Controversy Within Occupy Wall Street

http://news.salon.com/2011/11/01/security_problems_grow_at_occupy_wall_street/

 

Homeless people and derelicts are growing in numbers within the occupy wall street (Zuccotti) park. One woman said that they only show up for food and company, and that they have no concern for the cause at all. One woman said that many of them are clearly mentally deranged and could use some real help elsewhere. However, at the moment, the vast homeless population of NYC are eating up resources such as food, sleeping bags, and tents, without really being committed to the cause. This seems to annoy lots of the dedicated protesters who have been out there, marching every day and sleeping in the cold at night.

 

I think it is their right to be indignant that people are squatting and slowing the protesters down. We have institutions in this country that are supposed to take care of unfortunate people like this. However, there was a rumor going around that the NYPD has been encouraging homeless people from all over the city to flock to Zuccotti, assuring them that there is food and warmth there. This article has a strong undertone of anger and ambivalence. The protesters are angry because the uninvited guests are impeding upon their activism. I assume they are also very ambivalent as well, because the homeless are people that we share a lot in common with and who could also benefit from this protest. They just don’t have the fervor that the “middle class” citizens do because they have hit rock bottom and things never got better  for them. Could there be a way for the middle class and the impoverished to unite for their rights? As this article suggests, no such thing is happening soon. One might even say that we are seeing a different type of class conflict, not between upper and middle, but between middle and lowest.