Are Cities Euthanizing the Occupy Movement?

Tear down of the Occupy Oakland encampment. (Photo: Reuters)

Cities around the nation, including some of the most liberal locales, are shutting down overnight Occupy Movement encampments. Local police officials in Portland, Seattle, Oakland, and other cities have raided downtown Occupy camps, torn down tents, and collectively arrested hundreds of resistant protesters.

In New York City, at the very heart of the Occupy Movement, Mayor Bloomberg ordered the dismantling of the original Occupy Wall Street camp located in Zuccotti Park, and a judge has ruled that protesters may return to the park, but that their constitutional rights to assemble and speak freely do not extend to bringing tents, blankets, and sleeping bags in order to live in the public space around the clock.

With the Department of Homeland Security providing strategic support for these coordinated efforts at shutting down Occupy camps, many strong First Amendment advocates have leapt to the conclusion that the federal government has now conspired with city officials to squelch the civil rights of the economic injustice protesters. In the wake of increasing issues with crime (including a murder in Oakland, for example) and sanitation around the camps, I view the actions of city officials against the camps more as follow-through on their commitments to ensuring the safety and security of the public in general.

As I said in a post two weeks ago, the Occupy encampments were initially constructed on the firm ground of high-visibility protests that served to raise awareness and ire about economic injustice in America. In the absence of unified leadership though, and without the development and promotion of meaningful corollary resistance tactics, the encampments and to some extent the entire Occupy Movement are slowly hedging toward a cliff of irrelevance.

Making the Occupy Movement Matter

Occupy protesters in support of a noble but ambiguous goal.
Photo: Reuters

The Occupy Wall Street movement is struggling. With urban encampments popping up in dozens of cities around the country and a presidential election just twelve months away, the movement should be perfectly poised to have a significant impact on national policy. That, unfortunately, is not the case.

Instead of spurring meaningful political and economic dialogue, the two biggest elements of the movement currently garnering national interest and media attention are (1) the handful of Occupy outlaws who have inserted themselves into the Oakland arm of the movement, and (2) the movement's inability to develop overriding objectives and to broaden its base of support. 

Slate contributor (and former NY Governor) Eliot Spitzer has stepped up to offer some much-needed structural and tactical advice in the form of eight specific ideas that would advance the Occupy Movement beyond the encampments. The movement has no identified central leadership and Spitzer likely lacks the street cred (or maybe has too much government cred) to take the job, but the folks who are organizing OWS would be well-served to heed Spitzer's suggestions. The movement needs more substance.

Phoenix Jones - Superhero, Job Creator

This morning I read about a man who was arrested in Seattle for hosing down a group of clubgoers with pepper spray. The daily news is rife with stories of random acts of violence, but this story is special. The pepper spray perpetrator was Benjamin Fodor, aka Phoenix Jones - the most prominent member of the Rain City Superhero Movement.

Phoenix Jones, real life superhero

Phoenix Jones is in Seattle, but real life superheroes are cropping up across America quicker than Wall Street occupiers. I had no idea there were any modern day superheroes, much less a superhero movement, but apparently there is one and it's growing. Witnessing the rise of groups like the Rain City Superheroes, some see a movement, but with my keen mind for business and economics, I see an industry. And where there is industry, there are jobs. To hell with the American Jobs Act. I suggest Congress and White House crank up the full power of the American political machine in support of the new era of the superhero. In doing so, we will rid our streets of those bothersome overly-ambitious clown-faced criminal elements, and more importantly, there will be jobs.

We'll need more superheroes of course. Lots of them. With just a black mask and a matching muscle suit, Phoenix Jones has shown us that the superhero dream is alive and well, and within the grasp of any man or woman who can wield a can of pepper spray. Caped crusaders are the backbone of the superhero business, and this industry can only grow if we foster a wide variety of innovative and entrepreneurial crime-fighters. 

Where there are superheroes, there must be sidekicks. For those who possess a passion for crime fighting but are unsure of their own individual butt-kicking skills, the sidekick role may be perfect. There is plenty of room in this burgeoning new industry for the ride-along type. Everyone can't be in the limelight, right? Someone has to gas up the turbo car and re-stock the utility belts. Let the superhero have the glory - we all know he couldn't do it without a solid sidekick.