Is The Occupy Wall Street Movement an Answer to The Tea Party Movement?

[Conan71]

The executives are far removed enough, criminally, that they would probably only be subject to RICO. The lower level executives and managers who knowingly implemented the policies ought to be frogmarched into court on fraud charges.

I get confused on the matter of RICO, as the Feds used that to bring down many crime families and send the heads of those families to prison for life.  The lenders in the Arrow Trucking case alleged racketeering under RICO statutes in their filings, yet all the actions against the former Arrow executives have been nothing but civil.  I'm really surprised that bank regulators never went after Pielsticker, Mowry, and the rest of the bunch for bank fraud.  Of course, they can't do anything to Mowry now that he assumed room temperature last week.

[Conan71]

The tactic of trying to make the fringe look representative of the OWS might have been a good one-time hit-and-run tactic, but where will you be when someone with a tie to the TP does a high-profile perp walk?

The tactic of trying to define the Tea Party by the actions of the most radical fringers by liberals doesn't ring a bell?

When someone fires off a shot or rapes someone at a TP rally, believe me, you'll hear about it from me.  I don't identify myself with the Tea Party or the OWS, so I consider myself pretty objective on the matter.

[nathanm]

That's what I know. Also comparative negligence. Still, in that video, the idiot pee partier was pushed from behind, then took a wild swing and punched the horse. Did he mean to punch the horse or the cop? In patric's world, throwing a back-handed fist at the cop was okay under the circumstances.

In my world, it's not criminal, much less morally wrong to attempt to maintain one's balance, even when you've been struck with a billy club or whatever. Intent matters.

[patric]

I do know that if it were not for the pee partier's presence or their non-compliance with the rule of law, the incident would never had happened.

Had the PD been in compliance with the law, it also would have never happened.

[guido911]

Had the PD been in compliance with the law, it also would have never happened.

Okay, smart guy, since you were apparently there and can judge the totality of circumstances, what did those officers do wrong?

[patric]

Remind me to look closely at police reports next time there's a Tea Party rally. It would be fun to pretend I'm one of the idiots you're using as a source and claim that every incident that happened within a few miles and a day or two of a Tea Party rally is somehow related to or the fault of the Tea Partiers.

Oh, I had forgotten about the Tea Party zealot Joseph Stack who reportedly flew a small airplane into an IRS building in Austin.

[guido911]

Figured I get crickets over our police hater. In other news, here are the occupeers demanding to occupy Trinity church property. I read there were 50 arrests.

See the guy at around :04 with the yellow handed tool? Wire cutters? And I love "tear down this wall". Who the frak do these self-righteous scumbags think they are?

[dbacks fan]

Another round of it's vacant land and regardless of who owns it legally OWS claims it belong to everyone and it's their right to occupy property that doesen't belong to them.

Even before the protesters were displaced on Nov. 15, Trinity gave many of them hot chocolate, blankets and a place to rest at a space owned by the church. But when the Occupy movement expressed an interest in setting up an organizing camp on vacant Trinity property at Canal Street and Avenue of the Americas, the church said no.

The Occupy Wall Street forces then directed their skills at the church: They took their arguments to the streets. In familiar fashion, police officers converged on the area, standing around the perimeter.

A flier distributed by protesters summed up their mood: "While the event may include a reoccupation, the event itself is a broader celebration and expansion of Occupy Wall Street," it said. It also advised people to bring backpacks, warm clothes and sleeping bags.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/nyregion/occupy-wall-street-protesters-march-against-trinity-church.html

[Conan71]

Oh, I had forgotten about the Tea Party zealot Joseph Stack who reportedly flew a small airplane into an IRS building in Austin.

Actually, he was an anarchist and hated Bush as well, IIRC.

[Vashta Nerada]

Actually, he was an anarchist and hated Bush as well, IIRC.

Tea Party ran on the platform of little or no government,
until they got elected.

[Teatownclown]

The police in NYC are way over the top thanks to Mayor %1.

They bust people all over NYC for small infractions with pot. %85 of them are African American whose population accounts for %10 of the total.

Then you have boom cities like Seattle who have their priorities straight.

The cops in NYC are not faultless....

[nathanm]

Actually, he [...] hated Bush as well, IIRC.

Yes, I'm nearly certain that describes most Tea Partiers.

The anarchist thing? Also descriptive of many Tea Partiers, but less universally so.

[guido911]

Wiki (yes, I know) re: Stack:

Suicide note

On the morning of the crash, Stack posted a suicide note on his website, embeddedart.com.[21][28][29][30][31] The HTML source code of the web page shows the letter was composed using Microsoft Word starting two days prior, February 16, at 19:24Z (1:24 p.m. CST).[32] The document also shows that it was saved 27 times with the last being February 18 at 06:42Z (12:42 a.m. CST).[32]

In the suicide note, he begins by expressing displeasure with the government, the bailout of financial institutions, politicians, the conglomerate companies of General Motors, Enron and Arthur Andersen, unions, drug and health care insurance companies, and the Catholic Church.[31] He then describes his life as an engineer; including his meeting with a poor widow who never got the pension benefits she was promised, the effect of the Section 1706 of Tax Reform Act of 1986 on independent contractor engineers, the September 11 attacks airline bailouts that only benefited the airlines but not the suffering engineers and how a CPA he hired seemed to side with the government to take extra tax money from him. His suicide note included criticism of the FAA, the George W. Bush administration, and a call for violent revolt.

The suicide note also mentions, several times, Stack's having issues with taxes, debt, and the IRS and his having a long-running feud with the organization.[33] While the IRS also has a larger regional office in Austin, the field office located in Echelon I performed tax audits, seizures, investigations and collections.[33]

The suicide note ended with:
"    I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Austin_suicide_attack

[Conan71]

Wiki (yes, I know) re: Stack:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Austin_suicide_attack

Wow, sounds pretty much like he'd fit in perfectly with the OWS folk.

[guido911]

Here we go again..

Afterwards, White said officers had hoped to ask the protestors a final time to remove their belongings, but when two prostestors began setting the shelters aflame, officers and firefighters had to move it.

A firetruck moved in to douse the flames as a battery of police closed ranks shouting, "Move back!" to allow firefighters access.

Police said two protestors were arrested on arson charges and two were arrested on charges of failing to obey a lawful order.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19583654