This evening, USA Today published a story describing the law-breaking participants in the “Occupy movement” as a “violent fringe”.  But how can a movement whose entire existence is predicated upon breaking the law be anything but criminal and destined to incite violence?  The mere concept of this “occupation” promotes the idea that the occupiers would perpetrate an act that is bound to break multiple laws in virtually every location where these people have erected their disease- and crime-infested tent cities.

So at what point does anecdotal evidence indicate a trend and show that this is not “fringe” behavior?  When do hundreds of incidents of mass lawbreaking, violence, rape and murder demonstrate that this anti-social behavior is standard procedure from these crowds and not the exception?  BigGovernment.com is maintaining a running total of the violations rung up by the Occupy crew.  Just a sampling of the Occupiers’ stunts:

1. NY: 10/1/2011 — Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge
2. Madison, WI: 10-27-2011 — Madison Occupiers Lose Permit Due to Public Masturbation
3. Phoenix: 10/28/2011 — Flier at Occupy Phoenix Asks, “When Should You Shoot a Cop?”
4. NY: 10/18/2011 — Thieves Preying on Fellow Protesters
5. NY: 10/9/2011 — Stinking up Wall Street: Protesters Accused of Living in Filth as Shocking Pictures Show One Demonstrator Defecating on a POLICE CAR
6. NY: 10/7/2011 — Occupiers Rush Police … More
7. Cleveland: 10/18/2011 —  ‘Occupy Cleveland’ Protester Alleges She Was Raped
8. NY: 10/10/2011 — ‘Increasingly Debauched’: Are Sex, Drugs & Poor Sanitation Eclipsing Occupy Wall Street?
9. Seattle: 10/18/2011 — Man Accused of Exposing Self to Children Arrested
10. 10/12/2011 — Iran Supports ‘Occupy Wall Street’
11. Portland: 10/16/2011 – #OccupyPortland Protester Desecrates Memorial To U.S. War Dead
12. Portland: 10/15/2011 — #OccupyPortland Protesters Sing “F*** The USA”

There are a couple hundred more and undoubtedly far more that have not seen the light of day, considering the Occupy folks’ tendency to hide the violations.

Yet despite the hundreds of incidents that have occurred across the nation, local law enforcement and governmental authorities have been hesitant to enforce the laws and jail the violators.  Given that many of these “protests” are occurring in large cities that are dominated by left-wing politicians, I suppose there’s not a lot of surprise there.  What is interesting, however, is the double standard between the Occupy groups and the Tea Party groups, which the mainstream media and the Vice President are fond of comparing to the Occupy criminals.  Dana Loesch documented the disparity between how St. Louis city leaders and law enforcement officials treated Tea Party protests versus the Occupiers.

• Tea Party:  permits and fees.
• Occupy: no permits, no fees, used city power and property to live for days/weeks, and only kicked them out when it was time to hang Christmas lights in Kiener Plaza.

But of course the Occupy groups never had any desire to follow laws, get permits, etc.  They are lawless.  This is their brand.  That there is rampant violence and other violations in the so-called “fringe” of the Occupy crowd should surprise no one.  They came to break the law and they did.  In the USA Today article about “the fringe”, the author comes perilously close to addressing the issue:

Violence undercuts public sympathy for the protesters’ cause, says Terry Madonna, a polling expert at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. He wonders whether Occupy, a movement that has no publicly identified leaders or hierarchy, can stop such violence within or outside its ranks.

Of course they can’t stop the violence, and it has nothing to do with whether there are leaders or a hierarchy.  Lawlessness leads to lawlessness.  Unless they adopt a lawful approach to making their point (and I fully support their right to protest – within the bounds of the law) there will be no end to the escalation of their violent behavior, especially when the authorities stand idly by and allow it to happen.  The union-cowed, left-leaning politicians and law enforcement agencies that have permitted these “Occupiers” – fringe or not – to flagrantly break the law are complicit in each and every one of these violations and should be held accountable for their (in)actions.