in The sick left
The Occupy movement chose the international Communist holiday, May Day, to try to bring the country to its knees. The effort was a complete fizzle. Demonstrations were few and far between, and achieved nothing beyond minor disruption, even in New York, where Occupiers had vowed to paralyze the city. The principal news story that emerged from the event was the arrest of five “anarchists” who plotted to blow up a bridge near Cleveland. The Cleveland Plain Dealer notes the anarchists’ close connection to the local Occupy movement:
Five men involved in Occupy Cleveland stand accused of plotting to blow up a bridge over Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Sagamore Hills. The organization itself has not been implicated, but the arrests prompted organizers to cancel their May Day protest and instead spend the day distancing themselves from what they characterized as a fringe element. …No surprise there. But CNN considered the would-be terrorists’ allegiance something of a mystery. Its “Overheard on CNN.com” feature posed the question, “Where do anarchists fall on political spectrum?”
Brandon Baxter, Anthony Hayne, Joshua Stafford, Connor Stevens and Douglas Wright are “self-described anarchists,” federal officials said Tuesday. And according to a half-dozen Occupy Cleveland leaders and supporters interviewed by The Plain Dealer, they found a home under the organization’s tent on downtown’s Public Square.
One of the most talked-about stories on Tuesday was about five men arrested for allegedly conspiring to blow up a bridge about 15 miles south of Cleveland, according to court documents released Tuesday. Authorities say at least three of the men are self-proclaimed anarchists, and a lot of readers pondered what kinds of philosophies the men held and how they could be classified politically.The feature led off with photos of the five men who were arrested. Here they are:
Are the men connected with the Occupy movement? Or with the tea party? Or neither?
Hmm. Occupiers or tea partiers? Hmm. It’s a puzzle, all right.
Well, not such a puzzle if you check their Facebook pages, which Jim Treacher did:
That last guy is pretty scary. The first one, as The Jawa Report pointed out, served as Occupy Cleveland’s spokesperson. In this context, though, I don’t think the statement of three of the anarchists that they are “employed” by Occupy Cleveland should be taken literally. I assume they meant that they are unemployed, and hanging out in tents.
The May Day story is mostly dog-not-barking news: the most notable fact is the almost complete indifference with which Occupy’s latest efforts were greeted. Occupy’s Robin Adelmann, who holds the group’s Cleveland permit, confessed:
Participation dwindled over the winter and activity slowed to a crawl.Ms. Adelmann is to be commended. Such self-knowledge is rare on the Left.
“Lately it’s been very nonexistent,” Adelmann said. “The public is a bit bored with us.”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/05/occupy-may-day-fail.php
No comments:
Post a Comment