Get Out of My City!

I came home from work today and ran into Rick Mangus, a neighbor, in the elevator. The normally laid back, jovial, former broadcast journalist looked annoyed as he departed on the third floor.  I went on my way to our "deluxe apartment in the sky", turned on the television, and got ready to workout.  

To my surprise, my annoyed neighbor was on NBC4 as the subject of a news update. Minutes before our paths crossed Rick was down at Occupy DC confronting the protestors who had recently draped ol ' General  McPherson with the Tarp of Dreams, which was their response to the impending crackdown on camping on federal property.

Rick and I sat down later for a chat at the local coffee shop and he shared his side of the story. He also shared it on Fox TV with Megyn Kelly Wednesday afternoon.

Rick explained that he reached his "boiling point" with the unveiling of the Tarp of Dreams, and that he had grown tired of these out-of-town, non tax-paying, incoherent protestors. He tried to express his first amendment rights by taking a pair of blunt-edge scissors to McPherson Square and cutting the ties holding the tarp down  after cleverly alerting the media to his intentions beforehand. Sure enough the cameras were rolling when his own protest manifested.  

The response by the protestors was swift. "People came running at me, spitting at me, and someone assaulted me," explained Rick. "You can't do this!", they screamed. A paranoid protestor added, "He's an agent of the police!" Rick's response: "Get out of my city."

The Park Police quickly formed a "protective perimeter" around Rick and told him they "feared for his safety." Within minutes he was escorted  to a nearby car, and given a lift home. He plans to continue his direct action campaign in McPherson Square tomorrow as well as his aforementioned appearance on a national TV news program. He wrote the following statement explaining his position:

"I am a retired, tax paying and law abiding citizen of Washington, DC and have been so for over twenty years. I am also a child of the 60's and 70's and have been in many anti-war protests of that time against the Vietnam War. This past Tueday, January 31, 2012 the activist spirt came alive again, but not against a war in a far-off land but the defiling of our city, by people with no direction or purpose, people who sole cause is to start trouble, to ruin our heritage and to be confrontational with ALL who disagree with them.  

That afternoon I went down to McPherson Sq. to make my opinion known by cutting-down the illegal tarp that cover the statue in the park of General McPherson and was greeted by a hostile and violent opposition to my action by the so-called peaceful protesters. I had to be escorted out of the area by the United States Park Police who feared for my safety. I plan to return in the future to the square, because I do believe in the First Amendment, but not in a dictatorship or mob rule."