One Has To Wonder About The Costs Of Patrolling/Evicting #OWS Events...

[WillyT]

If they keep spending inordinate amounts of money watching, surveilling, and fighting/evicting these events, then they start draining scarce resources of city/local budgets.

If those evictions stir up more and more support for the movement, it drains more and more resources.

I mean... they could have just a assigned a couple of hip cops to keep an eye and report back to headquarters, but instead they are pulling out military vehicles and equipment, over-flying with helicopters, and logging hours and hours of overtime. Let alone the canisters of pepper spray already spent and needing to be replaced.

So as the movement comes back bigger and bigger, and the local resources get smaller and smaller, eventually they will have to lay off those sworn to protect and defend... no ???

DOES THIS STRATEGY MAKE ANY SENSE ???

:crazy:

:banghead:

:wtf:

Onedit: Reminds me of the the USSR in Afghanistan in the 1980's, and us there now.

:kick:

[TBMASE]

1. Well, OWS could get a permit and then pay for their own security

like everyone else

[msongs]

4. you mean like afghanistan and iraq should get their own permits and security nt

[truedelphi]

7. Great answer. Thank You!

Of course, with Shell Oil getting the full on contra t to have the Iraqi oil, I guess the Iraqi people are paying for their own occupation.

[TBMASE]

13. No, I mean like every other group in this country that holds a protest or rally

The war protests, Colbert and Stewart, every parade or major gathering in cities across the country requires a permit that pays for the costs of security and sanitation. even the fundies get permits for their stuff.
otherwise, follow the directions of the police.
complaining about the cost to the cities that decide to enforce their laws is ridiculous

[JoeyT]

14. The first amendment doesn't state

you have freedom of speech and assembly as long as you're willing to pay private contractors to provide security.

You know Kiwi contains carcinogens and you probably shouldn't be eating the stuff, right?

[TBMASE]

20. SCOTUS has ruled on permits and requirements for assembly

the cities can set conditions for these permits. And no one said anything about private contractors.

I'm sorry that you're not aware of how the constitution has been interpreted by the courts with regard to this matter.

[Fumesucker]

6. Welcome to DU..

I hope you enjoy your stay.

:hi:

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. The 1% are attempting to bully us into compliance. I'm glad they're wasting their money.

It reveals a weakness in the system we will hopefully exploit until it is a mortal wound.

And as you are discussing it here, it is now an emergent talking point to which any of the 99% can relate!

[tsuki]

3. NY has a fairy god-oligarch to bear the $4,600,000.00 bill. Wonder if

Bloomberg will get another bail out when that money's gone.

[Pachamama]

5. The strategy makes no sense and while the limited resources of Police gets wasted, the police aren't

Doing their job elsewhere & protecting and serving the communities....Like preventing violent crime, home robberies, crimes on persons, gang violence etc....

Too bad police dont go after white collar crime by the 1 % the way they have gone after the peaceful 99%....

[Ikonoklast]

8. If I was a criminal, I'd be watching for when the police are massing to attack.

That's when I'd time my break-in to the bank vault on the other side of town.

[EFerrari]

9. The whole Bay area seems at risk to me when they all go up to Oakland

to beat up on veterans.

[Ikonoklast]

10. I bet I could drive a tractor-trailer loaded with Heroin through the middle of town

and deliver it in San Jose without being given a second glance as the police lick their lips waiting to take a swing at some dirty hippies.

[EFerrari]

11. I bet you could drive it from here to Concord.

These cops have to know how crazy this policy is that they're being made to enforce. This could mean layoffs for them in the not too distant future. Maybe that's part of why they're so mad.

[Pachamama]

19. In each of the incidents where Oakland took action against the encampments, they had help from all

Over the Bay Area including local officers in my area. They had to be paid, the equipment supplied and meanwhile it meant if something went down in our local areas, or for example an earthquake and we needed our police, they wouldnt be available. Its messed up.

[EFerrari]

21. One night Spencer had me cracking because the people were chanting

"We are OAKLAND" on his UStream, in the middle of a sea of cops.

And he'd respond "You are CONCORD"

"We are OAKLAND"

"You are NOT FROM HERE"

"We are OAKLAND"

"You are ALL WHITE MEN"

* * *

I still think we should call our mayors and object to our cops being sent to arrest tents and beat up vets. I don't want to pay for that or be left without a working police force for that reason. They're on a shoestring here as it is. We can't afford it.

[rhett o rick]

12. Our over-lords realize this is their biggest threat. They can not let OWS succeed. nm

[mmonk]

15. Their decision.

If those in power at the various levels of government were any good at making decisions, would there even be a need for Occupy?

[Jamastiene]

16. Carolina Journal says is cost the city of Raleigh $50,000

through the end of October.

It is a right wing paper that they seem to keep sending me no matter how many times I tell them I am not a right winger. I have written and emailed numerous times to tell them The John Locke Foundation and I are not a good match, but they keep sending this rag to me.

They did have an article on the front page recently (Volume 20 No. 11) that said it cost the City of Raleigh $50,000 for extra police officers for the protests through the end of October. They also said the Raleigh Police Department paid an extra $26,300 for "additional police protection" just during the weekend of October 15th, 2011. Also they spend about $1500 per day in for Occupy Raleigh.

I told them to quit sending me this right wing crap, but in this case I am able to see what the 1% are griping about in their hideous right wing rags to answer (at least on a local level) your question. :evilgrin:

So that should give us some rough idea. You may be onto something. :)

On edit: I won't link to it, but the headline for the article in question is online at their website and the paper itself can be downloaded as well in PDF format.

[mmonk]

17. Wonder why they insist?

Maybe they have multiple names that match yours. You can probably mark them Return To Sender.

[Jamastiene]

18. My name is kind of long and pretty unique.

Of course, the Do Not Call list doesn't seem to work for me either. Nor do the requests to stop the junk mail (snail mail).

In this case though, I can use the thing before I trash it to give some rough estimate of how much they are spending at least in Raleigh. Normally, it just gets trashed. I happened to see that on the front page though first this time.