Occupy

The police have cleared Zuccotti Park. They have done the same in other American cities. We will see what happens next.

Patrick says this is what the Minneapolis police have done to homeless camps for years. When they find one, they destroy it. Belongings are wrecked or taken away. When people come back to their home, they discover they -- who had so little -- have nothing now.

Society tolerates the homeless, so long as they remain perfectly homeless -- sleeping in doorways or in homeless shelters, run by others. But when they create their own shelters and communities and rules, they are attacked.

And for the same official reasons as are used against the Occupiers: the camps are messy and dirty and unsightly and dangerous.