Comparing the Occupy Wall Street movement to the Boston Tea Party, California Democratic Rep. Mike Honda told The Daily Caller that “civil disobedience is part of citizenship,” and that protesters are “frustrated” over the last year of Republican leadership.
TheDC asked Honda if he thought the violence at Occupy protests across the country should stop.
Watch the interview:
[dcvideo videoid=”24779700″ name=”ndnPlayer_24779700″ type=”ndn” /]
“People are being arrested because they’re protesting and they’re resisting the local ordinances and laws, okay? … It is a sign of a division in this country: It’s a division between the 1 percent and the 99 percent. That’s a big division,” Honda, a member of the budget and appropriations committees, told TheDC on Capitol Hill.
“And the 99 percent, these folks who have been putting up with this government, with the leadership of this government for a year and they’re seeing nothing being done, they’re frustrated.”
“Civil disobedience is part of citizenship,” he emphasized. “When government is not responding to the needs of the people, the people have a right to bring these petitions. If the petitions are not being heard through the regular way, they take it to the streets and it’s a tradition in this country. You think the [Boston] Tea Party was a process that was followed traditionally? No. They were nervous about doing that but that was the first civil disobedience in telling the king, you know, enough is enough.”