Time to bring in the water cannons

The Occupy sites around the country have turned into enclaves of depravity and violence, from which mobs occasionally make forays into the surrounding neighborhoods to commit vandalism and mayhem against businesses, and have now added to their rap sheets by preying on their own, and, additionally, assaulting policemen and even elderly citizens. This is not free speech, it is barbarism, and the spectacle of elected officials permitting the chaos to continue – and in some cases, posing as well-wishers to the “movement” – is little less disgusting than the behavior of the lumpen-losers who are creating the havoc. One has only to look at the record of Tea Party demonstrations and contrast it with the accumulating destruction, violence and filth of the Occuputzei to see the difference between a movement that represents a noble example of legitimate protest, and a maelstrom of the politically inchoate, but definitely sociopathic, sentiments that have cohered and gathered strength as a result of the ascendancy of anti-American leftist nostrums and the false promises of the Provider State.

To the tax-paying residents of New York City, Oakland and other cities that have been afflicted with this stubborn human rash, I say good luck in getting your liberal mayors (and their police departments) to do anything constructive. Liberal politicians typically have been, at best, indifferent defenders of property rights, and it usually takes something of cosmic significance to prompt vigorous remedial action of any sort – say, the existence of trans fats in the menu items of Manhattan’s celebrated beaneries, or the threat to the self-esteem and mental equanimity of peace-loving Muslims everywhere posed by the prospect of a Christian clergyman saying a few words at a memorial service at Ground Zero. In such instances as these, you can count on your elected officials to act with swift resolve. But with respect to property damage, theft, assault, rape, and the creation of physical conditions conducive to the propagation of epidemic diseases – please, don’t bother them with the small stuff.

As the Occupy impasse shows, the rot isn’t limited to the federal government; it reaches deep into many of the states, counties and municipalities of our nation. And no one should be surprised. For every liberal politician who makes it to the big leagues, there are a thousand more beavering away in the minors, some desperately trying to break out of the single-A division, others content to burrow into the fabric of their home towns where they can bedevil their neighbors on a smaller scale, in perpetuity and frequently in near-anonymity. It is the difference between Coptotermes formosanus and Incisitermes marginipennis: the scope for causing damage may vary, but they’re all still termites. And the only way to eradicate their influence is via the voting booth, in which sacred location we should pay as much attention to the local pols as we do to the national.

Unless, of course, we want all of our parks and public places to look like sets from Night of the Living Dead.