“As long as we don’t destroy anything, the police don’t care. It’s a win-win situation. We get our message across and they (police) get paid.”
- Chris Moreland, 23, who led a recent Occupy Oakland protest where yet another American flag was burned.
The long running comedy show known as Occupy Oakland is wearing thin, real thin.
With all due respect, there are big losers here. They’re called Oakland taxpayers. The roaming temper tantrums have now cost that city in excess of $5 million. So it isn’t a win-win situation. The 99 percent lose again thanks to those passing themselves off as self-anointed conscious Americans and the rest who remind us that anarchists don’t play along well with others.
Arrests show the majority of those causing problems aren’t even Oakland residents. That explains why they don’t care that limited police resources are being diverted to keep them from trashing private and public property instead of trying to curtail the gang violence terrorizing the city. It also explains that they don’t get the fact the message they are delivering is hurting probably the largest city in America that gets little if any benefit from the riches of the 1 percent they despise.
As for their message, it’s time they got over themselves.
They have no real message any more except to promote chaos and to act like out-of-control spoiled brats. They don’t want to work within the system. They don’t want delayed gratification. They want the world and they want it now.
Back in 2009, then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the Tea Party movement as such: “We call it AstroTurf, it’s not really a movement.”
She was so wrong that the Tea Party movement ended up costing her the speakership.
This is not to imply the Tea Party’s goals should be embraced or that somehow they are more “right” than the Occupy movement.
Whether you like what they are doing or not, the Tea Party folks have been able to channel frustration and rage into results by working within the system. If you doubt that, look at how the Tea Party movement is impacting policies at the highest level through the selection of a major party’s presidential nominee.
The Occupy movement long ago squandered any ability to institute real change. The course they have taken has only given those who are truly crooked and greedy among the vilified 1 percent assurance that their way of doing business is safer than ever.
Had the Occupy Movement decided to get to work instead of occupying space and doing their rants before cameras, they just might have eventually impacted political and social decisions.
The Occupy protestors are part of what has turned into a fake grassroots movement that somehow got it in their heads if they become big enough irritants that the entire world was going to change to meet their demands.
The Occupy Movement isn’t grassroots. It is 100 percent pure AstroTurf.
This column is the opinion of managing editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA. He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209-249-3519.
