I'll say right off the bat that mayors do have legitimate obligations to enforce public safety and that the Occupy groups have been spineless in confronting both anarchists who try to hijack their peaceful movement and various creeps who use them to prowl for victims to sexually assault.
But based on comments from Oakland's mayor, it appears these raids may have been coordinated by the mayors, something that should raise some series free speech and right-to-dissent issues. After all, each city has different ordinances for public spaces and at any one time in a large city there will be groups picketing or protesting and collections of people camping out, i.e. collections of homeless. One could then make the argument that the Occupy groups were cleared out not for the violations, but rather because of who they are.
Even more troubling is accounts now coming to light that NYC had reporters covering the raid arrested. When you compare the way the pro-Paterno punks were treated at Penn State and these raids (as well as how UC- Berkely of all places reacted to an Occupy Cal.), you do have to wonder if mayors and University officials are indeed controlled by big donors.
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