For Bloomberg and NYPD, it's Just Business

Since OWS started, The Bag has been interested in the symbolism of the business suit as the uniform of the bankers, the Wall Street elite, the 1%, but also the NYC government and NYPD movers-and-shakers. (Remember, for instance, this shot of the suits propping up the cop outside the Stock Exchange way back on September 19th?) In this case, the fact it’s a member of the NY Police force choking this protester, as opposed to some other power suit, feels almost — after Tuesday’s crackdown — like a distinction without a difference.

And then, can you imagine anything more classic than this second view of the same scene I discovered frozen as a pop-up  on the Bloomberg site juxtaposed with the Bloomberg brand and the Wall Street ticker? Did someone say: the writing’s on the wall?

And then, just to punctuate the reality while flipping the uniform symbolism 180º in the opposite direction, this is retired Philly Police Department Captain Ray Lewis outside Zuccotti Park yesterday morning after NYPD had done their thing.

(photo 1 & 2: Mary Altaffer/AP caption: New York City police officers keeps a demonstrator affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement from entering Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15, 2011 in New York. photo 3: Mario Tama/Getty Images. caption: Retired Philadelphia Police Department Captain Ray Lewis (L) stands outside Zuccotti Park after police removed the Occupy Wall Street protesters from the park early in the morning on November 15, 2011 in New York City. Hundreds of protesters, who rallied against inequality in America, have slept in tents and under tarps since September 17 in Zuccotti Park, which has since become the epicenter of the global Occupy movement. The raid in New York City follows recent similar moves in Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon.)