Occupy Oakland fail.

So I watched the news reporting on the Occupy protest in Oakland yesterday.  All that I could think was, what a bunch of morons.  They shut down the Port of Oakland, shut down sections of downtown Oakland and "stuck it to the 1%!".  Except they didn't.

Most of the businesses that were shut down were not "greedy bankers" or other 1% evil doers.  Most of them were small or medium businesses.  None of them can afford to take the hit to their bottom line, but they had to because history has shown them the probable consequences of having open doors during a protest.  The port was shut down, so 70 dock workers couldn't get to work.  None of those people are big greedy fat cats.  The truckers all had to park their trucks, so they got thrown behind on their schedules.  As a former truck driver, I can assure you that the owner/operators were not happy to see their truck payment being held hostage by these protesters.  On the other hand, the union drivers were happy because they were getting paid no matter what.  The union port workers likely got paid too, but I didn't see any of them bragging about it on the news. 

One business did stay open (Whole Foods, historically very good to their employees and customers) and they were rewarded with having their building defaced, their furniture thrown/upended and their trash/recycle bins with a new paint job.  BofA and Wells Fargo were both closed and both got damaged.  So much for peaceful.   Funny tho, they have (evil) insurance, so they will not have to pay for the damage.  You and I will with our insurance dollars.  And the bank employees had to use vacation time to cover their lost shifts, if they had it.  As far as hurting the banks, I guarantee that people just went to other branches to do their banking.  So the only evil bankers that suffered were the hourly wage tellers who really can't afford to have their hours cut.

And in the end, last night they ended up trading firebombs and flashbangs with the police.  So, in the end, the 99% end up taking it in the shorts but the protesters didn't care.  Shocking.