Forum Post: Idea: Counter riot police by targeting the companies that supply them
Posted 12 years ago on May 22, 2012, 10:20 a.m. EST by XenuLives
(1645)
from Charlotte, NC
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Plenty of companies are making BIG $$$ every time that the police want to "suit up" to disrupt their friendly neighborhood protest. Do a search for "riot control gear" or something similar, and you will find companies that supply this stuff to our local PDs:
http://approvedgasmasks.com/riot-control.htm
This is OUR tax money that is being used to buy this stuff! Its not cheap, either. One of these suits will run you $271 for the low-end. Multiply that by the number of officers that you see decked out in this, and you see where your cash is going.
I suggest, as a side protest (not even necessarily Occupy related) to picket the town halls of municipalities that purchase these goods, or the companies that manufacture them. The goal is to raise awareness among more than just activists that our tax money is being used to fund actions that are taking away our protest rights. The more of a stink you can raise, the harder it will be for business in these area to continue as usual.
The police uniforms aren't the problem; we should be boycotting big cooperation’s by buying our cloths from thrift stores or our food from local markets. If more people were to do that the cooperation’s that power the corrupt Politian’s loose money and that is what we need. Look up the big money cooperation’s that support these people and get everyone you know to stop buying their products or using their service that’s one step everyone can take and it does make a difference.
Having a demonstration to protest the police department's purchase of riot gear is a waste of time. You had might as well protest having a jail, or cop cars, or for that matter, a police department at all. Do you really think you can get some community consensus that the cops shouldn't have it? I seriously doubt it.
Such a demonstration, particularly if it gets out of hand, as some have recently, is likely not only to be a waste of time, but will probably be counterproductive. They'll decide they need more and better gear, not less.
The stink was cause by the urine thrown by the OWS people at the police.