In a not-so-stunning turn of events, a judge ruled that camping out in a private park against the wishes of the owner does not qualify as free speech. From the ruling (via NRO):

The movants have not demonstrated that they have a First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner’s reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park, or to the rights to public access of others who might wish to use the space safely. Neither have the applicants shown a right to a temporary restraining order that would restrict the City’s enforcement of law so as to promote public health and safety.

The responses from Occupy supporters seem to fall into one of two categories: 1.) Astonishment at this miscarriage of justice, and calls to defy the judge’s ruling; or 2.) Pollyannaish declarations that this is actually a great development for the movement – as in, “hey, maybe this is just the nudge we need to become a real political force!”

The idea the eviction is some sort of lemons-into-lemonade moment is transparently phony spin, which is probably why it seems to be taking awhile to catch on. The entire point of the Occupy movement, we were told again and again at the beginning, was simply the act of “being there.” Remember when the media was blasted for daring to ask about the goals of the movement, since “the Occupation is the message”?

The activists were right. The occupation was the message. Underneath all that, they’re just the same group of left-wing professional activists who show up at every radical protest. Maybe the novelty of their campsites ended up attracting some additional curiosity-seekers and homeless people to fill out the ranks a bit. But the only way for “Occupy” to survive in any capacity right now is to transition into a political movement – which means developing leaders, a chain of command, goals, allies, fundraising capabilities. The minute it does this, Occupy can no longer pretend to be a grassroots uprising of the so-called 99 percent. It will be lumped in with left-wing activist groups, and covered that way by the media. And it will lose the narrative, because a plurality of Americans self-identify as conservative.