Dershowitz: Occupiers Send Bad Message By Choosing May Day

The Occupy Wall Street movement risks being taken over by radicals who hate America and Israel, and its leaders need to disassociate themselves from them, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax.TV.

Dershowitz was commenting on the movement’s planned demonstrations today and call for a general strike to mark International Workers Day or May Day. The day has long been associated with communist and socialist regimes and is an important holiday in China, Cuba and the former Soviet Union.

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, the former Supreme Court law clerk and best-selling author noted he favored free speech but had worries about the demonstrations planned across the country.

See the exclusive Alan Dershowitz interview excerpt below:




“What I worry about is that Occupy Wall Street risks being taken over by extreme radicals,” he said. “First of all I think it was a terrible mistake to have the big demonstration on May 1. This is May Day. This is the day the communists have long celebrated as a way of destroying capitalism. The symbolism is unmistakable and it seems to me that many on the extreme hard left that don’t care about America, that hate America, are trying to take over these demonstrations.

“I think it is very important for those who have reasonable complaints about Wall Street, and there are reasonable complaints to be had, disassociate themselves with the May Day radicals and make it clear that they love America, that they’re not trying to destroy the free market economy, that they’re simply looking to make some improvements and changes. But I worry that these demonstration turn into hate America demonstrations, they turn into hate Israel demonstrations, they turn into hate capitalism demonstrations and it’s very hard to control.”

He added that the state should have no part in “controlling that, that’s what the First Amendment is about, but those who lead Occupy Wall Street ought to be careful about who they associate themselves with because they will be judged by the most vocal and most radical elements that come to these demonstrations not by their own more moderate approach.

“So I’m concerned that this could lead to what happened in Oakland and other parts of the country where radicals took over and engaged in violence and engaged in kind of hate America speech and that’s a great concern.”

The Occupy movement had its heyday last fall and winter when protestors set up permanent encampments in New York, Washington and other cities to protest economic inequality. The movement lost steam as participants drifted away from the tent cities. Government officials, citing health and safety concerns, eventually removed the camp sites.