Removing a movement: protected species must be handled with care

AS WE go to press, the state troopers and the cops are moving, in Los Angeles, to take out the Occupy LA folks. “Take them out” doesn’t mean shoot them.

It’s less lethal, more literal: just remove them.

Persuade them to fold up their little bulbous tents. Help them lift up their sentry box toilets. Take away all the evidence of their temporary presence and let Los Angeles get back to the daily grind without having to pass tented towns of the workless and disaffected, fronted by signs reading “This is not a protest, it’s a movement.”