New York City's Mayor Bloomberg finally realized that his constituents were fed up with the antics, the crime, the filth and the smell of the OWS encampment at Zuccotti Park, so he ordered the NYPD into action to clear the park.
The mayor's original idea was a temporary, peaceful eviction for 'cleaning', after which the protesters would be allowed to return to the park, but without their tents and sleeping bags to prevent the illegal campground from being set up again.
The eviction was far from peaceful, with over two hundred being arrested and several police injured. And as it turns it, the OWS crowd got assistance from the communist front National Lawyer's Guild and found a like-minded judge willing to issue a court order that effectively stripped New York City of its ability to enforce park rules,which would have prohibited the OWS crowd from bringing their tents, tarps and sleeping bags into the park.
Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to fight the court order, so we'll see what develops.
UPDATE: New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman has ruled in agreement with the City of New York that camping in a park wasn't free speech protected by the First Amendment. The OWS protesters can be allowed back in,but they won't be allowed to camp out there anymore.
Essentially the major difference between an OWS protestor and Tea Partier can be summed up as follows. OWS protestor = recipient of government largess and non taxpayer. In other words he/she is one of the many who don't pay taxes to the federal government. At the very least, these people generally receive more from the government than they pay in. Tea partier = taxpayer. This is one who actually pays taxes to the federal government in greater amounts than they receive in benefits.
ReplyDeleteAs such, generally tea partiers have a right to protest. They've been wronged. Generally these folks want the government off of their backs. Whereas, OWS protestors who are the ones who benefit from the government largess that has been coming their way have behaved like spoiled brats. I'm still not sure what OWS actually wants. Is it an end to crony capitalism, bailouts, or what is it? If so, instead of occupying Wall Street they should be occupying Washington. I never saw anyone complaining when Wall Street personnel were making alot of money and paying huge tax bills to finance the social programs that OWS personnel like so much.
Part of the problem with this is both Republicans and Democrats hate the Tea Party and OWS people were egged on as a way to hopefully counter the tea party. Much like in some foreign interventions US government personnel did not look to see just who it is that they were supporting. Given that they did egg this on for so long, its going to be hard to shut this down at this point.
In any event, Mr. Bloomberg and NY will lose the court challenge. If I can figure this out, they and their highly paid legal counsel can to. At first glance, given that we know the outcome, why are the leaders of NY wasting time on this? I think for PR purposes they are going through the process.
At some point though, they are going to have to crack down and put a stop to this. The nation is bankrupt and cannot afford the social programs that people seem to feel entitled to. EVERYONE will have to "take a haircut" so to speak. While its fashionable to bash bankers, this is only one part of the problem and not even the largest part. The largest part is an out of control government.
Essentially OWS has protested the wrong thing!! The powers that be could have put a stop to this early on but they chose to egg it own. Probably because they wanted to seem fashionable to the media and wanted to undermine the hated tea party. By not putting a stop to this early on, the problem has grown out of control and OWS continues to drain us and further cripple an already hurting business community. How much will it cost to clean up the mess? How much business has already been lost? Nice job Mr. Mayor!! Glad you're not mayor of a town near me. Of course, the mayors of towns near me are equally bad.
I've been told that Zuccotti Park where the OWS group has been assembled is private property. Apparently the governemnt can no longer respect the rights of private property holders.
ReplyDeleteUnless we can change how we conduct our policies this country is doomed. One of the things that made this country great was the respect it had for private property and the owners of private property. Apparently the owners of Zuccotti Park have no rights. If true, this is truly disgraceful. Apparently the government no longer respects its taxpaying citizens.
The government created this problem by egging on the OWS protests. Two sayings come to mind. 1.)"Lie down with dogs get up with fleas." 2.)"You made your bed now you must sleep in it."
Nice job!! The incompetence, evil doing, or both of the local, state, and federal governments in America is truly astounding. In any event, we are going to have to have deep spending cuts in the near future. EVERYONE must take a haircut. By egging these protests on they've made an already difficult situation must more difficult than it needed to be.
Might they have egged this on because they wished to divert the people away from themselves who caused the problems toward another wildy unpopular entity? In this case "Wall Street." Also, I think both Democrats and Republicans might have wanted a counterweight to the hated "Tea Party." I think this is highly likely, however, they did not look to see who they were actually supporting or maybe they did and have other nefarious goals in mind.