NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — "Occupy” protesters arrested across the country own more luxurious homes than their rhetoric suggests. Of the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters for whom addresses are available, their single-family homes have a median value of $305,000, much higher than the $185,400 median value of U.S. housing.
Some of the homes where arrestees reside are opulent.
At least 95 of the New York protesters’ residences are worth $500,000 or more.
Criminal charges ranged from “violent behavior” and “assault, second-degree assault,causing physical injury to police or firemen.” There were also charges of “sex abuse third-degree (rape)” and for “obstructing traffic.”
For the sake of fairness, arrested protesters may not be fully representative of the Occupy movement without a cause, but this information forms the most complete snapshot yet of the demonstrations’ more militant participants and as evidenced by similar violencelaced Occupy protests in major cities across the country and the world. It should be noted that Arkansas Occupy protests were mostly arrest-free and evenhesitantly cooperative.
The perception of the “99 percenters” as entitled, upper-class agitators is confirmed as increasing numbers of wealthy students turn up to make the most of the party atmosphere, drugs, alcohol and free food while Washington Democrats and Obama hitch their wagons to this movement, while claiming they represent the poor and middle class. Is it just me, or does anyone else see the hypocrisy and dishonesty here? Or is this just “college kids being kids”?
TERRY EVERS / Springdale
Opinion, Pages 5 on 11/17/2011