2011-10-26 15:23:10.435046+00 by Dan Lyke 35 comments
Best summary coverage of the police actions against Occupy Oakland that I've seen.
Hat tip to Genehack.
[ related topics: John S Jacobs-Anderson Bay Area Theater & Plays Journalism and Media Law Enforcement ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2011-10-26 23:59:42.739504+00 by: John Anderson
Let me pass that hit tip along to Jay Smooth, whose twitter feed is where I first saw it.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-10-27 09:21:14.915108+00 by: andylyke
Coupling this with NYPD's Anthony Bologna (that's right, Tony Boloney) gratuitously macing a group of women who were peacefully waiting within a police enclosure supports my belief that police are beginning to side with the oppressors. I understand this in Wisconsin, where police were specifically excluded from the draconian cancellation of public servants' rights. Apparently the word is getting out that it's in the police' best interest to turn on dissidents.
In the early sixties, I lived in Berlin, and knew several unrepentant Nazis from the era of the Reich, as well as others who had suffered under it. I fear for our future, and I don't say this lightly.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-10-27 13:13:26.249151+00 by: Larry Burton
Nashville has taken a different approach to dissuade the "Occupy" protesters.This would be the first direct confrontation between Occupy Nashville and law enforcement. While protests in other cities have clashed with police, protesters here have been appealing for a greater police presence on the plaza. Activists have been occupying Legislative Plaza since Oct. 7, and with every week security concerns have grown. Crowds of homeless people have been attracted to the encampment, drawn by the free food, blankets and camaraderie the movement offers its volunteers. But while some homeless activists have joined in, others have been starting fights and stealing from the occupiers.While too little security during one of these protests can lead to possibly worse problems than too much I still had to smile a little at the irony of an OWS group complaining about not enough police presence.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-10-29 02:37:06.780044+00 by: jeff
Did I read correctly somewhere that plastic bullets were actually used by the Oakland police in some cirmcustances?
#Comment Re: made: 2011-10-29 09:47:34.169292+00 by: TheSHAD0W [edit history]
#Comment Re: made: 2011-10-29 15:27:43.310168+00 by: m
@Andy Lyke:
Anthony Bologna is a Deputy Inspector. His job at the demonstrations was solely to provide tactics in controlling both the protesters and the regular line cops. He has a history of brutality, and maced others in addition to the women who were kettled. These additional macings were against individuals who were demonstrably peaceful, and included sneaking up behind the back of a media person doing his job and macing him. These administrative cops (wearing white rather than blue) who have no business being anywhere near the action, have often been filmed gratuitously wading into groups swinging their batons.
Note financial houses routinely hire uniformed police to act as private guards in NYC at $37/hour to the cops and a 10% slice to the city. Additionally the banks make large (in the millions) bribes clothed as "donations" to both the NYPD and the various police unions. This explains part of the conflict of interest. Pure sadism is of course responsible for another good part.
Within the past two days 16 more NYPD cops were arrested on charges that range from possibly transporting heroin in their police cars, extortion, openly selling pirated DVDs, knowingly allowing the sale of illicit drugs in their own private business, fixing tickets and other charges, forgery, leaking an Internal Affairs investigation, and other crimes. Hundreds of police demonstrated in support of those arrested. At least three of those arrested preened themselves before the demonstrating "blue wall of silence." They pumped their fists up and down in a display of the power which is so often abused. No shame at all.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-10-29 15:32:47.741886+00 by: TheSHAD0W
#Comment Re: made: 2011-10-30 01:35:36.723568+00 by: jeff
The intensity of protests and the police response is escalating.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-03 14:56:54.854554+00 by: TheSHAD0W
Scene Reporter Captures Own Arrest on Video, Refutes State Troopers' Charges
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-03 20:25:19.557263+00 by: TheSHAD0W
Peter Schiff represents the 1% at OWS
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-07 04:50:14.783642+00 by: TheSHAD0W
Occupy DC went not-so-nonviolent...
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-07 23:36:36.299326+00 by: TheSHAD0W
I think the Occupy controllers have decided their event is suffering from media exhaustion, and is ramping things up.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-08 04:16:38.6591+00 by: TheSHAD0W
Back to Oakland... Photographer shot with bean-bag round.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-08 16:19:20.569945+00 by: Dan Lyke
I think the Oakland PD have pretty much confirmed that there is a gang problem in Oakland.
But I also think that unless the various Occupy movements are ready to start policing their own, their message is completely subverted by the masked vandals.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-09 01:25:25.490006+00 by: TheSHAD0W
So, a couple of street cart food vendors were giving free food to Occupy San Diego protesters. When they stopped giving out free food, they found themselves being protested against...
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com...upy-group-splatters-blood-urine/
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-09 04:44:12.278415+00 by: Dan Lyke
Up in Santa Rosa, I'm told that someone has put a "come camp with Occupy SR" sign on the homeless services center door.
This, of course, is exactly why I haven't been out there airing my grievances in this way. Seems like the message is too easily subverted, and like there's a big blurry line between "make the system fair" and "free meals for, like, everyone, man" that's going to get trampled.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-09 14:21:59.307329+00 by: TheSHAD0W
Watch an obnoxious reporter try to stir up trouble at an Occupy camp.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-09 17:32:04.663493+00 by: Larry Burton
The message is easily subverted when the protesters aren't real sure of what the message is before organizing the protest. Here in Gwinnett County, Georgia the Occupy Atlanta protesters feel experienced enough in this to train "Occupy" groups out here in the suburbs. What message we have ended up with is that the HOT lanes are for the 1% so now we have "Occupy the HOT Lane." In the beginning I was very sympathetic toward this protest. Now I just think most of them look silly.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-17 00:52:09.202835+00 by: TheSHAD0W
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/20...g-loss-of-camp-in-zuccotti-park/
"...In a few days you’re going to see what a Molotov cocktail can do to Macy’s."
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-17 15:55:59.841737+00 by: TheSHAD0W
http://www.washingtontimes.com...me-movement-but-different-smell/
Are the Occupy and Tea Party movements basically the same?
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-17 20:48:51.202949+00 by: Dan Lyke
Wow, yet another example of where the Washington Times is like the Wall Street Journal crossed with the NY Daily News...
I don't think they're one and the same, but I do think they're cut from similar frustrations: A federal government that's vastly separated from the causes and needs of individuals. I've been thinking a lot about the feeling of frustration with and disconnection from government, and how the attitude that government is a service has left it in the hands of "professionals" who don't seem to be responsive to real needs.
As I mentioned last night, I was struck by the contrast between the frustration and feelings of impotence expressed by the Occupy protesters (at least locally) and the people who identified a need, rolled up their sleeves and got to work. I sympathise with the frustration, but I'll be supporting the latter.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-17 21:49:52.700991+00 by: Mars Saxman
The occupy protests appear to stem from an increasing skepticism that the latter approach is still viable.
The problem with rolling up your sleeves and getting to work is that the land is full of giants, who will step on you if you bother them. To avoid getting stepped on, you have to either convince a friendly giant to protect you, grow fast enough to become a giant yourself before any of the existing giants notice, or have to stay small, hide in the shadows, and live on whatever the giants throw away.
The problem is that the giants have grown much faster than anyone else over the last 40 years. They have taken over pretty much all the land, and virtually anything useful you can do will bother one or another of them. They are so big that their enormous feet smash people they can't even see, so big that the friendly giant called Government, who is good-hearted but very clumsy and kind of a dolt, doesn't seem to be able to help out very much, so big that there aren't even many scraps left over when they are done eating.
You can't win, you can't break even, you can't even quit the game. So what are you supposed to do?
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-17 22:28:30.212974+00 by: ebradway
That WashTimes piece was a horrible ad hominem attack on OWS. It was so bad it actually invoked Godwin's Law by the end of the "analysis".
Mars' analysis matches my understanding of the situation. This is born out in some conservative responses to the recent sweeping of Zuccotti Park. The argument was "OWS was breaking the law. Sure, they have a right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. But they don't have the right to break the law."
Rights, like freedom of speech and assembly, are generally considered immalleable whereas the laws are not. You can see this at work in how corporations have increased their "freedom of speech" by attack laws limiting campaign contributions. The kind of SuperPACs (an expression of free speech) that are driving modern politics were illegal not to long ago. The difference is the corporations have the means to effect change in the law even to the extent of shifting the majority opinion of the Supreme Court.
OWS is a response this imbalance. Sure, the people there seem like freeloaders. They don't have money but they do have time. They are trying to create discourse through application of time and presence rather than money. This is how they are rolling up their sleeves and going to work.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-18 13:52:29.165951+00 by: TheSHAD0W [edit history]
http://cnsnews.com/news/articl...le-harass-wheelchair-bound-woman
At one point, Ortiz stopped and asked one of the female protestors why she did not just go out and get a job. The woman reportedly said, "there aren't any jobs." When Ortiz said, yes, there were, and to go look in the help wanted pages of the newspaper, the woman said, "Oh, those jobs are beneath me."
"Then it became clearer to me in that moment what this is all about," said Ortiz. "It is a mindset issue. It isn't that people's rights are being violated. It's that they have the mindset that they are entitled to something simply because they graduated from a college in the United States of America."
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-18 14:12:58.468513+00 by: TheSHAD0W
Rebuttal? http://www.theeagleonline.com/...c.-barricades-convention-center/
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-19 14:59:07.325253+00 by: John Anderson
UC Davis police pepper spray sitting Occupy protesters
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-19 22:52:50.253075+00 by: JT
Meh, I've been hit with pepper spray probably 25-30 times, I've been through gas chambers multiple times between the military and police departments. I've also been shot with bean bags and rubber bullets. I'd rather see someone pepper sprayed than grabbed and manhandled by policemen. Safer for the protesters and the police. Remember in the sixties when they would just hit protesters with billy clubs and spray people with firehoses and everyone was happy? It seems the more mindful the police are of permanent injuries, the more people complain about the softer tactics.
Overall, I don't really care for the movement of "Occupy ______" in the US. I like the idea of a worldwide protest for human rights, however it appears to be something else here in Los Estados Unidos, something possibly more politically motivated. Or maybe that's what the media is making it out to be.
Quoting Jon Stewart on a protesting chant at an anti-war rally "One, Two, Three, Four! We don't want... to..... go to... work today..."
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-20 23:02:53.289795+00 by: jeff
Here is another interesting part of the story?
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-21 16:59:42.182106+00 by: TheSHAD0W [edit history]
Tampa sends an APC to Occupy.
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/11/19/111911-news-tampa-tank/
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-22 17:09:15.016842+00 by: jeff
This reminds me a little bit of Kent State
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-22 17:51:42.958309+00 by: meuon
We are forced to repeat history.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-24 17:11:00.303214+00 by: TheSHAD0W
Am I evil cuz I giggled at this?
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b05_1322112170
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-24 17:17:38.214939+00 by: TheSHAD0W [edit history]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4406KJQMc - apparently those UCD students had lots of warning they were going to get pepper sprayed.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-11-26 03:38:05.771493+00 by: TheSHAD0W
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm...ing-truth-about-crackdown-occupy
-- this might need a new topic...
#Comment Re: made: 2012-01-09 23:23:30.807202+00 by: TheSHAD0W
Resurrection!
http://www.orlandosentinel.com...010812-20120107,0,2434749.column
Jailed for writing "Justice equals Liberty" on a sidewalk, in chalk.
