The horse occupation must end (OWS supporter hates on mounted police)

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ^ | Thursday, December 22 2011 | Mary Joan Cunningham

[presidio9]

More than three months after it began, the Occupy Wall Street movement has increased discourse on class disparity and the role of corporations in American life. But here in downtown Manhattan, the social movement is also yielding a whole lot of crap. Literally.

Defecating with impunity on Wall St. is what the media said the protesters were doing. But from my vantage point, the perpetrators are animals owned by the Police Department, who are still allowed to defecate in our neighborhood with impunity.

Even though OWS protesters were forcibly evicted from their settlement in Zuccotti Park long ago, the NYPD still regularly dispatches its mounted unit to Wall St., producing bottlenecks, ill will and, most offensive of all, manure. The only thing occupying Wall Street nowadays is the NYPD.

And although that occupation has eased up somewhat, the issue of horse manure will remain long after OWS enters history — on Dec. 9, the Daily News reported that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly plans to buy more horses for his cops in the near future. That’s bad news for anyone who has to walk these malodorous streets.

As a resident of lower Manhattan, I see four-legged members of the NYPD stationed on Wall St. between William and Broad Sts. on a nearly daily basis — still! Although I understand their original purpose, I am tired of their leaving behind mounds of manure that last for days.

Unlike responsible dog owners, the NYPD doesn’t clean up immediately after its equine partners. Multiple piles (at its worst, up to five at a time), each approximately 2 feet in diameter, create significant obstacles on a narrow street already crowded with holiday tourists, tour groups, residents, food vendors and office workers. On a day when the stench was especially potent, one passerby mentioned, “It smells like I’m back in Kentucky.” That was not an exaggeration.

My Texan parents live on a ranch, so I am not squeamish about manure, but crowded city streets are supposed to be different. Shoveling up and spraying down usually takes hours upon hours, and even then it will hardly be a clean sweep due to the unevenness of cobblestoned streets.

Mayor Bloomberg points an accusatory finger at the OWS movement for unforeseen costs the city has had to pay for the increased police force. But even if he makes an adequate case for a barricaded lockdown of lower Manhattan — and I don’t think he does; nor do most of my fellow residents of Wall St. — does that mean that the most basic principles of sanitation go out the window?

And what’s the purpose of the horses downtown, anyway? Law enforcement agencies do occasionally use horses for crowd control, but the NYPD has much more sophisticated tools, like “sound cannons,” at its disposal when it comes to controlling or dispering large crowds.

During the fever pitch of the raucous two-month anniversary march back down to Wall St., I stood across from the New York Stock Exchange watching cops in riot gear haul protesters away. Meanwhile, their mounted counterparts did nothing but position themselves in front of the George Washington statue, making a stately photo op. Unless the city starts paying for their presence from its tourism budget, it’s time for them to go.

So, Dear Mayor, if you care about costs to the city, send the horses back to their stalls and have a cleanup crew leave the street the way it was before the NYPD’s fine steeds defecated all over it. And if you care about your residents, go after those who really soiled Wall St.: the financial institutions.

[ozzymandus]

Horse hater? That’s new. Where’s PETA?

[DTogo]

Sounds very natural, organic and “green.” Why the backlash?

[Argus]

Hey OWS, the hindquarters of a single noble police horse are worth more than all you fleabaggers put together.

[Interesting Times]

I don’t know which is funnier: that this OWS dimbulb took the time to write a letter whining about poopy horses, or that the New York Daily News actually published it.

[driftless2]

Given the anti-technology attitude of the Owsies (verbally if not literally), you’d think they’d love horses. More horses, more horse manure, more material to make methane. More disease too, but looking at how the Owsies have been living, worrying about disease does not seem to bother them much.

[presidio9]

Protesters hate mounted police for one simple reason: They are effective. This article, including the suggestion that OWS was effective, is a strong indication of Miss Cunningham's tolerance (even affinity) for horsesh-it. Having worked downtown for over a decade myself, I can testify to the fact that "nature's little packages" typically eviscerated by thousands of car tires in a couple of hours. As long as Miss Cunningham and her hippie friends stay on the sidewalk, like a normal, considerate, law abiding citizens, the two groups need never come into contact.

My favorite part about this article was where she suggested that the idea of OWSers crapping on the sidewalk, and police cars, and each other (if they were German) was some sort of media frame job.

[Portcall24]

One should expect a large jump in the mule population in NYC soon...between the asses in the OWS and the horses in the NYPD.

[goat granny]

Shovel horse bisquits up and put it in your flower bed...they will love it. Human feces are good for nothing. stink like the dickens and if done in public what does one wipe with and what do they do with the used toilet paper....no wonder disease is one of the problems with these idiots..

[A_Former_Democrat]

What? They all haven’t moved back into Mommy’s basement?

[elcid1970]

I do hope the NYPD mounted police are already well aware that their horses are an environmental weapon against the OWS squatlings. No flying hooves needed, they just lift their tails and do what’s necessary though the earthy scent of fresh manure has to be an improvement over mass human stink.

Was this article actually written by scrappleface?

[elcid1970]

Miss Mary Joan should have walked through city streets in Manhattan just a century ago.

[circlecity]

Is this chick really saying that OWSers shouldn’t be held to any higher standard of behavior than we expect of horses? Horses do it so it’s OK if they do it? Really?

[oneamericanvoice]

Well, the guy has a point. But it’s funny that he didn’t complain about the OWS crowd, or the before them when there were, undoubtedly, problems from the homeless.

Wonder if Bloomberg can buy some horses that were headed for Obama’s slaughter houses.

[1rudeboy]

What is an “Obama slaughter house?”

[Redcitizen]

OWS shouted themselves hoarse.

[Crapgame]

Our mounted unit carries lined saddlebags just for cleaning up after their mounts. Wonder why NYPD doesn’t? No matter, what this sniveling lib’rul is really bent out of shape about, is she is scared silly by the thought of having one of her demonstrations being broken up by a mounted police unit. I’ve been in riot situations and seen up close what mounted officers can do to break up a crowd. Think parting the Red Sea....

[Argus]

I was fortunate, a few years back, to spend some time with the NYPD Mounted unit in lower Manhattan, and got a closeup look at their operations. A lot of outsiders have the impression they’re just for show, but on the contrary, they are real police and All Business.

[oneamericanvoice]

Obama lifted the ban on the slaughter of horses, ergo the slaughter houses are Obamas.

[1rudeboy]

That’s why I’m not seeing your point: it is probably the one thing he has gotten correct.