Forum Post: Co-opt the NYPD
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 13, 2011, 11:49 p.m. EST by L3employee
(63)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I've just spent a short time in Liberty Square/Zucotti Park. And I have this suggestion for the occupation:
Make the NYPD your friends.
Your kitchen is already brewing coffee in the mornings (had some when I got up on Saturday, & it was great). OK, maybe it wasn't the world's best coffee, but the cup was warm, the air was cold....
So, anyway, my suggestion: Get some volunteers together, brew coffee in the morning, go out to the barricades & give a cop a cup. Hell, if you can get doughnuts, give 'em those too! I'm willing to send coffee to help with this (doughnuts don't ship well).
Those officers at the barricades are part of the 99%. I've talked with some, and, like many of us, they aren't bad people, they're just good parts of a bad machine. Your own security has turned people over to the NYPD for arrest to keep the camp safe.
So, I say, go out in the morning, give a cop a cup, thank him or her for helping to make the camp safer. The police get to know you as people (and you gt to know them as same) maybe, when the order comes down to break heads, & clear the park, at least SOME will not comply
posted a second time, because I'm a lousy typist.
Honestly, that's a great idea. The cops on the street aren't pissed at OWS because of what we stand for or who we are; they may get pissed if we treat them like crap simply for being there. Free coffee to a cop that's been out in the cold all morning would be a good idea, as would a concerted effort to look out for and patronize local small businesses and vendors. Since it's pretty clear that we're going to be here for the long haul we need to practice more of what we preach, it's both good PR and the right thing to do.