They say they’re the 99% protesting against the greed of the 1% filthy rich. So it’s strange, to say the least, that the 99% have no compassion for the people at the rock bottom of American society — the Zero Percenters with no income, no assets, not even a home.
Selim Algar and Bob Fredericks report for the New York Post, Oct. 27, 2011, that the Occupiers are getting resentful about feeding “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.
OWS volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for the moochers who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.
In protest, for three days beginning yesterday (Oct. 28), the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad.
An Occupier had to make do with a meal of brown rice. Photo by Chad Rachman, NY Post
To show they mean business, the kitchen staff refused to serve any food for two hours on Wednesday in order to meet with OWS’s “General Assembly” to air their grievances.
“We need to limit the amount of food we’re putting out” to curb the influx of derelicts, said Rafael Moreno, a kitchen volunteer. A security volunteer added that the cooks felt “overworked and underappreciated.”
Protesters got their first taste of the revolt within the revolt on Wednesday when the kitchen staff served only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chips after their staff meeting.
Organizers took other steps to police the squatters, who they said were lured in from other parks with the promise of free meals.
A team of 10 security volunteers moved in to the trouble-prone southwest section of Zuccotti Park in a show of force to confront them. Some arguments broke out as the security team searched tents — but no violence erupted.
Overall security at the park had deteriorated to the point where many frightened female protesters had abandoned the increasingly out-of-control occupation, security- team members said.
Rumors swirled that one homeless man had pulled a knife in a dispute the night before — and that there had been yet another case of groping.
But the fight isn’t just between the Occupiers and the moochers. Melanie Eversley reports for USA Today, Oct. 28, 2011, that fights are breaking out among the Occupiers, “so much so that one corner of Zuccotti Park has emerged where protesters say they won’t go for fear of their safety.” Police officers have been warned of “dangerous instruments’ being concealed in cardboard tubing.”
Sadly, it looks like Zucotti Park is no Woodstock 2011.
~Eowyn
