Les Bonnes Choses

I'm writing again today about the #OCCUPY protests. I'm a visitor to the country in which I am currently living, here entirely at their pleasure. I'm also currently looking for a job. As soon as I hit the "Publish" link, my ideas will be out there in the wild for all to see -- including officials who have the power to decide whether to allow me in the country, and including people who might be on a hiring committee. For this reason, I feel it prudent to begin by stating that I do not endorse the #OCCUPY movement, nor have I been in contact with its organizers. I am similarly uninvolved with the communist party.

So, I was reading today about various Occupy protest sites that have been directed to be dismantled, citing health and safety issues and the recent attraction of these sites to certain undesirable elements -- thieves and drug users:

On Saturday, Occupy Portland protesters dismantled large sections of their encampment, but dozens of tents remained after midnight.
Mayor Sam Adams ordered the camp shut down, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment’s attraction of drug users and thieves.

Globe and Mail, November 13, 2011

The Occupy Boston movement has entered its second month in downtown Boston. It has been relatively peaceful thus far. However, a drug danger may be putting the movement in jeopardy.

WHDH-Boston November 7, 2011

The credit crisis appears to have sobered up Wall Street in more ways than one. A review of drug-test data compiled by drug testing firm Sterling Infosystems Inc., shows that cocaine is losing its favor among investment professionals. What drug is their choice? Marijuana.

Among existing employees, psychologists and counselors said that drug abuse has not slackened. Some even said it is peaking, exacerbated by the credit crisis and the volatile and tenuous recovery that has ensued.

Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2011

In all fairness, it's inaccurate to portray these poor souls as a bunch of coke-heads. For one thing, bankers and financiers are way down the list in this report. Or, at least they were in 2007, before everything went south. I'd be interested to see a more recent set of statistics.

Still, as my title suggests, there's more than one camp of thieves and drug users on Wall Street, but only one of them is in danger of being broken up. The other one is too big to fail, I guess.