[For weeks now, the "Occupy Wall St." commotion has led off most TV news reports. I had to laugh when one of the spokespersons said they were *tax payers*; it looks as though many at least are college students who should instead be protesting at their respective universities protesting their exhorbitant/excessive tuition costs. Then, those who go on to say they are Marxists and socialists who want this country changed accorrdingly scare me. As Eric Erickson of Human Events has said,*Most of those on Wall Street want retribution and punishment of the rich. They've cast out greed, but are filled up with envy and jealousy.*]
Costs of the Occupiers - by Michelle Malkin 10/14/2011 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46857
The trash generated by the "Occupy Wall Street" protests keeps piling up. So do the bills. Liberal media outlets claim the anarchic, anti-capitalist movement is more popular than the tea party. But wait until Americans across the country get a full picture of the costs of the aimless occupiers.
In New York City, government officials estimate the month-long siege of Zuccotti Park has now imposed $3.2 million in overtime police costs on the public. On Thursday, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office pressured left-wing activists to vacate the park for cleaning, Occupy Wall Street urged sympathizers to flood the city's customer services lines: "Call 311 and tell Bloomberg not to evict us!"
In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter told the press that demonstrators outside city hall have incurred $164,000 in overtime public employee costs and $237,000 in regular time. "At the current rate, if Occupy Philly continues to the end of the month, the city would spend another nearly $690,000 on police overtime alone," the local NBC affiliate reported. "Besides the extra police presence being dedicated to the Occupy Philly protests, other city departments have also incurred costs."
In Seattle, police have so far billed $30,000 in overtime, and the parks department racked up nearly $4,000 in additional costs related to the protests there. Occupiers have blocked traffic, assaulted an officer and pitched illegal tents. Merchants in the area have been hurt as the riff-raff deter customers. One business owner in Westlake Park, where hundreds of protesters remain camped out, told Seattle TV station KIRO: "There's definitely fewer people you can identify as people out, just walking through the area."
Seattle's pushover mayor, Democrat Mike McGinn, now faces even greater demands from the insatiable mob -- which wants a "guaranteed parking space near City Hall Plaza that allows for around-the-clock parking," "24-hour access to the first floor of City Hall for restroom access, and a written statement from the mayor approving the protesters' long-term occupancy of City Hall Plaza."
In Boston, City Council President Stephen Murphy anticipates a $2 million hit to taxpayers if the protests refuse to disband by the end of October. The local Fox affiliate notes the tab represents 8 percent of the yearly budget for police overtime. "While we're all sympathetic with our protesters down there," Murphy said, "Wall Street isn't picking up the tab on this thing. It's the Boston taxpayers."
When fiscally conservative tea party activists held protests over the past two years, they filed for all the required permits and paid for their own power. Occupy Boston, by contrast, neither sought nor obtained any proper permits at any level, according to the Boston Globe. Instead, city and park officials have been cowed into providing them gratis electricity and camp space lest there be "conflict."
Many of these occupiers are primarily occupied as paid rent-a-mobsters for unions, left-wing think tanks and the radical Working Families Party. While one collective hand soaks the taxpayers, the other hand is busy soliciting free stuff. Occupy Los Angeles activists took to Skype on their laptops to solicit donations of iPhones and iPads.
Occupy Wall Street members on Twitter organized an ongoing "#needsoftheoccupiers" drive for everything from batteries and tarps to "gently used" coats and sweaters, wool socks, sleeping bags and energy bars. Occupy Austin organizers publicized their wish list, including a free barbecue grill, portable toilets, extension cords, a Bobcat forestry cutter for clearing brush and network cameras for a livestream.
THESE ARE NOT PRINCIPLED ADVOCATES OF FISICAL RESPONSIBILITY. THESE ARE PROFESSIONAL FREELOADERS.
Unlike tea party activists who focused like a laser beam on politicians in both parties responsible for redistributing wealth to Big Business cronies by force, the Occupy Wall Street movement is everywhere and nowhere. The entitled Kamp Alinsky Kids are poaching WiFi and trespassing on private property under the guise of "social justice" but in plain service of themselves.
Their T-shirts and speeches glorify Marxist radicals Che Guevara, Emiliano Zapata and Chairman Mao. They lionize convicted death row cop killer Troy Davis and WikiLeaks collaborator Bradley Manning. They condemn "Nazi Bankers," Jews, Fox News, the American Legislative Exchange Council, Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker, the Koch family and the New York Police Department ("Pigs!"). They promote the illegal alien DREAM Act and 9/11 Trutherism.
They spout bumper-sticker profanities and inanities: "F**k banks." "Unf**k the world." "Fuuuuu*k." "Free education." "Smash nationalism." "People not profits."
They flash peace signs while celebrity supporter Roseanne Barr calls for beheading financial industry workers and fellow marchers call explicitly for "violent revolution" or for Obama to "Send SEAL Team 6" to Wall Street.
Then they huff and puff (preferably in a creepy uniform chant they call the "human microphone") that we just haven't taken the time to understand what they're all about -- as they hawk $20 "Eat the Rich" polo shirts and license their protest photos to Getty Images.
Viva la revolucion! Up with people! Stop the greed! (Cha-ching. Cha-ching.)
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
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Mrs. Malkin is author of Unhinged (Regnery) and "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2009).
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The Occupiers: Comments by Eric Erickson of Human Events(HumanEventsDaily.email.humanevents.com October 14, 2011
There seems to be little ground to share with the rag tag group of communists, hippies, and hipsters occupying Zuccotti Park in New York City. But, I am told by people who've been out surveying the crowds in other parts of the country—occupying Chicago to Atlanta—that there are some poor souls shivering and smelly that conservatives should not turn their backs on.
In fact, a number of conservative thinkers are concerned that maybe, just maybe, we might be engaged in reaction instead of apologetics and are losing people to the left that we need not lose.
I think most of the ground we could share with the occupy movement is superficial ground. Most of those on Wall Street want retribution and punishment of the rich. They've cast out greed, but are filled up with envy and jealousy.
Elsewhere, there may be some common ground. Some of the protestors are just tired that they can't find a job and no one seems to want to help them. The issue, then, is not punishing the rich, but helping these people. And many conservatives agree that the deck has been stacked in favor of big corporations too. We're all opposed to TARP and bailouts and special tax loopholes that only benefit one company.
We're all opposed to companies that have found it more useful to spend money on lobbyists to get a competitive advantage through law than to innovate and compete with upstart entrepreneurs. The solution then, it seems, is not more regulation and not to punish the successful. The solution is to actually level the playing field.
Simplify the tax code. Deregulate. Make it easy for entrepreneurs to get started. Reduce the nanny-state, not expand it. The time is right for a conservative, populist anti-Wall Street movement. Most Americans do think the deck is stacked against them. But unlike the hipsters, hippies, and communists, most Americans do not want to punish the successful. They just want a level playing field.
[bold and italics emphais mine]
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