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[Bauglir]

My response to every instance of facepalm-inducing police overreaction. I could probably reuse this link in every post I make in this thread from now on, but I'll spare us that. It'd be funny once, maybe. Meanwhile, this is still pretty obnoxious behavior on the part of the police in question.

[alway]

http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/19/8884405-lobbying-firms-memo-spells-out-plan-to-undermine-occupy-wall-street

A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program “Up w/ Chris Hayes.”

The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association.

CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.

[RedKing]

Maybe Occupy Wall Street needs to morph into Occupy K Street.

[Phmcw]

What the hell happened to "police may only use force for self defense?". I though it was always clear, lethal or not, a policeman can only use it's weapon to defend himself or other. Not as a tool of compliance.
I'm going to look into this.

[Sheb]

Yeah, we've got an hsitory of police violence in Belgium (Recent exemple), but I still managed to get shocked by those pics/videos. I mean gassing people sitting on the ground?

[Phmcw]

http://www.rtl.be/videos/video/292238.aspx

You need humor when you protest, switch to 0:35 to see how our firefighter protested against the lack of funding and manpower.

Funny video aside, here's an AMA, that, I hope, describe French and Belgian anti riot phylosophy. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dta55/im_a_retired_french_riot_police_captain_ama/c12rc7t

It's hilarious because Americans protester are actually doing riot police's job : trying to quieten the situation and to answer calmly to violence until their adversaries get tired.

[SalmonGod]

CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians.

Something like this?   

They certainly are putting in a lot of effort, even if their criticisms are incredibly shallow or obviously misleading.  I like the one where they list 7 deaths caused by the Occupy movement.  I'd heard of at least 4 of them, but I noticed one link mentioned Bloomington.  I didn't know about that one, and it's rather closed to home so I looked... the news story in their own link was only a brief mention that some homeless person stumbled into an Occupy camp and died of completely unrelated natural causes.  He was in obviously bad health when they arrived and Occupiers provided him food and shelter, but didn't realize how bad his situation was.  I guess this group expects anyone who bothers to look at their stuff to be the type of person who will only glance and take everything at face value.


Edit:  Here's an article about arrest of journalists.  I like it mainly for the last paragraph.

(And for those wondering how a reporter can obtain an official NYPD pass, The Observer notes that the qualifying factors require a journalist to prove that they covered six or more events in the city on separate days in the 24 months before asking for a pass — implying that in order to be valid in the eyes of the law, one must break it first.)

The infamous police chief who left the force and became vocally opposed to standard police tactics after presiding over the Battle in Seattle chimes in on the Occupy movement.

[Osmosis Jones]

Funny video aside, here's an AMA, that, I hope, describe French and Belgian anti riot phylosophy. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dta55/im_a_retired_french_riot_police_captain_ama/c12rc7t

From there

Training is necessary because riot control's ultimate goal is to make sure that the rioter in front of you goes home safely tonight, even if you end up in the infirmary. He's a citizen, you're a police officer, his life is more important than yours.

That, right there, is how you do policing.

[SalmonGod]

A little history of police strategies in handling protests.

Edit:

I just got around to watching the video of the recent UC Davis pepper spray incident.  It's one of the most powerful moments I've ever seen in real life.  I don't say this because the brutality was something extreme or because of the obnoxious screams from so many of the bystanders.  It's the progression from the officer's (especially Pike's) fearless nonchalance and casual showmanship, to their nervous withdrawal amidst the chants of shame.

And now this.

I'm in awe of the protesters at UC Davis.  Well done.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

A UC Davis Professor has demanded that the Chancellor resign due to her bringing the police onto campus in the first place.

Personally, this UC Davis incident has started to make me believe that we are, in fact, doomed. The cops don't care anymore. They do whatever the fuck they want without repercussion now and they know it. Congress is full of corrupt, nay, evil people who's decisions were bought by men in $10,000 dollar suits long ago. The Constitution hardly matters to these people. Rights and liberties aren't here for us once we need to use them. Everyone is drowning. Drowning in debt, drowning in ignorance, drowning in the shadow of brutality and oppression that suddenly hangs over the nation. Executive, Legislative, Judicial, all three branches of the government have become withered and rotten. I finally look at it all at once, in the big picture, and I see a disturbing reality. Every system, every facet of society, filled to the brim with corruption, with falsehoods, with fundamental issues that more people than not care to allow.


I am truly beginning to be haunted by the feeling that there is no hope left for the United States of America, or at least not any incarnation of it I'd see and approve of. There is a shift now, one I can almost feel, of human vice drowning out everything good that I can see. Drowning together, all of us, slowly or quickly. Drowning the whole world.


 

[SalmonGod]

That's how I felt before the Occupy movement.

[Bauglir]

I flipflop between feeling exactly like that and feeling like there's a core worth defending and building on. It pretty much depends on how stupid a thing has happened that day, and how much I try to disconnect my experiences from that damn instinct to construct a narrative out of everything. More and more, though, I start feeling like, "Jeez, I'm starting to think maybe there actually are 'bad guys'." It's getting to a point where I can no longer adequately explain problems through incompetence, and so must resort to ascribe them to malice.

When the hell did Saturday morning cartoon villains start seeming like the sensible explanation?

[GlyphGryph]

I don't even know how to feel any more. Except that I'm not doing enough. And I don't know if going down a night or two a week and talking to people and waving some signs around for an hour or so is doing anything at all. And I don't know what else I can do, and the whole thing just sickens me, and... urgh.

There are, always, bad guys. But unless they do something like this, its usually hard to pick them out. And it doesn't take many to ruin a good thing.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

More and more, though, I start feeling like, "Jeez, I'm starting to think maybe there actually are 'bad guys'." It's getting to a point where I can no longer adequately explain problems through incompetence, and so must resort to ascribe them to malice.

They're just evil people. There is no other way to explain these things anymore. They are just evil. I wish I could give a less black and white explanation for this, but I can't. The government and the police force is filled from top to bottom with people who are either evil or fully complacent to evil.

[SalmonGod]

I don't understand why people struggle with this so much.  As an anarchist, one of the most common statements I hear is that there are malicious people in the world.  Why then is it also so common for people to avoid the notion that malice may find its way into our institutions?

It's one of the most fundamental and common personal conflicts I witness in people around me on a daily basis, and most aren't even aware that this conflict exists within them.