There can no longer be any doubt that the serious individuals who may have made up any aspect of Occupy have left. What is left is the professional protester, the anarchist and the anti-capitalist. These are the people who use violence as an accepted means of normal discourse.
These are the criminals. These are the fringe.
Label them as damage and route around them: Hat Tip: Ryan Grace
Reporting from Oakland—Officials surveyed damage Sunday from a volatile Occupy protest that resulted in hundreds of arrests the day before and left the historic City Hall vandalized after demonstrators broke into the building, smashed display cases, cut electrical wires and burned an American flag.
Breaking and entering. Vandalism. Burning an American flag. All the act of a sincere and thinking American to be sure.
And lest you think that this is a splinter group, a few outliers raging under the banner of Occupy, think again:
The Occupy action was publicized by the group as a planned takeover of a vacant building that would be “repurposed” as a “social center, convergence center and headquarters of the Occupy Oakland movement.” In an open letter to Quan on Wednesday, the group warned that if police attempted to thwart the takeover, “indefinite occupation” of Oakland’s airport, port and City Hall could follow.
This is purposeful. This is deliberate. This has the forethought of malice. This is no reasonable objection to the direction of a nation. This is no willingness to work within the constraints of a system. This is children. Children grown up acting like children none the less.