#OWS update

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What better way to start off the real first post of the year than to see what the American chapter of Time Magazine's PoTY has been up to lately.

Who's up for some flag-burning?

Four protesters, including the spokesman of Occupy Charlotte, were charged after setting fire to two American flags early Friday near the Occupy camp in Center City, police said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police weren't sure earlier if the four men who set fire to two flags were associated with the Occupy Charlotte movement.

But, WBTV has learned that one of the men is the media spokesman for the Occupy group and has been the contact person listed on press releases from Occupy Charlotte.

The fires happened with in feet of the group's encampment.

Earlier reports indicated one flag was burned, but a police report says that 2 US flags were burned.

And dig this:

All four men were charged with being careless with fire. That charge is a misdemeanor under the city ordnance.

Police officers told WBTV the protesters gave them a verbal tongue-lashing while being detained, calling then fascists, as well as using other colorful words.

We're sure the irony of those burning things casting about the "fascist" label on others is not lost on you.





And how's the Occupy the Iowa Caucuses working out?

Turns out the owner of a coffee shop in Des Moines had finally had enough of the squatters.

On Friday morning before a planned event appearance by Newt Gingrich, some members of "Occupy Iowa" made a stop at Java Joe's, a coffee shop here that MSNBC has been broadcasting from.

The protesters didn't get far before the owner of the shop gave them the boot.

About four or five Occupiers stood chanting in the middle of the crowded coffee shop before they were told to leave.

"I just had to shut it down, I couldn't stand it," Amy Brehm, who owns the store, told Yahoo News after police escorted the last demonstrators out. "We all have our rights, but not in my place."

We're not quite sure what the woman at the end of the clip meant by "hypocrisy".

One is guaranteed a 1st amendment right to peaceably assemble on the village green to chant, yell, scream, drum circle or whatever. That same right does not extend to doing the same on someone else's property or business.

There's a name for that: it's called "theft".

The Occupiers were occupying square footage that would've been otherwise occupied by paying customers and generally making the dining experience less pleasureable for the other customers perhaps making them less willing to return with their pocketbooks.

Again, the involuntary confiscation of others' wealth and property is at the core of the Occupy movement whether they realize it or are even willing to admit it.