As part of a “National Day of Disruption” Tuesday morning, Service Employees International Union 32BJ sat down in the middle of Broadway in support of a $15 minimum wage. Joining the other protesters in blocking traffic, four local elected officials — three council members and an assemblyman — took smiling selfies and tweeted about their adventure.
This wasn’t the first time the city’s elected officers played in traffic in order to make a broad political statement. Two years ago, about half the City Council blocked Broadway to protest the death of Eric Garner, after which they marched into City Hall shouting, “I can’t breathe,” before taking their assigned seats and resuming their actual work.
“By definition, civil disobedience isn’t protected under the First Amendment. That’s why you get arrested for it.”
Politicians like to claim that they’re making bold statements of deep commitment when they pull these stunts.
Councilman Brad Lander of Park Slope bragged about the “bravery” of his actions Tuesday, and wrote in The Nation magazine that “getting arrested today is part of a long tradition of civil disobedience, and it takes a little courage.”
Not even close, councilman. In fact, the “long tradition” of civil disobedience Lander claims to be part of has always entailed some risk to one’s safety, freedom or even life. Gandhi, Martin Luther King and their followers were routinely beaten up and imprisoned.
Brad Lander, who gets arrested about once a year, faces no such hazard, and he knows it: NYPD officers are told in advance when elected officials are staging a demonstration, and they are handled softly, and quickly processed and released. For instance, when Lander was arrested in 2015 for blocking traffic outside a Brooklyn car wash, he was able to report his experience on his personal blog within “a few minutes.”
Councilman Mark Levine of Washington Heights said that a $15 minimum wage “is a cause worth getting arrested for.” So I asked him what penalties he faced after being arrested. “Penalties?” he replied, smiling. “I spent a couple hours at Central Booking and got a DAT [Desk Appearance Ticket].”
Assemblyman Francisco Moya of Queens tweeted the morning of the protest, “#Fightfor15, no matter the risk.”
Except, of course, there was no risk — at least to him: Moya received kid-glove treatment from the NYPD and was sent on his way, along with a souvenir photo of him surrounded by a dozen cops gently cuffing him. Ditto for Councilman Antonio Reynoso, who only a few months ago led a mob in shutting down a public hearing over a housing development he opposes.
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito wasn’t at this particular protest, but she spoke approvingly...
Read the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Seth Barron is project director of the Manhattan Institute’s NYC Initiative. He blogs about New York City politics at City Council Watch.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post