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Who does the ATM blame? (photo: colin_n, flickr)
Interesting stuff blowing in the wind recently. It’s called the baseless blame game. In Oakland the police have conveniently tried to blame Occupy Oakland for a tragic murder in Berkeley using the excuse that their resources were tied up handling peaceful protesters and they could not respond to the 911 call.
Here in Orlando there was some vandalism done to a couple of ATM machines in Ocoee by a single person who was caught on camera. WKMG, Channel 6 filed a story at one of the banks involved and the gist of the story is that the Ocoee police speculate that it could be someone affiliated with a group like Occupy Orlando. The investigating officer was not identified and the police department offered no opinion on the matter but that didn’t matter to channel six.
Neither the on air reporter nor the anchors offered any explanation as to why the speculation was centered on the occupy movement, nor offered any reason why it should be. It’s just a ploy to get your attention focused on a group that does not advocate violence in any form by suggesting that they use violence without any proof whatsoever. This was the kind of ploy that Captain Jeffrey MacDonald used in 1969 on the heels of the brutal Manson Family murders of Sharon Tate and Abigail Folger when he was accused and eventually convicted of murdering his family.
In those days, forty years ago the country was trapped in the paranoia and fear of “others who do not act or think like us.” Even though it was a few years later, the Patty Hearst affair was part of that period.
Occupy Orlando’s media team was quick to respond to the baseless allegations. Here’s a copy of their press release:
Ocoee Police Dept smears Occupy Orlando with baseless accusations of ATM vandalism
WKMG Channel 6 News reporter Eric Von Anchen says “police believe” Occupy Orlando is responsible for attacks
February 22, 2012 – ORLANDO, FL – Occupy Orlando was surprised to learn that the Ocoee Police Department is publicly accusing Occupy Orlando of vandalism on two ATM machines located at Bank of America and SunTrust branches in Ocoee. In the television report on WKMG Local 6 news, anchor Lauren Rowe reports that “investigators are trying to figure out what triggered a man to attack,” several ATMs.Occupy Orlando would like to point out that if the Ocoee Police Department located the criminal, rather than speculating on his possible political affiliation, they could more easily ascertain his motivation.
To associate criminal activity with political groups without successfully apprehending the suspect should be beneath law enforcement officers.
Occupy Orlando remains dedicated to preserving a peaceful, nonviolent movement dedicated to empowering the 99 Percent.
Channel 13 also showed the video but refrained from any speculation. The Orlando Sentinel wrote about the incident and never once mentioned Occupy Orlando. Members of Occupy Orlando through their website and social media networks are upset with Channel 6 and their reporting of the incident and they are demanding that WKMG issue a formal retraction.
The people of Occupy Orlando are at a loss to explain why an incident in Ocoee would be tied to them. “The young man in the video appears to be well dressed and neatly groomed person driving a late model clean car; that is not what WKMG would want the public to see as a stereotypical occupier” said one veteran Occupy Orlando member. That happened in Ocoee and we’re in Downtown Orlando working on important issues that affect everyone. Don’t blame Occupy Orlando for that.”
Nope. You just can’t make stuff like that up……oh, wait……or can you?
6 Comments
Sounded to me like it was the reporter von Anchen with an axe to grind in the Ocoee story. He framed the entire piece as “What message was being sent?” He followed up by asking a bank patron how she felt about this “message” “costing her money” because the bank would just have to raise fees to fix the ATM.
So the narrative was that some misguidedly anti-bank group was hurting the poor citizens of Ocoee by recklessly destronying ATM machines. If only they understood that banks are people too.
Only problem being of course, that nothing remotely like that happened. Check the teller logs, geniuses. Some guy had his card rejected and grabbed a hammer. About as exciting as Ocoee gets.
There is nothing you could tell me about the state of Florida that would surprise me. After living there for over 40 years I am convinced the occupants are totally off their meds.
cmaukonen–I could take this remark as an ad hominem attack. I don’t consider myself as one who is off their meds . . . but, that said, if I choose to live here and enjoy the warm weather, mild temps and almost-year-round gardening, I must accept that I, too, will get some of the spatter that occurs when others paint with a broad brush. [BTW, I'm one who frequently uses that same broad brush (on Big Pharma, 'Liberal' media, Big Oil, BIG BANKS, crooked governors, war and healthcare profiteering), so this characteristic is not unique to you. Points can be made much more quickly with the broad brush.]
Gee, what a shock. Orlando/Orange County is a mix of young adults working to pay the bills while they look for a real life elsewhere and a population that exists essentially to support the defense and tourism industries. They almost certainly either: a) don’t care about Occupy or b) despise it (I can only imagine what the ultra-conservative morons in the simulation/defense industries over there think of Occupy).
That’s just it. There’s absolutely no correlation between anything happening in Ocoee and anything OO is doing. It must have been a slow news day and they tried to spice it up.
Much bigger problems than that. Orlando is a wholly owned division of the Chamber of Commerce and Rich DeVos. Whatever they say gets done and people just don’t matter. This should be a very interesting NBA All Star Weekend in a town that can’t afford a team or the stadium they occupy.