While the rest of us working straight-laced men were trying to get to the office to keep our jobs and pay our ever-increasing bills, a group of privileged extremists were busy with almost every move in and out of Manhattan during Monday rush hour. The artery was blocked.
For several hours, unnecessary chaos erupted in the Big Apple.
Chains of anti-Israel agitators crouched in front of bridges and tunnels, stopping traffic and trapping commuters.
The chaos caused walled-off New Yorkers to lean on their horns, creating a symphony of discontent throughout the city.
In the so-called “Shut Down for Palestine” fiasco, police arrested 325 demonstrators, many of them with their faces hidden and masked to avoid personal and professional repercussions.
But once their names were released, the list, unsurprisingly, looked like the open casting call for the reality show Portlandia. Or dance with the democratic socialists of America. ”
A paint-by-numbers band made up of overeducated members from lecture classes. I'm so embarrassed because I'm the usual suspect.
A Fulbright scholar, an Ivy League graduate, multiple New York University graduate students, a poet who identifies as non-binary, a filmmaker for HBO and Netflix, and an out-of-towner who gave police his home addresses in Georgia and Florida. There were also protesters.
But what about the gender and sexuality teacher who lives in a $1.2 million Prospect Heights condo? Meet Ann Holder, a veteran protester who teaches at Pratt University.
Then there's Eli Coplan, a 31-year-old artist whose work is on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art. His parents have a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio in Colorado and California, and he enjoys dressing up as Marie Antoinette, at least according to Instagram.
Wealthy Oscar winner Susan Sarandon cheered on her fellow activists for a little Hollywood glamor.
The cliché remains the same. The perfect demonstrator bingo card.
I think the union electricians couldn't participate because they had to actually go to work. If only they could get there.
In other words, the only time these people's hands got dirty was when they ran into tires filled with concrete, so cops would have a hard time handcuffing them to tires.
Ney Idris, 25, a graduate student at New York University who received a degree from Columbia University, was also taken away. She highlighted the October 7 massacre the next day, addressing a crowd in Times Square: “This was the beginning of our victory.” ”
That was after she used her job in the New York University Library's mailroom to write “fk” above the word Israel on discarded Israeli mail bags. That's what an Ivy League degree teaches you.
Ilana Kruger Zaken, who lives in South Salem, Westchester, took time out of her busy schedule to study the Judeo-Neo-Aramaic dialect of northeastern Kurdistan at New York University to study a large group organized by six radical anti-Israel groups. Participated in large-scale chaos.
“And I'll do it again,” the esoteric scholar boasted on Instagram.
Kruger Zaken's point is correct. Because the prosecutors who hate prosecutors will probably give them hugs and high fives.
They were issued citations for disorderly conduct for shutting down the city and endangering people within miles. He was released without bail and was repeatedly invited to public humiliation.
This is just the latest stunt for the self-absorbed anti-Israel agitator.
They blocked travelers from entering JFK Airport, barricaded the Manhattan Bridge over Thanksgiving weekend, and violently attempted to shut down the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center.
This time, their goal was to create an environment similar to life in Gaza and give us New Yorkers an idea of what life is like under lockdown. Of course, that only made people angry.
The only hero of the day was a man who got out of his car and pushed the protesters aside, shouting that he had to take his daughter to Brooklyn, adding that they were breaking the law.
We all cheered at his act of defiance. At least New York's trademark gritty fighting spirit is still alive and well.
Fortunately, it didn't escalate into actual violence. But it's clear that this will end in tears, injury, or death. Someone is going to get hurt, and it's going to be a headache for both the protesters and the authorities.
Give them something to display next to their fancy college degree. Mugshots and criminal rap sheets.
