The movement that claims pride in being leaderless is seeking to, well, oust its leader in Charlotte. I’ll leave it to you to determine how many wiggly fingers it takes to agree to a political coup.
Shope, 47, a Charlotte gem cutter, said Friday he has done nothing wrong and that he won’t quit. He accused a small group of about eight young people at the camp of being too radical and spreading “rhetoric and lies.”
The conflict reflects the movement’s struggle to remain inclusive and without a leader one month into the local offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, the protest that has spread across the country.
It also highlights the role of social media and the Web in the modern era of protests.
In expelling Shope, Occupy Charlotte asked him to relinquish his popular Facebook page and website, the group’s main outlets of communication.
