NYC enablers tire of occupiers; Oakland flounders

Charles C. W. Cooke reports on Occupy Wall Street's City Hall enablers. At long last, they're having second thoughts about their support of the illegal, unsanitary, crime-ridden, business-killing occupation:

At the last meeting, as I reported, “some of the members of Community Board One took turns to make brief speeches. With the exception of one woman, who spoke movingly of the Zuccotti Park area having been ‘under siege’ for ten years, each endorsed the OWS movement.” This time, each took it in turns to express disappointment, concern, and even anger. The rebels have lost their enablers.

“It’s a crime scene down there, and it’s attracting all of the worst people in this city,” said a board member. “We’re hearing reports of rapes, assaults, violence, drug use. The mentally ill are assembling. It’s a public hazard.” There is also concern for businesses. “At this rate, they’re not going to make it through the Christmas season,” the chair of the Small Business Committee said, bluntly. He mentioned Mark Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Café, by name. “This is a new business and he’s not going to make it. It’s an outrage. After all of the economics problems with the loss of the World Trade Center, this is too much to take.”

Read the whole thing. Authorities are now awakening to the realization that that old rule-of-law thing might be pretty important after all:

One resident summed it up perfectly: “This is about the law. They have been given a waiver for too long.” Indeed so, and they are reveling in it. Channeling John Adams, he made the compelling case that whether or not our elected representatives empathize with OWS is wholly irrelevant in a nation of laws and not men. “In this country, we do not get to pick and choose when and where the law is enforced,” he said. Unlike at the last such meeting, the sentiment resonated; it was generally conceded that previous resolutions at both the state and community-board levels — which routinely started with a statement of support and a reiteration of fealty to the First Amendment — were a big mistake. “We shouldn’t have expressed any political position” was the regretful consensus of the board.

It sure took them long enough to figure that out. Apparently liberalism, like the dark side, clouds everything, including the survival instinct (economic as well as physical), the natural human desire for justice, and the basic ability to reason.

It's even worse in Oakland, where the mayor and city council have enabled and embraced protesters to the point of letting them destroy the city:

City Administrator Deanna Santana apologized to business owners for the "chaotic events" that enveloped the city. Mayor Jean Quan called the rioters "a small and isolated group."

"It shouldn't mar the overall impact of the demonstration and the fact that people in the 99 percent movement demonstrated peacefully and, for the most part, were productive and very peaceful," Quan said.

Productive? How so? How is this good for Oakland?

[Phil] Tagami disagreed, calling the Occupy Oakland encampment "basically concealment and cover for anarchists who are doing this to our city."

"We're very concerned that a group of people can be allowed to do this type of destruction to our town and to our image without any repercussions," Tagami said. "They need to be held accountable." He rejected assertions that the anarchists were a small minority, saying, "No, you can't have it both ways."

Tagami added, "I support a peaceful protest. But it was a siege situation last night, and quite frankly, I'm glad we were here. But I never want to have to do that again."

Tagami was forced to take matters into his own hands during the vandalism spree:

"We had people who attempted to break into our building," the landmark Rotunda Building on Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall, Tagami said Thursday. He grabbed a shotgun that he usually keeps at home, went down to the ground floor and "discouraged them," he said.

"I was standing there and they saw me there, and I lifted it - I didn't point it - I just held it in my hands," Tagami said. "And I just racked it, and they ran." 

Businesses will vote for or against Oakland with their feet. At a raucous city council meeting last night, Mayor Quan paid lip service to that reality:

Quan said she also received a letter from the CEO of a company in Oakland that had 500 employees. The CEO, whom she did not identify, said that the protests that seem to disrupt businesses twice a year might prompt him to leave.

Several times a year, Quan said, "he's not sure his workers can get downtown safely."

Referencing a speaker who had said the city would go bankrupt, Quan said, "When you say you don't care if we go bankrupt, it makes us question whether you care for us." 

At the meeting, the Oakland city council toyed with idea clearing out the plaza (again). Ed Morrissey:

Let’s say they decide to clear out Ogawa Plaza again.  Who will they call to get the job done?  They’ll probably first call the police, who will listen politely — and then likely decline.  The police already cleared Ogawa Plaza once, only to have Mayor Jean Quan stab them in the back by endorsing the re-occupation.  Don’t expect the police union to cheer when those orders come, and I’d bet more than a few police officers might absent themselves from any re-clearing operation.  They’re not going to be anxious to risk their lives and a slew of brutality complaints just to see Quan cheer the return of the mobs once again.

I’d guess that the next clearing operation will require the National Guard.

There's a movement to recall Mayor Quan but in the bizarro world of lefty city politics that is too rational an idea to succeed.

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Michelle Malkin tweets: "Phil Tagami for Oakland mayor!" And she writes:

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan should step aside and let someone who knows how to deal with mobs take over. [. . .]

Will the last capitalist in Oakland please turn out the lights (before they get smashed by the Occupiers)?

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Conn Carroll documents the fact that the Occupy Oakland Vandals Are Not Fringe.

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