The Dark Side of the Occupy Wall Street Protests

For those who have been at Tea Party gatherings, the contrast is enlightening.

Charles C.W. Cooke

Most of what I found at the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park this morning was inchoate. I met anti-capitalists who berated the federal government for regulating drugs, I learned that Alexander Hamilton was a tireless crusader against a central bank, and I was exposed to the usual 9/11 truthers and conspiracy theorists; and their kinder cousins, the terminally dumb.

Unfortunately, however, a small part of the protest was downright unpleasant. Moments after I arrived, I saw a Jewish gentleman being berated when he criticized a protester. (Shortly after my video camera was switched off, he (inexplicably) shouted the N-word at the same man.)

One of the leading lights behind the demonstrations is Van Jones, who was ousted as the Obama administration's "green jobs" czar when Glenn Beck revealed his Marxist past and his having signed a 9/11 "truther" petition.