The big news here in Raleigh in the last few days was the arrest of 8 protesters down at the State Capital grounds. Apparently they were on the sidewalk in front of the Capital and the Capital Police asked them to leave. I’m assuming, dangerous I know, that they were occupying the sidewalk and not just using it to go from the actual occupation to the Apple store where they could get more iPads, iPods, iPhones, batteries and a MiFi hot spot so that they could use Facebook and Twitter and WordPress to keep people abreast of their actions.
Anyway, I digress.
The big news wasn’t the arrest of the 8 people. Everyone expects these guys to get arrested in some number now and then. In fact, I suspect for some of ’em, it’s a badge of honor to be arrested for protesting and somehow adds to that individual prestige within the movement. Again, whatever. The big news was the complain by the Occupy Raleigh folks that the police somehow crossed a line by asking a woman, who is disabled, to disperse as well. As if!
The whole idea, near as I can tell, of this whole movement is that we should all be treated fairly. We should all be expected to contribute and we should all be expected to obtain compensation. There is no special exceptions for anyone. So it seems strange to me, but not unexpected given the Leftists tendencies and strategies of this movement, that they would call “foul” that one of the 99% be expected to abide by the laws just as the rest of us.
But no, what we get is shock and disbelief. As if the cop was just such a monster.
And we get it from the paper too:
The arrests of eight people Thursday at an Occupy Raleigh protest did not sit well with Mayor Charles Meeker.
Meeker said it was his understanding that Raleigh police would get involved only “if there were an assault on a Capitol Police Officer or other similar disturbance.”
But a different scenario played out. City officers aided Capitol Police in arresting eight people, including a disabled woman sitting on a chair, after the demonstrators refused to leave a sidewalk in front of the Capitol.
Now we are hearing, from the newspaper mind you, that she was sitting on a chair, not the sidewalk. More and more spin and perception changing.
But what does the woman herself have to say?
I respect this. I disagree with her on many levels, but I respect it.
She admitted she purposely acted in such a manner that would result in her arrest.
The police were polite and offered her an “out”.
She wants no special treatment as a result of her disability.
Of course this’ll be ignored by the Occupiers. They’ll ignore that an individual has the right to rights. And this brings with it the right to be arrested for unlawful conduct.
This just goes to prove my point. These people do NOT want a level playing field. They want a tilted playing field just as surely as anyone else might want the field tilted. No, trust me, these occupiers just want the tilt to be in their favor.
