There's something rather sad about the "Occupy Wall Street" protests which have been underway for over two weeks in New York, Chicago, Boston and other major US cities.

In earlier generations, civil disobedience like the Montgomery Bus Boycott or women's suffrage movement used nonviolent protest to combat blatant violations of individual rights.

The dreadlocked bands of youth camping out in New York's Zuccotti Park, however, are hardly Freedom Riders. Their demands range from "ending the modern gilded age" to "ending joblessness," although as an asterisk on their "Declaration of the Occupation notes, "these grievances are not all-inclusive."

The blog n+1 reported proposals ranging from a lifetime guaranteed income to the removal of the New York's iconic Wall Street bull sculpture.

 

'Occupy SF' at Federal Reserve Bank

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On the heels of the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations in New York, protesters have gathered in downtown San Francisco. WSJ's Geoffrey A. Fowler reports.

And while it would be easy to write off these so-called protests as diffuse expressions of general twentysomething malaise, as they have grown, they have developed into something more dangerous: Organizing and promoting an "occupation" distinguishes this effort as that of a mob.

There is no right to disrupt traffic or occupy other people's property, no matter if it's one lunatic individual or the 99% of the public protesters claim to represent. What's so lamentable about "Occupy Wall Street" isn't even their collectivist goals but the means by which they go about to achieve them: force and intimidation.

 

Wall Street Protest Spreads to Chicago

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Inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations in New York, some 100 people gathered Sunday outside the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago to protest inequities in the nation's financial system. WSJ's Jack Nicas reports.

Merriam-Webster defines "occupy" as "to take or hold possession or control of," which is exactly what the protestors have done. Just yesterday, 700 people were arrested in New York blocking cars on the Brooklyn Bridge. "These are our streets, we will occupy them" proclaims the Chicago group's fliers. Yet it's not the ideas they hope will persuade onlookers, but their obstruction. For more than two weeks they've camped out in front of the Chicago Board of Trade and other financial centers, banging drums, barking demands and disrupting people working in neighboring offices.

Capitalism, the system "Occupy Wall Street" so feverishly wants to bury, operates on the principle of voluntary trade, not occupation and threat. Capitalism treats men not as sacrifices for the public good, but as independent individuals with their own lives. From the professional on the trading floor to the kid selling lemonade, investors know that if you want something from someone else, you can't simply demand it by occupation, you have to trade for it, just as others must trade with you.

That's the justice protestors are seeking to destroy.

Jonathan Hoenig is managing member at Capitalistpig Hedge Fund LLC.