Dear OccupyWallStreet;

[mcity]

Iraqi veteran Scott Olsen was shot in the head, yes, by a beanbag round. Or by a tear gas round, it's unclear. I didn't even have to click through to any of the pages Google found to learn that. While that is bad, the way it the headline is phrased deliberately leads people to think it was bullets.

And Dorli Rainey, the 84-year old granny who was pepper sprayed? She was in a crowd of protestors that had marched what Google Maps tells me is over two miles from their camp. I don't know if she was there from the start, or joined in at some point, but the protestors were in the middle of downtown Seattle, and not dispersing when the cops asked them to.

Now unless you think the cops should screen for Iraqi vets and OAPs in crowds when they deploy less-lethal measures, you need to pull back on the propaganda. There seems to be a focus only on how those policemen are big ol' meanies, instead of worrying about who causes these confrontations in the first place. And no, don't keep dodging responsibility with those nonsense rumors about agent provocateurs, whom there is no credible evidence for. If you want the police to be bad guys, don't confront them in such a aggressive manner that it gives them a reason to respond with force. MLK knew this, Gandhi knew this.

It is hypocritical to want to have a movement demanding accountability and responsibility for others without wanting either for themselves. And for all the protesting, there doesn't seem to be anything changing.

Quit with the sound and fury, and start signifying something.
-Jonathan

EDIT: It turns out rocks were being thrown at the time of the injury, so Mr. Olsen could've been hit by one of those, and not by the police at all. Please note that beanbag rounds are usually aimed at chest height--they're not exactly aerodynamic, and the torso means a better chance of incapacitation without serious injury--and tear gas is usually thrown by hand towards the ground. The Oakland protests in question had already gotten confrontational, had built barricades which they set on fire, and were destroying bank property during the day. Basically, the OWS account of the events is slanted so far as to be nearly horizontal. I mean, Olsen was supposedly seriously injured, but was still texting.

Comments

[skanrashke.livejournal.com]

To be fair, the police DID spray people sitting down, not doing anything, with pepper spray- MULTIPLE TIMES. What really happened was a typical protest. It's not march on wall street only, this happens to anyone who ACTUALLY proests anything outside a 'designated protest zone'.

[mcity.livejournal.com]

If you mean this incident (http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Ca-college-president-vows-pepper-spraying-probe-2278918.php), it's being investigated, and the cops were put on "administrative leave". As far as I know, pepper spray is actually less risky than physical force for separating people interlocked in such a manner, especially, since it seems they were asked to move and the cops did try to get them to let go with a tug or two.

I've noticed that very few people decrying the use of less-lethal methods seems to have any idea what the police should use if they want to remove protestors, even if the protestors in question may, in fact, have been breaking the law. It seems hypocritical to knowingly break the law, and then complain about being dealt with in the same essential fashion cops deal with any criminal. Pepper spray is actually on the low end of the use of force continuum, after "Soft Hand" techniques, which the cops tried to use. The next step up is "Hard Hand" techniques, followed by Tasers and Batons.

I've also noticed these videos and photos tend to selectively cut out what caused the confrontation, or any requests by the cops to stop. In the OccupyOakland incident I mentioned in the post, police gave the protestors plenty of time to disperse, and they clearly conveyed their intent to resist, possibly with force, by throwing bottles. In fact, there are reports someone was firing a paintball gun at the OO cops long before they started using the tear gas. I'm not sure why actively assaulting peace officers with rocks, bottles, and paintball guns isn't considered "use of force" at all when one blogger on Wonkette was making Stalinist comparisons about the cops for incidents including said UC Davis use of pepper spray, but it is.

Honestly, I'm more concerned about the sheer level of intellectual dishonesty, and how pretty much no one within OWS seems to be capable of self-criticism or self-evaluation. It's actively worrying to me, for the accountability reasons listed in the post. How can a movement that can't even be consistently honest about itself demand honesty from others?

/rhetorical

[skanrashke.livejournal.com]

Why remove the protesters in the first place? They didn't do anything except sat around and made some noise. :X On a college campus. Where its full of noisy college kids sitting around.. making noise..

I'm just confused as to why any measure needed to be taken at all. Those sorts of things are reserved for people actively preventing passage on roadways, harassing people, etc. These kids just appear to be.. sitting there. There's NO justifiable reason for them to be removed forcably. Except that they're protesting, and the government has been really bearing down on protest related anything over the past 3 years.

Wait, what? I'm not familiar with the occupy wall street movement, TBH, so I don't know what you're talking about.

[skanrashke.livejournal.com]

I've been in more than my fair share of protests- you know what happens if you don't break them up? Not alot. We march up and down the streets, let vehicles pass and show them our signs and shout slogans at them. It's really not a huge deal.

I'm all for cops defending themselves (with minimal force) if the crowd starts throwing things, well throw back tear gas, no problem. It's that the police currently feel the need to escalate rather than react. If you throw rocks, they're more likely to shoot you than use tear gas. They'll probably use tear gas anyways if you don't disperse when they tell you to.

Gotta protest in protest-zones, can't do it outside them, because nobody wants to see you protest. Ffff, fuck that. This is America, we're guaranteed a right to peacably assemble and protestation is a fine, longstanding American tradition.