The enormous cost to American cities of the Occupy Wall Street “occupations” is now starting to become clear. As of the end of the first two months of the nationwide occupy events, the movement that claims to represent 99% of us cost state taxpayers at least $13 million in police overtime and other municipal services, according to a survey by The Associated Press. By all accounts, that number will continue to rise.

In October the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a joint resolution to officially “support” the Occupy L.A. demonstration and “demand accountability and results from the banks we invest taxpayer dollars in.” By December, taxpayers learned they will be “investing” in something else: Occupy LA cost Los Angeles taxpayers, many of them the 99 percenters, at least $2.3 million. LA Mayor Villaraigosa says he will deal with the stunning costs, not by suing those responsible for the damages but by implementing budget cuts that will of course hurt the 99 percenters.

Cities such as Oakland, which spent $2.5 million in the aftermath of occupiers vandalizing public property, shutting down a critical port, trespassing, and committing countless other street crimes, have paid a dear price because of their “reactive approach” to the occupation.

The national cookie cutter approach to OWS was to be as politically correct as possible. City leaders collectively engaged in a hand-wringing mantra of “It’s their right of free speech… we must not interfere!” Add the fact that with “Big Banking” as the OWS target, city leaders had nothing to lose by throwing their support behind the benevolent freedom fighters. Trouble is, they actually had a lot to lose. (more…)

The hackers known as “Anonymous,” who helped organize and support the Occupy Wall Street protests this past fall, claim to have stolen emails and credit card numbers from Stratfor, the highly respected U.S. security think tank.

Source: Forbes.com

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Hackers on Sunday claimed to have stolen a raft of emails and credit card data from U.S.-based security think tank Stratfor, promising that it was the start of a weeklong assault on a long list of targets.

Members of the loose-knit hacking movement known as “Anonymous” posted a link on Twitter to what it said was Stratfor’s tightly-guarded, confidential client list. Among the list: the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and the Miami Police Department.

The rest of the list, which Anonymous said was a small slice of its 200 gigabytes worth of plunder, included banks, law enforcement agencies, defense contractors and technology firms.

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As unlikely as it is for OWS to gain power, what would it mean for our nation, and our society, if they did? Michael Bane provided a frank answer. Bane has several decades of experience in the coverage and study of riots and social cavitations worldwide as a journalist. He is also the host of “Best Defense Survival” on the Outdoor Channel.

Bane discussed Occupy’s anarchist collaboration: “If anyone succeeds in bringing down the United States government or creating a social dislocation that breaks this fragile, amazing machine the Founders created, what comes after is not pleasant. What comes is what was before the Dream of America… That was simply survival of the most vicious.”

Bane continues, “What the toy anarchists in the Occupy movement don’t understand is that the best organized people in the country are the criminal enterprises. They’re very good at it. MS-13? Biker gangs? Mexican cartels? These guys are good at anarchy… because they are without conscience or any sense of moderation… That is what anarchy looks like. Anarchy looks like someone’s head on a bed.”

The communist and socialist elements within the Occupy movement believe the elimination of our current system, or at least the collapse of it, will bring about a favorable revolution. What the Occupiers fail to understand is the historical, if not psychological, context behind a revolution. These movements are regularly co-opted by more insidious ideologies. Those who instigated the French Revolution ultimately found their way to the guillotines just as many of the antagonists who toppled the Russian Empire found their way into the gulags of Soviet Russia. (more…)

I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for many of the people working on Wall Street these days, but the Occupy movement’s decision to solely target the private sector for financial corruption only distracted Americans from the real financial crisis – white collar crime.

According to recent Securities Exchange enforcement actions and news reports, financial corruption is also coming from government sponsored agencies and even Congress

As of Sept. 30, the Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a record 735 enforcement actions for the fiscal year, and of those 146 were related to investment advisers and companies – a 30 percent increase from last year. Broker-dealers also made up 112 of the actions, a 60 percent increase from before.

The SEC has also filed a lawsuit against executives with Fannie and Freddie Mae, saying that the two government-sponsored agencies played a significant role in creating the demand for sub-prime mortgages contributing to the 2008 financial crisis.

The fact of the matter is that white-collar crime, insider trading and unethical financial practices are rampant not only on Wall Street, but in government sponsored agencies and even Congress (check out Peter Schweizer’s new book, ‘Throw Them All Out’ which was recently featured by CBS’ 60 Minutes).

The word ‘greed’ doesn’t even come close to what corrupt brokers, financiers and politicians have done to this country. Criminal is more appropriate.

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About a week ago, I wrote that people in western nations need the freedom to own guns just in case there are riots, chaos, and social disarray when welfare states collapse.

Much to my surprise and pleasure, this resulted in an invitation to appear on the National Rifle Association’s webcast to discuss the issue.

As I noted in the interview, I’m just a fiscal policy wonk, but the right to keep and bear arms should be a priority for anyone who believes in freedom and responsibility. And even though I only have a couple of guns, you can see that I’m raising my kids to have a proper appreciation for the Second Amendment.

I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point where we suffer societal breakdown, but I won’t be too surprised if it happens in some European countries. We’ve already seen the challenges faced by disarmed Brits during recent riots in the United Kingdom.

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From the Hartford Courant:

Police said they had received an anonymous call from South Chapel and Main Street Thursday reporting a sex assault that took place at the Occupy Hartford camp at Broad Street and Farmington Avenue.

When the victim was located, she told police she had been inappropriately kissed and groped at the Occupy camp, police said. Police said the male suspect reportedly was named Carlos. He is about 130 pounds, and was wearing a black coat and jeans. He fled the scene after the assault, police said. It was not clear if the suspect was a part of the protest.

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A preliminary hearing for Mohamed H. Dawod is scheduled to take place Monday at 10 a.m. Central in Springfield, Mo. The 25-year-old Glendale, Ariz., man is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Sept. 8 shooting death of an Ohio man at a Greyhound bus station in the southwest Missouri community.

Mohamed H. Dawod

Dawod is accused of shooting Justin Hall, 32, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, during a late-night rest stop for travelers on a St. Louis-bound bus full of passengers from as far away as Amarillo, Texas, point of origin for the bus.

On Sept. 9, I was the first to raise the possibility that the shooting might be a case of terrorism at my website and at BigGovernment.com after officials in the Southwest Missouri community, according to a report in the Springfield News-Leader, were quick to say the shooting appeared random.

A day later, a KSPR-TV report cited Springfield police officials as saying that, because of a language barrier, they only learned Dawod’s name and had asked the FBI to help them with the investigation. That local television report included this telling paragraph:

Ten separate witnesses say they did not notice the men fighting or arguing before the shooting. One passenger said she watched the suspect wander around the terminal until the call to line up to re-board the bus. “She then observed the suspect remove a silver and black handgun from a back pack he was carrying,” the officer wrote. “The suspect then pointed the handgun upward while saying something. The witness could not understand what the suspect said and didn’t know if he was speaking English.” No matter what was said the witness said Hall didn’t react or turn around. Shortly after the witness says Dawod shot him from a few feet away.

I went on to draw information from two other television news reports that seemed to reveal more than the “official” story lets on about the deadly incident that involved a man with a Muslim name allegedly shooting someone he did not know less than 48 hours ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States:

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From NBC-New York:

Downtown residents and business owners angry that their neighborhood has been occupied for two months by the Wall Street demonstration are staging a protest of the protest Monday, declaring that City Hall has let it get out of control.

Angry over all-day drumming, people urinating and defecating on the streets and verbal attacks from protesters, organizers say they will rally at City Hall Monday to send officials a message.

“Laws are clearly being violated and we simply want them enforced,” Lower Manhattan resident Linda Gertsman told NBC New York.

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Live Feed–complete with shouts of “F*** the police!”:

Live video from your Android device on Ustream

Occupy Oakland activists vandalized a Whole Foods store on Grand Street this afternoon during their “general strike” march:

Occupy activists painted “STRIKE” on the building’s walls and windows, and damaged a fence, among other acts of vandalism–ignoring those few who cried “non-violence.”

Fights appeared to break out among activists as some attempted to discourage further damage to the store, and were attacked themselves.

Russia Today released this video:

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Photo credit: AP Photo / Andrew Burton

Occupy activists around the nation claim that their movement is a peaceful one. However, details in police reports and provided by police sources demonstrate a pattern of lawlessness–including violent crime–at Occupy protests throughout the United States.

Sources tell Breitbart.com that there have been more than 1,050 arrests in New York City alone, involving a variety of crimes from sexual assault to disorderly conduct.

Here’s a list of the ten worst crimes allegedly committed at Occupy demonstrations across the country:

NEW YORK, NY: A 26-year old was arrested today for an alleged sexual assault upon an 18-year old female that took place on October 24 in Zuccotti Park, where the Occupy Wall Street protest is based. NYPD Police sources said that detectives are investigating a separate incident involving a possible rape.

BOSTON, MA: On October 21, a 34-year old man and a 31-year old woman were arrested for allegedly trying to sell heroin in the Tent City area of Occupy Boston. The two suspects were reportedly living there with a child. Upon arrest, Brown told officers he had moved into Tent City three weeks prior, and had joined the Occupy Boston movement.

MANCHESTER, NH: A 23-year old woman was charged with felony prostitution for trying to solicit a 16-year old girl she met in Victory Park during the Occupy Manchester demonstrations. She also allegedly tried, through the Internet, to arrange a liaison for the minor with a man who was actually an undercover police officer.

MADISON, WI: An incident involving public masturbation allegedly occurred at the Occupy Madison protest result. The allegation was raised by a public official during a City Council meeting after complaints came from nearby employees, and although a complaint was not filed with police, the city has denied an application by the movement to renew its permit as a result.

NEW YORK, NY: On October 28, a 31-year old man allegedly threatened a Fox News Channel 5 reporter. The suspect was arrested at the corner of Trinity Place and Cedar Street, and has been charged with Grand Larceny, Menacing, Harassment and Criminal Possession of a Weapon. (more…)

A man and woman arrested at the Occupy Boston protest on October 21, 2011 for dealing heroin had “joined the Occupy Boston movement,” according to a police report obtained exclusively by Big Government:

Occupy Boston Heroin Bust –

Officers were informed that a black male who answers to the street name “Shorty” along with a heavy set white female were distributing narcotics within and around the Tent City. The information stated that “Shorty” and the white female have a child with them and that they stay within Tent City and have joined the Occupy Boston movement.

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Via Ironic Surrealism (original emphasis):

At the very beginning of the video, a distraught occupier complains about having been assaulted twice (“once with contaminated vomit“), and of other assaults in the camp occurring; including sexual assault. And the community’s failure to properly address the incidents. Directly after, another member points out the videographer (a non occupier), leading another member to attempt to censor the man behind the camera. All of which, mind you, is taking place in a public park.

A bit later on, the first man who broached the subject of assault, gives the camera man permission to film him, and he then proceeds to expound on the groups covering up assault and their policy to not get the police involved.  (more…)

Jesse Jackson, Andre Carson, Maxine Waters and Walter Fauntroy are the new face of “black-on-black crime.”

The term black-on-black crime was coined in the eighties to publicize shockingly disproportionate amounts of violent crimes perpetrated within the black community.  Now, instead of Bloods and Crips, the new gang threatening black neighborhoods can be called the “Elite Liberal Libelers.”  With political power and acceptance, the ELL holds an even tighter grip on black America’s throat.

The ELL’s rhetorical drive-by shooting style wounds the spirit and kills hope and the notion that blacks can find equality and prosperity by their own toil and purpose. These assaults on character and intelligence, unfortunately, come from within the trusted and intimate quarters of recognized black leaders.

The ELL demands acceptance of life at the bottom, handicapping potential growth and progress., and has no scruples finding a scapegoat or excuse.  Like the neighborhood drug dealer, they figure someone will make the money off poor kids.  May as well be by one of their own.

And words can be deadlier than bullets.  Whereas a bullet only claims a single victim, the reach of words is infinite — infiltrating countless souls and minds. Such ill-will can also have generational consequences — undermining core beliefs and self-worth.  Fatalism and despondency roll off ELL tongues from a poisonous well of lies, self destruction and defeat that’s deadlier than crack cocaine.

Consider ELL attacks on the tea parties:

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Mohamed Dawod, a 25-year-old man from Glendale, Ariz., faces a murder charge today, accused in the shooting death of Justin Hall, 32, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, at a Greyhound bus station in Springfield, Mo., late Thursday night. Whether or not this was a case of terrorism, however, remains up in the air after officials in the Southwest Missouri community were quick to say the shooting appeared random, according to a report in the Springfield News-Leader. But was it really?

According to a KSPR-TV report, Springfield police said that, because of a language barrier, they only learned Dawod’s name and have asked the FBI to help them with the investigation.  Also in that report was this telling paragraph:

Ten separate witnesses say they did not notice the men fighting or arguing before the shooting. One passenger said she watched the suspect wander around the terminal until the call to line up to re-board the bus. “She then observed the suspect remove a silver and black handgun from a back pack he was carrying,” the officer wrote. “The suspect then pointed the handgun upward while saying something. The witness could not understand what the suspect said and didn’t know if he was speaking English.” No matter what was said the witness said Hall didn’t react or turn around. Shortly after the witness says Dawod shot him from a few feet away.

Witnesses featured in two television news reports, however, seem to reveal more than the “official” story lets on about the deadly incident that involved a man with a Muslim name and Middle East appearance shooting someone he did not know less than 48 hours ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The first television report, which aired on St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK prior to any names being released or charges filed, features witnesses saying it appeared the assailant would have kept shooting, but his gun jammed.

The second report (below), which aired on the same station after the Springfield Police Department announced the alleged shooter’s name and charges against him, offered much the same story.

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As a grumpy libertarian, I routinely get agitated about taxes, spending, and regulation. As far as I’m concerned, much of government is a racket that uses coercion to reward interest groups with unearned wealth.

But there are degrees of evil. So if you asked me to pick the most reprehensible thing that government does,  “asset forfeiture” might be in second place (hurting poor people to benefit rich people is at the top of my list).

Asset forfeiture occurs when government seizes property that is associated with a crime. That sounds reasonable – and it is reasonable if someone is convicted of, say, bank robbery and the government confiscates the stolen cash and any loot purchased with that money.

But it is not reasonable (or moral, or just, or appropriate) when government seizes assets without a conviction. And it is downright disgusting when the government steals (and I use that word deliberately) the assets of innocent parties.

I’ve already written about this issue (including an example from my county) and highlighted how asset forfeiture gives government bureaucracies a perverse incentive to steal.

Now we have a story from the Wall Street Journal that confirms our worst fears.

New York businessman James Lieto was an innocent bystander in a fraud investigation last year. Federal agents seized $392,000 of his cash anyway. An armored-car firm hired by Mr. Lieto to carry money for his check-cashing company got ensnared in the FBI probe. Agents seized about $19 million—including Mr. Lieto’s money—from vaults belonging to the armored-car firm’s parent company. He is one among thousands of Americans in recent decades who have had a jarring introduction to the federal system of asset seizure. Some 400 federal statutes—a near-doubling, by one count, since the 1990s—empower the government to take assets from convicted criminals as well as people never charged with a crime. …The forfeiture system has opponents across the political spectrum, including representatives of groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union on the left and the Heritage Foundation on the right. They argue it represents a widening threat to innocent people. “We are paying assistant U.S. attorneys to carry out the theft of property from often the most defenseless citizens,” given that people sometimes have limited resources to fight a seizure after their assets are taken, says David Smith, a former Justice Department forfeiture official and now a forfeiture lawyer in Alexandria, Va.

What’s really amazing is that government officials want to expand this reprehensible practice. The use of “civil forfeiture” is particularly worrisome, as illustrated by this passage.

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While gang mobs are now a daily concern in Chicago, it is time for the everyday citizen to take control of what is occurring in our city. We have reported on the Memorial Day beach closing and gang mob activity over the past week and half, and the problem has since grown, causing the mainstream media to finally start paying attention to the episodes of violence and gangs attempting to dominate our streets.

Mayor Emanuel’s first response to the beach closings was to conceal and dismiss this issue. The issue is now at the forefront in a battle over our right to live in a society with as little crime as possible. The mainstream media’s decision to finally press the mayor, is not achieving any results. The mayor and the acting superintendent of the Chicago Police Garry McCarthy have stated they will get everyone of these looters, robbers, and attackers. But they have also stated, that the city is broke and can not afford to add adequate police to a force already depleted by at least 2000 officers. The attacks are now occurring on a daily basis, multiple times a day in a number of areas in or near downtown Chicago, and the lakefront. This is a great threat to our citizens and our guests.

It is time for the citizens to take on the responsibility of keeping our streets safe. We must make due with the tools at our disposal. And while we could all start carrying firearms, which would get us fined and arrested if caught, and our expensive personal protection devices (guns) confiscated from us, we are not without less costly options. If the police sincerely want to catch all of these violent criminals, we can help them. Twitter provides us all a way to stay in touch and on top of the issue at hand.

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The police described it as an armed robbery and a hostage situation. Before dawn on Sunday, May, 8th, two robbers stormed into a Walgreens store wearing masks and gloves and carrying guns. Video cameras in the store on Napier Avenue in Benton Township, Michigan captured the whole event. Fortunately, though, Jeremy Hoven, a pharmacist and one of the employees in the store, had a permitted concealed handgun with him. Unfortunately, Walgreens fired Hoven for having a gun at work.

Police Lt. Delmar Lange thought that Hoven had done the right thing firing shots and forcing the robbers to flee. “[Hoven] could see the hostage situation developing. He could not retreat any farther. He was in the back room. If it was me, I would have done the same thing,” Lange told the Detroit Free-Press. Lange thought that the video cameras clearly showed that Hoven had no alternative. The robbers were “very aggressive and very dangerous in what they did and how they did it.”

At least one of the three other workers in the store was also convinced that Hoven did the right thing, sending Hoven a thank-you card with a photograph of his four children.

Other evidence also suggests that Hoven did “the right thing.” The National Crime Victimization Survey shows that defending oneself with a gun is by far the safest course of action when one is confronted by a robber. For example, people who protect themselves with a gun are injured in robberies about 8 percent of the time, but those who behave passively are injured by the criminals 24 percent of the time, a three times higher rate.

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A previous post of mine at International Liberty addressed the issue of whether Republicans were right to trim the IRS’s budget. The following case study of IRS thuggery should convince everyone that the answer is a resounding yes.

First, some background. The federal government made a rather troubling decision a few years ago to investigate, persecute, prosecute, and ultimately imprison a random home-loan borrower named Charlie Engle for the crime of mortgage fraud.

Mr. Engle is far from blameless in this saga, but I noted in another post that it was rather odd that the government would target a nobody while letting all the big fish swim away. This episode certainly paints a picture of a government that has one set of rules for ordinary people, but an entirely different set of rules for the political elite and those who make big campaign contributions to that ruling class.

But I also noted that I’m not a legal expert and was unsure about the degree to which the big players actually broke laws, or whether they simply made stupid business decisions (often encouraged by bad government policy).

The most upsetting part of the story, though, is how the government wound up targeting Mr. Engle. It turns out that an IRS agent, Robert Norlander, must have been competing for the IRS’s Thug-of-the-Year Award (or maybe it was A-Hole-of-the-Year or Jerk-of-the-Year) because here are some of the things he did:

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Tom Brokaw said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on January 13:

“Gun control is too simple a phrase to define all the complications and nuances of it, frankly. In Arizona they have a wide open system. I would be nervous about going into a bar or restaurant in Arizona on a Saturday night where people can carry concealed without permits.”

Well, if he is really concerned about guns in bars, poor Mr. Brokaw is not going to be able to frequent bars in very many states. Arizona does allow guns in bars, though, despite his claims to the contrary, actually require a concealed handgun permit to go into an establishment that serves alcohol. The following figure is from Opencarry.org (more details are available at their website).

On a more serious note, despite the fact that permit holders are allowed to go into bars in Arizona and other states, there is no evidence that they pose a risk to anyone. As of December 1, 2007 in Arizona, there were 99,370 active permits. During 2007, 33 permits were revoked for any reason — a 0.03% rate — cases that did not involve using the gun to harm others.

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People walking the streets armed with guns must be dangerous, right? The Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center keep claiming that even those individuals who have legally obtained permits to carry concealed handguns are extremely dangerous. With millions of Americans already having been issued such permits from the various states, this is an important issue.

The gun control organizations have frequently made these claims in the press. The Associated Press articles by Erik Schelzig and by Jim Abrams have given extensive, uncritical coverage. Members of the gun control organizations have made these claims unchallenged on such places as Fox News and on the Huffington Post. But the gun control advocates inaccurately describe many shooting cases, choosing to ignore that the majority of incidents involve people properly defending themselves.

Over the past three years, the number of active permit holders in the United States has gone from about 5 million to more than 6.2 million today. The numbers issued by the state regulatory agencies show time after time that these permit holders abide by the law.

Take Florida, which currently has the most concealed handgun permit holders in the country and is one of the two most populous states with right-to-carry laws. Between Oct. 1, 1987, and May 31 this year, permits had been issued to 1.8 million people. On average, the permits had been held for quite a long time, well over 10 years. For all those individuals across the more than 22 years of legal carry, there were only 167 cases where the permit was revoked for a firearms related violation, or about 0.01 percent of permit holders. While the state doesn’t provide a precise breakdown of the reason for those revocations, the vast majority were apparently for people who accidentally carried their concealed handgun into a gun-free zone, such as an airport or school.

Throughout the past 30 months, beginning January 2008, only three additional permit holders have had their permit revoked for a firearms-related violation. With more than 739,000 active permit holders, that is an annual revocation rate of 0.00017 percent.

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