Richmond Tea Party bills city; sees double standard in treatment of ‘occupiers’

posted at 12:02 pm on November 8, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Double Standards ]   

By now the night-and-day contrasts between the Tea Party and the Occupy movement have been so ubiquitously documented that only the most self-deluded observer could claim to see parity between the two. Yet, one of the less obvious differences—the Tea Party’s self-reliance versus the occupiers’ dependence on the kindness of strangers—has received less attention. Until now.

On Friday, October 28, the leadership of the Richmond Tea Party hand-delivered an invoice to the city of Richmond in the amount of $8,500. The group is seeking reimbursement for costs associated with three separate Tax Day events at the Richmond’s downtown Kanawha Plaza.

The costs reflected in the invoice include cash outlays by the Tea Party to cover fees for permits mandated by the city government, portable toilets, first-aid care, off-duty police officers for security, and event insurance.

Tea Party volunteer John Pride writes in the Richmond-Times Dispatch:

The Occupy Richmond group met none of these benchmarks while camped out in the same Kanawha Plaza between Oct. 15th and Oct. 31 (the morning they were finally evicted). So in the spirit of our founding principle of equal application of the law, the Richmond Tea Party is requesting a full refund from the City of Richmond for city-imposed costs related to these three rallies.

Pride goes on to highlight differences in personal demeanor and civic responsibility between the two movements (“Tea Partiers never … destroyed the public areas entrusted to us, never demanded access beyond that allowed by our permit, … never strained police and emergency services systems to the detriment of those in need of those protections and services”), but in truth he had me at $8,500. The validity of the Richmond Tea Party’s point is undeniable.

The Occupy movement to date has cost American cities somewhere in the vicinity of $10 million. In New York, the city that has incurred the greatest financial burden, the bill as of October 18 was $3.4 million—and that was just to cover NYPD overtime.

Paradoxically, the cash to cover the Occupy movement’s tantrums in New York and other cities comes out of the pockets of taxpayers, most of whom are members of the 99%.

Now is one of those occasions where (to borrow a page from the president’s handbook) outraged voters are urged to “call and email and tweet and visit” and in other ways pester their members of Congress. It is time to let your representatives know that the days of taxpayer-funded babysitting are over. If they can’t find an alternate way to finance the protests, maybe it is high time we all got together and sent them an invoice.

Related Articles

• The high price of ‘Occupation’
• NYC shootings are up 28% since OWS began
• Occupy Wall Streeters stink—literally
• ‘How Are OWS and the Tea Party Different?’ home version
• NYC Occupy Wall Street protests turn violent AFTER eviction plan is scratched
• Occupy L.A.: We will need violence and socialism to achieve our goals
• The left and Big Labor get their ‘Tea Party’
• Obama again urges voters to “call your congressperson” (except in NY-9)

Blowback