At the beginning of the month, Occupy Oakland had its shutdown of the Port of Oakland AFTER a small riot had damaged small a number of retail establishments, companies, and banks (previous post). One of the Occupy NH folks put up a link with my response being gently:
Non-violence?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRij-_SnIMM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra5ks-Ei9o0&feature=player_embedded
where the YouTubes showed the marauding Occupiers willfully destroying things, well, for the heck of it. One respondent said the expected "agent provocateurs" and claimed "There was no rioting. There was and still is only a peaceful protest."
Yeah, and TV wrestling is real and not staged.
I was challenged, however, by another in a wee bit more serious way than just a "sweep it under the rug":
Just curious about what your thoughts are of blockading the Port of Oakland, where business was shutdown for several hours?
BTW -the Boston Tea Party was an act of property destruction. How do you feel about that?
My answer:
There were many at the time of the TEA Party that were aghast that someone else’s private property was destroyed and there was more than a little controversy concerning it. After all, when you read the Declaration, 10 of the Articles concerned how the Crown was appropriating the private property of others because :
- it could
- thought it had a better use for that property for its benefit.
With respect to what I saw in Oakland, I saw not a small amount of other peoples’ property either being destroyed or their use of that property being infringed upon.
So tell me, does the means justify the end? And put yourself in the position of the shop keepers whose livelihood was impacted, or truck drivers who lost a day of pay that will never go to their families?
One of the shining jewels of American Exceptionalism was the Rule of Law vs the Rule of Man. Or in this case, the Rule of the Mob. Is that the America you want – the Rule of the Strong Man, for that was the example shown by Occupy Oakland on TV.
Take it to the next step – are you intimating that Occupy Oakland is the Boston TEA Party of today? And if so, what will be the next step?
