Patriotic rock band barred from performing at Occupy

Zuccotti Park plaza in New York City

A patriotic rock bank describing themselves as pro-capitalism and anti-Occupy say they were denied permission to perform this week at Zuccotti Park, the site where the anti-Wall Street protesters are holed up.

"We wanted to get a legally, properly permitted concert together to say thank you to the hard-working men and women on Wall Street and also to say thank for all that the New York Police Department and the Fire Department of New York had to put up with for the last couple months with these Occupy guys," said Dave Bray, the lead singer of the band, Madison Rising.

"We want to say thank you but we can't even do it legally with the proper permit. But anybody who wants to bash America, it seems like they can stop on down to Zuccotti and poop all over cop cars," said Bray, speaking yesterday in a radio interview.

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Jennifer Cohen, Madison Rising's director of marketing, told WND the owners of Zucotti Park refused to let the band go through with plans for the concert they had hoped to perform today.

"We started at the NYPD First Precinct, where we were sent to the mayor's office," she said. "After an hour meeting at the mayor's office on Thursday, we were told we needed to contact the owner's of Zuccotti Park."

Cohen forwarded to WND an email to Debra Simon of Brookfield Properties, the owners of the park, asking for an application and requirements to procure a permit for a live performance.

Cohen said Simon called her last Friday to deny the band permission to play. Cohen said Simon refused to put the denial in writing.

Matthew Cherry, director of investor relations and communications for Brookfield Global Real Estate, acknowledged in an email to WND that the band contacted Brookfield Office Properties regarding their desire for a permit.

"Brookfield respectfully declined the request for a permit and is currently not permitting any staged concerts in the park," Cherry said.

On Friday, alternative rock band Third Eye Blind visited the park where they reportedly belted out songs in support of Occupy Wall Street.

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As WND was first to report, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's long-term girlfriend, Dianna L. Taylor, serves as one of nine board members of financial giant Brookfield Office Properties Inc.

The park, close to Wall Street, is named after Brookfield's co-chairman, John Zuccotti.

Taylor has been dubbed by the New York Times as New York's "de facto first lady."

"A powerful woman with her own litany of accomplishments, she breaks the mold of more traditional political couples with her unconventional long-term relationship with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg," stated a 2006 profile of Taylor.

Cityfile New York adds that Taylor "grew up in a firmly Republican old-money family in Greenwich and attended the swanky Milton Academy and Dartmouth before heading off to Columbia Business School."

Taylor was in the news last week for criticizing President Obama in an interview with the New York Observer.

Taylor said of Obama: "For somebody's who's going to come in and be the great unifier – you know, that hopey-changey stuff – it hasn't worked very well. The country is more divided now than it's ever been. And he doesn't appreciate other people and what they do."

Like the Brookfield company itself, Taylor, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is deeply tied to Wall Street.

Since 2007, Taylor served as managing director of Wolfensohn Fund Management, a "boutique investment bank" founded by James D. Wolfensohn, a former president of the World Bank.

She has served as an independent director of Citigroup Inc., since 2009 and is also an independent director for Sothebys.

Ironically, the Occupy Wall Street movement's landlord at Zuccotti Park is itself tied to some of the biggest corporate names.

Among Brookfield's properties are One, Two, Three and Four of the World Financial Center complex; One Liberty Plaza; and One New York Plaza.

One notable tenant at One World Financial Center is Dow Jones & Co., a subsidiary of News Corporation since 2007. At Two World Financial Center is Commerzbank and Merrill Lynch.

Three World Financial Center is also known as American Express Tower because the credit card company resides there. It was once the world headquarters of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Located at Four World Financial Center is the international headquarters and main U.S. trading floors of Merrill Lynch.