"Are Those Guys Homeless?"

On Saturday, I took my son for ice cream in downtown Redlands after one of his soccer games.

While walking up State Street, toward Baskin Robbins, my son saw a trio of protestors next to a bank and asked, "Are those guys homeless?"

I haven't stopped laughing. Hours later, I'm still chuckling at the observation of my 7-year-old son when he spotted his first "Occupy Wall Street" protestors.

(In all fairness, I asked one of the three how many protestors appeared about noon Saturday. He said "100," a figure mentioned in newspaper reports.)

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement is an undisciplined and unhygienic mob attracted to mindless images – exactly what Ann Coulter nails so well in her latest book, “Demonic.”

Coulter compares the mob that was the French Revolution with the mob mentality that rules the Democratic Party and liberals. The funny part is Coulter released her book even before the latest iteration in liberal mobs manifested themselves in the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

I am a proud member of the Redlands Tea Party Patriots. We operate within the democratic process and reject violence – unlike the occupy movement, whose arrests number into the hundreds.

I have little respect for the occupy movement because they are a rabble with a penchant for violence as well as no message or discipline. From the morass that is their nationwide protest, the only inference I can make is that the occupy movement, on the whole, is clearly anti-capitalist. Other than that, they appear to be little more than aging hippies or spoiled brats protesting their causes du jour.

Some of the protestors do have legitimate views. They are complaining about the same “crony capitalism” that the tea party movement abhors. For those with that concern, I don’t understand why they’re not protesting Obama – a great recipient of Wall Street's largess – or joining the tea party movement. Also, I do have empathy for the long-term unemployed who have found an outlet for their frustrations.

I spent nearly 20 years in journalism. I’ve covered hundreds of protests. And I would bet a bar of soap that the vast majority of occupy protestors would be targeting the president if a Republican were in the White House.