Bloomberg Blasts OWS Protesters For Handling Of Alleged Rape

Mayor Bloomberg in happier times, at last year's Inner Circle Show (NYC Mayor's Office)

Every day, Mayor Bloomberg seems to be getting angrier and angrier at Occupy Wall Street protesters, whether it's because they're ruining tourism, making a mess, or hurting families. Today, he chastised OWS for how they handled the situation with the kitchen worker who was arrested for sexual abuse in the Zuccotti Park tents yesterday. Bloomberg was furious about a report that demonstrators kicked the man out of the park instead of calling police: "If this is in fact happening—and it's very hard to get good information—it is despicable. I think it is outrageous and it really allows the criminal to strike again making all of us less safe."

26-year-old Tonye Iketubosin of Crown Heights allegedly raped an 18-year-old woman from Massachusetts early Saturday morning, and sexually assaulted another 18-year-old woman on October 25th at the park. According to Beau Sibbing, a Wisconsin resident who has been working in the kitchen at Zuccotti Park for the past three weeks, Iketubosin was banned from the park after word spread of the allegations; but he kept showing up, and on Tuesday night, "a whole bunch of people came and made him leave the park. Then the NYPD picked him up. I wasn't sure if it was for his own safety or if he was being arrested."

The mayor called the occupiers' version of vigilante justice "disturbing," and was asked if he was "very" concerned about the practice: "'Very' understates it. It is a very high priority. We have an obligation to protect everybody in the city." He added that recent developments have left Brookfield Properties, who owns the park, "very concerned" about what's happening there: "They are clearly worried about their liability and we are dealing with them all the time," he said.

Yesterday, after a group of lower Manhattan politicians petitioned him to crack down on quality-of-life infractions. Bloomberg told reporters that OWS was wearing out its welcome, and "no one should think that we won't take actions that we think are appropriate when we think they are appropriate."

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By Ben Yakas in News on November 3, 2011 2:10 PM

Comments [rss]

izzy isou

But he was just cuddling with them, and letting them know the evils of alcohol.

Guest

What amazes me is that the very same people that accuse people of blindly sticking up for the police are blindly sticking up for OWS. The victim deserved cops, nurses and ADAs that are specially trained in interviewing victims, collecting and processing evidence and interrogating perpetrators. She needed the full weight of the criminal justice system behind her. Instead, she was denied that and given some fucking mickey mouse people's mediation committee staffed by people who may have worked at their community college's peer counseling office and who's focus first last and always was to protect OWS.

"But...but...but....RAPE COP!" has NOTHING to do with this and show the depth and breadth of the twisted and childsh thinking of some of you. Awful, just fucking awful.

dmanstar

you watch too much SVU

Amber

More than half of rape victims don't report their attack. Not to say that this girl didn't clearly need a doctor—and I doubt OWS dissuaded her from seeking medical help—but there are a million reasons why the majority of rape victims don't trust the police or the legal system. That is not an issue contained within OWS, however, but the larger societal factors surrounding rape culture.

I would be interested in hearing if the victim actually DID want to report it to the police, and OWS suggested against it, or if the victim chose to not deal with the police in the first place (which is more likely). Obviously it's her choice, and it's a very personal decision. But you're right—the whole situation is fucking awful.

Guest

Or more likely - was dissuaded by her OWS handlers lest OWS look bad.

And again - she deserved people who would immediately act on her complaint. She deserved people who were trained in handling her special situation. She deserved proper counselling and aftercare. She deserved to be fucking advocated for, not have her fucking rape complaint mediated.

She deserved FAR better than the re-victimization an official working group of OWS gave her.

red_velvet27

No, she deserves better than the re-victimization YOU are willing to put her through just to get some peace of mind.

Amber

Did you just completely miss my first paragraph? Blindly ignoring global statistics doesn't help your argument much. As a rape victim, I'm trying to give you some insight into why the majority of victims do not report their attacks. It happens most of the time and obviously has nothing to do with OWS.

I mean, I get what you're trying to say—all rape victims deserve those things. But the truth is that hardly any of them get it, and going to the police, with our current legal system, probably wouldn't have brought her the justice she deserves (for example, there are at least 180,000 untested rape kits sitting in labs across the country right now). If you want to talk about re-victimization, please, look at what happens during a rape case in trial. To put the blame on OWS is just agenda-driven bullshit and if you actually cared about advocating for the girl, you should be criticizing the system that she (most likely) CHOSE not to report her rape to.

Also, I seriously doubt that OWS is denying her the opportunity to seek counseling or medical attention. These are human beings, not animals.

Guest

All the arguments in the world aren't worth a shred of humanity - I am sorry if my words or the feelings behind them you put you in a bad place.

remyngtin

he looks like the OWS homeless .... I mean , hopeless

Guest

Good to see we all got down to the real point of the story - bashing the cops. Awesome critical thinking skills.

patrick whalen

Let's see a billionaire mayor buys his way into an illegal third term is now upset by poverty stricken Americans clogging up his billionaire friends neighborhood. Sounds about right.

jfu222

Cops wouldn't even show up after one of the Park Slope sex attack incidents (could have gotten a fingernail scrape) .. one of the earlier ones before they were scolded.

mistermarkdavis

I'm mad at Bloomberg for having a police force we can't trust

TheRealCannibal

What the hell am I looking at? is it the end of the world already or did someone slip some acid in my tea?

LICnative

Instead of "mediating", they should have beat his ass and left the body for the police to figure out.
Rapists are the world's scum.

theevilerone

Well, some people wanted to beat him, but when the resolution came up at General Assembly, there were not enough Twinkle Fingers to pass the motion. Instead, they voted to have him write about it in his Feelings Journal.

xXxMExXx

PLEASE let these fools stay in the park (and elsewhere), rape, and riot. Nobody can show what a bunch of horrible dumbasses they are better than themselves.