Negotiate.

Editor,

"[G]rowing concerns over health and public safety" are a pretext to crush a nascent movement and suppress organization by citizens outraged by the inordinate power of money in American politics and the vast disparity in wealth this corrupt state of affairs has caused.

Cities genuinely concerned with "health and public safety" could easily negotiate with Occupy encampments, as San Francisco is as a matter of policy enacted by the Board of Supervisors, with respect to issues such as: number and location of port-a-potties, who pays for them, cleaning schedule, who does the cleaning and how, and other issues with respect to provision of police and other services to ensure the health and safety of the occupiers.

The issues facing our nation are complex, as are potential solutions and the discussions that are needed to devise them. Occupations are vital to this public discussion and, given cooperation between the city, merchants, and other stake-holders in the public spaces being used for this purpose, reasonable processes can be worked out.

Re: "Occupy Wall Street Protesters Shifting to College Campuses" (11/14/2011)