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).
Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Stay Safe!
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