Occupiers’ latest target: schoolchildren

posted at 12:12 pm on November 20, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Double Standards ]   

The Occupy movement has provided comic relief at a time when there is precious little to laugh about. Ditto for the so-called elite media’s ever-serious, up-to-the-minute coverage of protesters’ tantrums. To justify this risible reporting, the liberal commentariat will claim that the MSM are chronicling a political sea change, that the consciousness-raising protests have led to an increase in news stories on income inequality. But as James Taranto noted on Saturday’s Journal Editorial Report on FOX News, when in recent memory have the major networks, the New York Times, and similar media outlets not been fixated on the topic of income disparity?

With few prospects and the growing support of radicalized elements like the Democratic Socialists of America, the Occupiers have become persona non grata in the nation’s cities. A poll released on Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute reveals that support among Americans for the Occupy movement has dwindled to an all-time low of 29%. To put this number in context, the same percentage of respondents claim to support the odious Tea Party.

The protesters’ war on police is not helping to win the hearts and minds of ordinary citizens. Proudly displaying posters of cop killers Mumia Abu Jamal and Lovelle Mixon at the Oakland encampment was likely a factor in Democratic Mayor Jean Quan’s decision to evict protesters.

Now Occupiers in New York are singling out an even more defenseless group: schoolchildren. (A video clip of young children being made to walk a gauntlet of jeers and taunts can be found here.)

[A]llegations have emerged that some protesters [last Thursday] harassed young kids as they walked to school with their parents near Wall Street in the morning. CBS [to its credit] reports that they saw one protester follow a father and his little daughter down one block, while others chanted ‘follow those kids!’ One mother told CBS, ‘For them it’s horrible. They’re afraid of all the crowds. We’re not even able to get through. They’re just, he’s … very afraid now.’…

Some left-leaning blogs are insisting the incident is one-off and that CBS may have “overhyped” it. Which raises the question, How many schoolchildren need to be hassled before the mainstream media as a whole begin reporting the truth about the Occupy movement?

Related Articles

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• Wall Street-area restaurant threatened, harassed by OWS
• The high price of ‘Occupation’
• Occupy Wall Street becomes Burn Down Wall Street

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