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Occupy Wall Street ‘Hipster Cop’ Is ‘Not Really Into’ Communism, Thinks Protesters Dress Badly

by Frances Martel | 1:09 pm, October 22nd, 2011

» 14 comments

One of the more bizarre but inevitable side effects of the Occupy Wall Street movement has been the blossoming of celebrity in otherwise barren Zuccotti Park, and, ironically, no greater personality has risen out of the movement than Community Affairs Detective Rick Lee, the “Hipster Cop.” Lee has been profiled in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and today graces the digital pages of GQ in an exclusive interview. But having ruffled the feathers from the more suspicious members of the movement, how does Lee come out, politically, from the fruits of his newfound fame?

For the most part, Lee’s rise to internet celebrity was a product of his dapper fashion sense, and interactions with members of the press (notably Gawker’s Adrian Chen) where he said things like “Radiohead is finished” and “I wear skinny jeans off-duty.” The folks at Styleite took a look at what his fashion sense means, but here at Mediaite, it is Lee’s political impact that piques our interest. For one, not every protester considers Lee a funny sideshow. Gothamist initially declared him to be a dangerous “distraction” from police brutality. The protesters at Sparrow Media put together a video to help protesters identify Lee warning, “Hipster Cop is part of the process of intimidation, ridicule, and violence being levied against us.”

So when actually confronted about his views, how does Lee compare to the suspicious figure some protesters think he is? Well, he pays taxes, so he understands the 99% concept. But:

GQ: Are you sympathetic to the movement?

Rick Lee: It’s hard to say that because everyone in the Park has their own agenda of why they’re here. Like I could talk to a guy and he could be upset that he gets taxed, and I can understand that because I get taxed every two weeks when I get paid. But somebody else might be into, like, Communism or something. Which I’m not really into. I can’t relate politically that way. But people have their right to voice their opinion in America. They have a right to demonstrate. It’s a good thing. But there’s probably 200 people in the park right now and 400 different opinions of why they’re here. Though, generally, a lot of well-read, very smart, very articulate people are here. I’ve become friends with a few people. It’s kinda cool.

Plus, he replies with an adamant “no!” when asked if he thinks the protesters have good fashion sense, dismissing them as “grunge.”

It is fair to say that, in a news story that is all sturm und drang, the media is trying fairly hard to find some levity, a sense that the protesters are not entirely correct when they say the system is irreparably broken. And in some ways, the rise of a good-natured, dashing police officer who is just doing his job and would rather not antagonize anyone for anything more than their bad haircuts is a natural manifestation of that desire to bring good news to an audience starved for it for the better of a decade. We’ve seen levity in all its forms in the past couple of years. In the throes of one of the worst environmental disasters in American history, we had BP CEO Tony Hayward on a yacht. In August 2010, perhaps the worst single month of media in the decade, Steven Slater lived out every disgruntled employee’s fantasy. Rick Lee is now just a reincarnation of that– one that those who take the protests very seriously may look askance at, but nonetheless lightens the burden on the average news consumer trying to remain optimistic in the face of the 24-hour downer cycle that is the American news media.

Adrian Chen, BP, Communism, Gothamist, GQ, Hipster Cop, Hipsters, New York Times, Occupy Wall Street, Rick Lee, Steven Slater, Tony Hayward

Anonymous

Look at the Mediaite shill, stealing headlines from Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon.
http://twitter.com/Truth_Helps Smith

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass
injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write
so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world
can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of
the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system
must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up
to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their
neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the
people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the
people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the
process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when
corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over
justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have
peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace
based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual
orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel
treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these
practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways
to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space;
create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions
accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of
direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the
resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_A4OJ2F7ADXSD7OMEUUEQDQDZ2Y Dustin Baker

How does paying taxes make one understand the OWS movement. The majority of these people don’t pay any federal income tax and a lot of them don’t even have a job. It would seem that being a productive member of society would make it harder to understand why freeloaders want to bring down capitalism.
Anonymous

Occupy Wall Street ‘Hipster Cop’ Is ‘Not Really Into’ Communism, Thinks Protesters Dress Badly

That’s a given, anybody who want to live and not die from malnutrition or secret police tend to not get “into communism”.
Most of them do dress badly. But I did see this one girl dressed like a bear and she carried a sign that said “It’s a bear market” Get it? Bear market, dressed like a bear? She was quite cute.
mr. mann

I really like this movement. I agree with everything, except for the persistence of the pie theory of money, where the big execs have somehow stolen money from them. If somebody makes so many millions of dollars above me, that’s his good fortune. They didn’t steal it, they made their own pie. Completely. would it ever be possible for the person protesting to ever see that kind of money in their lives? I don’t think so. so why complain? Then there’s this hatred of the police officers and hacking of their sites. Did they ever stop to think that maybe there are police officers that are my age, 24, who would prefer to be somewhere else? some of them might just be doing a job, it’s not like they are the face of cronyism itself, they are people too. why don’t we just physically remove the lobbyists? big money has absolutely no place in our politics. why not make it illegal for donations to reach capitol hill?
Guyoxim

They don’t want to bring down capitalism, they want to fix it. They want it to be like it used to be when holding a job meant you could eventually afford to own a home, drive a car, and have a little left over for a week at the beach once a year. They want it to be closer to how it was in the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s. You know, the most prosperous times for americans. (All Americans, not just the 1%) I saw a poll that showed 80% of the OWS protesters are employed. They’re not freeloaders, they’re people who played by the rules, got an education and a job, and find themselves buried in debt. They wanna know why, when CitiCorp is buried in debt, they get a bailout, but when taxpayers (you remember them, right, they’re supposed to be the owners of this country, not the corporations) are buried in debt they get evicted. And then some jerk like you comes along and calls them freeloaders.
Guyoxim

Oh, and those that don’t have a job? They’d really like to have one, but there ain’t any, cause all the republicans in Congress care about is making the brown guy a one term president. Cynical bastards, to use the welfare of american families to make a political point, no? It’s more important to them to defeat Obama than it is to fix the economy. What was it those Teabaggers were saying about the tree of liberty?
Anonymous

Everything The Media Told You About Occupy Wall Street Is Wrong
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-boykin/occupy-wall-street-media_b_1019707.html
http://www.facebook.com/matthew.minard Matthew Minard

LMFAO!!!! You realize that “hipster cop” thing is a total joke made up by the OWS movement…. ??? Get a clue lamestream media.
Georgehasmail74

actually, the name “douche bag cop” would be more appropriate.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=729686093 Robert Feeley

Operation “Occupy the Skyboxes” is starting at NFL cities today.
http://www.spnheadlines.com/2011/10/operation-occupy-skyboxes-begins-today.html
Indigo710

clearly off his meds
One pissed off liberal

Hi Baghdad Bob….are the American Villians being defeated?
One pissed off liberal

In order to elect another Brown Guy? Good point.