Paying For Occupy Wall Street

My take on the Occupy Wall Street protests are no secret - their message is unclear, their behavior unwelcome...

Now I’m fired up because of how much these groups are costing me and you - the American taxpayer! The people they're supposed to be fighting for! The first two months of the movement cost local taxpayers at least 13 million dollars in police overtime and other municipal services.

That’s according to a survey by the Associated Press - not some conservative think tank! The cities suffering the steepest costs - New York and Oakland, California - where police have clashed with protesters on several occasions.

Protesters temporarily forced the shutdown of a major port in Oakland- costing officials nearly two and half million dollars to respond. The cash-strapped city had to close a 58 million dollar budget gap this year - and unlike the dwindling numbers in Zuccotti Park in New York - the protests there are not dying down.

In New York City - the police department has spent seven million dollars in overtime on the protests. But these are just two of the 18 cities with active protests. Aside from policing, cleaning and repairing property at dozens of 24 hour encampments are also to blame for the rising costs.

The city of Los Angeles estimates property damage to a park there has been 200 thousand dollars! Portland, Oregon has spent more than three-quarters of a million dollars - much of that in police overtime when officers enforced the mayor's order to evict protesters from two downtown parks because of concerns about sanitation and public safety.

Am I the only one seeing the irony here! These "protesters" are supposedly upset at the government and corporate America for taking advantage of the little people...

But the American people - the ones that pay the taxes - are now going to have to shell out more of our hard-earned money to clean up after you!

Think about that the next time you storm the Brooklyn Bridge or the Oakland port - there are consequences to your actions... And I for one don't want to pay for them.