The Cicada Protestors
Just who exactly are these groups shutting down our streets, bridges, and airports?
Welcome to 2024, all! We enjoyed our time off for the holidays… but it’s great to be back. (As Keith Richards said at a concert I attended years ago: “It’s great to be here. It’s great to be anywhere”).
A question many veteran cops get asked is, “What’s something you learned doing that job for so many years?” Like any work, policework brings its insights. One of them is the phenomenon of the Cicada Protestor.
New York City was just in the news because of a mass “civil disobedience” event designed to shut down bridges and tunnels into Manhattan in the middle of a workday. Realistically, there are likely a core group of only about 1,000 “activists” causing all this trouble in the name of Gaza. But their activities show no signs of abating. So who the hell are they?
The gestation cycle is generally as follows: the footsoldiers sitting-in, blocking traffic, screaming about Israel, etc, are college-age or in graduate school. They usually either come from monied families or are being supported by some type of government stipend (which is why they are free to do this all the time — they’re not due at work).
When they get a bit older and graduate school, there are a couple of tracks. Most just move on from campus, heading back home (often outside of New York) to settle into more conventional lives and brag about how they “fought the man” in NYC — only to be replaced by younger versions of themselves.
But some — generally the most committed — move into the management of these groups. The groups are voracious fundraisers, careful to soften their message when cadging money from corporations and foundations looking to virtue-spend (and to lower their taxes).
So the veteran protestors remain, drawing salaries, raising funds, and living in walk-ups in Brooklyn or the Lower Eastside, complaining about America, honing their tactics, and waiting for the NBT (Next Big Thing). They find willing lawyers to sue the police (another income stream). They get side-hustles (they are, of course, always welcome in academia).
The point: IT’S A BUSINESS. They’re not going away. This is why I call them “the Cicada Protestors.” They’re always at a low boil, but every few years they find a cause celebre to latch onto and emerge from the ground, to justify their funding. The management class will always remain — it’s their livelihood.
(The cicada locust, which emerges at regular intervals from years underground)
It’s a business, and that is why, the day after something catches their attention, they can field numerous protestors and have professionally printed placards ready to go. Many of the protestors are paid, and the organizers have printshops on speed dial.
This is also why many times, as we’ve recounted in this space, the protestors have no idea what they’re protesting about.
The OG protestors all know each other and support each others’ causes. It’s their social life, as well. I recall working a labor dispute about 20 years ago, and a few white, gray-haired types were greeting each other, laughing and reminiscing, and every now and then barking out, “Free Brother Jamal! Free Mumia Jamal!”
I asked one of the labor organizers if he knew who Mumia Jamal was. You can guess the answer he gave me. (As I did, before he said it).
The last three major Cicada Protestor events have been, chronologically: Occupy Wall Street, The George Floyd Summer of Love, and now Gaza. The OG faces at these things are the same; only the young and clueless change.
Eventually, this one too, will peter out, and the groups will grow quiescent — until the NBT comes along. And then the OG organizers will field another group of useful idiots to block traffic, clog bridges and tunnels — and justify their endowments.
Adam Smith’s hand does have a way of asserting itself, doesn’t it? Even among socialists.
Here’s What It Looks Like Up Close
Click the above to see what cops deal with at these protests. As they attempt to clear the bridge so that thousands of commuters can simply get to work or home, they are forced to carefully buzzsaw their way through “sleeping dragons” (a device by which the protestors lock their arms together).
Meanwhile, the protestors are in their faces, yelling and filming, as if these Gender Studies majors are “bearing witness” to some historic instance of repression.
Puh-leeeeeeze.
(Note: We are working on a round-up of who really funds this stuff. That is the story — not Susan Sarandon, whose last notable movie was during the Reagan administration).
Why The “Crime Is Down!” Meme Is Fake News
For obvious reasons in an election year, the national media has latched onto the Biden administration’s declarations of the nation’s crime numbers “going in the right direction” (click here to see the somnolent Merrick Garland delivering a “forceful” statement on it) (wake us when it’s over).
So why is it b.s?
First, comparing 2023 to 2022 is like comparing the Lusitania to the Titanic. For a better metric, compare 2023 to 2019 — the last year before COVID, but also the last year before the vaunted “criminal justice reforms” swept the nation.
Let’s use NYC. By the 2019 metric, we are up over 33% in the seven majors.
(Chart from The NY Post — click the image for the full story)
Second, many crimes are not even being reported. As an old colleague reports here, in many instances prosecutors are not only downgrading crimes heavily, but simply dropping charges. The actions of police simply don’t signify.
And as I showed here, in the larceny category alone, tens of thousands of incidents go unreported — because the public has despaired of any satisfaction from doing so.
Lastly: While Garland — and others — concentrate on miniscule drops in certain violent crime categories, none are speaking to the quality-of-life crimes that are so denigrating our cities. Many police departments don’t even track these.
But people feel QOL crimes far more than they feel violent crimes — because they’re far more common. Most of us (hopefully) will never be stabbed. But all of us in a blue city have been menaced by vagrants, witnessed brazen shoplifting, watched drug deals being cut on the streets, and so on.
In most cities — especially here in NYC — a combination of legislative animus, prosecutor inaction, and abysmal executive leadership is combining to ensure this last trend continues.
But keep selling the narrative, fellas. The Biden/Garland duo inspires such confidence.
On The Anniversary of J6 — A Question
We have no interest in defending the events of January 6th. They shouldn’t have happened.
But that said: As time goes on — and much like the George Floyd case — the approved narrative we were force-fed grows ever murkier.
First, there was House Speaker Mike Johnson’s release of all the J6 Committee tapes, undeniably demonstrating that many of the “insurrectionists” that day walked calmly into the Capitol building, past Capitol police officers who made no move to interfere.
This writer honestly doesn’t know what to make of that. Were they ordered to stand down? Did the cops understand what was happening? Confounding.
And now there’s this: Why on earth would the full transcripts of the Congressional committee depositions be missing?
(J6 Committee Chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson)
The House GOP is trying to get hold of the transcripts. Apparently, they’re MIA.
According to The Washington Times, when asked about the matter Committee Chair Bennie Thompson stated, ““I have no idea… We’re not required to keep certain materials.”
Um, I don’t actually think that’s true. Those transcripts would constitute evidence. The committee used them to refer people for prosecution — among them a certain former President.
And they wonder why we doubt.
Actually — they probably don’t.
You know who definitely doesn’t? Adam Schiff 2.0, otherwise known as Rep. Jamie Raskin. Raskin led the “bipartisan” J6 committee that seems to have “misplaced” the transcripts.
Raskin, who now opines that Donald Trump should be disqualified from state presidential ballots for seeking to block certificaton of the 2020 election… previously sought to block certification of the 2016 election.
(Rep. Jamie Raskin [D-Maryland]. That hair needs a chinstrap).
Random Incoming
By now we’ve all heard about SecDef Lloyd Austin going AWOL on us. The real question is, of course, how Joe Biden didn’t even notice — especially since the POTUS daily schedule seems so empty, it has an echo. Click here for a site that tracks the POTUS schedule daily.
As the White House brags about inconsequential crime drops amid a rising number of police shot in the line-of-duty, Dems in Congress still won’t pass The Protect And Serve Act, which would federalize attacking law enforcement. Meanwhile, Kamala touts her launch of the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database. Don’t be fooled about who they side with, folks….
Heads up: Here come Hunter’s contempt-of-Congress hearings….
Um, not for nothing, but SCOTUS just agreed to hear a J6 case appeal that could not only upend all those prosecutions, but also Jack Smith’s “insurrection” case against Trump. Unsure why this hasn’t gained more traction — could be a v. big deal….
The best jarred tomato sauce challenge! But where is Carbone (my vote)?
And finally….
… the latest vid from our favorite X feed. There are lessons here…!
