The Richmond tea party is demanding a refund of about $10,000 from the city, claiming it unfairly charged them for rallies while allowing the Occupy protesters to use the same space for several weeks for free.
The political organization is sending the city an invoice for the charges incurred for three rallies held in Kanawha Plaza over the past three years. The Occupy protesters have been camped in the plaza since Oct. 15.
Richmond Tea Party spokeswoman Colleen Owens says it's not fair that her group had to pay fees for permits, portable toilets, police presence and emergency personnel. The group also had to purchase a $1 million insurance policy.
So the Tea Party played by the rules and were labeled violent threats to civilization. OWS refuses to play by the rules, but for some unknown reason we're not only supposed to forgive them for actually behaving in ways the Tea Party was only accused of, but pick up the tab for their antics as well?
... like many of his mayoral colleagues nationwide, Mr. Reed openly expressed frustration with the protesters’ methods.
“The attitude I have seen here is not consistent with any civil rights protests I have seen in Atlanta,” Mr. Reed said in an interview, “and certainly not consistent with the most respected forms of civil disobedience.”
From the comments, another instance of preferential treatment accorded to OWS on the taxpayer's nickel:
Interesting here in Reno the Occupy organizers just received a 90 day permit, free of the usual fees, as approved by the City Council, to occupy a local park. I am assuming this will include porta-potties and/or access to restroom facilities, etc. I was at first skeptical of a protest seeking a permit but maybe this is a more reasonable model for cities to take? Why not embrace and support our citizens rights to freedom of speech and assembly?
This commenter nailed it:
Why does teh MSM always give left wing protesters a pass on destruction of public property and violence?
Imagine the treatment the Tea Party would have gotten if they had acted like this.
Protest is a right.
Abusing the law and everyone else's rights is narcissism.
If inequality is something we should be fighting against, shouldn't OWS refuse special privileges denied to other dissenters? I kid... I kid.
7 comments:
Just yesterday it occurred to me how amusing it would be to stroll down to City Hall with a sign that said:
NO PRIVILEGED CLASSES!
NO PERMIT - NO PROTEST
EVICT OCCUPY L.A. NOW!
FAIRNESS! EQUALITY!
DOWN WITH ELITISM!
I just might need to do that.
I would so pay money to see that :p
"So the Tea Party played by the rules and were labeled violent threats to civilization."
So the Tea Party played by the rules, and despite having an attendance level that vastly outnumbered the OWS *movement* still cleaned up after themselves and left their protest area as good if not better than they found it and were labeled violent threats to the Democrat Party agenda.
There, fixed it for ya.
No need to thank me, just send my usual editorial fee to the usual place.
heh
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You have a right to peaceably assemble and petition the government.
You are not entitled to do so for free at public expense. Free speech means free of governmental interference with your expression of messages it doesn't like. If some people are charged money to use public facilities and others aren't, it seems that those who got charged were denied their free speech rights.
If Reno has a Tea Party group - or even a Republican group - that had a public rally and got charged for it, they should sue the Reno City Council for illegal discrimination.
Seems to me they could at least dig privies for themselves. One of the earliest functions of civilization was sanitation.
I keep getting this "Mommie -- change my diaper" vibe.
You nailed it, T99.
Actually, I keep getting the two yr old, just potty-trained vibe, "Mom! I pooped! Come wipe my butt."
Buuutttt, that's just me.
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