Day 2 according all reports went rather smoothly. There were a lot less people and that was to be expected. Day 3 brought some added people throughout the day and some changes started to take place. The police were considering where people could camp out although no decisions were made to allow occupation after 11:00 PM. There was a food station set up, a medical station and a media station under a tarpaulin makeshift tent. When I arrived at 6:15 PM there were well over a hundred people there. Using the New York tradition there was a call for “Mike Check” to which the crowd responded “Mike Check”. This is the way announcements are made. This announcement was that dinner was being served.
There was some activity with a video crew interviewing participants. Upon further inspection it turned out to be Tom Trento, a vicious, bigoted, tea party type hate monger, and friends. Trento, director of an organization called the Florida Security Council, writing in the blog of the The United West attempted to expose the movement as being organized and taken over by Muslim jihadists. Why? One attorney in the 12 member legal team with the National Lawyers Guild happens to be a Pakistani born naturalized American citizen, Shayan Elahi. Two years ago Elahi was retained by the father of Rifqa Bary and was successful in convincing the judge to return Rifqa back to Ohio. Anti-Muslim haters like Pam Geller and Trento have never forgiven him for taking their poster child away and have hounded after him ever since with the most outrageous accusations and trumped stories imaginable, and none of them either accurate or provable. All of it is either hate mongering or guilt by association and none of it is worth any reader’s time.
I have to admit dear reader that I have a personal stake in this. Two years ago Shayan and I met through a mutual friend and we’ve been close friends and associates ever since. I ran his 2010 campaign for circuit court judge against a Tea Party backed candidate. It turns out that Shayan and my daughter, Nancy, are both 1995 graduates of UCF and knew each other casually back them. His law degree is from Yeshiva University and no one you’ll ever meet has more integrity. He has an absolute respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and legal ethics; so, when a lowlife creep like Tom Trento attacks him I’m the first guy to come to his defense. I made my presence known to Trento and his crew and in the most diplomatic way possible told them that (verbatim) “everything they reported was a complete falsehood and that they were the scum of the earth” verbatim to which they replied “Thank you.” They were wise enough not to cause more of a scene than was already happening. I’m going back later today and I’m going to recommend to the GA ways of containing them. It’s a public park so we can’t restrict them, however, we may be able to greatly reduce their impact.
The occupiers asked if I could help spread the word on stuff they need, so here’s a partial list:
The food people need ready to serve vegetarian stuff. They specifically asked for tofu. Fruit would also be nice. They are not allowed to prepare anything so it has to be ready to eat. Utensils like plastic forks, ladles, tongs and lots of paper goods-plates, napkins, cups.
The peace keepers need 2-way communications. The inexpensive Cobra walkie talkies would be ideal.
The medical team needs whatever first aid supplies you can give.
They also need your support. Take some time off from whatever you are doing and come out to support the 99%
