If you’ve ever idly wondered what it would be like to watch the Lone Ranger being led into an ambush by Tonto, then look no further than northern California, where Occupy Wall Street has been forsaken by, of all places . . . San Francisco. When the anti-capitalists lose the support of the City by the Bay, then you know it’s all over: Up is down, black is white, and the Grateful Dead is having its amplifiers unplugged by doobie-smoking vegans. When the Baysiders love thee not, chaos is come again.
According to a SurveyUSA poll published yesterday, one quarter of those in San Francisco who once supported Occupy have changed their minds, while only 3 percent have come around to the Occupiers’ cause from a position of skepticism. By such progressions do movements end. The support/oppose split is now 35/57 — down from a high of 58/34 — and while 36 percent of registered Democrats have kept their faith, 31 percent agreed with the statement, “I supported the movement when it first started but now I oppose it.” If Occupy left its heart in San Francisco, then the people of that city have broken it. It is hard to see where the movement’s dying embers could possibly be rekindled.
Advertisement
As much as anything, this trend demonstrates that behavior does matter after all. Occupy’s various franchises have frequently resorted to violence, indulged in undemocratic behavior, and, with varying degrees of legality, established camps that quickly became hives of sexual assault, disease, and infighting. Even some of those who hoped that the movement represented the coming of the Age of Aquarius are having to reconcile themselves with the reality that it was a damp squib after all. And the more serious thinkers on the left must, despite public protestations to the contrary, have been quietly embarrassed by many of those who picked up their cause and ran with it.
According to Jay Leve, editor of SurveyUSA, those who maintain their support of the protesters are disproportionately young liberals, while most of those who are “open to having their minds changed” are increasingly fed up with the protesters. OWS would have done well do heed its masterminds’ advice last year and gone home to regroup and “emerge rejuvenated.” Go West, young man has not proven good advice for the boys of the patchouli brigade.
The false but persistent refrains that the many were being tainted by the few and that the movement was “mostly peaceful” have been thoroughly exploded. Only in San Francisco could 21 percent of polled adults still claim to support “the [Occupy] movement’s goal of taking over vacant buildings to use as the movement’s headquarters” when the resultant violence had occurred on their own doorstep. But Americans are a pretty sensible bunch overall, and, even in the nation’s most liberal major city, 71 percent opposed the willful breaking of the law. Likewise, while 28 percent of respondents regarded the police response as “too harsh,” 68 percent considered it either “not harsh enough” or “just about right.” On this question, there is no particular split between Republicans and Democrats: 70 percent of registered Democrats answered that the police reaction was either “not harsh enough” or “just about right,” compared with 76 percent of Republicans. It is not a good time to be an Occupier; whether dressed in red or blue, the “99 percent” appears to be standing athwart Occupy yelling “Cops!”
Further, the Oakland riots have done little to undermine the perception that the Occupiers are generally middle-class whites. On every question posed by SurveyUSA, the racial group that exhibited the least enthusiasm for the movement was African-Americans, many of whom report feeling patronized by, in the words of African-American writer Kheven LaGrone, “privileged white men coming to trash Oakland and then going back home when they got tired.” LaGrone noted yesterday on Oakland Local that he “disagreed with [the OWS] use of the word ‘police brutality.’ In the name of public safety, the police ordered the predominately white Occupy Oakland protesters to disperse. . . . The protesters had the option of leaving the area but they chose not to. In effect, they forced the police to get physical. The police gave them a reality check.” The poll bears this out. Seventy-seven percent of blacks polled opposed the taking of vacant buildings, while 77 percent approved of the police response and 40 percent lamented that the police held back. Indeed, a greater proportion of blacks have changed their mind about Occupy than of any other ethnic group, with almost a third dropping their support. (One should note that because the number of blacks in the twelve counties of the San Francisco Metropolitan area is small, these statistics have a much larger margin of error than the poll itself.)
Many of the Occupiers I met down in Zuccotti Park last year were convinced that they were in the vanguard of a revolution. But for any group successfully to prosecute radical change, the public must remain sympathetic when the fists start flying. Responding to the second Oakland riot, San Francisco has shown us its limit, and, in doing so, caught up to the nation at large.
— Charles C. W. Cooke is an editorial associate at National Review.
AS THE WORLD TURNS and the novelty wears off, the sheer insanity of OWS becomes tiresome. Their most enduring accomplishment has been the hijacking of the Guy Fawkes mask, which was becoming a Tea Party symbol. Oh well, we'll find another.
Just a few points: I don't need surveys and dizzying statistics to tell me that these anarchists must be stopped, arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It pains me when I see less than 100% agreement with such an obvious solution to this assault on our fragile civilization. Don't call them "protesters" unless it's in quotes. You demean the whole concept of grievance. These thugs are not "protesting" anything. They get their kicks from destroying what the rest of us have built, not offering anything better because zombies don't have any ideas. And don't give them an identity with this "occupy" moniker. These are free-ranging gangs of thugs and criminals whose only unity and courage comes from their numbers. This is the first time that I've ever dreaded the arrival of spring.
Funny, you guys said that the Occupation movement was dead months ago. It's dead again I guess. I expect it will die a few more deaths before you realize it is winning. How do I know this? Well, when do you hear people talking about cutting spending anymore? Only in secure Republican events I am sure. What do we hear now? We hear GOP candidates attack Romney for the way he made money. Hilarious. There is the 1%, and then there is THE 1%, right? Newt does not want to be seen as a 1%er. A couple of years ago he would have aspired to that position, openly and with pride. Suddenly there are government investigations, with legs, on the banks lending practices. San Francisco doesn't mean squat in the grand scheme of things. It is also not the place you think it is. They have enacted a few unLiberal laws in the past couple of years. But the Occupation movement continues forward, continues pushing the public dialogue, continues to change things.
Indeed. Change what? Things change constantly, especially politically. I can't see that OWS is responsible for any change - except turning a lot of deluded supporters against them.
OWS guy you are a simple fool, like the rest of the fools in OWS. Your conceit is that because you are doing something important for humankind, you do not actually have to DO anything besides get stoned and do fake macho fist pumping poses and yelling for the girls and the cameras. But you’re silly games become illegal when you use our space for screaming, squatting, and pooping on. And no one - this means you Sean - has the right to use our public property as your personal playground. Even SF has run out of patience with your childish antics as has this entire country. Next time around you will go straight to jail where punks like you don't do too well. Get used to it - with your attitude you'll wind up in General Population before long.
All the 1%s are at Obama fundraisers paying $38,500 a plate for rubber chicken. Or they're busy bundling campaign contributions for BO's 2012 defense of his occupation of the White House. Or forming SuperPacs to run commercials against whoever the eventual rep nominee is.
As Bay Area resident, I have to say that my fellow lotus eaters are puzzled about the idea of occupying Oakland. Oakland is clearly a down at the heel town that even lost out to Baltimore to become the setting for "The Wire." It is anything but an enclave of the one-percent in terms of its demographics or economic base. High finance goes no further than a bank ATM machine. Protesting globalization means annoying dock workers and teamsters at the port. By all measures, the occupiers should be tormenting plutocrats in Orinda, Lafayette, Hillsborough, Portola Valley, Woodside, and Pacific Heights. If they want to stick it to the man, Silicon Valley is full of companies exporting jobs and pollution to low-cost economic areas (many of them self-proclaimed workers paradises) around the globe.
Yet they have descended on poor old Oakland. In typical fashion, the politicians they have made most miserable are their left wing would-be allies, especially Oakland's bizarrely elected mayor. The occupiers now inhabit much the same mental space as a plague that infests poorer areas while leaving cleaner, more well favored communities alone. It's not fair to Oakland, but when a political and cultural leadership lies down with dogs, you can't rule out fleas.
Well said. The article conflates San Francisco and Oakland and the Bay Area generally in a way that misleads. If San Francisco = Manhattan, then Oakland = Newark: industrial, across the Bay, rundown, long ago out of luck.
Overlooked in the story above were the OWS adventures in San Francisco proper -- the SF police shut it down fairly fast, while the Oakland mayor dithered and dallied and only recently came out against OWS -- sort of. Oakland is the kind of place you want to like, but stay out of after dark.
Hey punk, where you goin' with that button on yer shirt?
Hey punk, where you goin' with that button on yer shirt?
I'm goin' out to Frisco to sit and play my bongos in the dirt!
I will suggest to all that the OWS movement is a "test run" of a combined OWS/ Acorn mass movement during election this November that will seek to block voting in key GOP areas, swaying the election to Obama. Yeah - far-fetched. Perhaps. But Obama and his "people" are the most ruthless, corrupt politicians ever to be on the national stage.
Just wait and see. Mark it on your calendars now@!
I look FORWARD to confrontation with anyone who attempts to interfere with me voting. The outcome will be a whole lot different than in Philly in 2008.
Follow
