It may be impossible to put a price tag on freedom, but the Occupy Wall Street movement has managed to run up a mighty hefty one: $13 million in police overtime and other municipal services nationwide in just two months.
“I don’t think they have a sense of what it means when tax dollars are spent in this way,” a spokeswoman for the Oakland, Calif., city government, Karen Boyd, told The Daily. “Oakland is very much a city that has been devastated by the economic downturn. We don’t have an extra $2.5 million to spend.”
Oakland police estimate that overtime eventually will top $3 million, and Boyd said this may lead to cuts in senior services and libraries. Last year, Oakland laid off 500 city workers, including 80 police officers, to close a $58 million deficit.
The Northern California city’s outlay is second only to New York City’s $7 million in a survey by the Associated Press.
However, the New York Police Department is operating from a $3.5 billion budget to begin with, including more than $500 million set aside for overtime. So although the Occupy Wall Street protests have been the largest and longest-lasting of all the “Occupy” movements, their economic impact on the city is relatively minor. The picture in other cities might be different.
“But whether they’ve budgeted for something as longstanding as what Occupy protesters have said they intend to be is another question,” said Gregory Minchak, a spokesman from the National League of Cities. “Last year we saw 25 percent of cities were cutting back on public safety, and these are cuts of last resort.”
The Occupy protesters refuse to accept being blamed for city deficit woes.
“We find it unfortunate that our justice system is focusing on us instead of the real problems we are talking about,” said Cari Machet, an organizer at Occupy Wall Street. “Why aren’t police surrounding the banks or politicians that put us in this mess?”
Asked about the $13 million in police overtime, Machet replied, “We’re not asking them to do this.”
Occupy Wall Street is planning to distribute 3,000 Thanksgiving meals today at its original home, Zuccotti Park.
New York City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who was arrested during a police raid on Zuccotti Park earlier this month, told The Daily that all that police overtime could end up working in the movement’s favor.
“With all the extra money NYPD officers are earning this holiday season through the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations,” he said, “I think they’re likely to become some of Occupy Wall Street’s biggest supporters.”
Justin.Silverman@thedaily.com
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