The scale of response is clearly different but mayors around the country are having similar results trying to oust Occupiers as shown below.
Police brandishing assault rifles arrest 8 protestors and evict others from a vacant building in Chapel Hill, North Carolina November 13.
Click on the image to read an article from the local news media which have reported this event far more accurately than national news outlets.
– Iron Filing
UPDATE: This shocking video of the repugnant behavior of police at UC Davis makes the point that we are more like China than I feared and less like China than some folks want. Local police are over-reacting to overwhelmingly nonviolent protests from New York To Chapel Hill and Portland to California. Let’s hope local governments calm down and reassess and that the Federal authorities behave better.
9 Comments
What’s with the second image? (It’s without a context, and so isn’t really helping to promote informed discussion. In other words, citation needed.)
Sorry about that. Clicking on the image takes you to a pretty objective account from the local newspaper. I believe the local papers have been far more balanced and accurate reporting on the events in Chapel Hill than larger news services have been.
I’m updating the post with a line clarifying this. Thanks for the constructive criticism THOUGHTDANCER. That is always appreciated!
If you haven’t had the opportunity to be disgusted at what happened at UC Davis, definitely look it up. Police literally hosing down students who were sitting down with arms locked (comically/sadly in part protesting the police violence at UC Berkley) with pepper spray.
Watch the videos if you can, because a lot of the reports mention “used pepper spray” or “employed pepper spray.” That isn’t what happened. The guy seriously looks like he is watering plants…and looks to have roughly the same empathy for the students as he does for the plants.
1032 – I believe that 2 of the Officers and the Chief of police have now been placed on admin leave pending a departmental investigation. Interestingly they initially attempted to justify the actions as necessary for student and police safety. I saw the video and it was absolutely excessive for what seemed to be a peaceful event. I cannot see the entire context or groups of people in the area and there did seem to be a large crowd surrounding the area, but again all seemed to be a non-threatening posture.
That’s my left brain, now for my right brain.
I understand civil disobedience and enjoyed Thoreau’s writing of it as a boy. I lived through the 60’s as a young kid and saw the things that happened. I saw some old footage of protests then and even a sign saying “don’t fight Wall Streets wars”, which sounds all to familiar to current rhetoric. During the Tea Party protests the left leaning media made a huge deal about any slightly threatening posture. The TPers protested for a day, waved their flags, hung tea bags from their hats, dressed in period garb and then went home until the next event. Compared to the OWS movement it’s been like kindergarten versus prison riots. I even stumbled upon Ed Schulz on MSNBC basically encouraging the extreme behavior.
Civil Disobedience is good. Violent protests enflamed by the fringe elements are not. And I still hold to the conviction that these people are mad at the wrong people. They should be mad at the politicians, everywhere. When you have one idiot calling for NY city to be burnt to the ground it can’t help your cause. If officials and in many instances movement friendly or at least tolerant say it’s time to go home, then go home and show up at the next rally. They’ll win more support from the other 98% of the 99% if they do that. As the movement stands now, this member of the other 98% wants nothing to do with them.
How many OWS protestor came to a rally in open carry? That somehow got left off of your TP list in favor of colonial clothing. Odd, that.
They are not violent. Describing these as “violent protests” is intellectually dishonest and you should be ashamed of yourself for it. They are absolutely angry at the right people. If you think they aren’t mad at politicians, you are sorely mistaken. There are no violent protests, unless you are counting police violence.
How is what you are describing civil disobedience? It’s a little like saying, “if officials in a friendly way tell you to move to the back of the bus, Rosa, then do it.”
1032 -what the students were doing is what I would call civil disobedience and the police were wrong for their conduct. The riots I saw pics of in Oakland were also wrong. The rapes, drug use, and calling for violence coming from the fringe elements of the movement are also wrong. Regarding the open carry, that may have occurred in isolation, but they also were’nt shooting them in the air either. By and large the TP rallies were peaceful. The gathered, then they went home. As a result they are now well represented in congress and state governments accross the country. They are trying to change the system from the inside. Now we may not agree with all their ideals or policies, but isn’t that how a movement can best be represented and an example of how our system works? Lets see some OWS people get elected and change the system they way they believe it should be instead of just hanging out in the park. Use the system and change it the way our founding fathers had the wisdom to give us the means.
No doubt someone at an Occupy gathering has stolen something from another person. Does that mean that the movement is about theft? Is it a large group of thieves? Have the protests now turned into larceny-fests? The movements are peaceful demonstrations. Any acts of violence are promptly denounced. Again, you should be ashamed of yourself for attempting to describe these as violent protests.
You are right, too. It is perfectly normal to gather in a large group of people in open carry, just as long as nobody is shooting in the air. But then if they did that, who cares? It’s just shooting in the air. It isn’t like they are shooting at people. I also find it comical that you can easily brush this off with “in isolation,” yet have no problem talking about the “rapes” and “violence” at OWS.
I can’t even describe the depths of irony when you demand that people use the system the way our founding fathers designed. Ignoring the fact that they had no idea of the depths of political corruption that we would reach with lobbying, these are the same founding fathers who, when confronted with unjust behavior, DID NOT “use the system” and instead rebelled against it.
You are correct that the majority of OWS protests are peaceful, but you cannot deny that some idiots are using it for their own agenda and simultaneously giving the movement a black eye or two.
I’d suggest that you’ve described every movement throughout history.