Occupy Cost To Taxpayers Climbing Rapidly

Do We Send The Bill To George Soros?


By Dell Hill

How much would you guess the “occupy” protesters have cost the various cities around the country?  A couple of hundred thousand? Half a million?  More than that?

How about well over $6 Million....and counting?

Law enforcement overtime costs alone are - and continue to be - a staggering high percentage of what it will cost to babysit a few thousand malcontents.

Michelle Malkin’s latest posting will give you a general idea of the cost TO TAXPAYERS for this “picnic in the parks”.

“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 Steve 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% 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.”

Read the rest of Michelle Malkin’s syndicated piece by clicking right here.

Take note of the fact that this list only includes the really big cities; there are “occupy” protests going on all over the country and in each and every case, the cost will add up.

How long will the tax payers stand for this?

Quite frankly, I’m amazed they’ve let it go on this long.