Over 2,400 Tea Partiers Arrested
Rory Cooper /
Newspaper headlines in New York on Sunday, October 16, 2011 report on the Occupy Wall Street protest in Times Square the previous day.
The liberal perspective on the “Occupy” movement is really something spectacular. Before the movement had really even announced a position or set of “demands,” progressives were pushing each other out of the way to embrace it. When they did finally come up with a set of ideals, which mostly involve eliminating their personally accrued debt, President Obama practically made it his new national agenda, branded “We Can’t Wait.”
Now you have Hollywood “celebrities” like mega-millionaires Russell Simmons, Katy Perry and Russell Brand hopping by for a photo-op with the anti-capitalist crowds. Brand said they “colonized the international agenda,” whatever that means. Restauranteurs are delivering them food (but keeping their profits); unions like the AFL-CIO are providing them places to bathe (but inspiring the organizing of their drum circles) and former Obama appointee Elizabeth Warren is crediting herself as the “intellectual foundation” of the movement.
All of this isn’t because of some shared set of principles or intellectual foundation but because of a shared desire for enthusiasm. The Tea Party swept the nation last year based on a simple set of principles: Less Debt, Less Spending, and Less Government will lead to More Jobs and Economic Growth. The enthusiasm for more government, more taxes and more spending just wasn’t the same.
The Tea Party was a movement that was so peaceful, so respectful of public and private property, so familial and so powerful that leftists had to spend weeks agonizing over unrelated Lyndon LaRouche posters or in some cases, inventing incidents of racism or name-calling to attempt to smear it.
So we know how President Obama and his liberal base hysterically responded to the reality of Tea Party. The question is this: how would they have responded to the following 25 headlines?
Pair Living With Tea Party Protesters Arrested For Selling Heroin
Tea Party Protester Defecates on Police Car
More than 700 Arrested After Tea Party Blocks Traffic on Brooklyn Bridge
Police In Riot Gear Clear Tea Party Protesters in California City
130 Tea Party Arrests in Chicago
Police Investigating Possible Sexual Assault of Teen at Tea Party
Tea Party Discourages Sexual Assault Victims From Contacting Police
Tea Party Protests Go Global; Riots in Rome
Muppet-Wielding Tea Partiers Occupy George Soros’ Speech
Florida Mom Abandons Family for Tea Party
Police Worry as Tea Party Pines for World Series Spotlight
Tea Partiers ‘Defecating on Our Doorsteps,’ NYC Residents Complain
Riot Police Arrest Tea Party Protesters
Tea Party Occupies GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s Connecticut Front Lawn
Tea Party Targets Phil Griffin’s House
Tea Party Takes On NYPD at Times Sq.; Then March to Washington Sq.: 74 Total Arrests
Repairing Tea Party Damage to City Hall Could Cost $400,000
Tea Party Killing Tax-Funded Grass at McPherson Square
Cincinnati Police Arrest More Than 20 Tea Partiers at Piatt Park
Tea Party Speaker: Violence Will Be Necessary to Achieve Our Goals
NYers to Tea Party: Lay Off the Drums
Tea Party Protesters Sing “F*** the USA”
98 Degrees Singer Among Tea Party Arrests
Protesters Accused of Hurting NYC Economy
Tea Party Gets ‘Getting Arrested’ App
And we could go on…
The First Amendment absolutely gives “occupiers” the ability to “peaceably” assemble and protest against capitalism, free enterprise and economic freedom, but it does not entitle them to lawlessness, disrespect for private property or violent anarchy.
President Obama and the Democrat party had control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives for two years. Liberals controlled Congress for four. It’s hard to have grassroots angst work in your favor when you were largely in control of Washington for such a long and economically devastating period.
So we can understand why liberals want the Occupy movement to work out for them. However with over 2,400 arrests in roughly six weeks, you have to think they’ll soon be having some buyer’s remorse.
**UPDATE**
Shortly after this blog was published on October 25, hundreds of ‘Occupy’ protesters rioted in Oakland, California, throwing bottles, paint and beer at police, injuring two officers, and resulting in more than 100 arrests. The running total is now well over 2,500 arrests in roughly six weeks.