They’re back — sort of.
After hours in which the dregs of Occupy Wall Street largely failed in their vow to cause a day of “no work, no school” in New York, thousands of protesters made a mess of the evening commute for many folks by mobbing lower Manhattan. Terrific.
Their ranks, as usual, were largely made up of union members, dispatched by their leaders after their workday ended.
So, until late afternoon, there were only scattered demonstrations, plus brief confrontations with police, who were well prepared and had made some 30 arrests.
T
hat’s not surprising: In a city of 8 million, it’s not that hard to find some people with nothing better to do.
For most of the day, again, the tens of thousands that OWS swore would fill the streets never showed.
Maybe they were allergic to rain?
And “the first nationwide General Strike in US history” — which Occupy confidently predicted on its Web site — was nowhere to be seen, either.
(One group in Midtown suddenly found itself face-to-face with a bunch of hardhats, who chanted, “Get a job! Get a job!”)
Last night’s traffic tie-up notwithstanding, yesterday’s events suggest that the whole Occupy movement is now in the 16th minute of its 15 minutes of fame.
Which is to say, no one cares anymore — assuming anyone ever did.
OK, some did: Besides the usual suspects — anarchists, anti-capitalists and misfits — the “movement” had lots of support in the mainstream media.
Attempts to picket and disrupt local corporate headquarters essentially fizzled.
The closest thing to an actual disruption that was evident was a few bags of initially suspicious white powder — corn starch, it turned out — mailed to several banks. It all made for good video, but little else.
Fact is, the vast majority of New Yorkers — the real 99 percent, in other words — spent their day doing precisely what OWS had promised, and failed, to stop them from doing: They went to work and school.
Which is as good a response to May Day as we can think of.