December 30, 2011
At the foot of Manhattan’s Broadway
Ave., just below Wall Street, stands one of the city’s most reliable
tourism draws: Arturo Di Modica’s 3.5-ton statue of a charging bull.
Since 1989, the sculpture has been an iconic symbol of American wealth,
of the aggressive capitalist spirit that, it is argued, made this
country great and powerful. Visitors flock from around the world to rub
the bull’s horns for good luck. Or they used to, at least. Now, tourists
snap pictures from behind police barricades.
For
more than two months, the raging bull of wealth has sat caged, facing
eye-to-eye with a New York Police Department cruiser as cops have worked
around the clock to protect it from the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The park’s administrator has called the security “Orwellian.” That’s to
say the least.
If you’re looking
for visuals to encapsulate 2011, look no further than the bizarre scene
at Di Modica’s bull. Daily, the country’s largest police force
mobilizes to protect the idea of American prosperity from an imagined
threat, while the actual economy lays gored and gutted by demonstrable and ongoing crimes.
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