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Everything but the kitchen sink at Occupy Boston tonight
By adamg on Thu, 12/01/2011 - 10:36pm
Sink-seizing police. Video by Bob Plain.
Boston Police tonight activated its emergency-deployment system and brought in officers from across the city to seize a sink Occupy Boston tried to bring in for dish washing. Channel 5 reports three people were arrested during a skirmish over the sink, which comes as city officials claim they need the authority to clear out the encampment in part because of hygiene concerns.
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Comments
But they HATE kitchen sink!
Your tax dollars at work, folks!
BTW - three separate sink ads on this page - woohoo!
What's the matter with a sink?
What's the issue with a sink, you ask? Well, as any real estate broker will tell you, there are things known as "fixtures". When homes are sold, "fixtures" are almost always included - you can't remove a sink, for example, without some heavy-duty tools, but you can remove a refrigerator, simply by unplugging it and rolling it away.
A sink is a permanent fixture.
Like, what you'd have in a home.
Instead of a occupier, you're basically a squatter.
These people might be good with the interpreting the Constitution, but not so good with understanding The Law.
no plumbing permit?
Boston building code also has some idiotic regulations forbidding anyone except a licensed plumber from performing any and all plumbing work, including installing or changing a kitchen sink. They should have pulled a permit and hired a licensed plumber at $250/hr. Or they will just improvise like the rest of us...
"idiotic"?
You know that if they didn't have this regulation, someone would cause a huge flood in an apartment building because they thought they could DIY it.
Beside the point though.
Last apartment I lived in my
Last apartment I lived in my next door neighbor hired a buddy to fix his plumbing. Guess who lost water pressure? We did. Building management sent someone out to figure out why we had no pressure and finally got the neighbor to confess he hired a friend to do illegal plumbing work which caused a leak in the building. It was a pain in the ass for us since management initially claimed that the lack of pressure in our unit was our problem and we'd have to pay for it to be fixed.
i am not against permits
I am not against the requirement of having to obtain a plumbing permit and having the work inspected. I am against the requirement of having to hire a licensed plumber to do the work, even if the work is relatively trivial (like changing a kitchen sink). As a home owner, I should be able to obtain a permit to replace my kitchen sink and have it inspected, as is done in many other states. But not here. In Mass, one has to pay several hundred dollars to a licensed plumber replace a $99 sink...
I can also present you with plenty of anecdotal examples of "illegal" work performed very well (maybe as high as 30% of single family homes in Boston) and plenty of examples of shoddy licensed and inspected work.
They can't, it's against their principles
at $250 an hour - even after deducting business expenses, that would easily make plumbers part of the 1% - and it would look bad if they hired part of the 1% to do the work of the 99%!
They're whole cause seems a bit silly when you consider that applications to BPD are droppping (and probably none of the Occupiers applied) and most of the cops guarding them are also easily making 6 figures and possibly a lot more. If they were to marry another cop that would make them a 1%er too.
Not likely
The wall street journal did a calculation and you essentially need to earn $500,000 a year (for a single person, more if you're a family) to be in the top 1%.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/10/19/what-per...
Boston globe says that some of the highest paid cops earn 250K, which isn't even close.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/art...
Why do you think so many union laborers are active in the Occupy movement? They're well paid as labor goes, and they're no where near the 1% I bet.
But but but ...
Joe the Plumber! Yeah - him!
You are mostly right
I'm sure your $500k number is accurate - I was thinking more along the "tax the rich" lines of anyone making over $250k. However, that number is household income - which does includes family income.
I stopped and asked a protesting union carpenter one time how much he made hourly - and while I can't recall the exact figure he gave me I muttered - wow - that's more than a teacher with a master's degree makes and walked away before he and his buddies beat the crap out of me.
Note that at $250k you are in the top 4% - easily achievable if two boston cops were married. Didn't enter the numbers but $200k is probably around top 10% - achievable for two married firefighters and $150k is probably top 20% - achievable for union labor around here. May not get you the tophat and tails and invites to Bob Kraft and John Henry's charity fundraisers - but a pretty good gig for a high school education or less.
bottom line - at least around here the occupista message is falling mostly on deaf ears.
At last look on Wikipedia
At last look on Wikipedia before you start spurting off numbers...
As I was reading your comment, things were reasonable until you start talking about the top 10% and so on. Via wikipedia, a top 20% "Households in the top quintile (i.e., top 20%), 77% of which had two or more income earners, had incomes exceeding $91,705."
If you google around, you'll find the the income is very logarithmic. Below 99%, the income has a notable difference between the bottom 1% versus the 99th percent, but it is all drawfed by those in the top 1%.
Now I guess this can be view as an argument that the Occupy movement is flawed as reaching the 99th isn't merely making $150,000. However, breaking that jumps to $500,000 as an individual (not combined households as above or a married police couple). As you go up a mere .1 more, it jumps to absurd amounts to the millions.
In the overarching principle grievance of Occupy, is based on that disproportional power and subsequent abuse (corporate greed). It is anger about the disproportional influence (things leading to the bailouts) and how government is catering to those people. Money is power and it means the corptocracy we see today. I find that a reasonable thing to be angered about.
The practice of it is what muddles the message. As there is no leader, despite the overarching grievance, much of the movement is muddled by causes of smaller groups it attracts. Bearing it origins of the young and the left. The message gets muddled by things that concerns of the personal sense (like student loans, debt, and longer term career advancement in recessionary society while watching the 1% profit in this time) and the political sense (like LGBT causes). All of this obscures the message and detracts outsiders who can agree about things like the banking industry needs a wash but then get sidetracked by a separate causes being packaged with the movement or the mixed messages (like some argue we need more regulation on them, but others countered regulation only help the big companies).
Teachers can make $70 an hour.
A phys ed teach at top step is going to make $70 an hour in the Boston Public Schools. An English teacher is going to make the same, but will have some "unpaid" work grading papers off the clock.
Union skilled laborers are going to make around $40 an hour and $60 an hour on overtime. I know a large crane operator that makes $74 an hour and over $100 an hour for OT jobs.
Boston cops make about $23 an hour with $32 an hour overtime and $29-$40 for details depending on where they are and what they are for. (Cops also get mandatory pay for working holidays, overnight shift work, and inservice training)
Exactly
Rhonin - sorry you're right - I just got tired of going back and forth to the WSJ page pointed out above so I took what I believed to be a conservative shot at the 10% and 20% numbers - I was TOO conservative- (should've just opened a second browser) - but your stats and those above from Pete just reinforce my point even more strongly- you can do very well around here in almost any line of work, although at present there is definitely a problem finding work, especially for the younger set and most especially for the less educated.
Unfortunately this trend is not the fault of the 1% (and the problem of disproportionate influence of the rich has been true since the beginning of time - that's not going away no matter what you do).
The Occupistas don't need to point out the obvious - they need to come up with some solutions and until they do that they serve no purpose other than destroying and burning public resources that could be put to much better use. I think the TEA Party is a bit extreme - but at least they have a clear simple message-less spending and lower taxes. As you note,the Occupistas have failed in that and their cause will fail as well. "Social justice" isn't all that well defined and most of us aren't unemployed philosophy majors looking for a job buried in a cause.
I can agree that the Occupy
I can agree that the Occupy movement lack direction. They should push to make some kind of change and a sign saying disband Goldman Sachs will not make them do it. Only successfully taking over the government can accomplish that, but I don't see them anointing any political champions. Despite the vulnerabilities of having a leader, the leaderless nature allows it to be muddled by too many causes of individual groups.
On the not the fault of the 1%. I think I failed on explaining exactly what I'm saying.
My personal understanding of the movement is the whole thing basically boils down to the future of the generation. Please understand that I think it more about a decline in quality of life that so subtle that I think most Occupiers don't see it either, most just see the loans and the bailouts. From what I can read of our recent US history, a mere 30 years ago - maybe even 20 years ago, a Bachelor's degree of most subjects meant an Upper Middle Class life with reasonable security. Now it is the basics to keep in the same economic class. Basically, many have to go into more debt and more effort to match what HS Diploma once offered back them. So I think much of the grievance is related to the understanding that while the top 10% patronize Specialty Cupcake Stores in a recession, the new generation faces the possibility that the same career advancement yields a serious decline in income with more debt to boot.
Where the 1% fits in is Wall Street. We watch as 7.7 Trillions dollars is sent to them instead of some kind of punitive consequences for their actions. Yet, their fallout will hit the youngest generation the most. A burnout of putting more work for less reward. So a lot of anger is directed at them. Which I can't really speak against.
I think the Tea Party and OWS at ironically two sides of the same coin. They both based their core issue on the economy. Yet, instead of rallying to each other side, they hate each other. The irony is I think both main points are right. The Tea Party pins their anger at the over-sized debt ridden government, but remain cool with Corporations by their thinking it is some bigger version of a Ma and Pa capitalist general store. OWS see the corrupt corporations as the enemy with hope that the government will swoop in as their ally with new regulations and trust busting. Yet, I think both have a point. The government is highly bought by special interest and corporate lobbyist - a Tea Party style smaller government can hurt those groups by making the government less able to cater. The corporations have no remorse for the country and OWS is right they yield too much influence, but more government is not going to help - they are more likely to work with the corporations rather than an enemy.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but
Only if it's connected to plumbing, no? I don't believe they have plumbing down in Dewey.
"These people might be good
Bwahaha!
oooookay
So, they want to close them down because of hygiene concerns (like not being able to wash things)
and they also won't allow them to bring in the implements to allay those concerns?
And for those concerned with the permanence of "fixtures" it obviously wouldn't qualify, unless they've added supply piping and drains to dewey sq recently... My guess is it's like a boat or RV sink with a bottled water supply and a wastewater tank.
Not a permanent fixture
It was a type of eco-friendly grey water sink designed by some MITers. I don't know the intricate details of how it works, but it utilizes a bottled water system and does not need to be connected to a pipe system. Pretty soon they'll be confiscating the hand sanitizer.
What's the logic?
What possible justification is there to set up a sink in a park? "But we need it" ? Could I set up an unlicensed stove in the middle of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, to serve hungry derelicts and tourists?
The logic is people want to eat off clean plates
I was told that this sink was already there, wasn't hooked up to city water supply (used portaged water), and was part of a three-step sanitizing system (wash/rinse/sanitize) for eating and drinking utensils and plates.
For the city to come in and take the sink less than a day after they claimed to be concerned about health issues shows their hypocrisy. The truth is, the OccupyBoston folks have been doing a fairly good job of keeping the encampment clean and safe, and this is a problem for the people in power that are embarrassed by its message/existence.
Your stove counter-example is a strawman. The practical danger of open flame is obvious. Perhaps you would care to offer some tortured rationalization for how a cleaning station could threaten the immediate safety and well-being of people near to it? Maybe some 6-inch tall protesters would drown if it overturned?
Why didn't they raid The Big Dig?
I seem to remember a fair number of these items around job sites when UMass Lowell was doing worker safety studies. The presence of absence of handwashing facilities was a checklist item.
Note that many cops sleep at construction sites that are so equipped - will they start demanding removal of such facilities there???
This is getting seriously morally repugnant.
A significant portion of the Occupiers are homeless.
That means they have been breaking the law by sleeping outdoors, every night, for months before OccupyBoston began.
And now they break the law by sleeping outdoors at Dewey Square.
Clearing them out amounts to saying "go break the law where it won't bother people with the mayor's home phone number."
Agree or disagree with Occupier politics, but this camp is a lot safer for those homeless than the back alleys they've been sleeping in beforehand.