So anything OWS does is right and everything police do is wrong

[JohnnyRingo]

44. The right to assemble is protected, and I don't think that's in jeopardy.

The problem lies in occupation.

I can go to the square in Yougstown every day of the week to protest, and no one will ever stop me. I can do this for months on end, and that's been done, but once I say I'm setting up a home there and never leaving, my protest will attract undesireable attention. Pols know occupations become shanty towns, and those shanty towns become unsightly slums that adopt the name of the governor or president in charge (see Hooverville).

Occupations have always suffered bloody and fruitless defeats in America. From the aforementioned Hooverville to the Bonus Soldiers and Indian occupation of Alcatraz, the problem always arises when a protest files for it's own zip code. When does public land become one's personal property with a front porch and kitchen?

I think the OWS should spawn a new public union with dues, political influence, and most importantly, a leader. Structure and direction is waht the movement lacks, and we have to remember that unions built the middle class to begin with. Our economic decline began when Corporate America tipped the balance with anti-union propaganda and right to work laws. The rise and fall of the working class tracks perfectly with the rise and fall of organized labor in America.

Occupation is a political nuisance. A well organized national strike is a feared tool of the working class. Wall Street will scream at their political pawns to resolve the issue if this country is shut down for even one day.