The New Orleans Police Department, obviously anticipating that I would continue to post about getting the occupiers out of Duncan Plaza, decided to take my advice and kick them out. Here is the story.

Occupy NOLA lawyers–it’s interesting how this grass-roots encampment comprised of 20-something drifters and homeless people can afford lawyers–are petitioning in federal court today for a temporary restraining order against New Orleans police, so they can continue to break the law and remain at Duncan Plaza. While they might get a restraining order, others encampments have gotten them in other cities, they can’t live in the park forever, so arrests are coming.

 

 

I should say that MORE arrests are coming because I’ve been down to Duncan Plaza and know first-hand that some demonstrators have already been arrested. While Mayor Mitch Landrieu has given the occupiers ample warning that they must obey Duncan Palza’s curfew–no one is allowed in the park from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.–protesters have decided that the park belongs to them and some have said they ain’t leaving unless they are carted away to the calaboose.

It’s this kind of arrogance that will be the death of the occupy movement, which is already showing signs of first throes as the public becomes aware of how greedy these scumbags are. That’s right, they are consumed with greed. I have made this point in a previous post, but since the occupiers continue to wail against greed in society maybe it’s time they should take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Greed comes in many different forms. It comes when CEOs who have driven companies profits into the dirt lay-off hundreds of workers while paying themselves million of dollars in bonuses. It also comes, however, when people who have chosen to live as vagabond and drifters demand that other people provide for them and decide that they own a public park. According to a recent Times-Picayune story, there are other groups who have gone through the proper channels to get permits to use the park for events that can’t use the park because the occupiers are there.

These protesters are using a movement that has no real demands other than vague notions of an anarchical society to take what doesn’t belong to them. They do this while expecting taxpayers to pay for porta-potties, police protection and the general expense associated with making sure hundreds of people are able to live in a park in pup-tents.

Watch this video from Reason TV as a primer for what the occupy movement is all about, in case you didn’t already know:

The most profound thing said on the video was from the homeless guy on the street, who said “This is a place where you will not get arrested for sleeping overnight.” I can tell you, that is what I took from my time at Occupy NOLA.

Occupy NOLA, like the rest of the encampments, is a scam. Let’s call it what it is. They are using this movement and the sympathy found in most of the media to throw an extended party in the park. These–mostly 20-something kids–are products of a society that has taught them that they are owed whatever they want and what they want right now is to live out a long lost-weekend with the feeling that they are doing something important.

They aren’t doing anything but making huge asses of themselves.

Another interesting tidbit in the video is from the guy who would like government to take control of all the banks.

Here is a little bit of advice. If you want to do something about bank influence and corporate greed the best way to start is to reduce the size of government, not to give government more power. The reason that we are in the mess we are in now is because the government’s tentacles have reach so far into our lives that those with money can pretty much make policy by greasing politician’s palms. Do you really think that you are going to lessen corruption by growing government even more?

If this is what the occupiers believe, the have their First Amendment right to be heard and they have been heard. It’s now time to get out of the park and stop being greedy pigs. It’s not yours. It  doesn’t belong to you–leave.

A remarkable comment from the Times-Picayune story comes from Norman Oaks,who is described as a Navy veteran and longtime Jackson Square tarot-card reader.

Oaks wrote in an affidavit to be used by lawyers seeking the restraining order against police that he wants to “continue the protest where it is to remind the administration that my oath to defend the Constitution against ALL enemies that I gave as a member of the armed forces had no expiration date.”

I think I know who you are, Norm. I met an occupier at Duncan Plaza who fits your description and gave me the same line about defending the Constitution. We even swapped a guitar back and forth for a while and played some old county songs. As a former military guy myself, I know the oath you took as well. The part you are talking about is when we pledged to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

You, my friend, have attached yourself to a movement filled with people who would like to dismantle the system and destroy the Constitution. Sad to say, you have become one of the “domestic enemies” that you once pledged to defend the United States and Constitution against.

I don’t think that Norman is a bad person, just misguided.

A lot of occupiers fall into the same category–misguided people who are part of a movement they don’t really understand. While we can have sympathy for them as they struggle to find their place in the world, it’s time to show the tough love that their parents never did and make them pack up and get the hell out of Duncan Plaza.

If they don’t go, it’s time to lock them up.