OWS kitchen staff protesting fixing food for freeloaders

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The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday -- because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.

For three days beginning tomorrow, 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.

They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.

To show they mean business, the kitchen staff refused to serve any food for two hours yesterday in order to meet with organizers to air their grievances, sources said.

As the kitchen workers met with the “General Assembly’’ last night, about 300 demonstrators stormed from the park to Reade Street and Broadway, where they violently clashed with cops.

Officers made at least 10 arrests when rowdy demonstrators refused to get out of the street and stop blocking traffic. A dozen cops on scooters tried to force them back to the sidewalk.

There were no reported injuries.

The demonstrators said they were angry over the violence in Oakland.

After making their way to Union Square, many of the protesters returned to Zuccotti.

The Assembly announced the three-day menu crackdown announced earlier in the day -- insisting everybody would be fed something during that period.

Some protesters threatened that the high-end meals could be cut off completely if the vagrants and criminals don’t disperse.

Unhappiness with their unwelcome guests was apparent throughout the day.

“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.”

Many of those being fed “are professional homeless people. They know what they’re doing,” said the guard at the food-storage area.

Today, a limited menu of sandwiches, chips and some hot food will be doled out -- so legitimate protesters will have a day to make arrangements for more upscale weekend meals.

Protesters got their first taste of the revolt within the revolt yesterday 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.

“We’re not going to let some members of this community destroy the whole movement,” a volunteer said.

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 protesters and a cop on duty told The Post that most of the crime goes unreported, because of a bizarre “stop snitching” rule.

“What’s happening in there is staying in there,” said the cop.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manh ... z1c7uO0218

OCCUPY ANIMAL FARM!! !

I'm not surprised.

I'm not against the occupy wall street movement. A lot of the individuals who originally spearheaded it just want a return to a more fiscally responsible economy.

Unfortunately though you will have people who exploit any such protests and in the end prove to be detrimental to the cause and invalidating. The audience is wall street, which is primarily conservative venue. They answer to investors and buyers, and those they think have serious political momentum. Mr. Organic eating, tree hugging, pot smoking hippy in a tie dye shirt is just as significant to them as a mosquito on a wall. And then there are the anarchists, who are generally a bunch of young people who know how to accomplish nothing but destruction.

This is no different than the tea party movement, of which any validity it initially had has been completely extinguished by the blatantly racists, self entitled individuals which have come to characterize it.

I have to wonder, why do these protesters need a food kitchen anyway? Can they not pack a sandwich?

So let me get this straight ... the OWS movement is all about making the "haves" give to the "have-nots", yet they are being just as stingy with what they have when it comes to those who have less. On top of this, the OWS people refer to those less fortunate as "freeloaders".

Hypocrisy at its finest.

I do not think the original intent of the protest was to get the "haves" to give to the "have nots". Rather I think the original intent was to demand an end to corporate corruption and practices which proved parasitic and detrimental to the economy. I think the protest has simply been overrun with those with unreasonably socialistic or communist views.

I should state, what I consider to be unreasonable are demands or ideologies which don't take into account the bigger picture. For example, I once found a flier on a university campus that demanded lower taxes, free tuition, and pay raises for instructors. While those are all wonderful things, I was left wondering where they thought the money to pay the instructors should come from.

There are socialistic or communist concepts that can work, but many individuals who herald such things have no idea how to implement them in a sustainable fashion.

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Free tuition is available. They need to do their homework better. If they fill these out they will be all set....

It's not that I'm opposed to any of those things individually, however they offered no insight as to how to fund the school or it's employees, which left me with very little confidence that they had a well thought out plan that would work.

Rightwing reactionarys posting opinions about peaceful protests, without any empathy or understanding for other peoples situation, is the main reason why i think they are all a bunch of hateful racist psychopaths.

And no - i wouldn't want to work for 18 hours a day either and no-one should have to, they should get by on what is given to them for free, or if they can afford it - bring their own food.

Yeah, they're kind of trying to get by on limited resources. It's also funny that people will claim the OWS protesters are lazy and then bash them because they don't want to work 18-hour days.

Also, I can't count the number of reasons why someone might not want to go into the military to get tuition. Plus it seems tuition aid will be getting cut soon.

Those people have clearly never stepped into the shoes of an OWS protester. As for the issue with the kitchen staff, things like this are bound to happen when you have a large crowd in one place for an extended period of time.

Been there, done that, received the DD214.

These are merely growing pains.

This is only the beginning.

Far more important is the fact we have our first martyr, Scott Olsen, an Iraq War vet shot in the head by the Oakland police and now in critical condition. There will be many, many more before it is over.

WE are the 99%

I know a couple of 11-Bravos and a 92-Alpha who got some college money, not a lot. No one gets 100% of their tuition paid by Uncle Sam for serving; they get *some* money. This held true even for an honorably-discharged ArmorCav officer I know.

By the way, I'm not medically fit to serve, so both USN, USCG and the merchant marines were all a "no-go" for me. Same for many others if they're near- or far-sighted enough.

In fact, that's generally good advice: as soon as you see that a movement has been infiltrated by hardline socialist and communist organisations, bail. The rot has already got too far for any good to come of it.

Excuse me but I thought they were part of the 99%. No?

Then they don't want free tuition very bad then. There isn't enough money to give it away as something for nothing. If a disability is a barrier to entering the military, there are other options available.



Uh, yeah, most of them have. The OWS protesters have made a logical fallacy that just because the majority of the population is in a financial situation as them, that the majority of that demographic group shares their agenda (if you can even seriously call it that) for reforming the system. The public is generally worried about their job security and their finances and livelihood. Few people ever get to a point in life where they can insulate themselves from that fact of life. Most agree that the system is broken, but most have the common sense not to sit and wait for the government to care and give them a handout. Most people are smart enough to know if they did that, their remains would still be laying at Zucotti park, still with their hands out, when some distant future archeologists unearth the ancient ruins of NYC. Most people know to take the lessons they've learned in life and finding creative ways to get by. The president and congress will have a lot of explaining to do come 2012. OWS is just a socialist publicity stunt.



Growing pains? Unless you find some really good mediators, the dissension in the ranks is going to make it rot from within. Scott Olsen took a bone-headed risk confronting the riot police and may get a Darwin Award for it (or at least an honorable mention). Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Maybe you will get more before its over, but in the state the protests are in, it will be mostly criminals and lunatic fringe. I'm going to laugh when 19th century diseases start breaking out in those camps. You are not the 99%, you are the 34%.



They are rabble with no political motives for being there. I don't fault the homeless for their attempts to get a free meal, but counting criminals as protesters is far fetched.