U.N.-SAFE NEW YORK

by Becky Akers 
New York City was under siege this week. Decent folk cowered at home while two-bit thugs stalked our streets, guarding the self-important sociopaths invading Manhattan. Yep, the United Nations’ General Assembly met as always at this time of year, plotting to grab more power over the world, and the NYPD milked that for all the overtime it could get. Were you to stroll around the skyscrapers in midtown, you’d assume you’re in occupied territory. Cops – phalanxes of them – clog every intersection, and movable, metal barricades fence off whole streets, confining New York’s disarmed populace to sidewalks as though we pose some sort of threat. Recall that many of the dictators bloviating at the UN have hundreds or thousands of rapes and murders, a war or two, torture and often even genocide to their credit, not to mention the usual plunder and theft. Yet Our Rulers fret about protecting them from us. And so cops bar traffic, both foot and vehicular, from whatever streets the sociopaths’ motorcades will curse. Because, yes, even the tinhorn tyrant from Dirtpooristan, where the annual per-capita income is $1.31, cruises town with his entourage lolling in limousines, plural. If you don’t live in densely populated Manhattan, you may not appreciate the havoc cops wreak when they close streets. New York’s traffic is the stuff of nightmares for good reason: street-space is as scarce as innovative bureaucrats. There are far more cars than inches of paved road, so taking even one artery out of commission snarls traffic for miles. Ditto for pedestrians. Manhattan is a walker’s paradise; you can live your entire life here and never own wheels because everything you need – and much that you don’t – lies within a few blocks of home. Even straphangers who ride the subways to work each morning still walk from their apartment to the station and, on the other end, from the terminal to the job. At any hour of the day, and often of the night, you’ll find at least a dozen pedestrians ambling along a single block, and many times that number during rush-hours. But with the UN’s incursion, cops suddenly declare whole streets "frozen zones." They’ll block the intersection with their cars, forcing other drivers to a halt. Ditto for the anyone caught at that moment on the sidewalk: we are forbidden to cross the street. It lies empty and clear until Their Highnesses have rolled past in regal isolation. "Frozen zones" can detain folks for 10 minutes or more. It’s bad enough for drivers, but it’s horrific on the sidewalks. Those metal barricades? They act like dams as people pile up. Perhaps you don’t want to cross the street: maybe you just want to head around the corner for a cup of coffee. You probably won’t be able to squeeze through the crush – and forget about backtracking: pedestrians are bunched by the scores behind you. Meanwhile, the moments tick by as you’re once again late to the office, or that appointment with your biggest client, or fetching your toddler from day-care. You might think both the cops and the sociopaths would want employees to reach work on time: after all, it’s our taxes that keep these leeches living high. But no. However pressing your business, you can jolly well wait until Dear Leader’s limos have glided by on their way to yet another soiree or more pontification on "peacekeeping." Ah, yes: blue helmets, uniforms, guns and slaughtering anyone who disagrees. That’s a heck of a way to keep peace. I vote we call these hired killers who impose their commanders’ will on helpless civilians what we do other such scum: "soldiers." And how many casualties have these mercenaries racked up as they "peace-enforc[e]"? We’ll never know by asking the one-world government that pretends to care so very much about us all. Prepare for a shock: though the UN maintains meticulous records of its troops’ deaths, "covering the period 1948 through 31 August 2011" and broken out just about any way imaginable ("Fatalities by year… by nationality and mission … by mission and appointment type … mission and incident type … mission, year and incident type ... year and appointment type …," etc, ad nauseam), it neither mentions nor seems at all concerned for the folks its "peace-enforcers" murder. Not a word or acknowledgement anywhere of the corpses littering the UN’s wake; indeed, we might be forgiven for thinking the "peacekeepers" only die and never kill. A tad callous, wouldn’t you say? Even supposedly independent organizations concentrate solely on the "mortality rates" of the UN’s troops. Again, "peacekeeping’s" victims merit no consideration or even a passing reference. And there’s an infuriating, heart-wrenching multitude of victims. For example, in July 2010, "a complaint was filed with the Dutch prosecutor's office … alleging that three Dutch soldiers, operating as UN peacekeepers, were complicit in the commission of war crimes and genocide during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre … which resulted in the death of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys." Tragically, it’s unlikely that this or any lawsuit will succeed in punishing the UN’s troops for their crimes. Like all governments, the UN is above the law: "Relatives of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre have previously sought justice for the actions of Dutch peacekeeping forces, which they say led to the massacre. In March, the Hague Appeals Court … upheld … the UN's immunity from prosecution by rejecting claims … brought by relatives of victims of the massacre. … The court found that immunity is essential to the UN's ability to carry out its duties and that the Dutch acting as UN peacekeepers could not be held responsible ..." Which makes the chirpy insult on the UN’s homepage all the more offensive: "Welcome to the United Nations. It's your world." Legions of the dead and caged New Yorkers argue otherwise. September 24, 2011 Becky Akers [send her mail] writes primarily about the American Revolution. Copyright © 2011 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.