I've "enjoyed" reading through several pages of the many comments at that story. We are not alone, that's for sure. Any one of the commenters there would fit right in in a RI discussion of such matters. Everyone (from what I saw) is behind this movement and the venality, the phoniness of the Democratic party and their true function, which is to enable the right. The Democrats are the smart wing of the right, the think tank wing of the right. The right wing is the business end, the end that gets into your face, the boot stomping on your face forever wing. The Democrats today are simply there to grease the skids.
I keep coming back to the glaring contemporary question of "what does America do"? Or the assertion that "America is out of ideas".
And I wonder. . .
Why should America do anything? Why is it we cannot just live? Why cannot we maintain our lives on our own, within communities? Why do most police view themselves as not part of the general public? I've worked with the public for a long time and I have never had a regular who came in and when you get to know them say "Oh, I'm a cop". They sequester themselves from us for some reason. I think this is because they view the rest of the world with disdain and hate and possibly more fear than we unarmed folk do. They feel "naked" without their brotherhood around them and probably for good reason. The police, in large part, are no longer our neighbors and community members. They have been trained and conditioned to view the public as something to be controlled not protected.
We need a new populist party that stretches beyond the false dichotomies of Republican and Democrat. Just maybe this can be a beginning.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
82_28 wrote: Why do most police view themselves as not part of the general public? I've worked with the public for a long time and I have never had a regular who came in and when you get to know them say "Oh, I'm a cop". They sequester themselves from us for some reason. I think this is because they view the rest of the world with disdain and hate and possibly more fear than we unarmed folk do. They feel "naked" without their brotherhood around them and probably for good reason. The police, in large part, are no longer our neighbors and community members. They have been trained and conditioned to view the public as something to be controlled not protected..
In Los Angeles the cops mostly live in a distant suburb called "Simi Valley", which is, in rush hour traffic, as much as a two hour drive from Los Angeles. It's in the far, far distant valley, and is completely removed from the "real" Los Angeles. And yes I'm sure most of them hate and fear the inhabitants of their beats. As I would if I had to do a beat in Simi Valley.
"He who wounds the ecosphere literally wounds God" -- Philip K. Dick
IWW wrote:IWW Endorses Occupy Wall Street Posted Wed, 09/28/2011 - 1:28pm by IWW.org Editor
On behalf of our union, the General Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World sends our support and solidarity to the occupation of Wall Street, those determined to hold accountable our oppressors.
This occupation on Wall Street calls into question the very foundation in which the capitalist system is based, and its relentless desire to place profit over and above all else.
When 1% of the ruling class holds the wealth created by the other 99%, it is clear that the watchwords found in our union's preamble, "the working class and the employing class have nothing in common", ring true more than ever.?The IWW does not follow a business union model. We believe that the working class and the employing class have nothing in common and we don't foster illusions to the contrary.
Throughout the world, from Egypt to Greece, from China to Madison, Wisconsin, working class people are starting to rise up. The IWW welcomes this. We see the occupation of Wall Street as another step - no matter how large or small - in this process. Bookmark/Search this post with
Occupy Wall Street spreads to San Francisco 09.28.11 - 3:05 pm
As the Occupy Wall Street demonstration enters its 12th day in New York City – and as progressive activists protest in cities across the country – Bay Area residents are preparing for a mass mobilization on the streets of San Francisco tomorrow afternoon (Thurs/29), targeting financial institutions and other entities that they blame for the economic plight of the average American.
While the mainstream media has alternatively tried to ignore the uprising or scoffed at its wide range of complaints, the activists involved say it boils down to the powerful doing well at the expense of the powerless, and actively widening that divide. And the manifestations are many: layoffs and employee benefit cuts by profitable corporations, a worsening foreclosure crisis and lack of affordable housing, small businesses that can't get access to capital, political corruption that scuttled real fiscal reforms, deep cuts to government services made worse by the right-wing's refusal to tax rich corporations and individuals, shady corporate tax avoidance schemes, an education system under assault, refusal to seriously address global warming and economic injustice, and a litany of problems created by the same small group of power brokers.
“It's along the lines of saying: Look, these people are screwing us in every way they can,” Alysabeth Alexander, the political director of Servie Employees International Union Local 1021, told us.
That union and many others are part of the broad coalition – a group that includes university students, social service providers, religious leaders, economic justice advocates, the online collective Anonymous, and others – that is organizing tomorrow's protests in San Francisco, which will peak between 3-6 pm at selected targets around the Financial District, such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, and Goldman Sachs.
"Big banks crashed our economy and destroyed our communities. Budget cuts threaten our schools, libraries, and social services. We bailed out the banks. Now they need to pay,” organizers wrote in an event invite on Facebook.
One of those organizers is Sarah Page, who has been helping coordinate various Occupy San Francisco events, which begin tomorrow with a 7:30 am “wake-up call” at the “night camp” at Steuart Street near Embarcadero and continue through a 4 pm demonstration outside the Federal Reserve Building and into the evening.
Her group's week of protest began last Saturday with a General Assembly in Union Square and will end with another one there this Saturday at noon. "There's more people camping and they've gotten very organized. Every day it seems like there's more people showing up,” she told us. “There aren't really leaders, the people at the camp are really organizing themselves."
The week of protests, dubbed the Refund California Week of Action, has also been organized and chronicled by the website Make Banks Pay California, which says that this week's protests throughout the Bay Area will be followed up next week by protests in Los Angeles.
Will the protests that began on Wall Street and trickled into cities around the country catch fire in the same way those in the Arab Spring have? I suppose that depends on who shows up and what happens tomorrow. But we at the Guardian will be out on the streets, chronicling the action with words and images here and tweets here or here, so follow along or join the moment.
'A Fair Warning' Momentum is building- Los Angeles will Occupy this Friday and San Diego will be joining the following Friday. Chicago is already in action and other cities around the country are in planning phases. Americans are not feeling there voices heard by elected officials or the media and hitting the streets is our final option. Check out http://www.roarmag.org for good articles ' All Day All Week Occupy Wall St !!!!!!!
We continue our coverage of Occupy Wall Street on our show tonight and take a look specifically at progressive or liberal commentators that you'd think would easily align with the message that Occupy Wall Street wants to send. We've seen people like Michael Moore and Chris Hedges throw their weight behind the cause, but others have attempted to delegitimize the protestors, criticizing everything from their lack of cohesion and strategy, to the sheer fact that they look like hippies or freaks. Where does that kind of disdain come from? Firedoglake's Kevin Gosztola discusses. http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/
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Interview with Susan Sarandon during her visit to the Occupy Wall Street Protestors
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http://twitpic.com/6s4pob Torpurr Rob “@owsbot: Massive general assembly at #occupyboston twitpic.com/6s4pob #OccupyWallStreet” wow. Just wow. 3 minutes ago
Same cop, different unprovoked mace attack from Sat:
[the British] government always kept a kind of standing army of news writers who without any regard to truth, or to what should be like truth, invented & put into the papers whatever might serve the minister
Wall Street protests reveal slice of America's barely tamed brutality Pepper spray, Swat teams and judicial torture. This barbarity is ever present – but rarely so visible – in American life
Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 September 2011 15.00 ED
Occupy Wall Street Fights Corporate Greed The ongoing Occupy Wall Street protest fights against corporate greed and Kevin Pereira talks to Majority FM host Sam Seder to learn exactly what is going on, why corporate media isn't covering the event and what this movement is all about.
Police Leak is a website dedicated to the documentation and public release of information on the subject of Police Brutality and Police Misconduct that occurs around the United States. In hopes of bringing awareness to current and future officers that in this day and age there are camera's and people's rights rights and the two go hand in hand.
Over the past 13 days of #OccupyWallStreet, several officers have been singled out for their treatment of protesters, amongst them, one was to become known as “red coat”. Detective Kenneth O’Donnell has officially been identified as this abusive officer, an example of his actions that have led us to classify him as such can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/nZfALL
Any further information discovered could not be confirmed, and in the interests of other who share his name, we have refrained from posting a list of possible addresses, phone numbers and relations.
To any doubters, feel free to call 6466105529 and ask for information on his badge number. To O’Donnell, best of luck with your application to become a Naval Reserve Officer, don’t let the NYPD hold you back.
