Bloomberg Wants to Kick out the Wall St. Protesters — Can He?

Can he? Maybe! ”You know people have a right to protest but we also have to make sure that people who don’t want to protest can go down the streets unmolested,” billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg said today.

During his weekly appearance on the John Gambling radio show, Bloomberg shed some light on Occupy Wall Street, foremost as a mayor, but inevitably also as a finance and media-world billionaire.

So, as mayor, can he put an end to the protests? Maybe. Occupy Wall Street is currently taking place in Zuccoti Park, also known as Liberty Park, which is privately owned by a commercial real estate company. It is, however, public space, so anyone is free to come and go.

“We have to make sure that while you can say what you want to say, people who want to say something very different have a right to say that as well. That’s what’s great about this country.”

But will he kick them to the curb?

“The right to protest is part of our culture.”‘ he said. But he added, “It’s also true that there are other societal concerns. You’re worried about sanitation and you’re worried about lots of different laws on the books.”

In our opinion, we’d take that as a sign that Bloomberg might peacefully try to put the protests to rest in some sneaky way. Given that Bloomberg is so closely connected to Wall Street and what it represents, he’ll have to be careful about how he goes about it.

TAGS: bloomberg occupy wall street | bloomberg wall street protesters | occupy wall street | wall street protest shut down

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