Pepper Spray, the Scent of Liberalism!

If only I had had the foresight, a year ago, to buy stock in pepper spray companies! But who knew that Barack Obama would not only bring back the darkest days of the Jimmy Carter administration, but also the mindless, violent leftism of the Lyndon Johnson era? These days, wherever liberals gather, the smell of pepper spray is in the air. The stories cascade on a daily basis; these are just two.

I wrote here about the Left’s bizarre attack on the American Legislative Exchange Council (“ALEC”), a good government group whose purpose is to “advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.” The Left, apparently preferring that legislation be uninformed by input from people who actually understand the subject matter, is trying to stamp out ALEC.

Thus, the once-respectable Common Cause put out a call for leftists to demonstrate against ALEC’s four-day meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. And it wasn’t just Common Cause; that organization was joined by People for the American Way, the Center for Media and Democracy, the Arizona AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the American Federation of Teachers, the Arizona Education Association, and Progress Now. In the event, that seemingly formidable lineup of leftists turned out a mere 200 or so people–many of them Occupiers, others no doubt paid union goons–to demonstrate at the Westin Kierland Resort where the ALEC conference took place. But those 200 weren’t fooling around–they were there to be pepper sprayed!

Phoenix police dressed in riot gear made seven arrests and twice used pepper spray against knots of people among about 200 protesters Wednesday at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in northeast Phoenix.

The protesters, many loosely affiliated with the “Occupy” movement, said they want to call public attention to the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization meeting at the resort that brings together large corporations and conservative state lawmakers to draft model bills. …

“Unfortunately, a few anarchists have joined the Occupy movement, and crowds tried to push their way through the police line on to the resort property,” said Sgt. Trent Crump, a police spokesman. “(Pepper) spray was deployed twice on aggressive groups, which was effective in stopping their actions.”

The Occupier/Democrats made their usual good impression. Here we see the face of the Democratic Party:

The liberals carried their usual intelligent signs:

Here the Democrats confront the police, who ultimately needed pepper spray to maintain the peace. Which, of course, is what the leftists had in mind all along:

Here in Minnesota, a handful of far leftists–around 75 of them, the 99 percent!–have been occupying the plaza outside the county government center in violation of a federal court order. “Occupying” in Minnesota, as opposed to, say, Arizona, is no piece of cake: the overnight low tonight will be around 16 degrees. In the early hours this morning, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office descended on the plaza and cleared out the liberal criminals:

Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies descended on the plaza outside the County Government Center at about 4:15 a.m. Thursday, dismantling and removing about 30 tents that had been erected by Wall Street demonstrators.

Protesters from the Occupy Minneapolis movement were pulled from the tents, but no protester was detained and no one was hurt. The action by law enforcement personnel was gentle but forceful, and the protesters remained peaceful. However, some of the protesters offered the deputies no help, sitting inside the tents. They had to be physically dragged out of them. …

Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek described the deputies’ actions today as “non-confrontational.” He said county security staff, who are not members of the sheriff’s department, had walked among the protests during the night, repeatedly advising them that putting tents on the plaza violated country rules.

The security staff could have handed the protesters trespass notices, and deputies could have arrested them, but a decision was made not to arrest anyone this morning, Stanek said. “Unlike other cities, we don’t want a clash with law enforcement to be the focal point of the protesters,” he said.

Sheriff Stanek is something of a genius, having been re-elected with 98% of the vote. The liberals desperately wanted to be pepper sprayed, but Stanek wouldn’t oblige them. That, of course, didn’t stop the liberals from making fools of themselves. They moved from county property to Minneapolis city property, from which they were ejected a few hours later:

This morning, at about 9 a.m., Minneapolis police hauled away and arrested at least two protesters and ripped down a tent that had been set up on the sidewalk. Amid taunts of “the whole world is watching” and “this is what policy brutality looks like,” the officers cuffed, carried and wrestled one heavyset young man into a squad car.

If they want to see what police brutality really looks like, as opposed to the “gentle” treatment they got from the authorities here in Minnesota, these goofballs will have to move to a country that is ruled by the Left.