As the adoring media coverage fades, our dear friends in the Occupy movement seem to be getting even more sullen and peevish than they were to begin with. San Francisco Chronicle:
Protesters arrested during an Occupy Oakland rally Saturday said they were abused by police, subjected to illegal mass arrests and suffered a litany of human rights violations while held at two county jails – which only strengthened their commitment…
Members called for another demonstration Saturday night, the latest in what Occupy activists have dubbed “F- the police” rallies, as well as a march to a courthouse Monday.
As you may recall, Saturday’s “rally” was the one where they tried to “occupy” City Hall. They “rallied” by smashing a bunch of stuff, spray-painting graffiti, and burning a flag just because at that point why not:
C’mon, so far Occupy Oakland has done less than $4 million worth of damage. You can afford it, you rich fatcat One-Percenters!
Meanwhile, in the only place on earth worse than the Bay Area, KVUE in Austin reports:
Keeping the steps of City Hall clean is becoming a sore subject between the City of Austin and Occupy Austin protesters.
“Do we really need to do the power washing three times a week out here when things are basically kept up?” said Occupy Austin Food Management Coordinator Brian Harris…
Crews clean the area between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays — a time when business hours are over, foot traffic is down, and when Occupy demonstrations have turned in for the night. But the protesters complain they have to wake up, pack up their belongings, and move for the cleaning, then return to sleep on wet pavement, and that’s a health risk.
“Everything’s soaking wet so you know we’ve got to put the tarp down, and it’s, it’s really miserable,” said protester Puneet Kumar.
And to think, some wingnuts try to paint Occupiers as delusional, ridiculously overprivileged crybabies.
Finally, back in DC, a few of the unwanted residents of McPherson Square — no, not the rats, not quite — have come up with a novel way of showing the National Park Service who’s boss. DCist:
Why go hungry when you can stay awake?
Yesterday, the Examiner’s Aubrey Whelan took note of two members of Occupy D.C. who, in a protest of the National Park Service’s recent decision to begin enforcing the ban on camping in McPherson Square—which includes a prohibition on slumbering in the park—decided to go on a “sleep strike.”
That’s right. Since about noon on Monday, when the enforcement regime officially went into effect, two demonstrators, Thomas Reges and Ricky Lehner decided that the best way to prove to NPS and U.S. Park Police that sleeping in public spaces is a vital and expressive part of the Occupy Wall Street movement was to forego sleep entirely.
When I spoke with them Wednesday afternoon, they had been awake for about 54 hours.
Side effects of sleep deprivation include blurred vision, hallucinations, cognitive impairment, and memory loss. Or, as these guys call it: Thursday.
P.S. Another view from inside the Oakland City Hall “rally”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3BRINC0kak