Actually, one of the points of the OWSies is that they don’t get permits. They just show up and “occupy”.
Which actually (under the existing laws) makes their gatherings illegal. Which should have been pointed out to them in no uncertain terms on the very first day. It’s called “disperse or be arrested for impeding traffic and unlawful use of a public place”.
When the authorities (many of whom, as noted above, saw the OWSies as exploitable to further their own political dogmas) didn’t react, it set a precedent.
The OWSies learned that the authorities feared them, or maybe even sympathized with them, and began making more (increasingly petulant, selfish, and irrational) demands. And planning to expand their incursions even further.
(Any resemblance to the Visigoths is no doubt coincidental, as I am reasonably sure that most OWSies have never studied enough history to know what a Visigoth was, to say nothing of the Ostrogoths.)
The general population learned that for whatever reason, they were stuck with the OWSies in their faces 24/7. Unless of course winter setting in would do what the authorities had refused to, i.e. deal with the problem.
As for the authorities, they find themselves in the position of the young lady who tried to ride on the tiger. And they aren’t smiling now.
cheers
eon
