By having camps that are deemed in in need of removal...OWS has created more jobs than the entire republican party.

Sorry, but to get me to handle that quantity of other people's 'trash,' I would want a hazmat suit.

of the trash so this is just a propaganda move on the part of the employees of the 1%.

... and they surely handle far more "other people's trash" every day.

I'm willing to bet there's a lot more hazardous materials in people's trash cans.

That Democratic mayors would bust on OWS should come as no surprise at all.

Indeed I think Jean Quan should be a keynote speaker at the DNC.

They will stop at nothing. They are playing with real money and the stakes are huge.

it's likely countereffective on both coasts and in major cities throughout the country.

The whole thing makes me furious, especially since it's the quickest way to get GOP mayors into those cities, and the GOPs would be worse.

If those mayors are capable of catching a passing clue, this should be it: local PDs need to be reined in severely. No matter how loudly the wealthy scream about the "dirty fucking hippies" camping downtown, the health department should be the ones overseeing health and making sanitation suggestions. Sending the PD in to clean them out is entirely reminiscent of burning Hoovervilles in the last Depression.

In the long term, it will also likely be just the way that worked out, with the public turning harshly away from the PTB because the PTB have proven themselves to be the public's enemy.

Use all white material for tents and wear white suits or clothing. Or keep it all clean. Or go to the courts.

"On the plus side... it would make an awesomely ridiculous WTF head scratching moment if worn while wearing a Guy Fawkes mask."

What better way could be thought of for making a total fool out of oneself!

It would make some interesting video

have been so they have far exceeded their own expectations as far as occupying parks etc. Now they can move on to another phase and probably get around some of the laws by being creative. And when they do, the authorities will again crack down on them. Because it is their message the authorities are afraid of, not their camps. I am willing to bet that if there were pro-Banks occupiers all over the country, no one would bother them at all.

Clearly they have succeeded in their main goal, to focus attention on economic inequality and the corruption of money on the system we currently live under. If they had not, no one would be bothering them.

Be flexible. Occupying parks was cool, but hopefully the movement will grow and maybe outgrow parks at some point.

I'm hoping there will be lots of branching off and new groups formed with a variety of goals but sharing common principles and drawing inspiration from OWS.

I'm sure that is probably already happening and I'm just not hip to it yet because I'm old...

At least, not unless you visited the camp for yourself. Officials in our town claimed health hazard, too, but every time I went there, it was immaculate -- literally not a gum wrapper on the ground anywhere in the camp, and cleaner than the surrounding areas.

. . . . . I'm not buying into the health hazard thing, I am calling the PTB out on it.

They who never sleep.

http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine

It was his administration's OSHA that developed the stringent mandates for employer-provided personal protective equipment.

The bar for when they are required to be used was set amazingly low. 1996 I believe, or 1994. I can look it up, but it was during my tenure driving ambulances.

bedbugs would be my first concern.

wouldnt be the first time someone left a bag of feces as a dirty "got ya"

Or pissed on something

Do you know that there are some many diseases out there that, even if you are a super doctor with a million certificates and degrees, you are NOT required to give someone rescue breaths if you dont have a barrier? Thats how much risk is actually out there.

Field sanitation is quite a serious issue. Poor hygiene took out 58% of my platoon for almost a week in Iraq with a bout or oral-fecal contamination.

you dont need a sleeping bag suit. There are plenty of off the shelf products you can buy at ems/rei/where ever to spend the night outside in comfort.

It doesn't stay sterile very long when it's out in the open.

The minerals in piss are helpful to bacteria. Distilled water when left out isn't going to grow much until something else gets mixed into it.

you can get polio from it, which you can't get from piss.

Which, if you go back up 3 posts, is what you were talking about.

[div class='excerpt']Field sanitation is quite a serious issue. Poor hygiene took out 58% of my platoon for almost a week in Iraq with a bout or oral-fecal contamination.


You weren't getting your water and chow from KBR contractors about that time were you? What were people sick from? There is no diagnosis of oral-fecal contamination, it really doesn't make much sense unless there was some serious kink going on.

I didn't get any explanation as to what was going on.

I love that movie. My sister's MIL is one of the shocked ladies in the discovery scene. She worked at the course where it was filmed.

That is the new Klan uniform.

It doesn't matter about the Democratic mayor - this is federal land, and it is U.S. Park Police moving them out, not local MPD.

I haven't seen the camp, but area residents were complaining about a rat infestation. No idea whether or not this is accurate.

Gambling? In Casa Blanca?

DC has a huge rat problem which is not limited to occupy camps. For every complaint there were half a dozen saying WTF the rats were there way before occupy. But it was a rather convenient excuse to shut down the kitchen.

But nice try with that talking point.

I wasn't stating it as fact or using it as a talking point, just stating what's been in the news in this area.

they were not going to move them out. But Daryl Issa put pressure on them and they caved. And they never had any complaints about rats or anything else. They caved to political pressure and are looking for an excuse now to explain it all away.

To be serious there has long been a rat problem - and not just regarding the politicians. In the 1990s one of the major law firms re-did a building and had many problems with rats during the building. Of course that prompted many jokes about the law firm moving into the new building. I would expect that problem in any major city, but I know for a fact it has existed in DC long before OWS came along.

From the Bonus Soldiers after WWI to the Native American occupation of Alcatraz, protest camps only last until the protestors let it be known they aren't leaving public land any time soon.

Politicians know as well as everyone that occupations become tent cities. Tent cities turn into shanty towns, and shanty towns morph into smoldering slums that adopt the name of the governor or president in office at the time. "Hooverville" was a depession era occupation that met a similar but decidedly more violent fate in it's day.

Peaceful protests are tolerated as long as the people go home, change clothes, and come back tomorrow without a sleeping bag, but once a protest files for it's own zip code, it's days are sadly numbered.

Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% behind the 99%, but I differ in execution and see the occupation phase of this leaderless movement ending like all the other occupations in American history, which is to say "not good". Still, I'm confident the movement will live beyond this part of the struggle and go to make progress.

And are sick puppies...

The MSM told me so, therefore it must be true...

And more than a few believe it.

safe environment for them. These encampments were good for so many reasons. Probably why the PTB wanted them removed.

After all, it was a Democratic mayor, at the behest of the Democratic power elite, that unleashed a police riot on peaceful protesters at the Democratic National Convention in 1968.

and it is imperative that we fight back.

The standard party lines don't apply in city politics. Real estate vs neighborhood interests are a big deal. Transit policy is a big deal. Macroeconomic policy, not so much. And there's a tremendous amount of pressure on local governments from developers who want every high-rise to have a nice white picket fence out front.

You also have to remember. Whereas national politics sometimes becomes a little more abstract, city politics is very Roman... very pragmatic. Decisions aren't made because they're the right decision. They're made because they're the expedient one. As much as a mayor may support a cause, none are going to support civil unrest in their little corner of the earth.

Yes it pisses me the hell off.

is like a perfect sleeping bag, you would be snug as a bug in one, may even get too hot!

pisses me right the fuck off that the consensus among the ruling class thinks and believes it is their right and duty to do this to begin with.
If I could figure out how to live and not have to buy anything I'd do it but there is no way I could boycott every one of these leaches on society. Blood sucking bastards/B's, whatever the case may be, all of them

There are 10 different kinds of police everywhere in D.C. that prey on the people much more than they protect them.

I'm reminded of the contemporary version of the Karate Kid (sigh...), with street scenes replete with "police" officers watching every corner. What was the intent? Show how oppressive are the Chinese? Well, we've got that here, in spades.

is run as a police state. What is happening is the tearing down of democracy itself. Fascist mayors and police departments are taking it on themselves to break up what is or once was lawful protests. This shit is gonna turn into something other than peaceful soon because the police are breaking constitutional law.

Some writes the order to the police.

That is all that is. Janitors don't wear Hazmat suits. Even hospital workers don't wear Hazmat suits for normal clean-up.

Shame on our government for these tactics.

The ideas of OWS and the 99% will go right through those suits.

Then they'll hit OWS with something really toxic, more than just tear gas and pepper spray. But then again, I have a tendency toward paranoia.

What? Still no spell check? Dammit! I'm too lazy to learn to spell!

I wonder if the warming of the frog water makes it so that people don't see this. It's as obvious as the sun is bright, to me.

Welcome to the new world order.

McPherson Square (where this took place) in DC is Federal Property.

This means that this was NOT done by local DC cops.

It was done by US Park Police.

They report to President Obama.

President Obama could have stopped this.

Why he let it happen is anyone's guess.

He's been leaning on the Park Police for some time now

The Park Police report to the President, not to Darrel Issa.

President Obama COULD have stopped this from happening.

He didn't.

We all knew Issa was a monumental Piece Of Shit.

I would love to see Gray Davis take his seat in Congress just for the ironic humor. (Yeah, I know, not the same districts)