The 1st Amendment As A Vehicle For Socialism?

New York Judge Lucy Billings: ACLU activist

Those #Occupy clowns and their ACLU allies have "discovered" that the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution applies to private property.  Who knew?

Well, this nonsense goes beyond that. Mayor Bloomberg is quoted saying:

“The First Amendment protects speech,” Bloomberg said in a press conference at City Hall . “It doesn’t protect the use of tents and sleeping bags to take over a public space. Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags. Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments.”

No, little man, the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting certain forms of free speech, especially political speech.  It does not give anybody the right to take over private property at all, even to make speeches that the government cannot prohibit in a public square.  Easement law and some other crazy bits of British Common Law that still float around like landmines in American real property law might apply, but the 1st Amendment don't.

Bloomberg made another statement, probably by accident, that gets to the core of the problem:

The mayor, at his news conference, read a statement he had issued around 6 a.m. explaining the reasoning behind the sweep. “The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day,” the mayor said in the statement. “Ever since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with” because the protesters had taken over the park, “making it unavailable to anyone else.”

Zuccotti Park

What law could possibly be in effect to force a private property owner to make their property available for any delinquent or Nazi who wants to hang out there?  Sounds like some sort of Socialism from on high, which it is.  It is called "Privately Owned Public Space" which is a short name for an element of National Socialism where private property owners are forced to provide services that the government would/should provide if the government would just buy property for public use.

The 1961 Zoning Resolution inaugurated the incentive zoning program in New York City. The program encouraged private developers to provide spaces for the public within or outside their buildings by allowing them greater density in certain high-density districts. Since its inception, the program has produced more than 3.5 million square feet of public space in exchange for additional building area or other considerations such as relief from certain height and setback restrictions.

Of course, a heavy helping of rent-seeking is at play for owners of enough property to make some "public space" in return for privileged zoning rules just for them.

Here is a thought: if government wants public parks, let them buy the land on the free market (or use donated land) and build them, taking public responsibility for them, and let the private property owners do what they will with their own property?  Of course, that is too simple.

Occupy Wall Street: Let's Party Like It's 1884

This is the best Google image for "Sexy OccupyWallStreet"?

I suspected that the #OccupyWallStreet crowd would continue to recycle the same old tricks from the 1800s.  If you read any "news" source that says anything this ensemble of street theater clowns is doing is new, just stop reading and block the site from your Google results.

Today, Becket Adams, of Glen Beck's website The Blaze, reports:

In the update they write:

Wanna “see how the 1% lives”? Then join us on a walking tour of the homes of some of the bank and corporate executives that don’t pay taxes, cut jobs, engaged in mortgage fraud, tanked our economy…..all while giving themselves record setting bonuses!
Occupy wall street will join community groups fighting for economic justice.
You can meet at Liberty Square/Zuccotti Park at 11:00 am and we will take the subway together or you can meet at 59th and 5th ave at 12:30pm. (please indicate if you will travel with us front he square) [sic]
We’ll be meeting at 59th Street and 5th Avenue at 12:30 pm, and then march from house to house, demanding accountability for Wall Street crimes, and an extension of the Millionaire’s tax.
Who will we be visiting exactly? Well….you’re just gonna have to come to find out.

Adams notes the similarity to SEIU harassment of Greg Baer of Bank of America.  I will add, this is nothing new.  View an earlier post about Chicago in 1884 and the Red/Black Alliance march down Prairie Avenue to harass "capitalists" in their homes.  Stay tuned for when the Leftists resort to explosives when they fail to gain any traction at the ballot box.