Occupy Clearance: Clean-up or Subjugation?

Over the past few days the eviction notices have been served to the campers outside Saint Paul's and those across America have been forced to leave. These moves of defiance across the globe by governments are said to be on the grounds of health and safety or cleaning up the area but is this just a smoke screen for the ruthless crack down on the world wide protests.

They came in the middle of the night and told people they had to leave, the ones who didn't were forcibly moved and arrested. The following two days the Occupy Wall St. protestors have been on the streets and the police have arrested them for any offence they can. About 80 people were arrested for not using the sidewalk. This heavy handed policing has not been seen in the UK but the legal process is in motion for a forceful eviction. But why?

Health and Safety

One of the arguments that is being used to justify these methods is health and safety. The protestors are a harm to themselves and the people around them. In what way I am unsure, is it the well organised system each camp has. Which involves a kitchen, a toilet and congregation areas? Is it the clear outlines of camps and the brightly coloured tents which allow people to choose whether to walk through them or not? I'm not sure, maybe health and safety regulations really have gone mad and camping isn't safe anymore but whose going to tell the scouts? Or maybe there is another reason?

Clean the Streets

The other argument the authorities are using is that the camps are messing up the streets, they produce large amounts of litter (even though most camps have an extensive recycling programme) and are an eye sore. This is not only annoying to local people but is also bad for tourism. The one problem with this argument is that this is world wide! There are camps in Berlin, Tokyo and Paris. Cities across America from Denver to LA and across the UK from Sheffield to Leeds. Hundreds of cities have seen camps pop up so the likely hood is that tourists will have seen it all before.

REVOLUTION?

Both of these arguments to me feel like excuses,they don't hold a great deal of water so why is this action being taken with such urgency? The mass world wide protest has got governments scared, this crisis has been going for nearly three years and does not look like it will finish for another two at least. People are finding it hard already and it looks like its about to get worse. So are the authorities clearing these protests in fear they will spread and create a challenge to their power? Maybe not that extreme but they definitely have politicians across the world on the edge of their seats and that is when the police come in with an iron fist.