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| Sleeping bag in tent |
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| Food lying on ground |
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| Large rat trap and destroyed lawn |
Well, I thought the squatters would have been cleared out of Farragut Square by now given the bill this lot is ringing up for us -- $300K in damaged public park land that no one else can use, out of control rats and other public health hazards -- but no, it seems to be drawing ever more irrational aspects. Not only did I see a Wikileaks van driver communicating loudly from her van window with someone at the site, but also a guy holding a poster saying "
expel all 5th column zionist agent scum and indict traitor US politicians." Then I espied a "borrowed" shopping cart used by one of the squatters and despite this site purportedly being "a 24 hour vigil" which means it is NOT a campground where people are allowed to sleep overnight, it's clear there are sleeping bags in the tents and people are living in this park. Living, not vigiling, that is, squatting now for months. And the rats are still there too. Lots of large rat traps scattered about -- although I didn't see any rats today. Although I did see lots of muddy torn up ground and food lying about that I am sure the rats will find tasty. I heard a passerby attempting to converse with another sign-holding man who whined "I
have a Ph.D. in Psychology and I can't get a job, man," and when asked "Why don't you get another job or drive a cab or something?" he just answered "
But I can't do that" and had a lot of excuses for why he wasn't going to take up anyone's suggestions for how to earn a living. A couple of hours later I passed the sight again and saw an unorganized crowd of people gathered at the doors of the nearby Sheraton hotel holding some hand-made signs. A pedestrian informed me "
they are from the park, you know, they are protesting something" and "
the police said they had no permit and should stay on the sidewalk area but they keep crowding the front door area." They were blocking the exit doors and looking it and it wasn't clear why they were there at all and I wouldn't be surprised to learn of some arrests.
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| Note shopping cart |
I don't know why the mainstream media makes so much of the squatters who call themselves OccupyDC as if they are heroes fighting for liberty or something. I just don't get a clear sense of what they are for, or what they are against. I wandered past their tent village at McPherson Square a couple of times and snapped a few photos to try and get a sense of what they are about. They were either all absent or maybe sleeping. It was about noon time and a few came out of tents scratching their heads and looking like they were just waking up. During my meander, at least two people on the street nearby talked to me about how the tent people have ruined the grass and plantings in this park. McPherson Square was re-lawned and repaired last year for about $300K of "stimulus" money (which means we still owe the money!). Today, of course, there's no grass due to the tents. And it looks like some of the plants have disappeared. It's clear the rats are having a feast of it. I saw at least one large rat skipping along merrily among the tents and then dive into his rat-hole when I got nearer. He'd bypassed the rat trap quite effectively on his way back from the the food tent. I heard some news yesterday via another blog that the food tent had been closed down due to the rat problem. Apparently, there's some legal case going on with the squatters and the National Park Service who has jurisdiction over the square and on January 17 there could be legal action taken by the feds in regard to the "camping" going on. INMHO, it's time to shut this Obamaville down.