With Spineless Leadership Anarchists Thrive

With Spineless Leadership Anarchists Thrive


“It shouldn’t mar the overall impact of the demonstration and the fact that people in the 99 percent movement demonstrated peacefully and, for the most part, were productive and very peaceful” - Oakland Mayor Jean Quan


“Quite frankly - given the precedent set with the OWS crowd - she might very well be powerless to act against them or any other group, no matter how large or small, that’s determined to destroy Oakland, California.  She’s provided any and all future violence an instant legal defense - “OWS did it!”.”


By Dell Hill

“Although some businesses have been targeted and vandalized by Occupy Oakland protesters, there is at least one businessman who refuses to be intimidated.

Phil Tagami is a well-known Oakland developer. Late Wednesday night, instead of going over paperwork or brokering deals, he was forced to defend a downtown building where he personally oversaw $50 million worth of renovations.

He also has an office there.

“We had people who attempted to break into our building,” the landmark Rotunda Building on Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall, Tagami said. According to comments he made to the San Francisco Chronicle, Tagami grabbed a shotgun that he usually keeps at home, went down to the ground floor and “discouraged them.”

Although they didn’t get inside the building, vandals did scrawl graffiti on the outside walls during the post-midnight riot that broke out after Occupy Oakland’s daylong general strike, writes the San Francisco Chronicle.

“I was standing there and they saw me there, and I lifted it – I didn’t point it – I just held it in my hands,” Tagami said. “And I just racked it, and they ran.”

(Publisher’s Note:  To “rack” a shotgun means to work the pump that loads a shell into the weapon’s chamber.)

The Rotunda Building wasn’t the only business targeted by the protesters.
“Graffiti was spray-painted on many buildings along Broadway from 14th to 16th streets. Masked vandals shattered windows, started fires and threw objects at police, including lit flares and powerful M-1000 firecrackers,” reports the Chronicle.

When the riots subsided, Oakland business owners started cleaning up the damage. Owners of Tully’s Coffee shop boarded up shattered windows. The owners of Genji, a Japanese restaurant in the City Hall plaza, spent their morning scrubbing graffiti from the facade of their business. Rite Aid and Walgreens drugstores were also tagged by protesters.

Rachel Konte, owner of Oakllectiv, said her designer clothing shop had its plate glass window smashed and hundreds of dollars of T-shirts stolen (despite the fact that, according to Konte, some protesters attempted to protect her store), writes the Chronicle.

The city estimates that it will cost up to $25,000 to replace broken windows at city buildings.

Of course, Mayor Jean Quan called the rioters “a small and isolated group.”
“It shouldn’t mar the overall impact of the demonstration and the fact that people in the 99 percent movement demonstrated peacefully and, for the most part, were productive and very peaceful,” Quan said.

Tagami wholeheartedly disagreed, saying that Occupy Oakland protest is “basically concealment and cover for anarchists who are doing this to our city.”

Stories such as this are being repeated, more or less, all over the country.  And Oakland is a prime example of how spineless leadership in local government allows cities to be destroyed.  I suppose if that’s what the people of Oakland want, that’s what they shall get.  When they get the bill for the total costs involved in this movement they’ll probably be singing a very different tune.

Oakland is in very serious financial trouble.  They’re looking for a major tax increase just to sustain the present government services, say nothing of paying millions for overtime just babysitting a band of thugs bent on nothing more than complaining that rich people shouldn’t be rich, they should give their money to the poor and those who refuse to earn it the old fashioned way - by getting a job.

When all is said and done, Oakland will be screaming to the federal government to declare the city a disaster area, thus eligible for federal grants and low interest loans to pay the piper.  Given that this is NOT a natural disaster, that declaration should never see the light of day.

It’s insurrection, plain and simple, and should never receive one dollar in federal tax money to repair.  Many insurance companies will refuse to pay claims for that exact same reason.

Dell’s Exit Question:  How would Mayor Quan react if a group of skin heads moved hundreds of people into Oakland and started tearing the city to shreds?  How about a contingent of the Ku Klux Klan?  Or, maybe the Al Qaida In America Association?

Would Mayor Quan welcome them with open arms and give them carte blanche to destroy her city?

At this point - given her sheer stupidity - it’s difficult to say.

Would Mayor Quan make utterly stupid public statements such as “It shouldn’t mar the overall impact of the demonstration and the fact that people in the 99 percent movement demonstrated peacefully and, for the most part, were productive and very peaceful”?

Quite frankly - given the precedent set with the OWS crowd - she might very well be powerless to act against them or any other group, no matter how large or small, that’s determined to destroy Oakland, California.  She’s provided any and all future violence an instant legal defense - “OWS did it!”.

And the very same goes for every other city where this protest movement has exploded into violence, destruction and basic insurrection.  And you’ll notice, please, that almost all of the cities involved in the “occupy” protest are governed by Democrats.  Just coincidence?  I think not.