I'm a Tea Party Activist and 'Occupy Wall Street' Is No Tea Party

In a recent Washington Post article, Occupy Wall Street protestors were called a diverse group with “no single leader and no organized agenda.

Just like the tea party movement.

Organizers are “drawing inspiration from the Arab Spring” and “hope the New York protests can plant the seeds of a permanent national movement.”

Just like Tea Party, activists draw inspiration from America’s Founding Fathers and fostered a national movement.

Wall Street protesters heeded the call from a web site called Adbusters just like tea party rallies sprung up after CNBC editor Rick Santelli called for action during a live report in February of 2009.

Wall Street’s occupiers want job creation and sometimes dress like zombies.  Tea partiers want job creation and sometimes dress like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

If only the Tea Party could get such dispassionate and objective coverage.

One aspect of the Occupy Wall Street and other leftist activism that is a definitive divergence with the tea party movement is disruptive behavior.

On October 1, over 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested — mostly for disorderly conduct — during a march across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Despite two other peaceful marches across the bridge by other groups earlier that day, the Occupy Wall Street crowd couldn’t resist blocking traffic and scuffling with police.

When not under arrest (approximately 100 other arrests occurred over the weeks of the protest), the Occupy Wall Street crowd is actually occupying the privately-owned Zuccotti Park, whose owners are working with city officials on plans to return it “to its intended purpose.”

This rowdy attitude of the radical left is something that, by mistake or design, is grossly unreported in the media.  As the Tea Party must fend off allegations of being violent and racist, leftist protests that are unruly don’t get similar coverage.

I’ve been active in the Tea Party movement since 2009.  As a black woman, I define the movement’s political diversity and have always been quick to defend its inclusiveness against those who would try to slur it with racist accusations.

I have had the amazing opportunity to meet thousands of freedom-loving Americans who are involved in the movement on their own time and these individuals are sincere in their efforts to reign in our government gone wild by holding our elected representatives accountable.

As a frequent speaker at Tea Party events nationwide, I’ve never seen the same behavior as described during Occupy Wall Street’s Brooklyn Bridge demonstration.  Tea Party activists, in my experience, police themselves.

Additionally, I’ve never been to a rally in which the grounds weren’t as clean or cleaner than when the first activist arrived.

Doing a Google search of “tea party activist” and “arrest” brings up nothing of merit.  On the first page, I found three articles about people described as tea party activists, but the arrests were unrelated to rallies.

Another article, about the demonstrations outside the U.S. Capitol Building on the weekend of the Obamacare vote in the House, reports one man — one single person — was detained after being accused of spitting on a congressman.  But that person was immediately released, and no one has come forward to legitimize the claim and collect conservative Andrew Breitbart’s $100,000 reward for providing proof.

Furthermore, Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa told people waiting to see President Obama speak at a Labor Day rally that they need to “take these [Tea Party] son of a bitches out.”  And there was a January 30 rally in Rancho Mirage, California in which progressive protesters, many of whom were attending a nearby conference sponsored by Common Cause, were caught on video saying they wanted to “torture” and “hang” Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Salacious allegations against the tea party will get more coverage than actual law-breaking by the left.

We’ve seen the ugly violence in England, Spain and Greece related to economic uncertainty.  Tea Party members — like most Americans — don’t want that here, but that’s the path on which leftist protestors such as those occupying Wall Street have us headed.

Deneen Borelli is a Project21.org fellow and Fox News contributor.