Forum Post: Proposal for a Tactic

I've visited and been a part of occupations both large and small (including OWS itself - much love and support!) One of the things I really love about the small-town actions is that people aren't so intimidated, and can really get into in-depth conversations about the issues. Even some of the more extreme pro-business anti-regulations types often just want to be heard, and can definitely come around; it just takes time. Furthermore, as an occupier, small groups can be much less stressful; and since the NYPD plainly doesn't like large groups, it behooves OWS to spread out for certain actions, namely educational ones. As such:

• Four or five protesters on a streetcorner. The difference? All the corners. In New York you've got enough people that you could cover a pretty big portion of lower Manhattan, even saturate it.

• One or two signs for every group. The idea here is to be inviting, not aggressive. OWS is pretty good about that anyway.

• If every corner is occupied, most groups should have a line of sight to at least one other (especially with the tiny blocks south of 14th.) My feeling is that people will make sure this happens pretty naturally.

• Some sort of nexus would have to be set up - not necessarily one that's got a lot of people, but a defined place to fall back to if there's trouble. The beauty of it is that with smaller numbers over a larger area, the police aren't going to be on alert in the same way; there simply needs to be a place to organize a plan B.

• If possible, try and make sure cameras are evenly distributed. Again, this is mostly for a precaution. This is more of an outreach event than a media event, but it's still good to be covered.

You guys in New York are very smart, so I'd love to see someone refine this idea and put it up to a GA for a possible event. Given the police responses lately, I think this would be a really positive thing, both for PR and for the occupiers themselves (I was there on Dec. 17th, and loved it, but man - getting kettled is stressful!) It might seem like this would require some centralized organization, but I don't think it necessarily would, so long as the message and idea behind the action is clear. I'm not sure how many people read this board, but I'd love to know what folks think.