This OWS crowd really, for the most part, just seems to be a bunch of people hanging around "playing hippy." That is fine I guess. I fully support their right to "peacefully" assemble and protest whatever it is they are protesting. I support the right to assemble of course. It is what we can do here in this great land. I do not support those who say "just get rid of them in whatever way necessary." That is frankly Un American and dangerous. That being said, I also support any city management that says "enough is enough." At a certain point the protesters have to move onto greener pastures. A permanent "encampment" is not part of the deal.
Now, there will be a time when some folk get out of hand and will need to be sanctioned. There are some thugs who have decided to join in the OWS festivities and they will at some point leave their teeth prints on a nightstick. It will happen and they will likely have deserved it. Nothing to get in a twist over.
At the same time there will be (and perhaps already has been) incidents of the gendarmes using more force than necessary. A whole lot of cops have no business being allowed out in public armed with weaponry. Some are just thugs with some sort of penis issue.
That is just the way things are.
2 comments:
We do have the right to assemble and to free speech and, like you, I support the freedom of OWS to exercise their rights to do that.
We also have a basic underlying principle of law which says that you cannot, in exercising your rights, trample on other peoples' freedom to pursue their rights, such as the rights of the businesses which surround the public park to attract customers to their business, and to sell their products and to make a profit.
So when your "campground" is forcing businesses around the park to close because their customers can't get in, I have no bone to pick with the city kicking your campground the hell out of the park. And if you don't leave when ordered to do so by proper authority, then I don't have any real sympathy for what happens to you.
I agree. Some of these folk think that setting up some sort of permanent tent city is OK. It is not.
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