I can’t decide if this is knuckling under to the illegal occupation, or a clever strategy to get rid of them.
Los Angeles officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters a package of incentives that includes downtown office space and farmland in an attempt to persuade them to abandon their camp outside of City Hall, according to several demonstrators who have been in negotiations with the city.
The details of the proposal were revealed Monday during the demonstration’s nightly general assembly meeting by Jim Lafferty, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who has been advocating on behalf of the protest since it began seven weeks ago.
Lafferty said city officials have offered protesters a $1-a-year lease on a 10,000-square-foot office space near City Hall. He said officials also promised land elsewhere for protesters who wish to farm, as well as additional housing for the contingent of homeless people who joined the camp.
Presumably that’s public land. Do the taxpayers who own it get a say, or is Mayor Villaraigosa now a feudal lord empowered to dole out the public’s property on his whim? As for the office space, 10,000 square feet in downtown Los Angeles can’t be cheap. The occupiers would get it for a buck. Who would really get stuck with the true tab?
The LA mayor is a Democrat, the occupiers are liberals. We know an offer like this wouldn’t happen if the Tea Party tried camping out in downtown Los Angeles. So I’m going with “knuckling under.” But:
Lafferty, who said he talks regularly to Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck, said police “have said that the day is growing near when they will not allow the occupation in its present form to continue.”
This offer may be the carrot that precedes the stick.
– may be State, not City, property.
And giving them the office space and free housing will not stop them from marching through the streets at rush hour, blocking bank entrances, causing massive traffic jams and making a general nuisance of themselves…it will actually embolden them.
And will they be allowed to sit around smoking marijuana all day in their new address like they do in the park?…And who is going to pay the power bill for the 10,000 sq ft office?…I guess I will, and the other taxpayers in Los Angeles.
This is a frooking outrage!
It seems the Mayor has never heard that “Whenever you reward bad behavior you are sure to get more of it.”
Who says he’s opposed to the bad behavior?
The mayor is rewarding wrongdoers with property is not his to give.
The Occupoopers will trash it as they trash everything else, then come back to demand more.
He should be doing exactly the opposite!
We must charge #Occupy supporters and organizers for the costs of #Occupy!
Roll out the water cannons. Enough is enough. Consider it providing along overdo bathing experience to the mob.
No doubt about it: It’s knuckling under. The Occupados are simply shaking down the weak-kneed and complicit. With your tax dollars and mine.
. . . and farm land for those who wish to farm? Who is he kidding? You could count on one hand the number of occupiers who would know which end of a shovel to grasp. They’re not interested in manual labor. These aren’t the ’60s brand of hippie who joined a commune to live off the land and sleep around with all of the others in the group. These are the 21st century brand of hippie who wants to live off of YOU and sleep around with all of the others in the group.
It’s even worse than in sounds. The area is in an underground mall right by City Hall and tenants pay good money for their spaces. Since Occupy LA started, the businesses in the mall have been subjected to theft and constant demands by the Occupiers for free food, goods and services. If this harebrained plan prevails, these businesses will have to put up indefinitely with the smelly, freeloading protesters and assorted criminal elements who have attached themselves to the chaos. Customers will need to run a gauntlet of emboldened Occupiers in order to patronize the mall’s legitimate establishments. It’s logical to assume the current tenants will eventually close or move elsewhere rather than put up with an intolerable situation. Blight will ensue, which is exactly what Villaraigosa, his inept city council and police chief deserve. The author is being too generous in suggesting this may be a clever strategy on the part of city officials; these “leaders” are simply not that smart.
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