Costs of the Occupiers

The trash generated by the “Occupy Wall Street” protests keeps

piling up. So do the bills. Liberal media outlets claim the anarchic,

anti-capitalist movement is more popular than the tea party.

But wait until Americans across the country get a full picture of

the costs of the aimless occupiers.

In New York City, government officials estimate the month-long

siege of Zuccotti Park has now imposed $3.2 million in overtime

police costs on the public. On Thursday, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s

office pressured left-wing activists to vacate the park for cleaning,

Occupy Wall Street urged sympathizers to flood the city’s customer

services lines: “Call 311 and tell Bloomberg not to evict us!”

In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter told the press that

demonstrators outside city hall have incurred $164,000 in

overtime public employee costs and $237,000 in regular time.

“At the current rate, if Occupy Philly continues to the end

of the month, the city would spend another nearly $690,000

on police overtime alone,” the local NBC affiliate reported.

“Besides the extra police presence being dedicated to the

Occupy Philly protests, other city departments have also

incurred costs.”

In Seattle, police have so far billed $30,000 in overtime,

and the parks department racked up nearly $4,000 in additional

costs related to the protests there. Occupiers have blocked

traffic, assaulted an officer and pitched illegal tents.

Merchants in the area have been hurt as the riff-raff deter customers.

One business owner in Westlake Park, where hundreds of protesters

remain camped out, told Seattle TV station KIRO:

“There’s definitely fewer people you can identify as people out,

just walking through the area.”

Seattle’s pushover mayor, Democrat Mike McGinn, now faces

even greater demands from the insatiable mob — which wants

a “guaranteed parking space near City Hall Plaza that allows

for around-the-clock parking,” “24-hour access to the first

floor of City Hall for restroom access, and a written statement

from the mayor approving the protesters’ long-term occupancy

of City Hall Plaza.”

In Boston, City Council President Stephen Murphy anticipates

a $2 million hit to taxpayers if the protests refuse to

disband by the end of October. The local Fox affiliate notes

the tab represents 8 percent of the yearly budget for police

overtime. “While we’re all sympathetic with our protesters

down there,” Murphy said, “Wall Street isn’t picking up the

tab on this thing. It’s the Boston taxpayers.”

When fiscally conservative tea party activists held protests

over the past two years, they filed for all the required permits

and paid for their own power. Occupy Boston, by contrast, neither

sought nor obtained any proper permits at any level, according to

the Boston Globe. Instead, city and park officials have been cowed

into providing them gratis electricity and camp space lest there

be “conflict.”

Many of these occupiers are primarily occupied as paid

rent-a-mobsters for unions, left-wing think tanks and the

radical Working Families Party. While one collective hand

soaks the taxpayers, the other hand is busy soliciting free

stuff. Occupy Los Angeles activists took to Skype on their

laptops to solicit donations of iPhones and iPads.

Occupy Wall Street members on Twitter organized an ongoing

“#needsoftheoccupiers” drive for everything from batteries

and tarps to “gently used” coats and sweaters, wool socks,

sleeping bags and energy bars. Occupy Austin organizers

publicized their wish list, including a free barbecue grill,

portable toilets, extension cords, a Bobcat forestry cutter

for clearing brush and network cameras for a livestream.

These are not principled advocates 
of fiscal responsibility.
They are professional freeloaders.

Unlike tea party activists who focused like a laser beam on

politicians in both parties responsible for redistributing

wealth to Big Business cronies by force, the Occupy Wall

Street movement is everywhere and nowhere. The entitled

Kamp Alinsky Kids are poaching WiFi and trespassing on private

property under the guise of “social justice” but in plain

service of themselves.

Their T-shirts and speeches glorify Marxist radicals Che Guevara,

Emiliano Zapata and Chairman Mao. They lionize convicted death row

cop killer Troy Davis and WikiLeaks collaborator Bradley Manning.

They condemn “Nazi Bankers,” Jews, Fox News, the American Legislative

Exchange Council, Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker, the Koch family and

the New York Police Department (“Pigs!”). They promote the illegal alien

DREAM Act and 9/11 Trutherism.

They spout bumper-sticker profanities and inanities: “F**k banks.”

“Unf**k the world.” “Fuuuuu*k.” “Free education.” “Smash nationalism.”

“People not profits.”

They flash peace signs while celebrity supporter Roseanne Barr

calls for beheading financial industry workers and fellow marchers

call explicitly for “violent revolution” or for Obama to

“Send SEAL Team 6″ to Wall Street.

Then they huff and puff (preferably in a creepy uniform chant

they call the “human microphone”) that we just haven’t taken

the time to understand what they’re all about — as they hawk $20

“Eat the Rich” polo shirts and license their protest photos to

Getty Images.

Viva la revolucion! Up with people! 

Stop the greed!

(Cha-ching. Cha-ching.)

Michelle Malkin is the author of “Culture of Corruption:
Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies”
(Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.