Radicals’ tactics in New York, Washington — Michael A. Walsh - NYPOST.com
Attack on civility
A specter is haunting America — the specter of violence that challenges the notion of civil discourse and threatens our democracy. Embodied by the Occupy Wall Street rabble and its imitators, and shamefully abetted by far too many Democratic elected officials, what once masqueraded as “dissent” is now unmasked as partisan thuggery.
The ugliness was on display Thursday at a Panel for Educational Policy meeting in Brooklyn, where a Department of Education proposal to close some 23 failing public schools ran into Occupy-style opposition — including from several elected officials.
“Tonight is just the beginning,” said City Councilman Jumaane Williams, who represents Flatbush and Canarsie. Then he chanted: “All day, all week, occupy the DOE.”
The crowd of more than 2,000 — bloated by swarms of Occupiers and their teachers-union promoters — shouted down any opposition via a standard Occupy trick, the so-called “peoples’ microphone,” in which one speaker’s words are picked up and relayed in short phrases. Naturally, four-letter words flew.
The goal was to thwart a legal and democratic process through disruption and intimidation.
Panel members bravely stood up to the thugs, voting to close 18 schools and eliminate the middle schools of five others while approving 16 new school sites and expansion elsewhere.
But the Occubullies, in New York and around the nation, aren’t going anywhere. Count on it.
Owing to their impressive rap sheets — including hundreds of arrests, destruction of property, rape, public defecation, lewdness, even murder — their public support has gradually sunk, and police have finally moved in to break up most illegal encampments.
But the movement is down, not out. Last week, Occupy DC For Revolution, was evicted from McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza. Even so, it has vowed to attack this weekend’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference — which it calls a “gathering of bigots, media mouthpieces, corrupt politicians and their 1 percent elite puppet masters.” Their Orwellian slogan — “Occupy CPAC: Liberate Discourse.”
Echoing the 1960s’ radicals’ tactics of “direct action,” Occupy DC reportedly plans to infiltrate the conference today and disrupt the proceedings.
Despite Occupy’s history of violence and intimidation, the left has supported it, which is why Williams — with state Sen. Bill Perkins and other union puppets — cheered the Occupiers in Brooklyn on Thursday.
“We understand their struggles, and we are on their side,” President Obama told ABC News last October, before the tide of public opinion began to turn.
In fact, the Democrats have always seen the Occupy throngs as allies, tolerating their lawlessness to further their class-warfare and income-redistribution agenda.
“A lot of that anger, that frustration, dissipates,” Obama said in the ABC interview, if “everybody gets a fair shake, but we’re also asking a fair share from everybody.”
In other words, raise taxes on “the rich,” or be prepared for shattered glass.
It’s bad enough when mock revolutionaries endanger public order — but it’s horrifying when public officials and their union-thug compadres support them. Both Occupy Wall Street and Occupy the DOE are backed by the teachers unions, and the AFL-CIO has been notably sympathetic to the protests.
It’s not hard to understand why. The coming election will boil down to a duel to the death between taxpayers and moochers, between Americans who believe in personal responsibility and the “entitlement class” that thinks the world owes it a living.
As the Party of Take, the Democrats view the Occupiers as both useful idiots and intimidating shock troops. Although the attempt to legitimize the “grievances” of the “99 percent,” has failed, there’s little doubt that the ragtag armies will re-emerge with the warming weather, heading for twin showdowns at the summer political conventions.
The late-’60s riots ended with burned cities, broken skulls and a near-intergenerational civil war. This one could get even uglier.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/attack_on_civility_a0bl6I6aWN8AmMLPlWMNzL#ixzz1mKWJdPnh
Attack on civility
By MICHAEL A. WALSH
A specter is haunting America — the specter of violence that challenges the notion of civil discourse and threatens our democracy. Embodied by the Occupy Wall Street rabble and its imitators, and shamefully abetted by far too many Democratic elected officials, what once masqueraded as “dissent” is now unmasked as partisan thuggery.
The ugliness was on display Thursday at a Panel for Educational Policy meeting in Brooklyn, where a Department of Education proposal to close some 23 failing public schools ran into Occupy-style opposition — including from several elected officials.
“Tonight is just the beginning,” said City Councilman Jumaane Williams, who represents Flatbush and Canarsie. Then he chanted: “All day, all week, occupy the DOE.”
The crowd of more than 2,000 — bloated by swarms of Occupiers and their teachers-union promoters — shouted down any opposition via a standard Occupy trick, the so-called “peoples’ microphone,” in which one speaker’s words are picked up and relayed in short phrases. Naturally, four-letter words flew.
The goal was to thwart a legal and democratic process through disruption and intimidation.
Panel members bravely stood up to the thugs, voting to close 18 schools and eliminate the middle schools of five others while approving 16 new school sites and expansion elsewhere.
But the Occubullies, in New York and around the nation, aren’t going anywhere. Count on it.
Owing to their impressive rap sheets — including hundreds of arrests, destruction of property, rape, public defecation, lewdness, even murder — their public support has gradually sunk, and police have finally moved in to break up most illegal encampments.
But the movement is down, not out. Last week, Occupy DC For Revolution, was evicted from McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza. Even so, it has vowed to attack this weekend’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference — which it calls a “gathering of bigots, media mouthpieces, corrupt politicians and their 1 percent elite puppet masters.” Their Orwellian slogan — “Occupy CPAC: Liberate Discourse.”
Echoing the 1960s’ radicals’ tactics of “direct action,” Occupy DC reportedly plans to infiltrate the conference today and disrupt the proceedings.
Despite Occupy’s history of violence and intimidation, the left has supported it, which is why Williams — with state Sen. Bill Perkins and other union puppets — cheered the Occupiers in Brooklyn on Thursday.
“We understand their struggles, and we are on their side,” President Obama told ABC News last October, before the tide of public opinion began to turn.
In fact, the Democrats have always seen the Occupy throngs as allies, tolerating their lawlessness to further their class-warfare and income-redistribution agenda.
“A lot of that anger, that frustration, dissipates,” Obama said in the ABC interview, if “everybody gets a fair shake, but we’re also asking a fair share from everybody.”
In other words, raise taxes on “the rich,” or be prepared for shattered glass.
It’s bad enough when mock revolutionaries endanger public order — but it’s horrifying when public officials and their union-thug compadres support them. Both Occupy Wall Street and Occupy the DOE are backed by the teachers unions, and the AFL-CIO has been notably sympathetic to the protests.
It’s not hard to understand why. The coming election will boil down to a duel to the death between taxpayers and moochers, between Americans who believe in personal responsibility and the “entitlement class” that thinks the world owes it a living.
As the Party of Take, the Democrats view the Occupiers as both useful idiots and intimidating shock troops. Although the attempt to legitimize the “grievances” of the “99 percent,” has failed, there’s little doubt that the ragtag armies will re-emerge with the warming weather, heading for twin showdowns at the summer political conventions.
The late-’60s riots ended with burned cities, broken skulls and a near-intergenerational civil war. This one could get even uglier.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/attack_on_civility_a0bl6I6aWN8AmMLPlWMNzL#ixzz1mKWJdPnh
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