Hoovervilles, the unfortunately named shantytowns that dotted the country during the Depression, were places of desperation. But the tent city (Obamaville?) that has sprung up in Zuccotti Park is something else altogether. Most of its residents aren’t homeless, merely shiftless, and instead of sleeping in shacks of scavenged tin and board situated between the city’s fringe and the nearest soup kitchen, the Occupy Wall Street campers are famously well-fed, live in a desirable neighborhood, and sleep in high-end camp gear we can only assume was purchased from the dread corporations.
The occupiers have made themselves so thoroughly at home that their village boasts named thoroughfares. Here, at the corner of Jefferson Street and Trotsky Alley [sic], one can find not only a glorious nexus of historical illiteracy and irony-proof earnestness, but a living, breathing blight: barricades and booming drums, the hum of generators and the smell of burning fuel, respect for the conventions of hygiene that is uneven at best, and increasingly, the threat of theft, assault, and even rape.
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As an old friend of Trotsky’s might ask: What is to be done?
To be sure, the protesters’ First Amendment rights should be respected — during the waking hours, and given the appropriate permits, they should be allowed to peaceably protest until Trotsky himself rises like Lazarus from the grave. But so too should the laws of the land, the rights of the property owners in Lower Manhattan, and the exigencies of reality be respected. To that end the city of New York should raze the tent city in Zuccotti Park and close the space each night, so that the area might be effectively cleaned and efficiently policed, and so that the occupied might get some sleep, too.
The more difficult question is how to accomplish this. It is plain that the occupiers are breaking the park’s posted rules, which explicitly prohibit “camping and/or the erection of tents or other structures” and loitering in a way that “interferes with the use of” the park by others. It is also clear that their continued presence is a magnet for grift and violence and a growing threat to public safety. Though the park’s owner, Brookfield Office Properties, is required, per the original development deal with the city, to keep Zuccotti open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, city zoning code does contain provisions whereby it can move to shut it down if that “closing is necessary for public safety.” If the political will existed, the eviction of the occupiers could thus be undertaken righteously. But the political class’s early decision to indulge the OWS set and the park’s ambiguous public/private status have Brookfield and Mayor Bloomberg deferring to each other. Bloomberg’s line has been that he can’t enforce the rules unless Brookfield asks him to. Brookfield’s line has been that they will follow the mayor’s lead.
And what of the residents and business owners around Zuccotti? Thus far, the members of Community Board 1, who nominally represent them, have been less than robust in addressing the situation: By a vote of 33–3 the board passed a flowery resolution in support of the squatters, and the greatest concession it has managed to secure in ongoing talks with the umpteen “working groups” at OWS is an informal agreement that the latter’s infamous percussionists would limit their drumming to a few hours each day. The obsequiousness has to this point continued up the line: Lower Manhattan’s city councilwoman, assemblyman, and state senator, along with borough president Scott Stringer, and even U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler have for weeks presented a united front in hedging between representing the concerns of their constituents and flattering the gauzy generalities of a group of no-account out-of-towners.
The good news is that, even as we write, there are signs the stakeholders in Liberty Plaza are realizing the folly of mollycoddling the occupiers. Bloomberg, for his part, has mixed into his noncommittal rhetoric a hint of something stiffer, warning that he could soon “take actions” to prevent the occupiers from further “hurting small businesses and families” in the neighborhood. And at their most recent meeting, one member of Community Board 1 expressed her exasperation over ongoing negotiations with the occupiers: “We have had twelve meetings with them, and now we’ve given up.”
It is within each party’s power — the community board, the mayor, Brookfield — to begin the process of evicting the occupiers. It matters not who makes the first move, so long as the last move is the striking of the tents along Trotsky Alley.
What OWS stands for: they are standing up for you. They want to get the influence of money out of politics. A media like National Review might not like to endorse them at this time. Occupiers want the votes of citizens to mean more than the money of lobbyists. That will not happen if they sit on their hands at home. This is just the beginning of a true citizen's revolt. Many special interests are banding together to be heard by making a spectacle and not being violent. You might do well for yourself to not apply too many pejoratives to the movement, because you could find yourself openly agreeing with their objectives very soon.
Pu-leese! Many of those "special interests" banding together are labor unions. So how about union money in politics? Are the unions in favor of getting their influence out of politics? Are you?
It's not the beginning of anything. You're delusional. It is a bunch of overly entitled morons who don;t want to face reality. It has nothing to do with voting, with citizen's revolts, or any of the other nonsense you mention. It is a bunch of needy, "look at me" drama queens who didn't have the ambition to study to obtain useful skills and now that they have found that their 7 years of college majoring in GLBT studies and any of the other assorted nonsense that is offered might have been a lo tof fun but isn;t useful to anyone on the real world, they want someone else to pay their bills. To try to assign any credibility to this complete juvenilism is ridiculous.
You are NOT standing up for me - I have two legs and am perfectly able to stand up for myself! Who elected you to be MY representative?
AND, speaking of lobby money, where is the money funding your far-too-long invasion of peaceful public parks coming from? How is that different from lobby money?
When people bring up the issue of the First Amendment, it makes me wonder what Constitution people are looking at.
When the United States Consitution was written, the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states, only to the Feds. That is why every state consitution has its own version of the Bill of Rights.
The Feds can't go in and force people to leave the park, not unless they turn violent. Its up to the state of New York and city of New York to go in and clean up the mess, provided they do it in a legal manner.
Along with that, why is New York allowing the property rights of the local residents to be violated?
One of the first requirements for a free society, is respect for property rights, but New York seems to be ignoring them. Religious Liberty, the right to bear arms, habeas corpus and trial by a jury of peers would be the next things on the list of important freedoms.
If I were the local property owners / residents, I would sue the park owner for economic compensation and demand that the city evict the squatters from the park.
If the local business owners sued the park owner for compensation, the park owner would have some incentive to do something.
If the courts or city won't respect the property rights of the owners, then peition the health inspector to declare the park a health risk.
I understand the parks have no shower facilities, but surely there is a a local gym or something where they people could clean up once in a while?
There may be some people who are cursed with bad genetics and naturally produce more sweat and body odor than normal, giving off the false impression they neglect proper hygene, but that is only a small segment of the population, and does not reflect the vast majority of the protestors who simply chose not to bathe on a regular basis.
Make them clean up every other day or so, to keep things sanitary.
The protestors do themselves no favors when they dress poorly, neglect proper hygene, use poor English, fail to properly convey a coherent message, and fail to present a plan for addressing their greavances.
Will we see OWS candidates in the Democratic primaries?
The OWS people could learn a lot from the Tea Party, but they don't seem interested in learning how to run a quality grass roots movement.
In my humble opinion, the protestors should not have to obtain government permits to peacefully protest in a public space, but they do have an obligation to respect the property rights of the local business owners and residents. If they violate someone elses property, then take them to court and sue them for compensation, with jail time if they refuse to pay.
The OWS protestors have no respect for property rights or individual liberty. If they did, they wouldn't be out doing what they are now, which is trying to play Robin Hood and looking like fools on TV.
The OWS movement will self destruct, even if the Liberal media or Democratic party try to prop it up. The general electorate will have little or no sympathy for these people come election time.
How dare they have food!! They have tents too!!! And the fact that most of them aren't even homeless!!! If Tea Partiers(named after the Boston Tea Party, which involved the destruction of private property and violation of countless other maritime laws) actually looked at what the movement is railing against, they might actually find many commonalities with their own movement.
Once you discount the generalizations, name calling, and other fallacies of logic used to bash OWS, there is very little the Right can argue with in regards to the foundation of the movement. In the end it is about a political and economic system that no longer serves the people. Change must come from the bottom up and can only happen when ordinary citizens stand up and make their voices heard. The only real difference is that the OWS tends to be liberal, while the Tea Party is conservative. Once these two groups realize their commonalities they can quit fighting each other and begin fomenting real change to the system they both feel is broken.
Best way to end this occupy nonsense is to fight fire with fire. So, here is what I propose. Occupy Hollywood at Rodeo Drive by protestors who like to hunt and eat meat, dressed in camo outfits. Occupy Harvard by parents who are tired of the high cost of education and tenured professors who teach meaningless classes, if they teach them at all because they are too busy publishing papers. Occupy Solyndra by people in those large SUV's and pickup trucks who Obama says should switch to electric vehicles...could have some great tailgate parties in the empty corporate parking lot. Occupy Google by people who are tired of them directing traffic to the people who pay more for premium placement of their websites. Occupy Fort Belvoir by non-golfers to protest Obama golfing there too much. Occupy the Auburge du Soleil resort in Rutherford, California owned by Nancy Pelosi by people who think wine is bad for your health....banging drums there at all hours will no doubt be welcomed by the people staying there. Heck, as long as the laws and personal property rights of the owners of Zuccotti Park can be flaunted, why not any other place in America. I say that anyone who has any grievance, of any kind, be allowed to freely occupy the space of their choice for as long as they want. On the plus side, if this plan is carried out, now would be a great time to buy stock in those greedy port-a-potty companies because they will be in high demand. Upset About Something People Of The World Unite!
When you're of the "entitlement" mindset or can't get the job that pays YOU what YOU think you're worth, grinding down your neighbors and those who do work, becomes a passion.
It takes backbone to make a difference - so far, the protestors seem to have a more supine backbone and most politicians (on the left) have coddled the invaders way too long, showing no backbone.
Some may be tempted to become passionate about "grinding down" people who have a better job. But you and I will try to avoid surrendering to such base behavior, like publishing a string of pejoratives.
You imply that social aid by the government is the problem. What would you have the government do for the poor, widowed, orphaned, and elderly?
In Portland, Oregon, the police union president, speaking for the officers who are thanklessly trying to keep the squatters' camp from further infringing on the rights of the actual 99%, has called for people to contact city hall and express their frustration. Petty crime has skyrocketed in the general area of the encampment, which is in the heart of downtown, in between the courts and surrounded by small restaurants and stores.
Portland's enabling mayor, Sam Adams, expressed unqualified support for the vagrants (until they extended their camp into the park block across from city hall - luckily for Sam, on federal land, where the government moved them off). He says he won't allow them to go anywhere else and has bragged about how he has contained them to the two park blocks, which they have trashed.
These two park blocks are historic; they contain war memorial sculptures and century-old trees. They are now unusable to the rest of the city - but the rights of the few must trump the rights of everyone else, as long as it's in a socialist cause. The National Lawyers Guild and other lefty lawyer organizations have been present, advising the vagrants about how to violate the rights of the rest of the city. They refuse to obtain permits for their marches and some deliberately attempt to block traffic or interrupt commerce. On a recent march across a bridge during rush hour, one of the marchers pushed a police officer into a moving bus. Fortunately, the officer was not hurt.
Yes, it is far past time for the Obamavilles everywhere to be razed and the parks cleaned up and made available to the law-abiding 99%, who are fed up with this wanton trampling of their rights.
I hope the residents of that district are paying attention to how their left-wing representatives (from Community Board 1 all the way up to Nadler) are selling them out to a mindless, shiftless, lawless mob.
Maybe they'll vote in some tougher representatives in future elections. Maybe even some conservative ones.
I agree with this position. Set a deadline, impose the legally enforseable fees. If there is no central organization to pay the fees, charge every individual for their individual protest. This may get some to move sooner rather than later. Once the deadline is reached move them out. It is one thing to protest,which we all agree is our constitutional right, but that right does not come at the trampling of the rights of others.
