We see OWS protesters getting hosed from Moscow, Tehran and elsewhere. They're painting a picture of the United States of America resorting to acts of political repression against its own people because capitalism has created the economic and social-cultural conditions to let this kind of thing happen.
In America, the media is generally resorting to a "Gee. What's going on here? How about the weather?" manner of reporting.
There are pictures of Denver, pictures of Boston and Oakland. These usually have a reputation for being run by liberal governments. So what's going on here, anyway?
I know. I used to be a city administrator. I had my own police force working under me, and I just drove up to the police yellow zone before the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, and I had a one and one half hour emergency conference to give the law enforcement brass a briefing on what to expect as far as the protests went. "Why?" you might ask.
And I would answer, "Because I'm sypathetic to the protesters. That's why." You have to look at these demonstrations from the perspective of your local government. First, cops are as big a bunch of lazy doughnut eaters as journalists, and they're the laziest damn stupid fish in the world because they'll print absolutely any hogwash you feed them.
From my experience as an old radical. I know there have been many times when law enforcement acted badly because it didn't know the expectations of a crowd, and they overreacted. Having seen the videos of NYC, that certainly appears to be the situation that I see going on. If the police have a better understanding of the intent of the crowd, I told them to get on Occupy X websites and befriend them just to see what was going on.
Look at it from a law enforcement position. In my community I see an estimated 3 anarchists per 1000 in the crowd. The police said that "outside agitators" were at work. They were going to make trouble.
"No," I said. "These people live in your community. They don't have a house or family. Maybe they got kicked out. Maybe they're runaways. They don't have a job. They don't have any money. They don't think that they have any future. And they're very, very angry."
When you factor in the tents and equipment, food, and medical care that is being given out, your OWS site becomes a homeless magnet for miles around. People certainly come from sleeping under bridges to tent with OWS. The cops and businessmen don't like this. These kind of people create their own social problems. I'm talking about drinking; a high degree of seriously mentally ill people, along with drugs, knives, etc. Yes, from a crime perspective, they're probably responsible for 80% of the police calls.
There are two asides to know in addition. One is that my enlightened city is bouncing the protesters around like very slow motion ping pong balls. You can stay in this property for two nights, and then you have to leave. The anarchists are still spoiling for a fight, but so far -- no go.
Our city had one of the biggest and most successful protests in the country.
And here's where I take out my little tin statue of Karl Marx, and bow down and worship before that tiny god. Go back to my first sentence and get an understanding of what is going on here.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
LEV JANASHVILI
Omnipotent Poobah
Donegal Descendant
Emily Holleman
MarianneSp
Reverend Billy Talen
Salon.com
Comments
--sinclair louis
"One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas."
--victor hugo
occupy party reaches critical mass/seismic effect--now what?
The protesters will not create more decent jobs any more than the politicians will create more decent jobs. The protesters will not create a climate in which the private sector will create more decent jobs any more than the politicians will create a climate in which the private sector will create more decent jobs.
Decent jobs—jobs paying the kind of salary a person needs to support a family reasonably—are a thing of the past. It makes no sense to pay people decent salaries to do the kinds of work most people can do; most jobs that used to require paying a worker a decent wage can be done for a pittance today.
I honor the protests—I love and respect the protesters, but they’d have better luck if the picked up Diogenes’ lamp and went looking for an honest politician.
Christ, what a fix we are in.
The policeman's job is not the best.They get orders to keep holding the atmoephere down to avoid randalismvandalism as well.
Policemen are human beings,sometimes neighbors,friends, husbands ,fathers,sons.
Like soldiers,they have to take orders.
They live in constane danger;overreacting is the consequence.
What you have adviced them to do is the only reasonable solution.
People living under bridges or ,so I have heard,live in the drainage system of NYC,are the most troubled and should have a chance to participate and be heard.Some cities use it as tactic to move people around.I guess it is to avoid the ghetto isolation,also the stigma of a certain area.I don't know if it helps.One would have to look into Zurich social planning.
-R-
Marx was great at figuring out the problem but lousy at figuring out the solution.
The question is: Can our system be fixed electorally? OWS may be the answer to that.
Then when the government started "forcibly evicting" the protestors, they literally outnumbered the protesters, corralled them like cattle and then moved in, being literally invulnerable in their gear. And then they start using batons, boots and non-lethal weaponry (which, when used improperly, can kill) to enforce their power over.
Tell me how the protesters incite that? By being there, right? I think the perception that the protesters are the problem is the information you have been picking up on -- which is exactly the signal that's being fed to the general public by the news media, if they deign to report at all beyond mere scoffing at the pathetic losers who should stop crying and get a job.
I think, though I expect old new lefty to correct me, that the idea of reading the first sentence again is to juxtapose the repression of Moscow and Tehran with what we're seeing in NYC, Oakland, Boston, Denver, Nashville, etc where our rights are simply being ignored as too goddamn inconvenient to be allowed to continue.
The New York Times, when the Oakland Police action occurred, simply opined that cities were "cracking down" on the protesters, because they were "losing patience" with them.
The Washington Post, printed a picture of a police officer picking up a poor little kitty left behind after the eviction. They made it seem like the people in the Plaza simply left it behind out of lack of concern.
The truth is the people left it behind because the very same police officers went in after firing tear gas and flashbangs into the encampment, scattering everyone at 6am before the sun even rose over the horizon.
How can this ever be justified? The incitement of violence occurs when you show force and show that you are willing to use whatever force necessary to have your way.
In video clip after video clip, you'll see unarmed citizens running to the aid of the injured screaming, "Medic! We need a medic here!" while they're being gassed and pelted with rubber bullets. You'll see citizen protesters stopping their fellows, who are understandably upset by that point, from throwing things at the police, while the police continue to "lob" tear gas and fire bean bags, rubber bullets and throw flashbangs at unarmed citizens.
Who's inciting the violence?
I take the time to place this for you and anyone else, so that you can actually see that there is a lot of misinformation being fed to the general population about what's really going on. If you care to take the time, you can simply look for yourself. I don't ask you to take my word for it. I ask that you find out for yourself before expressing an opinion without any actual basis in the facts of the matter at hand.
It is scary, but not for any other reason than that this is happening and is being caused by the actions of that 1% who are doing their level best to ensure we lose our freedoms and liberties. The evidence is before you, in the form of police officers marching in and putting an end, forcibly, to our 1st Amendment right to peaceably assemble, petitioning the very same government for a redress of our grievances. Instead, we are only really seeing more grief. That's what should scare you.
Remember our revolution began not in 1776, but much earlier when we were petitioning our overseas kin for a representative in Parliament. What did we get for our troubles? Repression, increased punitive taxation, quartering of troops at our expense and control of our courts, papers and city governments without recourse to petition for redress of those wrongs committed.
If you don't understand what's going on, you have two choices: Continue to exist in a fog of ignorance of what's going, or educate yourself by simply spending a few hours here and there to find out what really is going on. The information is out there, but you're not going to get it from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Examiner, Fox News, CNN, ABC or even MSNBC.
Why? Because they are owned and controlled by the very same people who don't want the OWS to even gain more traction than it has. Like any "old guard"retrenched group of power mongers, these guys suppress, represss and oppress anything they deem unseemly to their agenda. And part of that agenda is making sure you don't know what's really going on.
Find out for yourself. Don't take my word for it. Don't just read your major media outlet newspaper -- explore. If not, then you will be left out of the information loop.
I mean no disrespect. I have seen you post several times that you really don't understand what it's all about. Find out. And good luck.
The powers that be never seem to learn the most fundamental lesson about these things -- ignore the protests and they'll usually fade away. But alas, they inevitably over-react and create another reason for protestors to protest.
I'm getting that feeling of deja vu all over again -- this is starting to look and smell very familiar. Actually, I'm glad the authorities are behaving like thugs -- this children's crusade is long overdue. Now maybe folks will get even more pissed off at being raped and pillaged by the people elected to look after their interests.
I'm also hoping this will inflame passions enough on the Left to get people out to vote in 2012, instead of sitting on their complacent asses like they did in 2010.
...wait, is that the message?
Interesting note too on the occupation attracting the homeless and a certain element of the down & out, ne'er do well crowd. That's inevitable but it shouldn't color our views of the underlying issues (and I'm not implying you're guilty of that ONL). Smart words too on the role and direction of the police.
'occupy' is a rebellion, not a revolution. it's a stampede of unhappy cattle, a tired child lying down and kicking his heels while yelling uncontrollably.
something may come of it, but not very likely. americans are political ignoramuses and unable to plan three days in advance, much less organize a ten-year plan to improve the nation.
The policy is simple: Let them bark, don't give them any media coverage no matter what happens, they will all go home and resume their duties as good slaves. Good argument, ONL, R
It's funny how so many Americans keep talking about "outside agitators" as the cause of these protests. It's as if they can't wrap their head around the idea that ordinary people in their neighbourhood might actually not be satisfied with the US as it is today, and conclude that it must all be some diabolical scheme cooked up by Fidel Castro and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. To a European it's quite startling to see how horrified many of you are at the very idea of political demonstrations. They seem to see communist revolutionaries and anarchists behind every handwritten sign, and hidden bombs in every bongo drum (and yes, I hate those drums too, but that's for another post).
But really, Marx was the one who sparked it all. The image I really remember was graffitti from the Prague Spring. "Proletariat of the World, go away!"
Maybe I should buy a statue to Marx, drop it in the outhouse and worship him every time I drop my pants.