Before there was #Ferguson, there was #Occupy
A little too similar, maybe?
The Ferguson protesters have proven themselves to be destructive, violent, and completely uninterested in anything having to do with “justice.” Not only are they okay with this assessment—they’re completely proud of it.
In fact, they’re beginning to look an awful lot like another “justice movement” we got to know quite well a few years back.
Back in August, an enterprising writer over at Buzzfeed engaged in some solid journalism and noticed that the Ferguson protests—namely, the evolving encampments were beginning to look a little like the Occupy Wall Street protests:
As the marches in Ferguson grow smaller, this apparently semi-permanent encampment has echoes of Occupy Wall Street and other radical encampments who sought to claim and hold territory in 2011 and 2012.
“Why do we need a leader?” Alexander asked. “I’m saying everybody can be leaders.” The camp even has a few Occupy veterans who drifted in during the last week and are giving them pointers on how to deal with things like tear gas — a threat Alexander said is still present, especially as their numbers grow.
A couple of miles away in downtown Ferguson, across the street from the still-under-construction police station, another group is also digging in. Unlike the protesters on W Florissant, the gathering downtown is older and includes more women than men. Many of the demonstrators leave by the middle of the night, though someone is always out and always will be until they “get some answers,” according to organizer Angela Whitman.
“We come out when it’s storming and raining,” she said. “We don’t play around. We don’t care what the weather is. We’ll be out here as long as it takes.”
The atmosphere downtown is almost familial, with chairs and tables spread out across the street corner. Friday night, the group had prayers and competing chants between men and women, among other things.
In fact, Occupy is more interconnected with Ferguson than was immediately apparent when people started to organize.
The community organizers who turned Zuccotti Park in New York and McPherson Square in DC into public urinals back in 2011 didn’t just fade into the background once city officials scraped their filth off the sidewalk; they’ve been protesting Walmart (and plan to do so on Black Friday, just in case you were planning on standing in line for a $10 DVD player or something,) and more recently using their microphone to help promote uprisings not only in Ferguson, but all across the country. They’re providing an online home base, movement updates, resources for protesters, and help connecting to local protests like the ones we’ve seen in Portland, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.
They’re even participating in violent assaults on public officials.
So, violence. Assault. Destruction of property. What’s next? Occupy’s history isn’t really encouraging:
Occupy brought us filth, violence, rampant drug use, and rape and sexual assault—and the people of Ferguson deserve much better.
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Comments
Where was this tolerance for the Tea Party? Imagine the outrage of conservative American’s started using these tactics against the left and say occupied the New York Times building?
Trouble is, we’d leave it cleaner than we found it…
they can only be involved there because the people that live there allowed them to be involved.
They’re the unofficial (with probable official support deep down) enforcers of the left, just like the antifas are in Europe.
Before there was #Occupy there was #TheRevenueAct of 1916 and #TheCreatonoftheFED in 1913. The Revenue Act would include the #EstateTax just in case people acted generously with their children.
The thread between the two rabble mentioned above, other than the paid agitators, is an economic one.
If people had wealth producing jobs I do not believe, among other reasons, that OWS would have melded into a Tofurky of a movement. Nor do I think people would have been suckered into Obamacare or by the need for minimum wage taxation. Nor would they have accepted a number of advertised-as-death-throe environmental issues.
With capital to do with as they please, people gain knowledge. We are dealing with a generation that lacks knowledge about basic economics. That knowledge includes wealth creation, investment, etc. The Paul Krugman’s and Jon Gruber’s of the world can get away with economic murder in this environment.
I don’t believe for a second that government creates jobs. Sadly, our government, at least since 1916, has controlled the economic environment.
Now, for example, our government is focusing on the physical environment, not the economic environment. The most powerful group in Washington next to the IRS-the EPA-will now generate more inane regulations to combat SMOG. Ergo, more jobs will be snuffed out.
The Keystone pipeline would create jobs. And why not help out our neighbor to the north? Why this doesn’t happen? A lack of knowledge coupled with power.
We need somebody of substance to Occupy the WH. When this happens then I believe the madness, the Kulturesmog, on the streets, for the most part, would dissipate under true leadership.
“Without a vision, the people perish.” And, without a penny the people plead and ploy.
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