This happened a couple weeks ago, and was mentioned in a Slog comment thread over here, but I just read it and I think it bears posting anyway.

On October 18, author Naomi Wolf was arrested in NYC for calmly and politely following the law. She wasn’t doing what the police wanted her to do, but the law isn’t what the police want it to be, the law is the law, and Wolf knows it. She wasn’t part of the protest originally, she was attending the Huffington Post event the protesters were there to occupy.

Read her account of how she carefully followed the law, politely asking questions about the event’s permit, and how little difference it made. Read also how the police learned that lawyers and protesters were following her to the precinct, so they redirected her to another precinct so no one would know where she had been taken.

Welcome to America.

Anthony Hecht is The Stranger's Chief Technology Officer. He owns no monkeys.

25 replies on “Naomi Wolf’s Arrest Story”

  1. not the least bit surprising for anyone who has been following what this country has become. we live in a corporate security state. this is america.

  3. Thank God. Long overdue for that America hating bitch. If she despises this country so deeply I can personally gaurantee a deep sigh of relief at her emigration from the vast majority of her fellow citizens. You know, those of us who actually like this country.

    BTW, as per usual practice for Stranger ‘journalism’ (or that of HuffPo, the accepted venue for vitriolic hatred of America) the sole source for Ms. Wolfs’ story is Ms. Wolf. Do any of you understand standard practices of reporting at all? Even a little? How about just basic human integrity?

    No? Ah, I always forget integrity and left wing lunatic nutbags don’t go together, oil and water really.

    Disgusting hack propagandists without even a veneer of integrity about sums up you scumbags.

  5. Wow, did someone replace the usual person who post under that troll’s monicker? Or is the growth of the protest movement driving him to drink? Seattleblues, from what I’ve seen, does a pretty good job of putting a veneer of civility atop his brutish savagery. I’ve seen him celebrate or hope for people’s deaths, but I don’t recall seeing profanity or punctuation mistakes.

    Times are a-changin’!

  7. What a relief. A whole day without a post from Goldy, ne’er-do-well wastrel who can barely feed himself, crusty geezer, and insufferable windbag.

  13. The ugly underside has already been exposed and Wolfe certainly isn’t the first person to do so. Police are employed to do what they do, and they do it. Why anyone is surprised by that I don’t know.

  14. I’m confused by the “this isn’t surprising” line of argument. Whether it’s surprising or new or expected isn’t the point. The point is that it’s fucked up and wrong and threatens our country. The fact that many seem to expect this kind of thing or find so commonplace as to be unworthy of comment is far worse than any example of the abuses themselves.

  15. What happened to Wolf is ridiculous and unjust, but it would be really cool if folks here mustered a fraction of this kind of outrage when, instead of arresting people willy-nilly, the government is violently killing people willy-nilly. Of course, those people are third world peasants, so maybe they don’t count as much.

  19. @19 – The police’s job is to enforce the laws, not to be free of annoyance. They need to be EXTRA calm and able to withstand being provoked.

    In any case, if we believe Wolf’s account (which you’re free to dispute if you were there or have another source), she didn’t provoke anyone. She calmly made sure she understood the situation and the laws in play, and then she followed them.

    To be clear, I’m not anti-police. I believe most police officers are good and do a very hard and important job. But it’s critical that their job has very clear limits.

  20. Oddly, I paid my mortgage on time, paid the house off early and never once was served with foreclosure papers.

    I know, it’s crystal clear to the left wing tin foil hat brigade that Chase and BOA committed large scale fraud on every single mortgage in. American history. But somehow I dodged the bullet.

    Whew, close call.

  21. “Seattleblues, from what I’ve seen, does a pretty good job of putting a veneer of civility atop his brutish savagery. I’ve seen him celebrate or hope for people’s deaths, but I don’t recall seeing profanity or punctuation mistakes.”

    I saves the brutish savagery for the little wifey and our brats, after hittin’ the ol’ clay jug of moonshine on our cabin porch in my overalls. Me, Old Blue and Fang, we keeps ourselves a loaded shotgun on the porch too, for runnin’ off them gummint agents! Speakin’ of them fleabags, boy, do those dogs get the brunt of my brutish savagery!

    But I’ve actually gone on national television with the open hope that all of my political opponents fucking die. Oh wait, that was Little Danny Boy the Savage, not me.

    BTW, ‘moniker’ isn’t spelled ‘monicker.’ You’re welcome.

  24. – Monicker
    noun Slang

    1.a person’s name, especially a nickname or alias.

    Also, mon·ik·er.

    Origin: 1850–55; prob. < Shelta mŭnnik name (alleged to be a permutation and extension of Ir ainm name); final -er may represent -er1 or, as a sp. of ə, simply release of the k

    Alternate spellings are handy things, Seattleblues.

  25. Shorter Seattleblues: I’m really glad that thing Naomi Wolf completely made up happened to her.

    Even shorter SB: I am a raging idiot.

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