Groan.

UNITED NATIONS, November 22 — As the Occupy Wall Street movement has grown, the United Nations has generally dodged questions about authorities’ responses to it.

Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokespeople about the October 1 arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge, the wounding of Scott Olsen at Occupty Oaklandand the mass arrest of protesters sitting-in on Williams and Pine Streets to block the New York Stock Exchange, each time without substantive UN response.

But on November 22 when Inner City Press asked spokesman Martin Nesirky about the tear gassing of students at University of California-Davis, he responded that the UN is “aware of the footage” and that “an investigation seems to be an appropriate step.”

One could read too much into this. The UN is otherwise tonedeaf to issues being raised by Occupy Wall Street, for example putting the chairman of Bank of America on its High Level Group on sustainable energy, despite protests on lower Broadway and elsewhere of Bank of America’s role as Number One funder of mountain top removal coal mining.

On November 22, Nesirky noted that the UN is “also aware” of the UC Chancellor speaking to students and faculty. Still, it is noteworthy and stands in contrast to recent UN responses.