The Occupy L.A. and Occupy Philly campsites were both cleared out of protesters by police early this morning. But what remains in the parks is even more sickening. This is what two months of “Occupation” did to the once-scenic City Hall Park in L.A.:
The once-lush lawns are now patches of dirt strewn with tons of debris, including clothing, tents, bedding shoes, trash and two months of human flotsam. Under a tree is a guitar, a bullhorn, CDs and a black bandana.
Plywood panels erected to protect statues were sprayed with graffiti, including the words, “It smells like change.”
Early Wednesday, it smelled like pee.
Police officers in white hazardous materials suits prowled the park for personal belongs so they can be stored for retrieval by protesters. Skip loaders were to be used to scoop up the mess.
Cmdr. Andrew Smith said much of the debris is contaminated with urine and feces, and there are concerns about bacteria.
AP is reporting that police think it will take weeks to restore the park. In Los Angeles, the police presence was roughly 1,400 cops for 500 activists – which sounds like a pretty skewed ratio, until you think about how much work the eviction actually entailed. In addition to the mass arrests (news reports say 200) police also had to secure the area for public health reasons. According to Reuters, activists had been storing human waste at the site “for unknown reasons” – and there were rumors that protesters could potentially use this as a weapon against police.
The evictions in L.A. and Philadelphia follow on the heels of similar evictions in New York and Oakland. The movement is quickly losing its home base campsites in major cities, but the Occupiers are moving on. Salon reports that the next major project will be “Occupy Our Homes,” an anti-foreclosure movement that will disrupt bank auctions and fight evictions. According to Salon, the Occupy Our Homes website is registered to a former SEIU official, another example of unions attempting to steer the Occupy movement in a more action-oriented direction.
How exciting! The occupiers can make the nation's foreclosed homes smell like pee, too.
The cities should send those who finance and enable the bill for the cleanup.
There is a vast difference between protesting and squatting. n nYou have a Constitutional right to be a protester. nYou do NOT have a right to be a squatter. n
"According to Salon, the Occupy Our Homes website is registered to a former SEIU official, another example of unions attempting to steer the Occupy movement in a more action-oriented direction." n n"Action-oriented", that's quite a euphemism. I think SEIU and their enabling and encouragement of thuggery (at the very least) and mayhem (aspirational at the very least) is a quite disturbing development and needs to be described and decried in the strongest possible terms. n nDoes anybody really want these "organizers" taking up squatters' residence in their "community"? n nThe SEIU and OWS have made it clear that they firmly believe in the expropriation of private property, if they begin to put these views into "action" we are going to be having some problems. n n
Where did the Founding Fathers set forth the right to use a public square as a toilet and garbage dump? Perhaps in the Commerce Clause where everything else seems to appear magically?
The sad fact is that while the Occupy movement might have had, at one time, a valid point of view, they have relegated themselves to arguing the sole argument that they are allowed to squat on public, and sometimes private, property. Somehow they have come up with the argument that denying taxpaying citizens the right to use public facilities is somehow a valid expression of free speech. n nThe fact is that not one Wall Street "fat cat" or corporate CEO has been in any way injured by the OWS movement. Those that have suffered have been small businesses who have lost revenue to reduction in traffic and property damage, municipalities that have had their budgets strained to the breaking point by servicing these leeches, and the victims of their assaults, pillage and rapes.
The sad fact is that while the Occupy movement might have had, at one time, a valid point of view, they have relegated themselves to arguing the sole argument that they are allowed to squat on public, and sometimes private, property. Somehow they have come up with the argument that denying taxpaying citizens the right to use public facilities is somehow a valid expression of free speech.
The mayors pockets are being filled by democrat politicians who are crony capitalists. To blame mayors or govenors is as dumb as blaming the banks that democrats like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank forced to make loans to people who could never pay those loans back which created the housing bubble and the bust that created this recession. __These children in these Obamaville shanty towns are foolishly misled.