From Revolution Books in New York City
October 31, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
One of our correspondents found out the limits of what is permitted by police:
"I was driving around with a GOPRO camera mounted on my car to get some footage of the hurricane, it was not terribly bad in my area yet. We were on local streets, then decided to get on the highway for one exit toward entrance of the Whitestone Bridge, where there was a blockade. [A cop stopped us and] said he'd seen us driving around 10 times already with the same camera mounted on our car and we couldn't do this. We couldn't go over the bridge with the camera on, we told him we were getting off at the exit before the bridge. Then they told us to go home. Not entire a scary situation, but none the less a little rattling."
From Staten Island, someone called to say there is no power on the whole island. It's cold and dark, very little is open, no internet, and no gas so it's very hard to get around. National Guard is everywhere, standing around while the people themselves are doing the work to clear trees.
A supervisor at an emergency shelter complained to a volunteer that "these are homeless people, not real people that were evacuated because of the storm." In other words, the homeless should stay homeless.
Watching the dozens of houses burning out at Breezy Point reminded one person of Katrina:
"In New Orleans whole poor neighborhoods got washed away, people died in their burning houses in a water land. But if one millionaire's house gets damaged or ransacked (God forbid that some property falls into the 'wrong' hands, the lament will be huge.")
The mandatory evacuation of "Zone A" -- areas in high risk of flooding -- continues, even though the water has receded. Meanwhile we are repeatedly assured that the New York Stock Exchange has suffered no damage and will soon be up and running.
Friday evening you are invited to come by Revolution Books for a wide-ranging discussion of the Hurricane Sandy disaster and the upcoming election. As a part of this, we will be listening to a recent recording of Bob Avakian speaking on the election.
The Revolution Books staff
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