Its so beautiful how protesters can illegally squat on private property to deliver a message (no one is really sure what that is) by disrupting tax paying local businesses and residents in the area and contributing nothing to the solution to the problem. Despite what the writer observed, there have been reports of crime, as well as hate speech in interviews and posters blaming everyone and anyone for their personal woes. No one is happy with the state of the economy, but the actions in Zuccotti Park are more damaging to local businesses than it is worth. Owners have already stated that if this continues, they may have to lay off workers or close down, which I guess will help the agenda of the protesters by adding more to the unemployed ranks. If they put as much effort into constructive actions to improve their situations and the world around them as they do in organizing meals and building lego protests, they may not find themselves in a much better position. GOOD LUCK, squatters.

Good morning all--Go to occ wall st and you will see that crime and hate speech are hard to find and powerfully rejected in every mtg by the vast majority there. Mr.Gleaner says occ wall st is sqatting on pvt land--not so. This is public property handed over to Brookfield Corp on whose board sits Mayor B's girlfriend Diana Taylor. Mayor handed much public prop to pvt corps.--took away only 2 parks in poor So Bronx so Yankees could build their $1.7bil new stadium(costing NYC upwards of $600mil in subsidies). Yankees given only parkland in poorest area of nation's poorest urban county. Mayor now trying to seize small bus pvt prop in Willets Pt, Queens for a mega-complex; Mayor displaced pvt homeowners in Bklyn to build new Nets arena; Mayor gave Goldman bank $150 million subsidy for its new HQ. Wall St crashed our economy and the rest of us are paying for it. Goldman/corps. flooded with cash($2 trillion domestically, $1 trillion overseas. Govt dominated by Wall St money means only game changer left is peaceful protest. Visit occ wall st and see their own cleanup crews, security crews, big free library, free food service with food donated by families and restaurants(I got good lunch there on my one visit), free health care, free clothing and comfort needs, etc. Sleeping outdoors on concrete in the cold rain is a sacrifice not a picnic. Those who can do it, are doing it for us the 99%. Someone at last is seriously taking our side....respectfully, Ira Shor

Poorest amongst us live far better than 90% of the world's people! How did that happen? What change could give us a better result?

Hello--Mr. Perez asks what change could bring us better results. We had better results 1947-1979 when bottom 80% of families saw rising real income equal to gains of top 20% and productivity of Amer workers continually rose too. Fate of bottom 80% of families went south after 1980 when deregulation, corp. consolidation, and bailouts of failed giant corp's/savings and loans became national policy. Real income of bottom 80% families stagnant for 30 years while corp profits zoom and wealth/income of top 1% go off the charts. 50 mil Americans now have no health insurance; 250K kids are homeless; 15 mil kids in poverty; median family income dropped 6% since Wall st crashed economy in 08. To judge our high-tech fabulously wealthy nation against the poor nations is pointless. Our poor, working class, and middle class did better when tax rates on millionaires and on corps. were higher, and when the Glass-Steagall Act of 1934 was in place, prohibiting investment banks from being commercial banks(gambling with our accounts, ended by Dem Pres Clinton in 99). Single-payer health care delivers more healthcare at lower costs in most advanced nations, not here. Most advanced nations offer paid parental leave to help families with new babies and with sick members, not here. Many changes can help average families but allowing top 1% to pay little tax and allowing corps. with $3 trillion in the bank to evade taxes is driving the 99% to ruin, which is why Wall St is occupied....ira shor

June 1932 ...an army of WW1 vets camped out ....20,000of them.. In the mud flats in DC in view of the capitol. They came because there were no jobs...they did not receive their veterans bonus...while Hoover had bailed out the banks. Now flash forward to today. People are protesting the greed of wall street, the bank foreclosures, and no jobs. And a young Iraq war vet, who had served 2 tours there, is in an induced coma after being hit at close range by a police projectile. We are not the old soviet union ,are we? We believe in freedom, right? Our Constitution gives us the right to assembly...WE are allowed to protest...WE have free speech...We do not expect to survive 2 tours in Iraq only to have our skulls fractured in Oakland....right? Right?

I'm not against free speech, but when it infringes on the rights of others making a living, let alone move freely in the area, it is not fair to those innocently affected. "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins,", Justice O.W. Holmes. Your right of free speech cannot violate the freedom of others. And for proof of that, see
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-25/occupy-wall-street-knows-not-what-it-does-hurting-local-jobs.html

"but when it infringes on the rights of others making a living, let alone move freely in the area, it is not fair to those innocently affected"

No one is infringing on anyone's rights. The right seems to feel it's their duty to paint the protesters as outlaws, so they have to use this sort of hysterical language.

If the protesters were actively physically keeping people from entering their offices or entering stores I might agree with you. But they're not. It's just a big crowd that makes it a little harder to move around. Everyone's rights are completely intact.

If you identify so strongly to the cause, why not march on Maplewood Ricalton Square, take it over and demonstrate in front of the BofA branch office, or Kings (outrageous food industry price gauging) or the movie theater (crazy prices for standard ticket and what about the add ons?) or NJ Transit (that crazy fare increase), or any other many other targets?
What a crock.

I wasn't referring to your post in particular, but to others that responded.
I am sorry if you took it as directed to your message.

who's office should we march on? Your Daddy's or mine?

Ah, I didn't realize you were just a troll. I don't feed the trolls.