Look at the Empire striking back
11.15.2011 1 Comment
Some American cities have recently cleansed or have attempted to cleanse the following occupations from their public and private parks:
- Austin
- Chapel Hill
- Denver
- New York
- Oakland
- Portland
- Richmond
- St. Louis
The authorities might find suppressing a decentered and informally organized movement difficult, akin, perhaps, to herding cats.
All Tied Up and Nowhere to Go 
I was with the Occupy Oakland usual suspects in an FTP march on that evening that ended at International House on the UCB campus. Along the way, I discovered later, Berkeley PD–sometime 40-60 strong–had shadowed us from 1-2 blocks away, to our destination at IH, for a needed meetup with Occupy UCB. We never saw the BPD, because there was nothing for a police department to do. We marched. We hollered a little. We got to where we were going.
Greeting us as we arrived: UC students. Much conversation, much laughter. An hour or so later, many of the group left on an Occupy UC tour of significant UCB 1st Amendment-significant landmarks.
Also greeting us: about one dozen UCB police officers in full riot gear–storm trooper outfits, two holding shotguns (not regular types but all white, just like in the movies–we know that they shoot beanbag (lead shot) rounds. They stood in the lobby of IH in an array of wasted overtime pay–feet planted far apart, arms held with elbows akimbo.
A few of us, not socializing much, spent our time speaking to these officers, asking them why they were there, commenting on how absolutely inutile were their outfits, their equipment, their presence. They came and went but always maintained an armed bloc. They principally were engaged in standing there, looking severe, and asking students–some from other countries, who live in IH–for their “papers.” Students from countries all over the world, come to the bastion of human rights, being asked for their “papers” before they could enter their campus home.
The IH manager told me in answer to my question that the UCPD had not been asked to come to IH–they had simply appeared. By the time we spoke–about 1 a.m.–she was really trying to figure out how to get them to leave.
And by the time we spoke, Peter Cukor had been killed not far away.. Whether or not the reason that police were not dispatched to him was the BPD’s paranoia, there were police forces in International House for no damn good reason. The status quo is being challenged and the armed forces–the police– of this country are being trained and dispatched to stop the changes, protect the status quo–the one that’s victimizing the already poor and struggling.
Occupy is a manifestation of the conscience of this country. We expect opposition. We know there will be lies. We won’t go away.
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