crassygrass:

shayrhymeswithgay:

educationforliberation:

cabell:

I think there’s a lot to be said for discussion of how the War on Drugs in the 1980s, and specifically how it replaced the War on Poverty (which was actually successfully lowering poverty rates in the US in the 60s and 70s), directly led to this mindless White trust in police.

When I was a little kid, I was afraid of the police, even though my parents never gave me (to my recollection) specific instructions on dealing with them, a luxury made possible by us being middle-class White people.  I do think I absorbed the attitude from them, though, and that it had a lot to do with them being former hippies.  My father frequently talks about how, living in Tucson, Arizona in the 1970s, the one thing you could count on unifying absolutely everyone was that they would side with you against the cops.

Even then, of course, POC had a lot more to fear from the police than White hippies, and brutality against White protesters was met with much more widespread shock and outrage; compare the national reaction to Kent State versus the lack thereof to Jackson State, less than two weeks later.

So this isn’t a new pattern, which makes it even more depressing how quickly the majority of White people lose the institutional memory that the police are not their friends.  For the most part, they can afford to.

boldness added. learn your history.

I agree. People seemed shocked and appalled by violence only when it happens to white people. This reminds of another conversation about how nonviolence is racist . I think that even being able to have a discussion about how you want to interact with the police (‘peacefully’ vs. ‘violently’) is a privileged position. I recall a conversation I had a (white) friend who was talking about how members of the African Nova Scotian community don’t understand why white people are anti-police, because if you’re black in Nova Scotia, you can’t even access the police. Being able to reject or denounce the police means that you had the choice or ability to access them in the first place.

emphasis mine

things to remember

(via tranqualizer)

Pharr, TX – Occupy McAllen, as part of a global day of action, will rally outside the Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase banks located near the intersection of Jackson Road  and Jackson Avenue in Pharr, on Friday, November 11th, at 5:00 pm. The largest banks in the US earned $34 billion in profit in the first half of this year, nearly matching what they earned in the same period in 2007 before the financial crisis happened. Wall Street firms paid about $20.8 billion in bonuses in 2010, while the average American still suffers from Wall Street’s greed, facing unemployment, foreclosures, and increasing impoverishment.

Occupy McAllen is participating in this global day to protest against an unjust economic system rigged against working people. But the protest is also in defense of the First Amendment right to assembly which has been violently challenged by mayors and the police in several cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, and Oakland. In Oakland, the police department violently dismantled Occupy Oakland’s encampment, and aggressively attacked peaceful protestors with tear gas, billy clubs, and flash grenades. Scott Olsen, an Iraq War veteran participating in Occupy Oakland, was struck on October 25 with a police projectile and has sustained brain damage.

Occupy McAllen is marching in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world, especially where they are under violent attack, as in Oakland, and to demand the US government respect and enforce the US Bill of Rights protecting our right to assemble.

What: Rally Outside of Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase Banks

When: Friday, November 11 • 5:00pm - 6:30pm

Location: Meet at Jackson Avenue and Jackson Road

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=211954908876600

Facebook Page for Occupy Mcallen https://www.facebook.com/occupymcallen?sk=info

—

greedyvegan:

As Occupy Wall Street protests spring up in cities across the country, authorities are thinking up creative ways to contain this peaceful and inspiring uprising. Although laws and municipal ordinances vary from city to city, there is a consistency in the tactics being used to stifle the movement. More importantly, as demonstrated by the protesters at Zuccotti Park who kept strong in the face of a looming eviction that never came to fruition, these maneuvers are not working.

Still, there is no shortage of justifications and rationales behind the constantly evolving schemes being implemented to destroy the spirit of Occupy Wall Street. Here are 12 desperate and unsuccessful measures the authorities are using to discourage, deter and crack down on peaceful protests.

1) No Snoozing In Public

Most cities have an anti-camping ordinance on the books that prohibits camping or sleeping in public spaces, particularly public parks, to minimize the risk of nighttime criminal activity. But the ordinances are frequently used to cleanse cities of the inconvenient and uncomfortable scenery of homeless people; police in San Francisco are known for enforcing the city’s camping ordinance primarily against the homeless.

But now, all over the country, anti-camping ordinances are being used to arrest and deter protesters from occupying public spaces.

Local news stations covering Occupy Dallas report that police plan to begin enforcing the city’s ordinance against sleeping in public, first with warnings, then tickets, and eventually arrest. Due to a city ordinance that prohibits sleeping in Los Angeles public parks, Occupy LA activists move their tents to the sidewalk every night, and move them back to the park every morning. Occupy Chicago protesters have resorted to staying awake in shifts, then switching with one another to sleep in cars or someone’s home nearby to get around the ban against sleeping on the public sidewalk.

2) No Umbrellas

Officials in various cities are citing ordinances that prohibit the erection of permanent or semi-permanent structures, referring to tents, tarps, sleeping bags, and in one city, umbrellas.

According to Seattle’s newsweekly, The Stranger, the Seattle Police Department warned protesters that, “You can’t have an umbrella open unless you’re standing and holding it,” otherwise they are considered structures and will be confiscated. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn later clarified the reasoning in a statement, saying, “As for umbrellas, police were concerned that protest participants were using umbrellas and tarps to create makeshift tents to evade the no-camping rule.”

In a city known for its heavy rains, it’s rather extreme to ban the use of umbrellas. But the absence of tents, tarps and even umbrellas during downpours in New York City and Washington DC has yet to discourage protesters.

3) Curfews

Fortunately for the Occupy Wall Street protesters in NYC, the privately owned Zuccotti Park is open 24 hours a day, unlike city-owned parks that are usually closed in the late night to early morning hours. In city and state-owned parks occupied by protesters throughout the country, authorities are using park curfews to their advantage. Just after 3am on the morning of Friday, Oct. 14, Denver police raided the Occupy Denver encampment citing an 11pm to 5am curfew at state parks, making at least 21 arrests. A similar 11pm curfew in Iowa led to 32 arrests on Oct. 9. The same thing happened at Occupy Sacramento.

4) No Open Flames

The “burn ban” generally applies to outdoor cooking, like grilling in the park, and is strictly followed by Wall Street protestors who refuse to give NYPD any reason to evict them. In the early days of Occupy San Francisco, SFPD issued protesters a notice of the local laws and ordinances they were allegedly violating, to justify a pending police crackdown. Included in the list was a “fire code prohibiting open flames that applied to outdoor cooking setups.” The lesson here is no barbequing.

5) No Sitting or Lying Down

SFPD’s notice also informed protesters that they were in violation of a sit-lie law that prohibits sitting or laying down on San Francisco sidewalks between 7am and 11pm. This criminal offense can result in a fine starting at $50 and possibly lead to jail time.

6) No Obstructing the Pedestrian Walkway

Occupy Chicago faced major obstacles early on but has managed to remain intact. The group initially had trouble finding a place to occupy due to the city’s lack of publicly available land. Occupiers ultimately chose to set up camp on the public sidewalk surrounding Chicago’s Federal Reserve building. At first, police warned them not to lean up against the building, but that quickly evolved into a ban on the area 6 feet from the building (almost the entire sidewalk), followed by the enforcement of a Chicago city ordinance preventing people from blocking the public way, aka sleeping or sitting on the sidewalk. (In NYC this is called “impeding pedestrian traffic.”)

7) No Private Belongings in Public Space

Chicago’s spur-of-the-moment version of San Francisco’s sit-lie law was made to apply to the private belongings of protesters as well. According to In These Times, this forced them into “packing their gear into backpacks or putting it onto mobile carts for temporary relocation.” An update on the Occupy Chicago Web site alerted activists to “Occupy Chicago, Phase 2 – Mobilization,” a new plan that would “make all things there 100% mobile, all bodies must be constantly moving, and absolutely no sitting/sleeping.”

8) Unaffordable Fees

The city of Dallas, Texas, demanded that Occupy Dallas fork up $1 million for liability insurance if they want to keep their permit and continue occupying Pioneer Plaza past 5pm Friday (Oct. 14). That’s quite a hefty price for to pay the working class, jobless and indebted students who make up the majority of protesters. As a result, Occupy Dallas took the city to court for unconstitutionally restricting their “right to peaceably demonstrate in traditional public forums.”

Ultimately they reached a deal that allows them to stay in Pioneer Plaza until Sunday (Oct. 16), then relocate to a spot behind City Hall until mid-December.

9) No Potties

Occupy Dallas protesters have been walking a half-mile to use the nearest toilet since they started camping out in Pioneer Plaza because they could not afford the $1 million permit that would have allowed them to bring in a Porta-Potty. Now, that is commitment!

10) No Masks

In NYC at least five protesters were arrested for violating a state statute that dates back 150 years and prohibits masked gatherings of two or more people, with the exception of masquerade balls. With Halloween just weeks away, it will be interesting to see how the NYPD handles masked elementary kids hopped up on Sweet Tarts and Gummy Bears.

11) No Amplification…Mic Check?

After hearing that NYC protesters were required to have a permit to amplify sound, I would never in a million years have imagined a way around the bullhorn, microphone or speakers. I’m still mesmerized by the brilliance of the human microphone, in which listeners loudly repeat a speaker’s words in unison. I don’t think anyone, especially the NYPD, saw that coming.

12) Mass Arrests, Excessive Force

Weeks ago, the nation watched as the NYPD trapped and arrested over 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge. Protesters accused police of deliberately leading them to march onto the bridge only to arrest them hours later, suggesting that the move was coordinated from the top. Prior to the arrests, many Americans watched in disgust as videos surfaced of officers indiscriminately macing protestors in Zuccotti Park. More recently, an officer was caught on tape aggressively attacking protesters, including journalists, with a riot baton. Early this week, almost 150 people at Occupy Boston were arrested following a police raid that left some injured.

While the purpose of these tactics is to scare protesters and those who are considering joining the movement from participating, the opposite has occurred, galvanizing protesters’ solidarity and resolve.

When I spoke to Chris Hedges in Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza last week, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist remarked, “Those white-shirted cops in New York are the best publicity department those protesters have, because the vast majority of Americans sympathize with the movement, and when they see those cops coming in and whacking defenseless people, it just makes them angry.”

(Source: alternet.org)