The group has moved to Veterans Park, which is right by the State Street corner of the Capitol Square. This is how it looked at midday yesterday, right after the peace march.
IN THE COMMENTS: Shouting Thomas links to his photographs of the Occupy Wall Street crowd. He's got some great material over there:
The above picture has everything! These young people are reading about themselves in the New York Post. Note the guitar. One of the young men has covered up his face with a bandanna, emulating a Latin style revolutionary. And, of course, in the background you can see a banner featuring Che Guevara, Fidel Castro's executioner. That romantic fantasy seems to always appeal to the young.ALSO: Commenter edutcher says, "They always look like bums." And asks "Wonder why that is?" Presumably, he's implying that these people are bums. But when you live on the street, you look like a street person, so it's inherent in the choice of protest style that the Occupy [Your City] people will look like bums.
So the real question is: Why have these people chosen this image? If people go home at night and regroup in the morning, they will look clean and well-groomed and basically normal. If they camp out, they'll soon look like derelicts. It's their intentional branding. Now, maybe it was a bad choice. But it is a choice. They want to appear to be the desolate masses of the world.
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Sunlight is the best disinfectant. A wintry day is the second best.
Occupation is a military term. Weren't we just lectured ad nauseum by the left a few months back on the horrors of using military verbiage, or indeed any kind of verbiage that referenced (even obliquely) violence?
Once again, the constant theme from the left on Facebook is that the demonstrators of OWS are doing their damnedest to restrain themselves from violence, but it appears, tragically, almost certain that violence is inevitable.
Even the hint of a single member of the Tea Party discussing his Second Amendment rights was condemned by the left as an inducement to violence.
I visited the Wall Street encampment of OWS on Friday and took a bunch of photos.
They are concerned about the cuts in THEIR entitlements.
I am tired of paying for these fools.
Frost's men occupied more of Arnhem (which was simultaneously occupied by greatly superior German numbers actually shooting at them). If they want to call this an occupation, they've really got to up their game.
Pray for rain.
Shake off the fringe causes and the international lefty worship, and you will see that this is about entitlements . The battle over entitlements is going to rage for quite a while--maybe a decade or more. The problem with OWS is that they are focusing only one one set of entitlements--the very real and very problematic corporate variety. These need to be addressed. But the issues presented by overreaching government control and unrestrained government cost won't be solved by eliminating corporate entitlements and expanding personal ones.
In attacking corporate entitlement the OWS crowd are on to an issue that can command wide support. However, you don't win much of a following by asking that your own entitlements be increased, as in (say) forgiving student debt.
They always look like bums. Wonder why that is?
Shouting Thomas said...
Occupation is a military term. Weren't we just lectured ad nauseum by the left a few months back on the horrors of using military verbiage, or indeed any kind of verbiage that referenced (even obliquely) violence?
Maybe it should be lifted the way the Maquis lifted the occupation of Paris in August '44.
David said...
Pray for rain.
Snow. Borne on 40 mph -10F winds.
FIFY
Are the numbers declining or were they always this few?
How about at 3:00am?
Great pics, Shouting. You have an excellent eye for subject matter and composition.
Thanks, Alhouse. Those are iPhone pics.
I'm still back in 3G land. I'm thinking of upgrading to the 4S.
Your 4S pictures were a pretty compelling argument that I should
Commenter Rick Wilson had a good tweet last night on how small these things are. He said if you added up all the OWS protestors from yesterday you total up a fraction of a rounding error of the number of people who attend a NASCAR race.
Even Nate Silver had it right that it isn't in the best interests of the Democratic party to align with this crew.
Ann Althouse said...
Presumably, he's implying that these people are bums. But when you live on the street, you look like a street person, so it's inherent in the choice of protest style that the Occupy [Your City] people will look like bums.
So the real question is: Why have these people chosen thus image? If people go home at night and regroup in the morning, they will look clean and well-groomed and basically normal. If they camp out, they'll soon look like derelicts. It's their intentional branding.
One can camp out and still look like something respectable. But you're correct, although I think they want to show "solidarity with", rather than "appear to be", the wretched refuse.
In any case, I think this sort of behavior, as opposed to the Tea Parties', will vindicate George Will's opinion last week.
PS Thanks for the use of the thought, Madame.
Anecdotally, I walk through Dilworth Plaza at Phiily's City Hall daily, and I would estimate the about half the people there are bums looking for free food.
The guy in the red vest doesn't count.
Based on Shouting Thomas' photos, I'd actually say that Madison protesters generally look better than the NYC crowd.
The Madison hipsters may be lumpenhipsters, but many are hipsters nonetheless.
Now, many contemporary "hipsters" look like shit and revere ugliness (the guys esp. but chicks too), but as far as just skinny jeans & that sort of thing goes, most of them look presentable, if only in an 'ironic' way.
The NYC occupiers truly look like derelicts washed in from the '60s, with a detour into grunge.
I'd say most of them must be hardcore Leftist types who are too 'earnest' to ever read "Nylon" magazine or give much energy to conscious, contemporary fashion statements.
So they're probably more 'serious', perhaps innately a bit more dangerous, than the Madison types, who are comparatively speaking just putting on a show.
In short: the ST protesters look more like potential Bill Ayers-in-the-making than the muffintop daytrippers of U-Wisc-Madison
I took a bunch of photos at the Occupy Tampa protest yesterday. I had been there previously, on a weekday.
Just one guy with a news camera showed up, instead of the three or four entire news crews I had seen before. And the crowd seemed smaller, older, and grittier.
Before the homeless people were avoiding them, now they're blending in and enjoying the free food.
I was struck by the level of paranoia (they accused me of being a cop and spent about an hour videotaping me). I was also struck by how cult-like a lot of their behavior seemed, especially the chanting of orders and shunning of non-conformists.
"Education with debt is not justice."
Guess these puppies are too good for community colleges and state universities. Believe it or not, there are actually intelligent people who manage to live happy, meaningful, successful lives without expensive private educations.
Dirty hippies with no jobs. If there were 80,000 of them it could be a tailgate at Camp Randall.
Yes they're so desolate that thee degrees in underwater basket weaving has them living off Mom and Dad, my taxes, your taxes, and the charity of the gullible. Oh! the poor dears, they don't have the new iphone... oh wait! They Do!!! Well good on Mom and Dad. Good thing Mom and Dad work for the EVIL corporations otherwise their spawn wouldn't have nice things.
Nothing is more nauseating than affluent rich people pretending to be impoverished. The people of Haiti must burn with a hatred of a thousand suns. Or they would but the country is too poor to actually worry about fat Americans protesting "Jews controlling Wall Street".
And I NEVER want to hear a LIBTARD say how inclusive they are , how understanding. Their strident anti-semitism makes every word they speak a mockery, and their tongues are coated with the ashes of filth.
Adolph Hitler would be proud of the OWS crowd. Anti-semitism? check. Nationalize banking? check. Nationalize industries? check. Do I even need to ask these precocious 'ut'e's their opinion on gun ownership? I weep for my grandchildren.
"So the real question is: Why have these people chosen this image? If people go home at night and regroup in the morning, they will look clean and well-groomed and basically normal. If they camp out, they'll soon look like derelicts."
I think they are copying the tent city protests in Israel.
Oh! I forgot to add...down tinkles to the OWS!
Maybe they should hold an OWS Jobs Fair. Invite employers down to interview the occupiers. I mean, isn't the lack of a job what these guys are protesting about?
How can you tell when Madison is occupied? Where's the contrast to, say, Tuesday?
Althouse: So the real question is: Why have these people chosen this image? If people go home at night and regroup in the morning, they will look clean and well-groomed and basically normal. If they camp out, they'll soon look like derelicts.
A lot of the ones you see staying overnight are the type of people who follow Phish around the country. They don't just look like bums, they act like bums. There's a strangeness about the way they move and look at things.
And they've literally absorbed some homeless people into the group.
Photos of Occupy Philadelphia:
http://strangereverysunday.blogspot.com
caseym54: Maybe they should hold an OWS Jobs Fair. Invite employers down to interview the occupiers. I mean, isn't the lack of a job what these guys are protesting about?
Some of them would refuse to give their names (they have masks on to hide their identities). Some of them hate everything corporate. I heard them chanting that none of them are above the others, they have no leaders. Others only want jobs that pay well.
There was a big banner on the Quiznos next to the protest I was at, saying "Now Hiring!".
Emilie: Photos of Occupy Philadelphia:
http://strangereverysunday.blogspot.com
Ha, you had "Free Leonard Peltier" people, too!
I think they are copying the tent city protests in Israel..
I think Walkerville may have started it all. It was then mimicked shortly after with Bloombergville. There has always been solidarity in NYC w/ Wisconsin for some reason. Must be a lot of Cheeseheads living there.
"Fox news tea party kiss my assets" Considering his protest wants his assets confiscated for the greater good and the tea party believes his assets were earned by him and property rights dictate he retain control over them, makes for a confusing sign.
My favorite so far is the kid in Saturday's Times who doesn't work, attends Doctoral level classes at Columbia - do they even have such classes at that level or would they let a kibitzer in if they do - but hasn't bothered to register. Nonetheless he plays squash. Now that ain't stoop ball. You need a four wall indoor court for that game. Sorry there are no public courts, you have to go where, Racket and Tennis, NY Athletic Club, Yale Club etc to play. Mom and Dad paying for that?
Ann Althouse is a professor of law who I surmise, believes strongly in freedom of speech, the right to peacefully assemble, and has a healthy respect for democratic values. I am surprised that virtually all the comments on her blogpost about the OWS protests are so mocking and derogatory. No one is even the least bit respectful or appreciative about what the protestors have sacrificed to open up this dialogue on our financial crisis and renew the heart and soul of our democracy.
@new york--You have an impressive prose style.
It can't be easy to pack so many contortions of logic and fact into a single, smoothly flowing paragraph.
You might become the E.B. White of Althouse liberals.
If you are going to pontificate on a topic you should educate yourself first, otherwise you look as foolish as a fox news commentator who doesn't understand the legal ownership concept of a private park open to the public in exchange for development rights to the parcel.
It looks like the gal in the panda bear pj's is in it for the long haul. I wonder whose power they are tapping the extension cord into? If they really wanted to impress they would get a hand crank generator.
@shouting I figured those were phone pics. I wish they were higher resolution. I prefer a simple digital camera, both for the focus and because I am afraid of getting a phone snatched.
I still recommend a Steadicam Smoothee - to stabilize the images from the iPhone. And it looks like it could be used as a cudgel, which would reduce the chance of your phone being snatched.
New York,
I join you in your stand that mocking and derogatory comments are not protected by the First Amendment.
@ New York
New York Liberal (FIFY)
I read your post several times and I want to know, beyond the "JEWS OWN WALL STREET" meme's, and wanting their college for free, (and a side order of bestiality which was called for) what aspect of States Rights vs. Federalism have these gutter snipes called for?
Got 4 little letters for ya'...STFU
Here's my dialog to them.
If a Jew owns more than you, you might try working harder so you can achieve the same. You can start by shaving, buying some decent clothes (and deodorant), and shut up before you go making a fool of yourself.
If you really want to fight corruption, go to any third world and get dirty. Put down your Ipad's, and Mac's. Pick up a rifle and join the armed forces. They actually go to countries that have things like ohh I don't know rape rooms, or slavery, heck even starvation, the real kind where people eat dirt cause there is nothing else. Yet they sit and bitch that there mocha choka jocha latte's cost too much.
These people have no concept of suffering. They have been coddle by their parents and their teachers since they were wetting their diapers. You wanna know a secret NY? They and you are gonna get a whole world of hurt if Obama finally destroys the rest of this country. And your coddled criminals will rise up and burn your city to the ground, and you will wonder why they don't hold hands and sing Kumbaya.
There are 2 kinds of animals in the world. Sheep and wolves. You sir are a sheep.
e.g. "Listen to me! I have all the answers! All the solutions! And I have no idea how to bathe!"
Somehow that does not instill confidence in their leadership abilities.
"Ha, you had "Free Leonard Peltier" people, too!"
I wonder if I could get some of these OWS folks to follow along with a "Free Alfred Dreyfus!" schtick?
As in the Dreyfus Affair? :)
@ new york
"No one is even the least bit respectful or appreciative about what the protestors have sacrificed to open up this dialogue on our financial crisis and renew the heart and soul of our democracy."
Why should I?
Whatever "sacrifice" these people have made has so far shown itself to be utterly worthless. The ideals shown are without value. The purposes are either completely obscure or of a political bent that I oppose completely.
Am I to honor these misguided people because they are acting like complete asshats? Why? Because they are acting like complete asshats? Am I to honor anybody with a sufficient level of asshattery?
The simple fact is that the entire financial crisis is due to liberals of both parties and quite a few self-proclaimed moderates as well. The basic laws of economics cannot be subverted by legislation and good intentions. That this was tried by liberals and moderates against the advice of fiscal conservatives shows in detail how inane and ridiculous these "occupiers" are.
If they had a single clue to share amongst themselves they would be marching on Congress and the White House, not Wall Street. Wall Street is heavily regulated and largely dances to the tune set forth by Washington.
You want the villains? Look at the CRA and every single politician who espoused the absurd idea that universal home ownership is somehow good or a right. Look around the world today and you'll find the basis of almost all of the financial problems are due to insane absurdities associated with construction and consumption of construction.
Frankly when I look at the OWS "occupiers" what I see is a fifth column testing out the legal and police waters for the coming election day when they will pull these same kinds of schticks at the polling stations.
I for one don't plan to put up with any nonsense and I'll be carrying a cane for that purpose.
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