I'd like to start this by apologizing to you. My headline is misleading. I don't really know how to get the likes of Jamie Dimon or Lloyd Blankfein behind bars. I'll venture so far to say that such a prospect is highly unlikely given our current set of circumstances. Much has been written about the revolving door between high finance and the agencies that are supposed to regulate its goings on, how banks buy politicians, and how infinite sums of zero-interest money are available to the very institutions that have proven through their ineptitude and corruption that they don't deserve to exist. I don't have to mention that J.P. Morgan Chase bought the protection of the NYPD, and a consortium of firms has access to a high-tech surveillance system in lower Manhattan. That is not what I intend to write about, nor do I have any real suggestions on how to accomplish fixing these problems within the current framework of our system. If you want polemics on these issues go dig up some old Taibbi diatribes, or listen to some of Max Keiser's dozens of rants from the past few years.
This is a call to the mischievous, to those who love to laugh, and those who would love to see some heads roll (literally) or some bankers hung without us actually having to get to the social level where such a thing happens and the perpetrators are hailed as heroes instead of being thrown in jail for the rest of their lives. So here it is...
Black Tie Bloc. The idea is for a bunch of people to show up in the financial district of your city wearing business attire (suits, ties, etc.) to appear indistinguishable from the low-level drones that run our financial system, for some to mask up and (this is crucial) for some to simply stand around and observe as if unconnected, and engage in Black Bloc-style property destruction for a short period of time. When the police arrive (as they inevitably will) you will have de-masked and disappeared into the neighborhood, leaving behind a bunch of your confederates who appear to be normal workers in the area who then point their fingers at bank employees in an attempt to get them either arrested or at the very least ruin their day by getting them temporarily detained until the police figure out what just happened.
Some points:
-Put this together as one would a flash mob, with an arranged time and place.
-Pre-select targets for destruction/vandalism
-Bring all the necessary tools, viz. pipes/sparkplugs/ice-hockey pucks (for window-breaking, general smashing) spraypaint (and a few choice slogans) bandannas (to protect identities), and, of course gloves
-Make the destruction epic, scream and ululate while you do it.
-Make sure it doesn't go on too long (one minute, two minutes max) and what it lacks in length make up for with intensity.
-Once the adventure is over and you are unmasked again, WALK like everyone else. DO NOT RUN.
Just remember that Occupy has been so utterly destroyed and discredited that there is no reputation to protect at this point. This will make a statement, and is hilarious as far as I'm concerned. I'm not going to launch into a defense of the idea, nor participate in it, were it to ever manifest itself in the world.
I'm just planting seeds.
I owe many thanks to someone who'd probably rather not be named for helping me develop this idea, but you know who you are.
In love and solidarity, for the revolution at large and not any one movement,
CB
