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发帖数: 29846 | 1 加州奥克兰华裔民主党市长关丽珍(Jean Quan)对“占领华尔街”示威进退失据；“她
对极左的占领运动的明显好感已经危及了她的城市”
Disorganizer-in-Chief
Jean Quan is a poor excuse for a mayor.
Occupy Oakland called for a general strike — the city grinding to a halt,
banks unattended, and schools closed. What they got was a few thousand
protesters vandalizing banks and briefly closing a unionized port, but more
important, a mayor happy to facilitate it all. Wednesday night would have
been no more disturbing than a vigorous though destructive demonstration by
the lefties of the Occupy movement — except that it occurred with the
endorsement of Oakland’s mayor, Jean Quan.
The problems began last week when Oakland police cleared the illegal tent
city in Frank Ogawa Plaza, responding to claims of sexual assault, vandalism
, and other crimes. Clashes broke out between protesters and police, in
which one man was accidentally seriously injured. The next day, much to the
justified confusion and anger of the Oakland Police Officers’ Association,
the protesters were allowed to return and continue their blatantly
unpermitted occupation of the park — where Mayor Quan promised they could
stay until they wanted to meet with her (they haven’t).
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As if to make up for having offended her fellow activists-cum-politicians,
Quan began to express her support for the movement’s “general strike”
this Wednesday. She informed city employees, with the exception of the
police, that they would be allowed to take the day off in order to
participate in the strike, but few did — 360 workers from the 2,000-strong
Oakland Unified School District, for instance. Even with all the abetting
the city government could afford, only 18 percent of one of the strongest
progressive groups in America, unionized teachers, joined the strike.
Despite her words, Quan attempted to maintain some sense of propriety and
responsibility by requiring that all police officers show up to work and
ordering extra police into the streets. It appears, however, that she
significantly hindered their ability to protect citizens and private
property. At 11:55 p.m. Wednesday night, police reported that “the
protesters began hurling rocks, explosives, bottles, and flaming objects at
responding officers.” The mayor responded with an almost unbelievable tweet
at 1:00 a.m.: “OPD has not taken action. Smoke is from burning barricade.
I’ll say it again, protestors need to call now” (having provided her
office phone number earlier in the evening).
Although the exact events of the evening remain murky (my requests for
explanation from the mayor’s office were not answered), this much is clear:
While protesters were committing widespread acts of arson and violence, she
felt the need to offer free consultation to the perpetrators and clarify
that the police were doing nothing to stop them.
Tom Del Beccaro, chairman of the California Republican party, noted to
National Review Online that he is hardly surprised; Quan was “really always
more of an activist than a mayor.” There are obvious parallels to our
current president, who has also expressed some support for the Occupy
movement. The comparison stops there, however: Quan’s position demands a
practical and serious response to a movement that endangers her citizens,
and she has offered inane yet maleficent ideological encouragement instead.
This is not Quan’s first dereliction of her first duty, protecting the
citizens of Oakland: Police chief Anthony Batts resigned two weeks ago,
citing the impossibility of reform and effective law enforcement in a
suffocating city bureaucracy. Del Beccaro explained that it was widely
perceived that the mayor had “pushed him out because he got tough on crime.
” In doing so, she showed shades of the liberal orthodoxy that has made her
so ineffective in confronting this week’s events: ideological solidarity
overruling practical concerns.
Del Beccaro, a resident of the Bay Area, finds himself bewildered by Quan’s
attempts to “fan the flames” of unrest in Oakland. He characterizes the
state of Oakland as “just sad,” afflicted with 15 percent unemployment,
dysfunctional and corrupt government, and appalling rates of crime. That’s
why the mayor’s office has attempted to portray Wednesday night’s events
as successful work by her office.
Following the night’s chaos, Mayor Quan has refused to confront an angry
and frightened Oakland public, but her office did release a summary of the
events, beginning triumphantly: “Yesterday, the City of Oakland facilitated
a long day of primarily peaceful protests with some isolated incidents of
violence and vandalism” (note that she refuses specific credit to the
police, the city workers tasked with controlling the mess she had instigated
).
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The isolated violence extended all the way to a gathering of thousands to
close the Port of Oakland, and isolated vandalism afflicted banks and
businesses all across the city. Even Whole Foods, the favored grocer of the
American Left, had its stores vandalized by protesters because they had
refused to allow their employees to strike; they relented later in the day,
after the protesters smashed store windows and harassed customers and
employees.
Mayor Quan’s obvious affections for the far-left Occupy movement have
endangered her city. Politicians elsewhere may admit that the Occupy
movement has legitimate grievances, but only go so far as to allow them a
reasonable, legal forum for airing them. On the farthest edge of America’s
left coast, Jean Quan’s sympathy makes her loath to restrain the protests
when they begin to descend into violence — suggesting that, to paraphrase
Evelyn Waugh, protesters have the right to bear arms in any battle anywhere
against the upper classes.
Conservatives have joked that President Obama is our “community-organizer-
in-chief.” Oakland certainly has one for a mayor, whose political
inclinations make her comfortable and even pleased promoting and
facilitating civil unrest. Her refusal to acknowledge this has left her
community very disorganized indeed.
— Patrick Brennan is a 2011 William F. Buckley Fellow. |
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