Well, the OWS gang does; the city’s mayor? Not so much, as Allahpundit wrote yesterday, linking to an “Open letter from Oakland police union: Why is the mayor encouraging city employees to join the ‘Occupy’ movement’s strike?”
They say they’re “confused” but they aren’t. This couldn’t be simpler: Jean Quan, the Democratic mayor of a Democratic city, was utterly intimidated by the media backlash after cops followed her orders to clear the plaza in front of city hall and ended up clashing with protesters. So now, to make amends, not only has she given them back the space, she’s giving all city employees the day off tomorrow to join the mass strike against “the establishment” — except of course for the designated scapegoat, the police. If, like the union, you’re wondering whether Quan and those employees aren’t also part of “the establishment” and why she thinks handing out extra sick days for dissent is more important than running the city, clearly you’ve forgotten an important lesson. Namely, any liberal can “speak truth to power” by virtue of being a liberal, no matter how fantastically powerful he or she might be. If this idiot is qualified, Jean Quan certainly is too.
And the result, as Michelle Malkin writes today, is this:
I’m starting a fresh thread on tonight’s Occupy Oakland “strike.”
They’ve welcomed the Black Panthers and Communist revolutionary thug Angela Davis, and are currently marching to the Port of Oakland.
Various sympathizers and observers are tweeting live. Mother Jones reports that the Oakland Whole Foods store — after being falsely accused of threatening to punish workers who walked out on the job today — has been vandalized.
One person on scene writes: “Straight into window breaking and street furniture smashing at whole foods. #generalstrike #occupyoaklandwindow breaking and street furniture smashing at whole foods.”
Whole Foods is defending itself online. To no avail.
A big mob dressed in black is roaming around the streets. They’ve sprayed graffiti on the walls of businesses.
Wells Fargo windows have also been reportedly smashed.
Click over for photos and video, which Michelle will likely be updating as new scenes of destruction come in. And while Oakland’s Mayor Quan has prostrated herself to her local Occupiers, and New York’s Mayor Bloomberg has effectively as well, Big Government notes that “ACORN Front Group Pays Homeless People ‘$10 a Hour, $100 a Day’ to Protest at Occupy Wall Street.”
(And that’s in addition to Andrew Breitbart’s newfound friend from SEIU shadowing him endlessly at an Occupy Los Angeles rally.)
How much more blue-on-blue kabuki is necessary before those in “liberal” cities such as Oakland, New York and L.A. are sick of being “Occupied?”
Judging by the cheery “go for it, you wacky free spirits!” response from some quarters of the “conservative” business world — a lot.
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