This is a shortened, adapted piece (complete with picture proof and links) from my blog and sent to the Oregonian. Of course it’s the same paper that dismisses me a radio polemicist, but sometimes even the newspaper of record needs to admit when someone else is right.
Read on:
The leaderless Occupy Portland leaders now tell us they never wanted this. They didn’t want the collection of street punks, tweakers, kaffir clad anarchists at their political circus in downtown Portland.
Yes they did. The Occupy Portland folks wanted as many bodies as they could get out for their illegal march and illegal occupation. They went to their natural allies—the unionists, socialists, anti Jewish-Pro Palestinian activists, communists and anarchists among others—and invited them. And they came. And Occupied. Now that the world is (literally) sniffing the truth, these ‘leaders’ want to distance themselves from the mess they created.
The saying goes, “If you break it, you fix it.” Well, Occupy, I’d tell you to fix it, but it’s too late for that. The City of Portland’s Mayor and Council are too politically invested to let you off that easily.
Occupy Portland ended the day it began. Thursday, October 6th was the day when the non-leader-leaders fulfilled their promise to break the law.
Official Portland bent over backwards to try and make their disregard for civility and the law seem noble. The day of the first protest and after they’d broken the law, Portland Mayor Sam Adams ‘thanked’ the protesters for their ‘cooperation.’
Possibly five thousand people came to march in the streets to protest some amorphous evil blob out there; rallied at a place for which they refused to take out a permit and pay the fees, and then took over two parks and closed a street.
Then those people went home leaving behind a few True Believers. Joining them? The tatted, plugged, tweaked street kids whose main occupation is to drag their pitbulls to their next act of larceny.
The Mayor’s inability to finesse out the Occupiers created instant civic problems. Just ask the Portland Marathon.
Days later, Adams and Commissioner Randy Leonard joined one of the Occupy marches. Adams cooed later that he’d never seen a more organized protest and was so proud of them.
Commissioner Amanda Fritz followed suit, meeting with protesters and, through the bullhorn, told them their first amendment rights to squat were more important than any city ordinances. Fritz apparently hasn’t read that the City can set time, place and manner restrictions on speech.
Crime has taken hold. A registered sex offender lists Occupy as his home and the encampment has 10-20 children living there. Marijuana smoke is everywhere.
There’s a shooting gallery inside somewhere judging by the cars full of sketched- out kids spilling out only to come back ten minutes later as serene as a nun at vespers. If you’re worried about second hand smoke and its effects on your health, don’t go to Occupy Portland. Big Tobacco is encamped here, too.
The only Commissioner cranky about the Occupiers is Nick Fish, the Parks Commissioner, who asked that Occupiers be removed soon because they were hurting the trees. Ropes lashed onto trees support the Gilligan’s Isle-like latticed wall made of twigs and vines. One of these walls shelters the spiritual “Sacred Place” which includes anti Semitic signs. The grass is shot. Fish says it will cost at least $19,000.00 to fix it. He claims it would take a year to get the park back up to scratch.
Perhaps that’s why when local Attorney Bruce McCain sought to get a permit for the properties he was told that no one would be able to rent them for a year. However, Occupy Portland has been told it can stay as long as it wants.
Occupy Portland threatened to break the law and got everything for free—including undeserved respect. done more damaged to the City than mere rope burns on trees. It has dispirited law abiding Portlanders who see that if you’re part of the Mayor’s base you are treated differently under the law.
This is politically-correct pandering — on its face– treats the content of this speech differently than all others. It opens up the City to federal civil rights lawsuits (as pointed out by Civil Rights Attorney Rees Lloyd here) and as Attorney Bruce McCain has said, puts the City in the unenviable position of defending the constitutionality of the City’s anti camping ordinance at the same time it’s giving carte blanche to the Occupiers.
Furthermore, it has shown the deep void that is the so called leadership of Portland.
Occupy Portland was over when it lost its moral moorings. It ended when City and the AFL CIO had to prop it up.
Whether they know it or not, in its current form Occupy Portland is Over.
Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com