Posted on 11/04/2011 4:19:38 AM PDT by Haiku Guy
Cards on the table: y'all know that the Occupy protests and I don't agree politically. Nonetheless, I've been basically supportive of their right to protest, sympathetic to their frustrations with the system, and interested in their problems (and solutions) of self organization in a rather chaotic and fluid situation. Unless there were clear and dramatic harms to the community, I figured the cops should leave them alone until the protests dispersed naturally.
(snip)
At this point, the movement is hurting itself more than it's helping--at least, if you think their goal is to peacefully and democratically push for changes in the laws, a task for which they are going to require some support beyond the committed left. If you don't, of course . . . well, that has all sorts of implications.
If I suggest that the movement, and the left, needs to control this before the public really turns on OWS, I'll be accused of concern trolling. So I'll just say that despite our substantial disagreements, (and doubts about the effectiveness) I've been broadly supportive of the OWS project of organizing for change. However, if events continue to go in an Oakland direction, I'm going to become rather hostile to the movement. And I doubt that I'm the only one.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Click through to the article, to see how our keen observer of the scene, Megan McArdle, manages to discern microscopic differences in the level of violence and lawlessness at Tea Party and OWS rallies...
Maybe if she wrote for The Pacific instead of The Atlantic, she would be more hip to the Oakland scene...
One Protester. One damn protester parading around with his rifle, being shunned by all. We're still talking about this one moron a-year-and-a-half later.
Meanwhile, armed thugs burn down half of Oakland, and Megan McArdle strains to admit that they might be a teensy-weensy little bit more violent than the Tea Party protesters, who harmed absolutely nobody, and cleaned up the parks as they left.
"You icky little people are frightening me! Cease at once!! One can't take a peaceful stroll anymore without being mobbed or surrounded by filthy unwashed..."
They had about 50 protesters in Asheville, NC maybe after 10.
The police arrested them all.
They started saying how its costing the city, $ 5,000.00 so far.
Also most of the Police are being used to watch these protesters.
Then they did the interview of the person on the street and they are getting more upset by the day with the costs and usage of Police.
"Jaywalking protesters"?!?
An armed mob surrounding your car in the street, preventing you from moving, banging on the hood and doors and throwing paint on the windshield? Is that what we call "jaywalking" these days?
One of my pet peeves about the Dispicable Left is that they never miss an opportunity to accuse others of wrongdoing while simultaneously minimizing their own crimes.
Here a crowd swarms a car, harrasses the man and woman inside, throws paint on it and bangs on the the hood and windows, just because the couple happen to be driving a Mercedes down the wrong street at the wrong time. Then when the driver tries to move out of the way, some hippie stands in front of his bumper to block him, and gets nudged. Then the crowd pulls the driver and the woman out of the car to do God knows what, and they have to be rescued by riot police.
This is what is known as "jaywalking" in The Atlantic...
basically supportive of their right to protest
They have a right to protest. Not to be dirtbags and trash the parks and not to be vandals and spray paint slogans on buildings and not to be criminal and rape and steal and sell drugs.
Their actions drown out their protest...............
"I was okay with this until there was violence. Please, Government, do something...anything to make it stop".
Queue the theme from Jaws.
(As I said to the tea partiers who carried guns to protests: this sort of thing should stop. Not because you don’t have a right to it, but because it frightens people)
Why would it frighten people?
Have we gotten that far away from the folks that brought this Nation into being and fought and won 2 World Wars?
I have carried weapons for decades and I am around people regularly that carry weapons. I do not feel frightened. I feel safe!
I wonder, if I pitched a tent and the sidewalk in front of Megan McArdle’s house, and started banging a drum at all times of the day and night, parading around naked and crapping on her begonias, if she would continue to be supportive of my right to protest.
“What’s the matter with Oakland?”
MC Hammer.
That is the obvious next step in this progression.
For the protest to move to the next level, somebody is going to have to die. Commies need their martyrs.
If they can't convince some weak-willed moron to flic his bic for the cause, and self-immolate, they will have to rely on the police to provide the dead body.
Expect the provocations to become more and more outrageous and violent, particularly in Oakland, until the police are forced to intervene with overwhelming force and somebody gets killed. They it's Katie Bar The Door...
Of course, the police know full well this is the game, so they are doing everything they can to keep it from getting to this point.
Even Laz has his limits.
"What Isn't The Matter With Oakland?"
Taze ‘em all...Bro.
One wonders who is supplying her with the formula. More concerning is the motive and ultimate intent of her apparent handlers. We don't have a race riot yet, but it isn't unlikely they'll get around to tossing the ol' blacks v. Mexicans thing into the brew. 'La Raza, gotta toss in La Raza and we'll get LA into the act.' Then what? Turn it against the burbs? It's a bit late to light the hills on fire, but there's no place to run for those folks.
They have a right to protest. Not to be dirtbags and trash the parks and not to be vandals and spray paint slogans on buildings and not to be criminal and rape and steal and sell drugs.
Notice how the police are always on the scene delivering a wood shampoo to Operation Rescue protestors who gather peacefully for a few hours then quietly disperse. The city is willing to break out the tear-gas and rubber bullets if a TEA party didn't get the proper permits, install the restroom facilities and pre-pay for police overtime and bond the well-defined and time-limited First Amendment guaranteed protest. For this group the city is practically sponsoring the mayhem. Why anyone with character or morals still lives in that wicked city is beyond me. Stockholm Syndrome most likely.
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