Occupy Tampa is Standing Fast in New and More Modest Digs

Occupy Tampa has moved lock, stock, placards, frisbees and skateboards from the exclusive neighborhood of Curtis Hixon Riverfront Park on Ashley Drive in downtown Tampa to more modest digs over on the West side of town provided by strip club magnate Joe Redner, who is allowing the use of the pint-sized strip parcel of land. As Mr. Redner says, “As long as they keep it clean, and keep it up, I like these kids, they don’t hurt nobody.”

The Tampa Police Department reports merely 66 arrests of the Tampa occupiers since they showed up at Curtis Hixon Park on October 21 of last year, mostly for trespassing by sleeping in the park at night which is forbidden at night by city ordinance.

Other than that, there have been no real problems, especially when considering the heated exchanges between Occupiers and police departments in other U.S. cities since the Occupier movement began.

And Occupy Tampa is standing fast in their new little park, and consider themselves to be between engagements until the next big engagement, which will likely be back at the Curtis Hixon Riverfront Park in August when the Republican National Convention convenes on August 27 for four long days of delegating, voting, voting and fussin’ and fightin’ inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum over who will carry the GOP banner into the presidential election on November 6.

And four long days and nights of fussin’ and fightin’ outside the Forum over who can get arrested faster for throwing things at the massive security force being assembled to contain them.

Them — Tampa Occupiers — and the thousands of other protesters and demonstrators who will assemble outside the Tampa Bay Times Forum, and likely all of downtown Tampa to make known their unhappiness and angst over the miserable state of everything in the world, including the end of human knowledge as we know it.

In the meantime, the hardy Tampa Occupiers have been making do.

In fact, they’ve gone from being just part of the scenery of the ritzy downtown Ashley Drive area to almost part of the family in the more folksy and humble West Tampa area.

Neighbors visit with food and supplies. The Occupiers held a pot luck to introduce themselves. A garage sale is planned whose profits will go to provide the funds they will need to keep the lights on, the generators going, the socks washed, the kettles of soup bubbling.

Like all seasoned military strategists, the Occupiers have gone from direct action, to a holding action when the need arises.

And they’re still here, and say they are not going anywhere until this whole messy world is figured out.

And maybe, just maybe, these Occupiers are onto something.

President Obama made an end run around the out of session Congress on Wednesday and appointed Richard Cordray to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, created by the Dodd-Frank bill in 2010, according to the New York Times political blog, The Caucus.

That agency is responsible for supervising mortgages, lending and banking fees and targeting unfair and/or deceptive trade practices of firms offering those services to consumers.

And the political buzz in Washington on this guy, Cordray is that he is the can do guy to be put into this job and actually get the job done, and aside from the fact that the President waited until the Republicans were all in their home districts to make the appointment, everything seems to be on the up and up as the President is allowed several of these executive appointments a year.

Obama has taken heat for this act, deemed to be arrogant by the out of session Republicans and there will likely be court action when Congress re-convenes, but for now, the President has given teeth to the agency most likely to start cleaning up the act of those nefarious companies who operated in the shadows just this side of the law while shaking down so many Americans who were faced with cash needs.

It’s about time.

Yeah, maybe these Occupiers are on to something.


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