Another nifty compare-and-contrast in the local dailies regarding the legacy of this weekend’s Occubye Boston decampment (earlier edition here).
Call it A Tale of Three Columnists.
Columnist #1: Brian McGrory, whose front-page Sunday Boston Globe piece is the very model of an inside player’s view of the Occupyniks and their relationship with the Boston police.
For Menino, police, a 99 percent success
To fully appreciate just how successfully the ouster of the Occupy Boston encampment in Dewey Square unfolded over the past few days, it’s important to note not only what happened, but what didn’t.
There were no tear gas containers, no pepper spray, no injuries, no roaming mobs of angry protesters breaking windows and spray-painting storefronts, no violent altercations between cops and kids captured on video tailor-made for YouTube.
In other words, Boston officials, as well as Boston’s protesters, avoided so many of the problems that plagued cities across the nation as the Occupy encampments lurched toward their typically bitter ends, whether it be the abruptness of New York or the spasms of violence and vandalism in Oakland.
Lots of quotes from Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Boston police officials ensued.
Columnist #2: Howie Carr, whose Sunday Boston Herald piece is the very model of an outside player’s view of the Occupyniks:
Hasta la vista freeloaders!
Good riddance. Better late than never. How could we miss them when they wouldn’t go away? I’d have preferred a final Armaggedon-like confrontation featuring a 21st century reincarnation of the Tactical Patrol Force swinging billy clubs and letting loose the German shepherds on the filthy, drug-addled, obscenity-spewing trust-funders.
But you can’t always get what you want.
The good news is, the hippies are back in their moms’ basements, nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of beer-bongs dance in their heads. Is Starbucks hiring?
But even after finally busting up their squalid encampment yesterday, Mumbles was still kowtowing to the layabouts. He thanked them for their “restraint”?
Restraint, of course, has never been one of Howie’s strong suits.
Columnist #3: Peter Gelzinis, whose Sunday Herald piece not only joined McGrory in praising Boston police Supt. William Evans, but also took a switch to newsroommate Carr:
After Evans and his officers rounded up the holdouts, one Occupying videographer interrupted his own live-stream narration by thanking this cop “for not coming in with riot gear and mace.”
This “vlogger” described Billy Evans as “a really good guy” who is “soft-spoken” and “takes time to make his decisions.” And he went so far as to suggest that Billy would probably be promoted to “deputy commissioner” as a reward for the respect he showed people who had been branded by other media blowhards as “dirty hippies.”
For the record, Carr referred to the Occupyniks as hippies four times in his Sunday column.
So Gelzinis just called Carr a media blowhard.
Blowback, anyone?
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