Occupy Seattle Mob Tries to Pull Off 'Citizen's Arrest' of JP Morgan CEO

Occupy Seattle appears to be pushing hard for its Robespierre moment.

Last night, amidst all the chaos and destruction wrought by the Occupiers in Oakland, a less widely-reported mob incident occurred in Seattle that showed another insidious tactic of the Occupy protest movement.

The Occupiers are not just pushing ideas-- they are going after individuals. In this case, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon was their target.

About 500 protestors surrounded the Sheraton hotel last night, according to the Daily Kos, where CEO Jamie Dimon was making a speech to the University of Washington's Foster School of Business. Hours after they surrounded the hotel's perimeter and claimed they were going to conduct a "citizen's arrest" on Dimon, protestors had to be dispersed with pepper spray by police in riot gear.

Just what, exactly, would the Occupy Seattle mob have done if Dimon had tried to walk out the front door? How would they have conducted their proposed 'citizen's arrest?' It's a question that we should all consider.

Dimon snuck out a back door, though, so the world did not get a chance to see what the crowd had in store for him.

Ironically enough, Dimon actually expressed sympathy in his speech for the broad, anti-bankster message of the Occupy movement before he had to evacuate the premises. While Dimon may understand the roots of the protestors' rage, he disagreed with the movement's demonization of all individuals in the financial sector, stating that:

"They're right. In general, these big institutions of America let them down. That's not the same thing as to say that every bank was bad, every politician was bad. That's where I would disagree."

Dimon struck a note of hope in his speech as well, telling those in the Sheraton Ballroom that the American people should "Keep the faith. I wish we hadn't put them in this position. Remember those fundamentals always when you wake up: You are in the best country and it will come back."

That somewhat positive, hopeful message was not echoed outside.

In front of the hotel outside, the Occupiers kept chanting "Whose Streets? Our Streets."

This is not the first time Occupiers and their allies have singled out and attempted to terrify an individual. Last month, community organizers using Occupy as a launchpad marched on the Upper East Side homes of perceived enemies of their movement, including Dimon, Rupert Murdoch, and David Koch.

That mobs like last night's Occupy Seattle rabble are singling out individuals for harassment and threats should be deeply unsettling to all Americans while Oakland smolders and other cities appear ready to follow down that anarchic path.

We must remember that mob justice can quickly turn to mob rule, much as it did on the streets of Paris in 1793.

(h/t Business Insider)