Take Down the Tents and Send the Circus Home

Take Down the Tents and Send the Circus Home

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

November 3, 2011

The Occupy Wall Street movement has stretched far and wide reaching London overseas as well as the left coast where cities like Oakland are under siege with video reminiscent of Watts in the ‘60s.

This is absolutely no exaggeration as within the last 24 to 48 hours more than 80 OWS protesters and their ilk have been arrested. City Hall Plaza and the nearby environs have been the site of arson, hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of property damage, assaults against civilians and law enforcement alike.

This is not the first time Oakland has been in the news for such violence and degenerative behavior. In recent days and weeks, the OWS thugs have forced the shutting down of the Port of Oakland – the fifth largest port in the United States, assaulting Oakland police officers with bottles, all with an attitude of a sense of entitlement. These are anarchist thugs with the support of the likes of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who said “G-d bless their spontaneity.”

One woman interviewed admitted the OWS hooligans instigated the bottle throwing against the police, felt no remorse, and went so far as to support the assault against law enforcement because, as she put it, they are wearing protective gear. And even after admitting the OWS’s responsibility in the fracas, which resulted in police retaliation with tear gas, the same woman sought retribution against the police for responding in an over the top manner.

The unidentified unrepentant interviewee had support from none other than Oakland Mayor Jean Quan who cavalierly threw her police force under the proverbial bus, apologizing to the OWS protesters for the behavior of law enforcement. Quan said she knows Oakland is a progressive city and she supports the efforts of the protesters and their movement.

Oakland is not alone in the dissident behavior from the thugs and miscreants masquerading as protesters with a legitimate beef. Certainly in New York City there is no shortage of deviant behavior, from public urination to defecation on police vehicles, to assault and battery by protesters against other protesters.

In several states there have been accusations of rape by protesters committed against other protesters, with little in the way of police involvement, as apparently OWS councils have been formed to police themselves, which, of course, is not happening. These councils are fearful of being shut down if this cacophonous behavior is reported to the authorities.

To date, more than 3,000 arrests have been logged in places like Boston, Chicago, Denver, Jackson, MS, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, OR, and Seattle for vandalism, graffiti, trespassing on private property, lewd behavior and assault. Chants of “f*ck the US” have been all too common as well. The violence is getting worse and chaos is the norm as well as the overt drug usage and virulent anti-Semitism. For Obama and his minions to compare this depraved and licentious movement to the TEA Party is incredulous and demonstrative of a need to demonize a successful and well behaved group of patriots who know how to demonstrate in an appropriate manner.

So unconscionable is some of the behavior, there was a group of Iranians at an OWS locale in traditional garb with signs calling for the United Nations and Human Rights Watch to get involved – citing American human rights abuses against Americans due to the “evils” of capitalism. This coming from people native to a country where death is the penalty for adulterers and homosexuals are executed via stoning.

Enough is enough. This nonsense has gone on far too long and needs to be reined in by law enforcement. Signs making accusations based upon misinformation are the norm and not the exception. Many of the protesters are castigating the financial industry for greed and not sharing their wealth – clearly taking their lead from the Obama administration, as it was Obama himself who, during the 2008 presidential campaign called for a redistribution of wealth.

The United States is a capitalist republic. There is no ceiling to what a person can earn, nor should there ever be one. The overwhelming majority of the protesters expect government to provide for them, ensure they have jobs, health care, a home, forgive their student loans and bring so-called corporate greed to an end. This from the same people drinking their Starbucks beverages, sleeping in their LL Bean sleeping bags, eating McDonald’s food, sending text messages on their various corporate created cell phones.

Why should their student loans be forgiven? Because they majored in Sanskrit or Philosophy? Choose more wisely. It’s called personal responsibility. If you like those subjects, minor in them, but major in something marketable, like history as I did. Well, OK, not so much marketable, but I haven’t taken to the streets. Student loans should no more be forgiven than mortgages on which people have fallen behind.

In the case of the defaulting homeowners, once again, this is a case of personal responsibility. Nobody forced anyone to accept a mortgage they could not afford. No one has the right to own a home. Yet, people in over their heads are crying foul, as if it were the fault of government. Read the fine print. Ask the pertinent questions. If you can’t afford the house, don’t buy it – period.

Sadly, the anger of these zealots is misdirected. They should be protesting in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, DC or in front of the Capitol Building where legislation is debated, passed and signed into law giving bailout after bailout to corporations who have behaved irresponsibly or criminally.

More importantly, these spoiled, petulant child-like pinheads should investigate internally why their lives are not going as planned. Who wants to hire a tattoo-laden, multi-pierced person who quit a job to join a protest when so many are out of work and legitimately looking? The banks and successful corporations are not the bane of these protesters existence. These are people, most of whom, demand cradle to grave government care – the ultimate in the nanny-state.

Part of the nanny-statism is contradictory and counterintuitive. Signs calling for either lower tuition rates or free tuition, yet demanding smaller class sizes and more course offerings are demonstrative of this contradictory thought process at work. Other examples include signs demanding high-paying jobs, but refusal to work for corporations and demands of jobs, but simultaneous demands to strip corporations of their wealth.

T-shirts with pictures of Che Guevara and Karl Marx with slogans such as “Marx was right,” being worn by protesters with absolutely no sense of history. Let these petulant miscreants live under the dictatorial regimes of Castro’s Cuba, Chavez’s Venezuela, Ahmadinejad’s Iran or Mugabe’s Zimbabwe before calling for the surrender of the republic or capitalism.

There are other signs out there as well – help wanted – perhaps not in one’s chosen profession, but they exist. Or do what 14-year-old Michael Weymouth of New York did – created his own company – replete with a public relations person. Weymouth, founder of Long Island Tech Wizard fixes computers and has three 14-year-olds working with him as well and is making money.

While the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the freedom to assemble, it does not allow for the assemblage to interfere with the rights of the passers-by, the rights of the local businesses to make a living and provide the services for which they were hired or for the assault on either civilians or law enforcement. The time has come for the tents to come down and the circus to leave town.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.