The Occupy Movement: Is This What Democracy Looks Like?

The Occupiers all over the country have tried to paint themselves as the 99% fighting against the oppression of the 1%, the monied elites, in the tradition of democracy movements around the world. The mainstream media has gleefully assisted them in this portrayal. But what about the story the MSM is not telling?

Occupy Wall Street (New York City): Animal Farm comes to life

As described by one participant, OWS is becoming the embodiment of Orwell's novel.

On Sunday, October 23, a meeting was held at 60 Wall Street. Six leaders discussed what to do with the half-million dollars that had been donated to their organization, since, in their estimation, the organization was incapable of making sound financial decisions. The proposed solution was not to spend the money educating their co-workers or stimulating more active participation by improving the organization’s structures and tactics. Instead, those present discussed how they could commandeer the $500,000 for their new, more exclusive organization. No, this was not the meeting of any traditional influence on Wall Street. These were six of the leaders of Occupy Wall Street (OWS).

[…]

Daniel, a tall, red-bearded, white twenty-something—one of the six leaders of the teach-in—said that the NYC-GA [New York City - General Assembly] needed to be completely defunded because those with “no stake” in the Occupy Wall Street movement shouldn’t have a say in how the money was spent. When I asked him whether everybody in the 99% had a stake in the movement, he said that only those occupying or working in Zuccotti Park did. I pointed out that since the General Assembly took place in Zuccotti Park, everybody who participated was an occupier. He responded with a long rant about how Zuccotti Park is filled with “tourists,” “free-loaders” and “crackheads” and suggested a solution that the even NYPD has not yet attempted: Daniel said that he’d like to take a fire-hose and clear out the entire encampment, adding hopefully that only the “real” activists would come back.

(h/t: Instapundit)

No entitlement mentality here, right? OWS protester vandalizes McDonald's after being refused free food.

Who would've ever guessed a protest against bankers and financiers could possibly turn anti-Semitic?



Remember those women-only tents that had to be set up at the Tea Party rallies to protect against rapes? Yeah, me neither. But OWS needs them. Allahpundit points out the blatant and disgusting double standard of the MSM.

This can’t be repeated enough: With a few exceptions, foremost among them the New York Post, the coverage of OWS protests compared to the coverage of tea-party protests is the worst media double standard in recent history. Nothing compares, because nothing else involves this much distortion on both ends of the coverage. It’s not just that most press outlets (like the protesters themselves) look the other way at depravity happening inside Obamaville, it’s that for years they treated the tea-party movement as some sort of feral mob that was forever on the brink of rampaging through the streets — like, say, Occupy Oakland just did. If you missed it when I posted it last week, go watch the ad the DNC ran in August 2009 when tea partiers first started showing up to town halls on ObamaCare. That set the tone. We began the year with tea-party pols being smeared as killers over a shooting they had nothing to do with and we end it with actual rapes being shrugged off by the press because they’re bad PR for a movement they support. Disgrace.

Speaking of Occupy Oakland...


Occupy Oakland: Death to Capitalism

Occupy Oakland held a general strike last Thursday, which descended into an orgy of wanton destruction.

The banner expressing the theme:



Who would've ever guessed a protest against capitalism could possibly involve destruction of private property?

Rioters smash bank windows...



engage in wanton destruction...



and attack the police.



Another video on occupyoakland.org shows a presence by labor unions, most prominently the SEIU, and features a protester holding a sign saying, “I would rather get shot with rubber bullets than pay back my student loans.” No entitlement mentality here, right? He wants his college education and he wants it for free. And the bank that loaned him the money is the greedy one?

Just down the coast,


Occupy LA: Crime and Communists

Remember all those assaults at Tea Party events? Yeah, me neither. Unless you're talking about the attacks on Tea Partiers. Here's Occupy LA.

"Nothing positive can come about unless you get rid of America and everything it stands for."



Occupy DC: Is this really what democracy looks like?

Who would've ever guessed a protest founded on anger, envy and resentment could possibly turn violent?

We can no longer tolerate media assertions that this is a non-violent movement. When your purpose is to inspire hatred, to threaten and intimidate, when you trespass and obstruct traffic, when you chant obscenities and deliberately seek to provoke confrontations — no, you’re not being non-violent, no matter how often you claim to be “peaceful.”

But who can expect honesty from such savages? And who can any longer doubt that the mainstream media are acting as accessories to this criminal movement by pretending that the “Occupy [Whatever]” mob’s regular eruptions of violence and criminality are atypical aberrations?

[…]

Yes, in the sense that “democracy” is a mob contemptuous of Western civilization, without respect for private property, ignorant of the Anglo-American Rule of Law tradition, and worked into a fevered frenzy by ritualistic incantations of radical-egalitarian concepts of “social justice” — well, indeed, this is what democracy looks like.

Push grandma down the stairs


Who's responsible for the Occupy movement and what is it really?



Occupy Boston: Occupying the Israeli consulate

An officially-sanctioned event.


Occupy Portland: The Darwin Awards

Verum Serum has been covering Occupy protests from all over, including several posts about Portland. In this one, a protester demonstrates his commitment to the cause.


The Occupiers: A mass temper tantrum

This is less a movement than a temper tantrum by children of all ages who feel entitled to something someone else has. It exhibits the same thinking, in fact likely contains some of the same people, that drives those who protest, break windows and burn cars at WTO meetings.

Though not every location has erupted in violence, as Stacy McCain explains this movement can no longer legitimately claim to be non-violent. Even those urging the violent hordes to act peacefully in the Oakland riots were forced to resort to violence, or the threat of violence, to make an impression.

But that's not what you'll get from the MSM, which, in stark contrast to its treatment of the Tea Party, embraced the Occupiers with open arms from the outset.