On Tuesday evening, more than 400 riot police from Oakland and nearby cities attempted to evict protesters at “Occupy Oakland” from the city’s Frank Ogawa Plaza and Snow Park. The justification was twofold: The protesters had not been granted a permit to demonstrate in, let alone colonize, the park, and reports had been filed with the police of sexual assault, violence, vandalism, and open fires.
As the police approached, protesters formed “non-violent barricades” to prevent the police’s legitimate eviction action and, predictably, violent clashes ensued. The police report that protesters hurled rocks, bottles, and M-80 firecrackers at them, while the police responded with tear gas and, sparingly, rubber bullets and beanbag shotgun rounds. More than 100 protesters were arrested. Few injuries have been confirmed, with the tragic exception of a Marine veteran who was seriously injured when struck by a tear-gas canister (most “non-lethal” tactics carry such a risk).
Most of the outrage has been in reaction to video proffered as evidence of aggressive and unnecessary force on the part of the police, including the use of “flashbang” grenades, as this video confidently asserts. The police have denied this, asserting that the explosions came from either tear-gas canisters or firecrackers thrown by the protesters. Indeed, the video clearly demonstrates that the small explosion could not be a “flashbang” — which would have stunned and immobilized the protesters standing next to it when it exploded — but is in fact a tear-gas canister (note the gas).
The police succeeded in clearing out the park, after which city workers diligently cleaned the area. Protesters returned yesterday, after having someone else clean up their mess.
The injuries are lamentable, of course, but we are hardly witnessing scenes of excessive violence and oppression — merely enforcement of standard bylaws regarding protests (this is not to deny that accidents happen and police make mistakes – as one NYPD officer did with unnecessary use of pepper spray). Unfortunately, media coverage of the worldwide “Occupy” movement has seized upon the pepper-spray incident and now the clashes at Occupy Oakland (which involves an absurdly small number of protesters — “several hundred at peak hours,” presumably far fewer are actually spending the night).
In a movement that seems more focused on attracting attention than gaining real political victories, protesters may conclude that direct action and confrontation will be their best hope for relevance — especially as numbers dwindle into the winter. Such a development would be deleterious for protesters, police, and America.
Taxpayers aren't going to want to use the parks the occupiers are in. First, they're probably working and second, who would want to be around such filth,
Therefore, the occupiers should be allowed to stay, filth the place up even more and at some point it will become so unsanitary and germ ridden that people will start to get very ill. It would serve them right but also, they would then take it upon themselves to leave.
No one should have to clean up after these vermin only to see them come back.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn total agreement, Bandmom. These disgusting vermin remind me of those black rabble rousers that agitated throughout the early 60s. What would be really nice is if the police could break out the hoses and give these dirty protesters a "shower." LOL - wouldn't that be funny?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDid you get those strawmen wholesale?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, I can see the similarities between the Civil Rights marches, with MLK and associates locked arm in arm, wearing suits and ties, singing "we shall overcome", to the tattooed, body-pierced OWS protesters, smoking weed, copulating in public, and yelling "#@&K THE RICH!" at anyone walking near.
I can't believe that I missed that!
Would you happen to know if the instances of protesters defecating on public property were greater with Dr. King and his marchers than they are with the OWS movement?
I've been wondering about that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYeah. All those white, educated, middle-to-upper-class faces are absolutely the direct spiritual descendants of the civil rights protests.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat's your response to actual civil rights vets like John Lewis standing arm in arm with the Occupy folks? It seems like your argument has some holes in it when King family members, John Lewis, and others who played a big role in the civil rights movement are saying that OWS actually is in line with the goals of the civil rights movement.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHere's an ice cream cone, kid:
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Now, run along and play with your little friends.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou mean the John Lewis who the Occupy Atlanta clowns twinkled away?
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If you're not a deliberate troll, you should be.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDumb dumb dumb -
“They didn’t really deny me,” Lewis said. The protestors decided he could return after their agenda items had been completed, but because of the Pride event, Lewis didn’t have time to wait around. The group has since issued a statement saying, “We are dismayed that anything we have done would seem to show disrespect for a man whom many of us revere, and apologize to everyone who was hurt or angered by our actions.” And they say Lewis can come back.
Lewis said he was not dismayed, despite his key role in the nation’s struggle for civil rights, that he was not more eagerly received when he initially stopped by the park.
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And now the Occupy Atlanta crowd is actually protesting from the King Center. Please improve your research skills. It's easy to find a popular vid and an old meme, much harder to find the truth. Maybe that's why conservatives believe so many crazy things. They're just really, really bad at wading through a lot of info to find out what's really going on.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe tried standing with them. They declined to let him speak:
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJohn Lewis stopped being a civil rights vet and started being nothing more than a far left agitator many decades ago. Any moral authority he may have once had has long since been dissapated by his bad behavior.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe King family has spent the last 50 years using MLK's legacy to get rich. They have no moral authority anywhere outside the lunatic left.
Hey Luis, you should take a look at a primary source at some point, and look at how MLK and the civil rights protestors were regarded in their time. They were considered people of loose morals, commies, and worse. The treatment was pretty similar.
In fact, if you want to take a good look at how conservatives back then viewed the civil rights protestors, all you have to do is take a look at some National Review archives, or similar conservative papers. The language being used by conservatives today actually sounds pretty similar to the language used by conservatives back then. You had the same use of words like vermin, the same kind of "law and order" talk, and at least in the south you had the same kind of accusations about drug use and loose morals among the white kids who were participating.
If you were less ignorant of history, I imagine you'd see more similarities between today's protestors who use civil disobedience and those of yesteryear.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAssumption...I am ignorant of history simply because you disagree with me.
Illogical conclusion...the MLK movement and today's OWS protesters have things in common.
You are trying to draw a line of equivalency between accusations of drug abuse and loose morals among MLK's followers, and the footage of drug use, the evidence of public defecation, and the confirmed reports of public copulation perpetrated by the OWS protesters.
They have NOTHING in common, and since they have nothing in common, the reaction to their behavior has no relation to the way people behaved toward MLK an his movement.
To the point of my statement, and the point you avoided addressing in my post, these protesters are (generally speaking) pigs.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePolice mistreated MLK.
Police mistreated the OWS protestors.
Ergo, the OWS protestors are the moral equivalent of MLK.
And to think, liberals have actually convinced themselves that they are the smart ones.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd yet another "lover of freedom" quickly comes to the defense of a militarized police unit using excessive force against non-violent protestors. I'm starting to see how this works now. When non-violent protestors are hosed down in Montgomery, shot at Kent State, or gassed in Oakland, it's either a lamentable necessity forced by the need to uphold law and order, or something to be celebrated because another hippy or uppity minority had it coming.
When the ATF or FBI goes after cultists and abortion clinic bombers on the other hand, or Obama sends troops after the Lord's Army, it's just a bunch of Jack Booted Thugs being sent to stamp out good Christian Americans.
Hayek was right.* Conservatives don't mind a police state or a big government. They'd just prefer that it bash the other side and enforce their version of morality. This is why Hayek was right to call the conservative movement one that lacked any guiding principles. Modern Conservatism is and always has been about cultural expression and using power to backstop conservative cultural preferences. This is why there was no Tea Party when W. was spending like a drunken sailor. It also explains why conservatives are usually the first to support and cheer on police actions like this. Pretty sad.
*See the addendum to Constitution of Liberty by Hayek - "Why I am Not a Conservative"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAwwww. Here's a lollipop.
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseClassy.
Tell it to the Marine veteran laying in the hospital with a fractured skull.
I bet he'd appreciate your sarcasm.
You guys LOVE members of the military... as long as they share all your views.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt was the only response warranted to someone who comports himself as a child and is proud of it.
You should probably get some sense of what goes on around here before you condemn.
Of course, considering Moe has never had the guts to sign up for an account, you may well be him play-acting at being an adult. But, of course, I don't know that to be the case.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAll gave some. Same gave all. And the truly bold and brave had the guts to register for an account at America's leading conservative cruise line.
DavidJ - you're the best. LOL!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen you engage in violent protests, there is no right to not get hurt.
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