Forum Post: Bad press is BAD!!! Article in the NY Post!! Address please!
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 8, 2011, 10:05 p.m. EST by ChristianTearanny
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This article was just brought to my attention. Fact Finding? Can we get some protestor protection on her store? Something? Bad press is not something to be disregarded. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/occupiers_terrorize_us_eatery_o4dKzxi3n03WyJWAJu4AhO#.TrnmZSe81DA.facebook
Make a statement that individuals are responsible for their own behavior, and as ows has stated the group does not condone or encourage bad behaviors, and actively seeks to engage in good neighbor policies.
Without a spokesperson, you give the press free rein to not seek an official response because there is no point of contact.
Yeah. Making statements will solve everything.
Hey, its working for herman cain...
So you agree with his tactics.
I do think that when one is accused of something the only recourse is a statement, but i was injecting humor in referring to cain, which may have been a mistake since this type of communication is difficult at best.
The reason accusations are such an overused tool is because they are effective, especially when there is little or no truth in them, as it is not possible to prove a negative. The smear against ows as a whole based on the actions of real people, but those people cant be proven in any definitive way to not be representative of the larger group.
I dont have access to the original article, but had to rely on a blog that used excerpts. The woman claims this has been ongoing, and that she has called the police. Were any arrests made? The lack of arrests might substantiate that she is exaggerating. After all, if i was a shop owner who was facing what she claims, i would be asking the police to come as soon as one of these people entered the doorway. If she is asking them to leave, then they are trespassing. If they are washing up in the bathroom, then the police surely had time to arrive and make arrests. Most places have video these days...does she have any video of these behaviors to back up her claims?
In conclusion, ows could seek to cast doubt on her claims, but then you end up in a pissing contest that drags out over time and keeps the story circulating, which allows the association to form a link in peoples minds. A simple statement addresses it, puts responsibility for it where it lies-- with the individuals--and leaves nothing with which to continue the negative press.
It's absolutely true, you have to answer an attack, never let it go unchallenged. I completely agree, bad press is bad. And if there's any truth to this story, then OWS needs to reimburse the shop owner the $3000--or somebody does. I don't believe in Che Guevara's theory of guerrilla warfare, because it leaves out organizing the masses. But he wrote something beautiful, that revolutionaries don't touch so much as--was it a thimble? a thread? anyway, they don't take even the slightest possession of the people they're living among. (It was Che who wrote, if I remember the quote, "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that a true revolutionary is motivated by a great feeling of love.")
It's a real issue. Occupiers can't save the country by treating small businesses badly. It really does hurt the movement if some protestors are being jerks to vendors and people in the neighborhood. I don't know if they are, but I don't see how OWS can ultimately succeed without a strong enough leadership and discipline that can completely outlaw such antisocial behavior within its ranks.
I don't know the answer, and I admire so much what OWS has accomplished. It really bothers me that some infantile people are undoing the good that so many dedicated activists are giving up their time, money, and even their health to achieve.
Thank you for creating this post and bringing up this ongoing problem.
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I would like to address this article. What you see here on the web is a false sense of reality. Many of the people who post here do not reside in the NYC camp. I pass by there everyday on my way to work and you see so many people who are high as if they are on crystal meth. If the NYPD brought in some dogs then they would probably arrest half the camp for drugs and maybe find a few guns too. This place by the camp is somewhere that I would not stop by at night.
Think of this...the camp has its own security force and on top of that the massive NYPD looking on, but there is still so much crime going on.
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Guys. These stories are not going to stop. You are attracting some questionable people who will be doing illegal activities. It may be time to rethink this, don't ya think?
That would be the same newspaper claiming that we were turning away the homeless and that we're neonazis. Also that a coffee shop that's not anywhere near Zuccotti is being hurt by the protesters, as opposed by the NYPD's rather cracked obsession with barricading half of lower manhattan.
Come back when it's actually true.
What about the sexual assaults? Is that true? If it isnt, then how come you are creating secure sleeping areas for women? Honestly, crime takes place all the time in NYC and even with an army of cops and private security you will not escape it in NYC...
Some of it was true, some of it was a lie. For one, internal security dealt with it, and escorted the perpetrators to the police. But since we care more about the victims than about making a political point, we don't go about banging drums about that fact.
is it not true?
It helps Cain to have the backing of billionaires set on very specific objectives. OW doesn't have that.
what does this have to do wit Cain?
he's referred to in posts prior to mine
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That is bad.