“Dear Mayor Mike Bloomberg — I will pay for cleanup of Zuccotti Park to avoid confrontation. I don’t wanna go to jail but I will be there ready!”
It did not come to that. The private owners of the park cancelled the cleaning and the hip-hop mogul wasn’t taken to the clink.
Simmons has been a very vocal supporter of the movement, but his celebrity endorsement is not sitting well with all involved. The Los Angeles Times spoke to one protester on the day Simmons, Kanye West and Rev. Al Sharpton visited in New York:
“‘Sharpton and all these guys — are you kidding me?” said [Reena] Walker, who accused them of using Occupy Wall Street to bolster their profiles while perpetuating things the movement eschews, such as party politics, consumerism and sexism. ‘We don't want to be used and co-opted. This is not a game.’ ”
Walker later said (via the LA Times), “Once the cops come in here and start beating heads, where are they going to be?’ ” Another protestor responded, “If they're going to come down now, bring us some money.
On Thursday night Simmons posted from his page, “Dear @MikeBloomberg pls do not throw out protesters at Zuccotti Park. I will pay for clean-up to avoid confrontation #OWS.” He followed up with another tweet to New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, “Dear mike I have long supported u and u have been good mayor, don’t take me to jail tomorrow I’m not 22 I don’t wanna go but I will.”
As it turns out, Simmons, nor those stationed at Zuccotti Park will have to go anywhere, for now. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The real-estate company that owns the small park at the center of the Occupy Wall Street movement has postponed a planned cleaning of the site, a New York City deputy mayor announced early Friday morning. The decision by Brookfield Office Properties Inc. to delay its planned cleaning of Zuccotti Park means that the protesters who have been living at the site for nearly a month will not be forced to depart and remove the tarps, beds and other items accumulated during the ongoing demonstration.”
Simmons, who alerted followers that he would be at the hub of the Occupy Wall Street movement at 7 a.m. this morning, tweeted when he heard the news that no one would have to leave Zuccotti Park, “Thank God no confrontation no violence no jail. Clean-up cancelled. Thousands of peaceful people. #occupywallstreet.”
So has celebrity involvement from the likes of Simmons helped strengthen the Occupy Wall Street cause? EW spoke to Occupy Wall Street protesters earlier this week during the “Millionaire March,” in which thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Upper East Side neighborhood to visit the homes of wealthy and powerful residents such as News International CEO’s Rupert Murdoch. The consensus from most was that having celebrities at their side only helped their cause. As one protester put it, “Everybody’s voice should be respected equally, but when you have a celebrity, their voice carries much further. So if they can spread the message in an articulate way, that’s great.”
Of course, not every star has something nice to say about Occupy Wall Street. While Simmons called the demonstrators, “brave, patriotic yng ppl” on Twitter, Saturday Night Live alum Victoria Jackson, who paid a visit to Zuccotti Park as well, said of the group, “I think they are against capitalism.”
Meanwhile, Bill O’Reilly had his own choice descriptions of the Occupy Wall Street-ers who have taken up residence in the downtown Manhattan park. During Thursday night’s installment of his Fox show The O’Reilly Factor, the host wondered, “Do we [have] all kinds of crackheads down there?” after reports that drugs have possibly been at the Occupy Wall Street site. We wonder what Jon Stewart will have to say about that.
In other words, we may not have just a culture war on our hands, but a celebrity culture war as well.
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