The 20th Anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park riots was celebrated over the weekend with two days of punk rock, pot smoking, rabble rousing and slam dancing. (Potty-mouth video.) According to Neither More Nor Less, they “slammed with a physical intensity that TSP has not seen in many years. Someone threw $1000 in dollar bills to the crowd and this crowd of celebrants burned the dollar bills. The celebrants also burned a flag; being polyester it mostly melted in flaming gobs.” A reader (“Shadow”) sent us this photo, and noted that the commanding officer of the 9th precinct, Dennis DeQuatro, “looked the other way” as it was burned. (Two years ago a constitutional amendment to make flag burning illegal failed by one vote in the Senate.)
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Losers of the world, unite! And putz around ... and ... eh ... smoke a jay ... and ... ah
oh wow man look at us we're anarchists...z z z z z z z z zzzzzz
If these people weren't stoned/drunk kids that refuse to grow up, this might have been a step in the right direction.
Too many condos, hipsters, and a recession... someone should be getting pissed off.
Everyone is jaded by everything. It's too bad.
boring.
lets say your average anti-constitutional nazi (like president-of-vice Dick"dickhead" Cheny) sees a flag burning and gets angry and has a stroke and his brain explodes.
just one brain exploding.
thats all i'm asking for.
then... our work here will be done.
How ironic.
They should go to China and burn the Chinese flag, see how far that gets them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTmGMkZ0vbo&fmt=18
not flag burning but from the same story book
ahh, sorry, the video got posted in the story.
Who threw the $1000 in dollar bills? The protesters (by having it part of their protest)? Or by the gentrifiers, by being antagonistic and boasting that they \have $1000 to just throw away?
These concerts in TSP this weekend made me happy to see the punk movement still has momentum.
Burned $1000, that's 1/3rd of my rent. These people are so thoughtless.
I mean really.
How hard is it really to go to another country and burn the American flag there? I don't get the point of living in a country if you don't like it that much.
Throwing away $1,000, eh? Must be nice to be from Chappaqua and have a trust fund with which to be "RADICAL!" Way to subvert the dominant paradigm, assholes. Why not take $1,000 and donate it to needle exchanges? There's a good crust punk cause and it would be a better use of the money.
I think pooping on it makes a better statement but I don't know if that's covered under the amendment.
The flag burning was only one small part of the show. As for the $ 1,000 being thrown, it was actually part of Leftover Crack's "marketing".
The $1,000 was marked w/a web address. And thrown out into the crowd with an explanation via megaphone. It's essentially cheaper than printing up fliers! It was a clever way to get it out there.
Yes, a very small amount of the money was burned. It was a statement; a symbolic gesture.
Let's face it, the dollar is plummeting everywhere. Consumerism is rampant here and all across the U.S. Communities are divided and corporations are competing w/each other to see who can divide and conquer small businesses the fastest. And at the end of the day, no one can deny that it IS a piece of paper that people are killing each other over.
Some of the kids may make it only about the show, and of course the flag buring is going to be the only item that's going to make mainstream media. But there are activists who stay vigilant and are working 365 days out of the year, not just for a big show in the park w/signs as yelling. Plus the alternative/underground press is definitely alive and well, and has worked hard to bring context, meaning and history to these shows commemorating the riots.
its a future south park episode, but they burn kenny by mistake cause they're too stoned and he dies
#17- It's also a piece of paper that nets you things like food and medicine.
I love it. Good to see that good old fashioned NY anarchy still exists in this day of conformist idiots.
# 19, I know I'm going to regret responding more than once to post, but I want to say that
yes, of course you can buy food and medicine with it. The point of burning it was to emphasize our DEPENDENCE on the "almighty" dollar.
The dollar "nets" us things? Interesting word choice.
You can take that dollar and buy food from a local business you want to support. That "medicine" you buy doesn't have to be from a big pharmaceutical company. It can purchased from a local business, it can even be in the form of herbs from the health food store.
We use dollars in our day to day life, but we have POWER of that piece of paper, it shouldn't have power over us. Remember: every dollar is a vote!
We should all just try to do what we can to help out.
So burning that money was just another symbolic act of commodity fetish destruction like Wendy O. Williams blowing up a car and a T.V. on the Tomorrow Show. Trouble is, she did that in 1980. Can we say "stale"?
If these protestors are such losers and have no life, what does that say about the whining posters on Gothamists who accuse them of being 'losers' and 'having no life'?
This is a case worse than the pot calling the kettle black.
At least the demonstrators enjoyed themselves and got attention.
Those who mock them are giving them the very attention that they desire. So it seems that they are the winners and the haters are the losers.
Say what you want about the people in Tompkins this weekend. But at least they are passionate enough about something to go out into the world and actually DO something - which is more than can be said about people who just sit on their ass and write a blog comment on the internet. Their is no cloistered virtue.
At least the demonstrators enjoyed themselves and got attention.
I enjoy myself by commenting on their stupidity, and I don't need to get attention.
Those who mock them are giving them the very attention that they desire. So it seems that they are the winners and the haters are the losers.
Getting attention doesn't take talent or intelligence. I'd notice a baby cry, or a homeless person asking for change.
If the motive for getting my attention was for me to think "gee, that sounds pretty pointless and stupid and lame," they succeeded. They win. Congratulations.
Burning a flag is constitutionally legal, as I think it should be. However, these people seem like total tools and the Secret Service should investigate and arrest the people who were burning the money. That IS illegal.
"There is one thing worse than being talked about - Not being talked about."
--Oscar Wilde
The worst protest is still better than all the well-behaved apathy we have in our city and country. I'm not in favor of burning the American flag myself, because I see it as representing our country rather than our government, but those that believe otherwise have a right to burn whatever flags they wish, so long as it interferes with no one else's rights. I'm sorry I wasn't there. I would have really enjoyed seeing Team Spider play. RIP Zak!
I think the verdict is still up in the air as to whether the blogs lead to great political participation, or participation that leads to outcomes. It seems to me that in previous decades, when orgazinizg was more difficult (ie not as easy as setting up a mailing list, or a webpage) when you actually, hat to pound the pavement, raise money for mailings, and go out and meet people in person and have physical relationships to hold an organization of a movement together, you had much more committment from people involved because they had to invest som much more into it for it to be successful. I feel that the internet/blogs saps away energy that would otherwise be directed towards really accomplishing things. THis isn't a fully formed idea, you can sure;y find holes in it. But it's a hunch that I'm a afraid is increasingly true... any thoughts?
I think it's time we privatize TSP. Maybe a $200 annual membership? Just a small fee that would keep the riff raff out. These losers may have hung out there 20 years ago, but surely it is our park now. I'm getting tired of sharing it with even the few degenerate hangers on who somehow manage to still live in Manhattan.
Calling it the "20th Anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park riots" makes it seem like something official (since you capitalized the word "anniversary"), and also as if the 1988 riot was the only riot to ever have taken place in Thompson Square Park. It would be more appropriate to state that they commemorated (not celebrated) the anniversary of the 1988 riots in Tompkins Square Park -- just to be specific. There were many riots and protests in that park over the centuries. The 1874 riot is more well-known, but there were numerous others.
Correction: I meant to write "the anniversary of the 1988 riot in Tompkins Square Park" -- not riots.
I second the privatization idea. No one seems to have a problem with that park in Gramercy being locked and only for people who actually belong in the neighborhood (i.e. those who can AFFORD to live there). I can't stand to see my spaces that I am paying top dollar to have easy access to used by scumbags who wouldn't even be able to live within a mile of the place if I weren't subsidizing their rent. These are the 00's. Money talks and BS walks.
#17-- Look, I am tired of consumerism, too. The herbs over medicine thing is a different battle, so I'll let it sit.
But here's my point: Go ahead and burned a flag. When I was younger I burned a flag or two. Truth be told I think it's more an impediment to having your message really heard than it is helpful, but go ahead. My father's first civic lesson to me as a child was that a flag has no value if you can't burn it.
As for the money, which is what actually offends me: I have no love for money qua money, and my argument is a bit more involved than one can buy food or medicine with it. My argument is this: this concert will not undo all that is ugly about American crass consumerism and late global capitalism. Money will still be the means for change, and its redistribution in whatever small gesture will do more for the commonweal than its destruction. This is not a gesture for change or a gesture to provide help, this is a statement that says the persons partaking are more interested in gaining attention for it than they are in actually helping or changing anything. So, in that regard, they're burning money in TSP (surrounded by hundreds of people who already agree with them and their world view) has no greater impact on the world than my proclaiming, on the internet, that it's an empty statement.
Of course instead of burning the money they could have donated it to charity -- whether that means an actual charitable organization or giving it to a bum on the street, well...
I can understand why burning some bills might offend those with an unhealthy relationship with the almighty dollar. What you are failing to understand is once you decide to operate outside of the bounds of capitalism, the symbols of the capitalist system lose their meaning. At least when we're taking about this type of human scale. For example, some commenters assume $1000 would be better spent funding some type of charity which operates within the wasteful confines of capitalist bureaucracy. Let's say this charity provides shelter for the homeless. It is difficult to quantify how much good this particular sum would do when funneled into such a well meaning charity organization. But it is readily apparent to those who understand the mental prison this capitalist society forces us to live in that shelter is free for the taking. But it must be fought for. And it is a constant battle. From time to time symbolic gestures are necessary to reinforce ideologies.
Don't kid yourself, punk. The greatest ongoing destruction of capital occurs daily at the NYSE. Last week, they "burned" nearly a trillion dollars worth of capitalization. And they didn't camp out with the bums and the freaks to do that. They are paid handsomely to wipe each other out.
MackP, I'm sorry but your arguments are totally ideological without a hint of pragmatism. Tell me how well living outside the confines of capitalism is working for you and for everyone else? For how long is squatting a sustainable lifestyle? For how long is dumpster diving for freegan food do-able?
Look, I know, in your mind I'm just brainwashed by my capitalist masters, or whatever, but I swear to you I am nothing if not an earnest progressive as eager for change as you are, I've just grown to be much more pragmatic. As Vonnegut said about his book Slaughterhouse-Five, if it were an anti-war book it would be as effective as an anti-glacier book. Being against wars in general is as effective as being against glaciers. The same thing goes for money and capitalism. I dare you to single handedly take down this glacier. There is no going back to hunter-gatherer society. You can't put sausage backwards through the meat grinder and get a pig again. (Or, perhaps, more apropos one can't put a veggie burger backwards through the whatever it is one makes veggie burgers with and get tofu and brown rice again.)
So, why fight an impotent fight of principle when one could fight a pragmatic fight that might actually help someone? Needle exchanges, condom distribution, donations to Food Not Bombs...all these things would DIRECTLY impact members of this very community to a greater degree than making a empty statement while burning a dollar bill or a flag, for that matter.
You're in a hurricane with an umbrella of self-righteousness to protect you and you're trying to make your own storm by peeing and yelling. Good luck.
MisterTissue, kudos.
Devastation by Mister Tissue. MackP has been humiliated. I would be surprised if he ever posted in the internet again.