Video: Hannity battles with Occupy Wall Street organizer for 10 minutes

Pure fun on a Friday afternoon. You’ll enjoy every minute, I promise. Just one question: Is the “Occupy” guy being completely serious or is he messing with Hannity a little? Pay particular attention at 7:00, when they start talking about all the wonderful things in life that should be free, free, free, and then again at around 9:00 when this tool insists he’s done earning a living by working menial jobs. He seems almost eager to confirm people’s worst suspicions about the attitudes of a young entitled socialist d-bag, which makes me wonder if any part of this is a goof. Then again, maybe I feel that way because it’s the only way I can rationalize the attitude seen here. Normally when someone from a “controversial” group shows up on cable news, they’re keen to shoot down the host’s worst assumptions about them. Not this guy. Points for honesty, I guess.

One other thing. Schultz suggests early in the clip that crime and violence in the “Occupy” camps weren’t committed by the Occupiers themselves but rather by derelicts and other infiltrators whom the NYPD sent down to Zuccotti Park. That’s predictable — they routinely disclaim responsibility for the culture in the camps, sometimes with media help — but there’s some truth to it in this case. The New York Daily News spoke to two drunks last year who claimed cops had found them drinking in public and told them to “take it to Zuccotti.” There was also a hot rumor at the time that the city was deliberately dropping off newly-released prisoners from Riker’s Island at Zuccotti Park to try to intimidate the occupiers out of the space. That appears to have been baseless, but word apparently did get around among Riker’s inmates that there was free food and shelter at the park for those who wanted it. Go figure that a big catered party inside a no-go area for police might attract a degenerate element.