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The seizure of the last remaining tent in the Occupy Albany encampment caused an impassioned tug-of-war between cops and protesters on Friday.
See AP/CBS coverage here. So did this require use of chemical weapons?
Despite national outrage, the heavy handed treatment of protesters continues while lawless corporations elude justice.
People are congregating in thousands of cities, willing to be arrested to push the envelope of public free speech so people will hear their message. OWS organizers preach tactics of non-violent protest going back decades. Arrests bring media attention and public debate. But do cops need to “put a hurtin’ on” these crowds to send a message?
Yes, say cops in Albany who believed they needed to charge the crowd on horseback and use pepper spray to subdue demonstrators trying to preserve the Occupy Albany “info tent” after a police eviction of tents that left this tent standing – for a time. During a later showdown, the police bum-rushed those holding the tent which resulted in pushing, falling and chaos. Eyewitnesses say they were trying to lift and relocate the tent as the police approached.
NY cops were hailed in late October as they ignored Gov. Cuomo’s orders to clamp down on dissent in Albany parks, seeking to enforce curfews by having hundreds arrested. The cops rightly disobeyed then, citing the number of old people and parents with young children in tow.
But Albany cops this time send a message of brutal force to Occupy activists, inducing excruciating pain.
Imagine if Cuomo instead negotiated a peaceful resolution to the tent issue, showing some basic accessibility to this constituent group, in order to consciously prevent injury, suffering and the eventual police brutality claims and lawsuits that drain taxpayer funds needlessly. Instead this will head to the courts to resolve multiple questions of free speech, public assembly and excessive force.
Earlier this month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo surprised many by raising tax rates on upper bracket earners, a move some saw as a gesture towards the middle class.
But because he is so slow to recognize the legitimacy, import and urgency of the street/campsite aspect of the OWS cause, Governor Cuomo is writing a disappointing record of overreaction and brutality.
Add to this now the pepper spraying of protesters and the authorities actually bring even more attention to the courage of the resistors who refused to let go of the symbolic tent.
Hear first hand accounts from activists involved in the incident here.
NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg is credited/blamed for causing OWS numbers to surge after he raided Zucotti Park and trashed the belongings of occupiers. Already common lore is the idea that OWS got national media attention only after cops pepper sprayed marchers, meaning the authoritarian approach is bound to backfire in the age of live streaming because the world is watching.
Some are calling for Albany mayor Gerald Jennings to resign following the pepper spraying, and for reneging on assurances his office would provide notice before evictions and police actions. But it’s all of us who can contact the governor or the mayor to know we are watching in horror:
Albany Mayor Gerald Jennings:
Phone: (518) 434-5100 / Fax: (518) 434-5013
E-mail: mayor@ci.albany.ny.us
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo: (518) 474-8390
Web contact form here.
Facebook page here.
26 Comments
I see that the PTB have had a talk with the leaders in Albany and let them know who they actually work for. Albany was a small bright spot in this dark repressive country but that small light has been crushed out.
Petitioning the PTB will not get their attention, they have already made their intentions clear.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Yep just trying to show he’s with the 1%ers.
Nothing new here. This is what pigs do, this is who pigs are.
DHS makes these decisions. It’s what DHS was created for.
What could have changed from before? Were the police issued a threat of disciplinary action if they did not comply with the order to use force on the protesters? Who gave the order to issue that threat?
It is naivete to place the blame on the police for what occurred. Those deserving the blame are the cowards hiding behind the police wall.
DHS is just a higher ranking cop. The decisions are made at a higher level.
Sorry, I object to the degrading of pigs. They are honorable creatures and please do not associate them with human scumbags.
Here’s a food-for-thought series by Lierre Keith:
Video: “Deep Green Resistance” (in 3 parts beginning here)
So, among human constructs, the legal system by definition is a back-end process. Dead, seriously disabled, vegetative or poor are out of luck. Similarly, the device of the police is also a back-end process but in this instance the prohibited behaviors and actions are supposedly carried out by those who aren’t agents of the state as held by conventional wisdom. So, once rogue elements grasp the reality of the law and police (one could say that the police are simply a version of the military) as back-end systems, they can simply capture them as institutions.
In the following video, it is posited that the legal system is a construct of colonialism, capitalism and corporatism all which are products of feudalism and are +hundreds of years old. Note that “New Amsterdam” is the other tag for “New York City” and that the”1625 date of the founding of New Amsterdam is now commemorated in the official Seal of New York City.” Also, be aware that the speaker is translating if not transliterating concepts that even in the speaking of them rendered into English, most of us have been conditioned to deride, mock and tune out.
Video: “Waziyatawin Speaks to Occupy Oakland” (Nov 14, 2011)
There are now TV ads sponsored by DHS saying (not verbatim) “if you see something suspicious, report it to the authorities,” accompanied by photos of “suspicious characters” looking much more like OWS protesters than Middle East terrorists. The goal is clearly to create an atmosphere of mass paranoia against any form of dissension. Welcome to the American Stasi state.
Perhaps its time for the occupy movement to start occupying some democratic princints and county elections boards? Let’s start doing some things that are going to have some real concrete action on who’s actually running the country.
If You See Something, Say Something™ has an ad in English here. People of color telephoning about white kids with goatees wearing hoodies, using a smart phone and scribling some stuff for a time-based art project, or, wearing all black with maybe their eyes showing, or, wearing all black and really dark sunglasses but not looking like the characters Trinity or Thomas Anderson are prominently featured throughout the video.
The apparently partially published list of Programs Partners is:
From “Homeland Security launches anti-terrorism ads in Spanish” (The Palm Beach Post, by Ana M. Valdes, December 22, 2011, 7:23 p.m. EST):
recommended and tweeted
Thanks Amerigus for sharing. I will also post this story on my website.
If anyone thinks that this situation will get better by voting for either a Democrat or a Republican in 2012, they better wake up.
They better stop acting like defeatists and saying that they can’t do anything about this situations because that is simply not true. We can do a lot. We can change it by putting NON Democrats and NON Republicans in Washington DC.
Yes, some of them will prove to be duds, but most of them will not.
Don’t these people have freedom of assembly?
I guess not.
What country did you think this was? Belgium?
Mario’s son. He got where he is because of his name, not on his own merits. Feh.
That is an interesting suggestion. How does one do that when those offices are bought?
NY cops were hailed in late October as they ignored Gov. Cuomo’s orders to clamp down on dissent in Albany parks, seeking to enforce curfews by having hundreds arrested. The cops rightly disobeyed then, citing the number of old people and parents with young children in tow.
But Albany cops this time send a message of brutal force to Occupy activists, inducing excruciating pain.
Some are calling for Albany mayor Gerald Jennings to resign following the pepper spraying, and for reneging on assurances his office would provide notice before evictions and police actions. But it’s all of us who can contact the governor or the mayor to know we are watching in horror:
The police disobeyed orders to avoid violence the Mayor promised to give notice of evictions?
What changed who leaned on them? How did they lean on them? Or was power in this matter taken out of their hands ie Homeland Security decided OWS was a terror group?
So the Albany PtB didn’t like the fact that Occupy Albany paraded that info tent around town after they were evicted. The cops were apparently ordered to prevent that display of resistance from happening again.
Once again, we are facing an issue that we didn’t know we had until Occupy Wall Street got going. There is no venue for meeting in the US that one cannot be evicted from because of the political direction of your speech and the unwelcomeness of your assembly. Public space no longer is.
A brief video of the horse cop and the pepper spraying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIkTojymdUo
Most places low level Dem election offices are filled by whoever wants the job.
In Chicago and the few cities where they still have political machines you have to work to get out the vote or steal the vote.
Then you magically get city contracts and jobs for you and your family.
They don’t let people buy election official jobs the machine uses them to see who can prove themselves by getting the vote.
Ghostof911 I did not read your comment before I wrote mine down thread asking pretty much the samething. I owe you a drink:)
Evictions by Police Brutality and Torture occur at night when children, the disabled or infirm, and elderly have gone home to bed.
If children (with parents) spent the night at OWS, the police would “have no other choice” but to pepper spray the children as well.
Pigs.
“Despite national outrage, the heavy handed treatment of protesters continues while lawless corporations elude justice.”
Contempt of Cop, they deserve the attidude earned… sigh
in case you didn’t already know this, Andrew Cuomo’s a charmless jerk. I think he was adopted.
toc toc, the clock missed a beat,
let’s make our dinner with richman meat
For a disgusting picture worth a thousand, or more, please visit:
http://prairiefirenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/albany-spray.jpg
Torture and sadism has become the norm in dealing with protesters, and for Christmas this year, Occupy L.A. got City PTB Suckups dishing out a list of what the protest cost the city (lots less than the big winds that blew through starting on the day the Occupiers were evicted).