COMMON SENSE: Week of November 24

ENOUGH!!

Let’s get real; the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests haveaccomplished nothing beyond costing the taxpayers millions ofdollars in police, sanitation and other agency overtime. They havehurt downtown business to the point that some restaurants andretailers were holding counter demonstrations in hopes of gainingsome attention for their cause.

There have been over a thousand arrests clogging the criminaljustice system and demonstrating a clear disregard for the law. Andworse than all, a large and growing number of police officers havebeen injured in the line of duty.

If this was not enough, OWS threatens to shut down the subwaysystem and Wall Street itself. Such disruption should turn all NewYorkers against them.

The right to protest does not give one the right to riot, nor doesit give one the right to disrupt the lives of New Yorkers formonths at a time. Mayor Bloomberg gave the OWS more than ample timeto make their point.

The mayor acted in the best interests of the citizens of our citywhen he cleared Zuccotti Park and enforced a rule that theprotesters may not return with special gear.

Now, with the winter upon us, the city enforcing the letter of thelaw and downtown Manhattan businesses and residents fed up, it istime for these protests to come to an end. They made a lot of noiseand caused a number of problems in their uniquely disorganizedmanner.

Sadly for them — in terms of having an actual effect on the systemthey wished to reform – they had none. This is because they offeredno solutions to problems they overstated, and because they calledfor reforms in institutions that primarily work, and finallybecause their basic 99 percent vs. one percent argument isfundamentally wrong.

As Congressmember Michael Grimm said in a recent statement theyshould, Pack Up, Buy A Bar of Soap, and Get Out of New YorkCity.

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I was pleased to read that Congressmember Michael Grimm, StateSenator Marty Golden and Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis havestrongly criticized the Brooklyn Museum for an exhibit by DavidWojnarowocz entitled, Fire in My Belly that includes antscrawling over an image of Jesus on a crucifix.

These legislators together with the Brooklyn Conservative Party arecalling for the cancelation of this offensive exhibit. TheSmithsonian in Washington withdrew the same exhibit when confrontedwith widespread criticism.

As had been noted in the past, the Brooklyn Museum receivessubstantial taxpayer funding for its capital projects. An exhibitthat is so clearly insensitive to Christians and, for that matter,all people of faith should not be displayed with the help oftaxpayer dollars. It is not the suppression of art. It is respectfor the views of the countless taxpayers that find such an exhibitdisturbing.

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I make no bones about the fact that I am a partisan, especiallywhen it comes to legislators like State Senator Marty Golden. Thatbeing said, it is worth noting that he recently held what many arecalling the most successful fundraiser any southwest Brooklynelected official has ever held.

The senator’s committee packed Gargiulo’s in Coney Island, sellingover 500 tickets

and raising in excess of $250,000 in one night for his re-electionefforts. He had no special guest as a draw. People came simply tosupport him.