street unmolested.”

And unspoken to.

So far, no salarymen have been molested. A few women were corralled and pepper sprayed, and about 700 people were cuffed and hauled off, but they were just protesters. Everyone knows that those people don’t have the right to walk down the street unmolested.

For the record, Mayor Bloomberg himself only pulls down an annual salary of $1.00. The People of the Apple are getting one helluva deal on services from him. Of course, former Salomon Brothers equity trader Bloomberg is also a billionaire (with a “B”) which means that the folks on Wall Street just make his coffee any ol’ way he likes it.

That path is greased in both directions. In addition to buying a million bucks worth of new trees for Central Park a few years back, J.P. Morgan Chase recently handed the NYPD $4.6 million for technological upgrades. That’s a year’s salary for 115 honest toilers, struggling to make ends meet in the vineyards of high finance, by Mayor Bloomberg’s calculations.

For that money, I’m frankly disappointed in the NYPD. I mean seriously, those dirty hippies are still there? Douglas MacArthur and George Patton would have driven them out with gas, tanks and fixed bayonets.

Considering that a police officer in New York City can easily pull down $90,000 a year — and that’s before overtime — I expect some more immediate results. Maybe they could use a little backup from Chicago, or St. Paul. At the very least, those jokers at Adbusters should be charged under the Patriot Act with conspiracy to riot and the intent to further terrorism. And hey… aren’t they Canadians? My G-D! It’s a transnational terrorist organization!

Time to break out the Predator drones.