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Saturday, October 22, 2011

Who stole the OWS drums? HMM?

  So we've been reading various reports about the brouhaha over drums in the OWS NY campsite. NY Mag:

As the protest has grown, some of the occupiers have spontaneously taken charge on projects large and small. But many of the people in Zuccotti Park aren't taking direction well, leading to a tense Thursday of political disagreements, the occasional shouting match, and at least one fistfight.
It began, as it so often does, with a drum circle. The ten-hour groove marathons weren’t sitting well with the neighborhood’s community board, the ironically situated High School of Economics and Finance that sits on the corner of Zuccotti Park, or many of the sleep-deprived protesters.
  On Thursday, the drummers presented their case to the "fascist" local Community Board meeting. NRO was there:
A quietly hilarious video from yesterday’s Community Board meeting at the New York State Assembly, in which a representative of the Occupy Wall Street movement explains the new “consensed” (which isn’t a word, however hard he tries to make it one) policy on drumming. 
  Though at this board meeting the occupier claims they only had 4 hours a day set aside for drumming, others disagreed.  The meeting was so jammed with people that residents were stuffed out the doors. NY Post:
Board member Paul Cantor said that residents are fed up with the incessant racket that emanates from the protest at all hours. "It's mostly a noise issue," he said. If people can't sleep and children can't sleep because the protesters are banging drums then that's a problem."
"They have to have some parameters," said Tricia Joyce, also a board member. "That doesn't mean the protests have to stop. I'm hoping we can strike a balance on parameters because this could be a long term stay."
  Here's the video with commentary from NRO:
A quietly hilarious video from yesterday’s Community Board meeting at the New York State Assembly, in which a representative of the Occupy Wall Street movement explains the new “consensed” (which isn’t a word, however hard he tries to make it one) policy on drumming.
 
  But there's more to this story.
 The drone of repeated drumming had apparently taken on such a significant part of the protesters' culture on site and the loonies protesters were making so much racket with their drums so often that one of the neighbors somebody STOLE the drums.
  Then when the drummers, who saw themselves as having a mission and purpose to their community of whiners protesters, begged their leaders to split some of the $450,000 cash they've received in donations to buy new drums, they were turned down, by consensus.
  In fact, at the "General Assembly" meeting of the occupiers the night before, there had been quite a ruckus over the drumming dilemma. Gothamist:
 Last night's General Assembly meeting in Zuccotti Park was "one of most contentious ever," in large part due to a heated debate over whether the drummers at Occupy Wall Street should be given $8,000 from the movement's coffers to buy more drums and equipment. It seems some of the drums were stolen or vandalized, and the drummers asked the General Assembly to help them regroup."We have worked for you! Appreciate us," one drummer told the crowd, but the appeal was denied, and the Huff Post's Craig Kanalley tweeted, "Drummer who didn't get money from GA tonight now yelling, cursing at members of GA." Meanwhile, another member of the drum corps was lashing out at the Community Board meeting.
  So things deteriorated from there when the general assembly refused the cash to the drummers. Promptly the race card was thrown out as the explanation:
"I am an occupier, I am a drummer, and, despite what they say, I am also a human being," Ashley Love, a young member of the OWS People of Color Working Group, told the packed Community Board meeting last night. .....The majority of the drummers are people of color with low-income or no-income backgrounds, and Wall Street was built by slaves when they brought the Africans over here. The council people back then prohibited drumming because it was a way of protesting. It was a way of communication. And I just think you guys are scapegoating us." 
  So there ya go. All is not well in LaLa Land.
  The mystery is...who REALLY stole $8000 worth of drums? The neighbors or the protesters? 
  Hmmmmm????

2 comments:

  1. I would have never guessed that drumming was so important. The fact that it can be a contentious topic shows the level of maturity this group has attained. It's almost like some need that was never addressed in special ed.

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  2. I think it's sort of a tribal thing, which is sort of like everything else they're doing. Like making their own money, their own "law enforcement."

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