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ghan commented on the blog post City of Oakland’s Increasing Hostility Toward the Occupy Movement
Thank you for the story and the video. Unfortunately the occupation of a building will always end in conflict with the police in the long run. No matter if its in Oakland, in Denmark, Germany or Italy. Someone owns the building on paper and that is all that the courts are interested in. In the past native people could collectively share common property. That now is only history. Nonetheless, trying for rights to use a building for common good, a purpose that will benefit all in the long run, is the right thing to do! Community needs a community space. Denied that, there will always be trouble on the streets, no matter which issue we are talking about. What I find annoying is that nowadays people can be declared a criminal before the offense. An occupation that has not even started can not be punishable. Is it now, in the US? Using teargas to disperse a crowd without clearly telling a crowd to disperse is likewise illogical. In the video, I do get the impression that the police has little if any experience with non-violent protest. Never was an order to disperse spoken. Not by the police lines, not by the helicopters speakers. Yes, there will always be a few who abuse the protest to use violent means. This should not happen, but it does. The way police then treats the mass of protesters will determine how the crowd will behave. It is a very good idea to start having a spokesman from the police along with the leading group of a protest. To avoid rallys throughout town and to allow compromises and an understanding before violence and inappropriate arrests occur. If that appears impossible, because any type of protest is forbidden, then I must ask: Is that not a clear sign of repression? That would appear to be incompatible with a democracy that values free speech. Thinking back, looking at the way protests against the Vietnam war were dealt with, comparatively protesters are not in a worse situation. However, there still lingers this unspoken threat by the mainstream conservatives and authortities down the big media: you are an enemy if you are against our policies. And the only means to deal with enemies is eliminiation. This has never worked and it will never. Nothing good ever came of not looking, not speaking and only removing unwanted, but legitimate critcism.
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