Forum Post: So the other side is resorting to violence...
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 27, 2011, 9:52 p.m. EST by Art
(17)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
If the police are resorting to escalating violent force to defeat peaceful protests, what should we do? At what point are we able to act in self defense?
The brutality on display in Oakland has me worried. I have no doubt that the greedy will see us beaten and killed before the movement affects their paychecks.
From: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/change/science_nonviolence.html "Violence-prone activists sometimes like to claim they are merely retaliating against violence by the police, which they think people will understand and even applaud as justifiable self-protection. Some activists also believe that standing up to the police will inspire others to join them because they have shown they are serious about challenging the system. However, as polls taken after such incidents show, most people do not accept these rationales. They do not like to hear of extreme reactions by the police, but they tend to blame the demonstrators, even when the police are the primary instigators. Thus, it is not a matter of who is right and who is wrong, or about which side started it. It is a matter of whether physical confrontations are effective in gaining adherents, and it seems clear that they are not. To be effective, nonviolence must be maintained in the face of great provocations, even beatings and murders by the opponents. If there is no retaliation, the perpetrators may be prosecuted, or public sentiment may switch to the side of the challengers. This is in fact in part what happened when police and vigilantes attacked civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s. Those unprovoked actions swung whites outside the South against police violence despite their continuing feelings of racial superiority, and forced the president and leaders in Congress to condemn elected officials and law enforcement personnel in the South."
Very true, unfortunately change comes from the blood of the martyrs. It's always been this way. Good to see OWS is on the right path, sad to know the pain,lies, and hatred that the opposition will use to get there way, to no avail.
They would love if we started too resort to violence then they will all say that "I told you it would come down too this!" and slap hands and claim victory as they go "oakland" on every part of the Movement in the nation and possibly world. http://therevolutionarytruth.tumblr.com
I asked radio host "Normangoldman" to explain this situation to me of no avail. First, the unionized police, fire, first-responders embraced as a key entity dismissed by the 1 percent- think Madison, Wisconsin. Now, through some strange vortex, the police/keepers of order have become "boots on the ground". Yet, there is no empathy to the fact that local budgets and resources are being stretched to keep the OWS encampments safe. Likewise, the local business entities and people which reside in these zones have been rather giving. I in no way condone brutality in any guise or form. When resources are being diverted from accidents, homicides, and other unseemly local events in order to placate the needs of OWS......stress is mounting. Just another vantage point.
Jeff - Did see "Trading on Thin Air" the film on http://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/trading-on-thin-air/id444869350 Fantastic stuff - the new fiat currency is on its way and the people who don't make stuff just suck their share of the vig off the top have a new scheme in place - I can see these are the schemers who don't want us to know how money is made - WE can't print it or wish it into existence like they can. A must see. Tradingonthinair.com
Two comments to this: 1) It is disgusting to see human beings treating one another in this manner. Regardless of who started it, saying that responding to violence with violence is the equivalent of Bush and his "well they had citizens who blew up NY... so let's bomb their country." Police officers are underpaid today. They have wives, husbands, children, elderly and ill parents. They are people. They are not who we are fighting. THE POLICE ARE NOT THE 1%; THEY ARE THE 99 AND THEY ARE SCARED TOO. We need to start asking the police to join us. Ask them if they think their pensions will really be there. Ask them how much funding has gone to that big corporate CEO in that building they're protecting instead of the education of their children, their own precincts to protect their families or the healthcare system to make it affordable for their parents to go see a doctor once a year and fill their prescriptions that keep them alive.
And...
2)Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one
Do not for one second underestimate the opposition [ they have doctors of psychology drawing profiles of the protesters / police with Phd's in crowd control / super computers with the top of the line facial recognition software / the best NSA computer programers on the planet / etc... Violence is simply a form of crowd control that has been worked out in the Psyc Labs for years... The opposition loves to employ VIOLENCE because it is just like turning on the lights in "JOE'S APARTMENT!!! ] Gandhi is the only process the impressive and formidable opponents fear / they want to believe we are the cockroaches and not human - peace wins the peace - peace wins the peace - peace wins the peace... peace AtomicZ...
Leave V alone!!!! Spread the event via real time mask of Vendetta in iphone camera !! Share instantly on facebook! Download V Camera @ apple store FREE and designed to support OCCUPY WALLSTREET
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id471851888?mt=8