Occupy vs. the LAPD
Now that these Occupy Wall Street people have been at their occupation for however long it’s been, what’s next?
No one seems to know, but whatever the denouement that awaits in the final act of this drama, it will be police officers who will be asked to bring the curtain (and the tents) down. For people trying to live and work around the encampments, that day can’t come soon enough.
It seems that the “99 percent” label one so often hears doesn’t quite reflect the movement’s true scope, and that some larger segment of the population is growing weary of the ongoing garden parties taking place in public parks and other open spaces across the country. In Lower Manhattan, Occupiers are wearing out their welcome at those businesses that heretofore had tolerated or even abetted the protest. Being down for the cause is all well and good, but when the paying customers avoid your shop or restaurant out of fear of sharing space with the hygienically challenged cast of characters headquartered at Zucotti Park, well even the most socially conscious have to pay heed to the bottom line.
Which is what happened in Oakland, Calif., two weeks ago, when business owners near Frank Ogawa Plaza, where Occupy Oakland is encamped, made the outrageous request that the city’s authorities simply enforce the law and restore order to the downtown area by removing the protesters. Mayor Jean Quan, as feckless a politician as one is likely to find, directed police officers to do just that, resulting in a violent confrontation when some protesters refused to budge. The plaza was cleared with no little effort, but the ensuing furor inspired in Quan a change of heart. She directed that the protesters be allowed to return, guaranteeing that any future effort to remove them will be met with even more violence.
And what will it take to get all those mayors and city council members, all the weak-kneed Jean Quans and all the others who have been cowed into submission by the rabble camped outside their office windows, what will it take to get them to act? As they say, it’s all fun and games until someone gets killed.
And now someone has. On Thursday, a man was shot and killed at Frank Ogawa Plaza, though it was unclear as to whether the victim was a member of the Occupy Oakland movement. It was the 101st murder recorded in Oakland so far this year. The union that represents Oakland’s police officers issued a letter to the protesters on Friday, bringing an interesting twist to that now tiresome 99 percent theme. “Our officers are the 99 percent struggling in Oakland neighborhoods every day to contain the 1 percent who rob, steal, rape and murder our law-abiding citizens,” the letter said. “The Occupy Oakland protest, now 30 days old, is taking our police officers out of Oakland neighborhoods and away from protecting the citizens of Oakland.”
I very much hope this foolishness ends without violence, but I fear that will not be the case. I am keeping my fingers crossed that no police officers are injured. As for the protesters, well, not so much. Dunphy, if you have to go, be careful. We are kinda fond of you around here.
At this point, I don’t even CARE whether there’s violence or not, as long as it’s only the Occupoopers who are on the receiving end of it.
My patience with them HAS. WORN. OUT.
Were it up to me, we’d go full-on Tienanmen Square against the ‘poopers and follow it up by banning unions under the RICO statute (starting with the SEIU and other public employee unions, but not ending there), then extraditing George Soros to France where he can begin serving his sentence without further delay.
I have seriously had enough.
Guess what — it’s not up to little wannabee fascists like you.
Why do you define him as a “fascist” because he is upset with the subhumans infesting and wasting the “occupied” areas? Picture yourself as a store owner across the street from one of these Occupy, Molest, Disturb and Defecate Areas. Business is off by 90%. Your customers go elsewhere, where they won’t be harrassed, annoyed, inconvenienced. You can’t even break even. Why? So a bunch od filthy, on the dole dopers and nogoodniks can protest the governments’ refusal to wipe their noses and butts and tuck them in at night?
Are you going to want ther bums out of there? No, you’re going to want to enjoy their adolescent nastiness while you go broke, right?
America is in bad shape. One of its many problems is the so-called conservative who thinks it’s just fine to machine-gun, beat, run over, etc. anybody who upsets us, without even preferring charges, much less exercising due process of law.
The Founders would have called you a criminal, sir.
Jack, I still think the easiest way to get rid of them is skunk scent. Squirt guns with artificial skunk scent could be sprayed on them and their belongings and they would leave quite rapidly.
Given how bad they already smell, they may not even notice the skunk scent. Isn’t it amazing how the Left claims to be so environmentally aware yet when you see them gathering anywhere – even for short events – massive piles of waste are left in their wake? In the Occupy encampments where Leftists are running things, they all seem to assume that it’s someone else’s responsibility to clean up after themselves so they quickly become cesspools of squalor. Their mothers didn’t do them any favors by not teaching them to pick up after themselves.
Their mothers were probably pigs too, back in the 60s. The apple seldom falls far from the tree. I am one of the few exceptions – a second-generation red diaper baby who instead grew up to be as conservative as a person can be.
nerd
That pretty much defines the left, on just about any issue.
“Use the chokehold!” –Beavis (for want of a better quotee).
Eric Cartman warned us. If you don’t control them at the drum circle phase, they metamorphose into the dreaded college know-it-all hippies. Should have listened to Eric.
In further tribute to the genius of Eric Cartman, has anyone tried Eric’s solution? heavy metal rock music? Or better yet, Rush, Glenn and Hannity’s shows one after the other…
How about a Ted Nugentmobile?
LAPD officers are not allowed to use choke holds, remember the Rodney King debacle. None of “all that” would have gone down if the officers making the initial contact had just choked out the Adam Henry and booked his sorry ass; no riot, no nuthin’.
Stop and think! Does a mayor, or a whatever, have the legal right to tolerate/permit law violations? No! In each county where an elected official does so, the sheriff must arrest and jail that person, as many times as necessary, until that person sends his/her officers to arrest the perpetrators. No one may be “above the law”.
Stop and think! Does a mayor, or a whatever, have the legal right to tolerate/permit law violations? No! In each county where an elected official does so, the sheriff must arrest and jail that person, as many times as necessary, until that person sends his/her officers to arrest the perpetrators. No one may be “above the law”.
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While I understand your basic point and sympathize with it, it simply isn’t realistic to enforce all laws all of the time. The fact is that there are literally millions of laws – if you count federal, state, and local laws – and we’re virtually all in violation of at least a few of them at almost any time. To give just one example, it is common knowledge that 80 to 85% of drivers in my area drive at least 10 or 15 mps over the posted speed limit pretty much all the time. You simply can’t charge 80% of all car drivers with speeding because there aren’t that many police officers available. The police do try to do token sweeps a few times a year and actually catch the more excessive speeders but everyone knows that sweep will be over in a few days and then simply revert to their normal driving style when its over.
Try to picture ALL laws, not just speeding laws, being enforced all year around! I think you’ll quickly agree it is just not practical. Even the hardest hard@$$ will realize that selective enforcement is the only realistic option: enforce just the laws needed to stop the most grievous law-breaking.
Uh actually Einstein, there’s a little principle known as prosecutorial discretion. Yes, officials do in fact
have that right.
They should be arrested and thrown into those large holding pens the police had during the most recent Republican and Democratic conventions. Process them there and then give them all a swift kick in the butt. How DARE they take over sections of cities. The Tea Parties were ALL orderly protests that lasted a day with no arrests and the people in the protests usually leaving the area cleaner than when they got there. Contrast that to these anarchist and communist pigs. And for the Democrats to throw in their lot with these animals tells you all you need to know about the far left in America today. It’s about time we stood up to these thugs and tell them, with a united voice, that criminals will not be tolerated and blackmail will not be tolerated. End this now.
The Tea Parties were ALL orderly protests that lasted a day with no arrests and the people in the protests usually leaving the area cleaner than when they got there.
Not to mention that municipal permits were obtained and fees were paid. It seems universal that the Occupy rabble do neither, as a matter of ‘principle’. It’s the same ‘principle’, of course, followed by every craven municipal administration suffering their occupations (enjoying them, rather, for the righteous social justice vibes and the cause of transnational progressivism).
But even the nanny-of-the-USA, Mayor Bloomberg of NYC, has had to cash in his chips and flip to the side of civilization – his minions evicted the whole Zucotti Park mob, to the joy of the 99% of New Yorkers who weren’t camped there. Hope this becomes a trend.
If the news media will ignore these “unhygenic citizens” and not give them mention. These attention seekers will migrate back to their normal squalor.
Like most scum that have demonstrated on the Mall in Washington DC I am sure each city they are Occupying will get a new temporary landfill conveniently located within the cities. The only people that have demonstrated in Washington that didn’t make a landfill out of the Mall was the Tea Party People.
This is only a dress rehearsal for the civic unrest that will be the opening act of the 2012 election. Only the return to the White House of the “God-like” Obama will soothe the citizenry and heal the divisions (that he ginned up) among the American people. We can expect continued unrest, dissension, class warfare to increase – that’s the only thing the current administration can count on since it has little or no accomplishment to crow about. Tough times ahead for all of us.
Latest is the NYPD is clearing out Zucotti. Good. On the other hand, I’m almost kind of sad and embarrassed for these OWS goofballs. They think they have a movement when all they have is a mob. Not even a pitchfork-and-torch-wielding mob – just a bunch of people hanging out in the park. I get the impression that the thinking was, more or less, “If we occupy it, they will come.” That is, once America saw them occupying, thousands – millions – would take the cue and rise up against our corporate masters or something. Those people all grew up wired, so I really think the flash mob was their paradigm. It didn’t work. I think America wants serious people to provide serious answers to serious questions. Acting out doesn’t help.
They’ve got the passion. What they need is leadership, organization, and long-term planning. Maybe they’re all against hierarchy and stuff, but hierarchy works. And successful movements take years, not weeks or months, to mature. It’ll be interesting to see if these people figure that out or if they were just a flash in the pan. Will we see them in 2012, doing something sensible, or will they retreat back to mom & dad’s basement and whine about it on their blogs?
Whatever. Good riddance to this manifestation. It was pathetic. Personally, I hope they never come back.
“Those people all grew up wired, so I really think the flash mob was their paradigm.”
The problem was they DIDN’T grow up, “wired” or not.
“They’ve got the passion. What they need is leadership, organization, and long-term planning.”
And a cause that doesn’t require the execution of millions of innocent people and the enslavement of the remainder.
Fortunately, these aren’t the commies our fathers and grandfathers had to deal with. Can you imagine Lenin or Mao or Castro or Ho Chi Minh or any of their followers behaving like this? They don’t seem to have learned anything from their predecessors. Like I said, it’s almost embarrassing to call them a “movement.”
Some movements have been small and stupid at their outset, though, so it might be too early to consign them to the crackpot file. Depends on whether they have staying power, keep coming back, and gain supporters. And that means real, active, up front supporters, not talking heads parroting “We stand behind OWS.”
I’d say laugh for now but keep a close eye on them.
They’re a “movement”, alright. That’s part of the hygiene problem.
“Fish, and visitors, smell after three days” (Ben Franklin writing as Poor Richard)
Jack, I’m in stitches imagining what these poor, trapped, discombobulated true-blue Democrat mayors and city councilmembers are going through. Those same proud liberals who welcomed the “occupiers” with open arms and gave them the Keys to the City now find themselves with their cullions (or paps, as the case may be) in ye olde proverbial wringer.
I can only imagine the profusion, yea, the plethora of enraged calls and emails they must be getting from their infuriated constituents. How much longer do they think they can indulge these smelly, goateed, dreadlocked little darlings at the expense of the townsfolk before they can expect to be pitchforked come election day? Got the inside skinny on that for L.A.?
I hereby prophesy that 2012 will see a local electoral auto-da-fe for Democrats that will rival that of the national Obama-pyre.
Bring ye marshmallows, one and all.
Like your screen name there Sinanju.
“I most fervently hope to avoid the looming confrontation with the Occupiers here in Los Angeles, not least” of which is that I’m paid to do the hard part of my job as well as the easy parts. As you noted the politicians don’t care about the law abiding citizens, now you go and prove that the police don’t either. As I’ve noted before, get the police and their unions the hell out of the way of shall-issue concealed carry which is the citizen’s right from the 2nd Amendment. Then maybe the police will have time to deal with less than savory elements occupying public property. It’s what we PAY you to do.
Jack, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your fellow officers. I can’t imagine anything more difficult than being calm and restrained in the face of such evil, and treating these people with as much respect and dignity as you can while still preserving your own safety. A tough job, sir. Very tough.
Jack,
They took one officer away from the OWS raid on a stretcher with what was reported as cuts to his face and arms. As a retired police officer I say to you and your fellow officers; be safe brother, and watch your back.
“In New York City, violent crime is on the rise in some parts of town, leading police to speculate that one reason for the increase is the diversion of so many cops from across the city to the Occupy Wall Street effort. ”
I’m wondering if that crime increase isn’t part of the overall plan (by the organizers, not the naive, deluded participants.) Make The System so unpalatable, and then “ride to the rescue” with a marxist alternative.
One can imagine that when a city administration openly allows lawless behavior in a highly publized manner like OWS, other people in society take that as a cue that other lawlessness would likewise be tolerated.
Remember the “broken window” hypothesis and how that helped NYC regain its civilization? What we’re seeing a reversal of that, in NYC and in other cities with “occupiers.”
Just wondering, has the dems set up booths to get all these OWSers registered to vote yet? Left to their own I doubt any of them would bother so the dems better get to it. Don’t want all those votes to go to waste. [/sarc]
Oh thanks, give them ideas.
Don’t worry. ACORN has already registered each in multiple NYC precincts.
Good luck to you, and to the LAPD, and all the other police departments out there that are going to have to deal with this travesty.
“…cowed into submission…” No even close Jack, your mayor openly pushes for the “objectives” of the 99% and supports them in every way she can. Her husband was reportedly at the demo as a demonstrator that shut down the port for a day, not to mention her support for the “general strike”. You have more problems in that city then just the protesters you have a city government that is fascist left at its core. Since the “protesters” have the support of the government and the media who all hate you folks in blue…
Good luck man!
Here’s a small sample of what the people who work in Downtown LA have to deal with on a daily basis. I filmed this last Friday, Veterans Day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj41abaaNtI
I don’t know why there hasn’t been some hot-headed motorist who hasn’t just decided he/she is fed up and run them over!
I do believe there has been one, though he had to be provoked into it by someone banging on his hood…
Greetings:
I live in the San Francisco Bay area, a couple of soviets south of what the locals like to refer to as “The City”. I don’t know how fruit much court rulings such as the above will bring forth in an era when the rule of law has morphed into the ruler’s law.
Over the last couple of decades, I have had a kind of catbird seat on the local apparat’s administration of all things demonstrable and there is a identifiable trend that all demonstrators are not treated equal, in fact, some are not treated at all. The foreseeable result is that the citizenry’s right to freely travel and do its commerce is sacrificed to the hysterias of demonstrators from the leftist end of the political spectrum.
Rarely are there any arrests. And when there are, a simple citation is the preferred level of effort regardless of the level of disruption. The local prosecutors have little interest in exacting much of a penalty from the malfeasant and the local media even less in publicizing the results of any legal action. The outcome, in the tradition of B.F. Skinner’s “rewarded behavior tends to be repeated” tradition, is an organized coterie of demonstrators whose favorite pastime seems to be a non-video game of “cops and demonstrators” and tough luck on the citizenry who make their living elsewise.
What the OWS demonstrations clearly show is that there is, in fact, a political Jim Crow system under which, leftist demonstrators are consistently allowed to wreak their havoc on the public and its spaces while ideologically aligned administrations wring their hands and allow these disruptions to continue. Like the proverbial right to throw a left hook that must end before the beginning of my fine nose, our current crop of public officials have now decided that some contact is acceptable. All demonstrators are equal; some demonstrators are more equal.
The lefties’ obsession with “equality” does not extend to the principle of equality-under-the-law.
I wonder what, if anything, will happen with the lawsuit the Richmond VA Tea Party is filing against the City of Richmond, which charged the Tea Party $10,000 for a one day permit to demonstrate where the OWS has been allowed to camp out for free.
Water. Dropping. Helicopters.
(preferably salt water)
Salt water? Why not use the top layer of the local sewage treatment pond instead? NOw THAT would make a point….
Mind you, the protesters already stink so sewage might not make a noticeable difference while water might make them less odious – and odiferous.
Hmm, tough choice….
Once again: Benign Neglect. Leave ‘em alone. And if you choose to open a business in an armpit like Oakland instead of where decent people live …
‘…and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.’
As a first-time reader, I had to chuckle at that. Hang in there, ‘Jack’, and keep telling it like you see it!
I’m flummoxed. Regardless of whether you see the aim of the OWS protesters as something productive or unproductive, desirable or undesirable — the fact of the matter is they were assembling peaceably as is their right.
This trampling on that right should be the catalyst that makes all of us a protester because without this right our freedom is doomed.
I hope you took the opportunity to watch the vid Ringo posted at #16 above. Is it the natural right of people to block traffic like that? What about the drivers’ rights?
Nobody has a right to camp in a no-camping park. If Joe the Plumber tried that, how long would he last before being removed?
I believe that the assembly has to be peaceful to be allowed; the Occupation forces clearly are not in any sense peacable. Likewise, they are allowed to demonstrate/communicate their views, which is in no sense the same as the right to camp out/sleep wherever you want. If they want to return to the site each day (which many of them do) that is reasonable, if they don’t impede the other citizenry from going about their lives.
Mr. Dunphy, what percentage of the OWS there would you say are the regular homeless young people who occupy squats and live on the street anyway?
They are the drama club from HS being manipulated by political organizers.
Umm Mouse 240 documented acts of violence including murder, general mayhem and mass assault on any perceived opponent like 80 year old ladies, how many rapes?, drug ODs and now untreatable TB in the camps(!!) is not “assembling peaceably”. And as in most locations the city governments have not pursued the fees and permits demanded of the Tea Party and you have a real threat of unequal treatment by government towards their favored protests in a blatant attempt to silence those that protest the policy of the government as is. No matter how you see the OWS the time for intervention by LE is LONG over due. Although I can understand the idea that it should be allowed to continue until election day as an example of the idea’s and policy intended for us all by SEIU, IWON and Van Jones…
Judge rules against Occupy Wall Street encampment Nov 15 04:55 PM US/Eastern By COLLEEN LONG and VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9R1DVJG0&show_article=1
If you officers with the LAPD get lice or any other disease while being confronted withe OWS you can thank your president obamas and your Mexican mayor!
I still say the easiest way to get rid of them all is to organize a job fair at each “Occupy” camp.
They did in NY – no takers. Only 3 applications for employment were taken and most when asked, said NO, they didn’t want a job!
What really bothers me is if these hippie mo-fo’s think they did good by going OWS on a bunch of cities. If Berry gets reelected, or if health care survives the Supreme’s, or maybe the House swings back to Dems in 2012……I seriuously don’t want a bunch of smelly kids and druggies to compare their OWS crap to Woodstock or anything from the 60′s.
I can just see it now…MSNBC with Maddow just gets done interviewing Chaz Bono, and moves on to some of the OWS crew, they all pontificate about how “their movement” brought about change or wahtever.
I somewhat feel your pain, Jack, as I have a son who is a police officer. Now, get the force together and go do your job. Rest assured that the vast majority of citizens will be supportive, even in California.
The solution is simple. Just send some Occupy folks to camp out on the lawn of the house of any mayor or judge that tolerates them.
Just put up a PA system and start playing country and western music. They’ll be gone in minutes.