Bloomberg's Long War Against Protests

If you were surprised that New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg sent heavily armed police into Zuccotti Park in the middle of the night to break up the Occupy Wall Street demonstration—despite the fact that a poll released the same day shows 58 percent of registered New York voters think the camp should be permitted—you shouldn't have been. To New Yorkers familiar with Bloomberg's past reactions to protests, the real surprise is that he didn't do it sooner.

The first protest Bloomberg tried to suppress was against the impending invasion of Iraq on February 15, 2003. The city, citing only vague security concerns, refused to grant a permit to march, allowing only a stationary rally and cramming attendees into a narrow penned area. Hundreds of thousands of protesters were unable to get within earshot.