Number of “working groups” now governing Occupy Wall Street: 79 and counting

So says Time magazine. Meanwhile, thanks to the nasty weather, there were reportedly between 50 and “just over a hundred” protesters in the park this weekend, which means on some days the ratio of “Occupy” oversight committees to actual occupiers is roughly 1:1. No surprise, and not just because a proto-utopia founded by leftists would naturally have lots and lots of redundant government. The more I read about the movement, the more subordinate their political grievances seem to be to the underlying experiment in communal living. Politics is the glue holding it all together but the members appear more committed to staking out and protecting their own little space than, say, coming up with a list of demands or putting organizational pressure on Democrats. At least for the moment, Occupy Wall Street seems more about the Occupy than the Wall Street. Little wonder under those circumstances that so much energy would go into bureaucracy rather than in forging an agenda. Just think of all the “social justice” they could be working on if they didn’t have to worry about food and blankets.

As it is, when sexual assault is a recurring problem, I guess you need to put first things first.

A sex fiend barged into a woman’s tent and sexually assaulted her at around 6 a.m., said protesters, who chased him from the park.

“Pervert! Pervert! Get the f–k out!” said vigilante Occupiers, who never bothered to call the cops.

“They were shining flashlights in his face and yelling at him to leave,” said a woman who called herself Leslie, but refused to give her real name.

She said that weeks earlier another woman was raped.

“We don’t tell anyone,” she said. “We handle it internally. I said too much already.”

To see how far their relationship with the NYPD has deteriorated, read this disquieting piece at the Daily News about protesters shrieking at the cops even when they enter the park to stop a crime and the cops in turn allegedly encouraging drunks and deranged homeless people to leave other parks and head to Zuccotti in order to make things less hospitable for the occupiers. (The police’s snarky response to lunatics howling incoherently at the protesters is, “He’s got a right to express himself, you’ve got a right to express yourself.”) Bloomberg’s tried to blame the landlord for the continued occupation, but if he wanted the park clear, he could give the landlord political cover by saying so and then sending in the cops to start removing protesters. Instead, because he doesn’t want to deal with the political fallout, he’s encouraging a much more dangerous situation — not only letting the city’s derelicts congregate and move in on the protesters in what’s already a barely governable space but apparently letting the cops encourage them to do so. Imagine the lawsuits to come. Imagine.

Via the Observer, enjoy as the revolution takes a break from building our new civilization to celebrate the snow this weekend.

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