By Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist ——Bio and Archives--June 19, 2012
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"Zuccotti Park is intended for the use and enjoyment of the general public for passive recreation. We are extremely concerned with the conditions that have been created by those currently occupying the park and are actively working with the City of New York to address these conditions and restore the park to its intended purpose."On October 6, 2011, Brookfield issued a statement which said, "Sanitation is a growing concern... the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16th and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels." Nevertheless, despite plenty of provocations by the occupiers against the police, who were trying to keep the peace in the area, the occupiers were still permitted to stay put. During the month that followed, Zuccotti Park, which the occupiers had taken over completely with large tents and the like, became a denizen of crime including alleged rapes and other assaults. The New York occupiers shared such lawless behavior in common with their comrades in other cities across the country. Finally, in the early morning of November 15, 2011 - nearly two months after the occupation had started - the police moved in to clear out the occupiers from Zuccotti Park. The action was meant to halt the increasingly dangerous around-the-clock occupation of the park that prevented other members of the public from using it for recreational purposes. However, the occupiers were not barred from returning without their tents and sleeping bags to make their views known through peaceful demonstrations. Here is how New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained why his patience with the occupiers had run out:
"Unfortunately, the park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others. The majority of protesters have been peaceful and responsible. But an unfortunate minority has not been – and as the number of protesters has grown, this has created an intolerable situation. Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags. Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments."As usual, the United Nations has butt in where it does not belong. Moreover, while saying in their letter to Secretary of State Clinton that they were not prejudging the accuracy of the information they received indicating a violation of the occupiers' rights, the UN Special Rapporteurs repeated over and over again the occupiers' false accusations. They focused their letter on allegations that the police used disproportionate, unnecessary and even violence to disperse or remove "peaceful" protesters, without even once acknowledging the possibility that some of the so-called "peaceful" protesters were infringing on other peoples' rights and committing criminal acts. The UN Special Rapporteurs for the rights to freedom of expression and opinion and to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association do not understand what they were supposedly appointed to protect. Of course, that should be no surprise considering that they are reporting to the misnamed travesty known as the United Nations Human Rights Council. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly do not mean that one group of demonstrators can completely take over, with permanent encampments, a space dedicated to public use and turn it into their own private law-free zone to do what they like, excluding other members of the public from using the same public space for other legitimate purposes. The UN Special Rapporteurs' nonsensical letter does not deserve a reply from the U.S. government other than to tell them to get their facts straight and mind their own business.
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Joseph A. Klein is the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom.