Forum Post: A Call to Enter the Next Phase

From a student of law who is for the cause.

Nobody, whether for or against the movement, can deny the effectiveness of the movement in generating enthusiasm for its cause, and in getting people of all different opinions and backgrounds to talk about the state of capitalism in this country. Having attended several GA meetings and talked to several dozen people - professors, artists, and former brokers alike - I can safely say that the Park, prior to Mayor Bloomberg's rather forceful (though admittedly lawful) pre-dawn raid, was a place buzzing with debate and meaningful discussions, and for that I am grateful.

But now that the judge has ruled that the Park is not a place for an indefinite encampment (even by political protesters), as per straightforward and indisputable First Amendment analysis, it is time to move on (the protesters were kicked out based on a valid time / place / manner restriction & a valid state purpose, meaning that there was a restriction in effect which stated that nobody is to sleep overnight with camping gear in the Park, and that the health issue (the spreading of TB, amongst other diseases) served as a valid state purpose for kicking the protesters out. The right to protest, in sum, is not absolute, and can be subject to limitations).

Moving on from this event does not, in my opinion, mean disrupting the commute of those in the 99%, which you are ultimately doing. Nor is it confronting the police on a daily basis.

In packing the narrow streets of downtown Manhattan, you risk doing (or currently are doing) all of the following:

(1) Preventing those not in the 1% from getting to work on time, and thus potentially subjecting them to the wrath of someone in the 1%, who may decide to fire them. If we are to believe that those in the 1% don't care about those in the 99%, then surely they will not buy the excuse that the protests prevented these workers from getting to work on time. if you don't believe this is a possibility, I am currently seeing it where I work, where several workers in the 99% are arriving to work considerably late, and racing out of the office a few minutes earlier than they're supposed to in order to get home to their kids.

(2) Alienating those on the margins with your cause. The key to the success of any movement is widespread support, and severely inconveniencing people in their daily commutes will only steer them away from your cause.

(3) Trivializing the idea of "occupying". "Occupying" only has meaning if it serves some sort of legitimate end, and if the public perception is that you're occupying random spots of the city for the sake of it (even though this isn't true), then the very word loses its significance, and thus the word risks entering the daily discourse as a punchline for bad jokes.

(4) Generating public sympathy for the police. If you keep confronting the police, people will eventually side with them, even if there are spots of police brutality (of which there certainly are and will be in the future, i.e. the kid with the bloody head). First of all, they are in the 99%, even if one is the claim that they are being bought out by private interests, the claims of which seem vaguely tied to money being given to the Police Department generally (New York City cops do not get paid nearly as much as they should, certainly under $100,000 when they start out and for a # of years thereafter). Second, people will begin to perceive (as they already are) that the police are just trying to deal with an aimless breaking of the law, and that they are trying to contain a movement which threatens chaos. BUT EVEN IF the police are in the wrong, and even if the clashing is legitimate, which I do not deny in the vast majority of cases, there needs to be an effort to talk with and come to terms with the police, and get them on your side. Talking always helps. Flipping the helmets off them doesn't.

A solution, in part, can be found in focusing all of this anger and frustration in writing a set list of demands or proposals, which has been avoided for far too long under the guise of not defining the movement or tying it down to any sort of ideology. But the movement is already being defined as an aimless march of angry young men and women, and even though the media is wrong in portraying the movement as such, you can't control how they represent you. You can only choose the alternative - of sitting down, writing out what you demand, excepting that differences and arguments will arise (as they should), and acting accordingly.

Lively debate was the best part of Zuccotti Park. Let's now debate about the future of this country.