Occupy Marin: Update by Niki2

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Occupy Marin: Update

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Tuesday, November 1, 2011 20:28
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Sunday, October 30, 2011 7:40 AM

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Yesterday was hard to attend. They hold the General Assembly after the demonstration. I rarely stay long, as I'm not really interested in wading through the speeches, songs, etc. But I had to stay yesterday because I've whacked up a lawn sign I wanted to get approved so I can make more for next Saturday to hand out.

Because there was a Halloween event planned in the plaza, they actually let us meet (gasp!) on the lawn in front of BofA. Bet BofA wasn't happy about that! So I found myself a shady piece of lawn and settled in with my little bottle of ice tea and cigs.

I wasn't prepared for what happened. They had several of our people who were caught up in the Oakland shit speak, and it was very depressing. Hearing what really went down, how it was orchestrated and what people suffered brought back too many memories of the 'Nam protests, People's Park, etc. Especially one guy--the brother of Scott, who came over to speak to us (Scott is doing okay, but he may have brain damage and is definitely having some speech problems). His story tore my heart out.

He was there because of Scott, said he himself isn't a demonstrator type. He noticed the increased police presence (before they attacked at 4:30 am) and thought he'd better get out of there. He tried to leave; they wouldn't let him. He tried to explain that he's disabled (he's a vet too) and needed to get away from stuff; they forced him to the ground and went after him with clubs. He managed to get to the sidelines and away from the fray, injured (he's still got the lumps and bruises), and tear gassed, also a new experience. Later he helped people get to hospital, because the "cops" weren't letting EMTs or medical people through. He started crying a bit when, with this puzzled look on his face, he said "I've never had any trouble with the police before, in fact I've met many I liked and been treated well". He still can't understand why they behaved the way they did.

Watching these people speak; people who were peacefully demonstrating and didn't expect what happened to them, brought back too many memories for my comfort. I wanted to cry for them; the awakening is awfully painful and it takes a bit to get over, so the next time you're prepared. I remember all too well.

At the same time, there were a couple of young speakers who hadn't been through it, who were full of fire and brimstone and talking about how we couldn't let them get to us, etc., etc., and they were equally sad to me. I was once one of them, and I don't look forward to them learning, as the others have, the reality of the situation. I'm not sure who I'm sadder for.

Word is (and I certainly can't confirm it) that most of them WEREN'T Oakland PD, they were hired "robocops". That would explain the brutality. Even with OPD's bad reputation, it was a bit over the top. It would make sense, in a way. Quan (Mayor) had previously said she supported them and understood what they were doing, tho' she did give some remarks about not allowing it for too long. Then she went to Washington, and it all happened. She came back (giving the impression that it'd happened without her approval) and is now apologizing for what happened. If she'd set it up beforehand, it would be all of a part, so while I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised if they were right.

One of the demonstrators' security people (they had their own people who'd volunteered to deal with any problems) was apparently pulled by a couple of them into an alley and beaten; they broke his kneecap, among other things. He was gotten out, taken to hospital and they tried to get him to stay home and recuperate. He refused, and was sleeping in one of the tents when it all went down. Someone fell on the tent and on him, screwing up his kneecap further and now he's in hospital with internal bleeding.

After they broke up the camp, the demonstrators marched to the jail, to see those who had been arrested. They were GIVEN PERMISSION to march, and said as they passed every corner, there were metal police barracades barring them from turning (which they didn't intend to do anyway), so essentially they were being "herded" in one direction. They rounded the corner to the jail, and immediately came across a line of men in riot gear, too close to stop or turn back the 350-or-so marchers. I had heard that someone pushed a woman and she stumbled and that's when it all started; what I heard yesterday was that the crush of people made her lose her balance and fall forward. That was the excuse the "cops" needed to start firing tear gas and flash grenades, and away they went. So the whole thing was a setup, not surprisingly.

And yes, Frem, there were agitators there all along. It was something between sad and amusing to hear a couple of them saying bemusedly that they didn't understand why the agitators seemed to think nobody noticed them; the same faces kept appearing and it was soon totally clear who they were and what they were doing. I wanted to tell them that just because they're the "enemy" doesn't mean they're particularly BRIGHT, but they'll learn all this stuff themselves.

I finally met up with the woman I've been e-mailing back and forth (haven't known who the hell I'm "talking" to because everything has been signed with initials), and we discussed some of the stuff I'm working on. I did up a flyer I'm going to post around Central and Southern Marin (there's already an OccupyNovato, so they can handle North Marin), and a bunch of small cards to hand out when we do College of Marin. I had e-mailed them to her and she said they were approved, and I asked how I get them copied, since I can't afford either the toner or copy-shop prices, and my printer is the shits anyway. She said no problem, they have a copy shop who had volunteered to run 300 copies of anything they want per week. So that's taken care of.

One guy (my age) took the mike for a bit and was explaining how we'd learned (he was in the civil rights marches) that it was VITAL to stay nonviolent, and what to do (if they gave you the chance) if the cops moved in. Same stuff we learned (or started, I don't know); get down on one knee, grab the hand of the person next to you and hold it in the air. MOST of the time this keeps the cops from being too rough, they just get you all the way down and cuff you...I guess it's kind of an "I surrender" gesture. Never had to employ it myself, luckily the marches I was in ('Nam, People's Park and one anti-nuke march) stayed mostly peaceful and I was never in the middle of it when they weren't. Well, not People's Park, but there Reagan brought in the National Guard, who were pretty much all young guys who knew their stuff and treated us forcefully but decently).

Eventually I asked if I could put my lawn sign up for approval, 'cuz I couldn't listen any more (and my parking meter had long run out). It was approved, so I've got that to work on, plus a couple more signs, this week. Lauren popped up (in our yakking, she'd found out I'd "been there" before) and asked what advice I could give from the "old days". I reiterated what the other old guy had said, that it's IMPERATIVE that we stay nonviolent. We can't stop the lies or how the media portrays us, and we can't stop what they do to us. But it only takes ONE photoof one of us being violent or acting out (like the guy supposedly shitting on the cop car) to give them all kinds of material to make us look like a mob. We have to police OURSELVES as well, and make sure none of those among us give cause for violence. They'd already set that up--in fact some nutcase wandered by shouting (we've had about one each demonstration)...one of the people approached him and the guy said something then shouted "You wanna fight about it??" Apparently our guy indicated he did and they walked off to "fight", only our guy talked to him for a bit, and then he walked away. They've got the right idea.

I wish them well. Apparently there's a general strike been called over in Oakland and they're encouraging everyone to go. They've re-taken the park and there is virtually NO police presence (Quan is no doubt having them keep a low profile). Longshoremen on both East and West Coast are supporting it. Public employees can't strike, but apparently the teachers over there have obtained permission to use sick days or vacation days to attend, and there's a large contingent of students who will be there. Medical personnel, too--one doctor was among the speakers, and she said the medical personnel are fully behind us, that they tried to come down from hospital to help out when the melee occurred, because they knew EMTs and firemen weren't being allowed in. As long as they didn't wear medical clothing, they could get through and got a good number of people either patched up or to hospital. Bless them; a LOT of people were hurt, and the "cops" had trashed their medical section, so they had no equipment to even treat people.

That's about it. Dunno if I'll go Wednesday...in my condition, there's no way I could run away from any trouble, and I can't afford to get arrested, don't got the money! I may just work on the stuff I can do; we were told we couldn't go on campus unless we were students last time at College of Marin, so they're working on getting permission for next week and thereafter. I really want to get back there; demonstrating on street corners is well and good, and the honking and thumbs up are encouraging, but we need to increase our NUMBERS, and when we were on campus we talked to a lot of kids and gave them the cards--a couple of them showed up Saturday; those are the ones we need! I forgot to ask Lauren, but I'm going to e-mail her that we should get out to Indian Valley College too (part of College of Marin). It's a bit North, but I won't leave that to OccupyNovato; I don't know how many of them there are (we haven't coordinated), and I'll already have the flyers and handouts ready to go.

Sorry this is so long; it was a pretty meaningful day for me and I thought I'd pass on what I saw and heard. We need to galvanize people and get the TRUTH out, so this is my way of doing a small part of that.

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Sunday, October 30, 2011 7:50 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Just ran across this:

Quote:
On Thursday, Oakland, California, Mayor Jean Quan apologized for authorities' confrontations with demonstrators, who were tear-gassed. The clashes led to the hospitalization of an Iraq war veteran.

Marine veteran Scott Olsen suffered a skull fracture Tuesday night after allegedly being struck by a tear gas canister in Oakland, according to witnesses.

Despite recent crackdowns against demonstrators nationwide, the loosely defined "Occupy" movement does not appear to be losing steam.

In New York, where the Occupy movement was born, activists braved snow, sleet and rain Saturday during an unusually early snowstorm in the Northeast. http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/30/us/texas-occupy-austin/index.html?hpt=hp
_t2 love the "allegedly"! Go New York; with Winter setting in, this is going to be damned tough for everyone but us on the West Coast, no doubt!

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Monday, October 31, 2011 2:51 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Niki.

Just wondering if the Occupy Marin folks have come up with a platform/agenda/list of demands yet. It's hard to find any mention in the media, and web searching turns up as many satires as actual info.

Or are they content to be an expression of general discontent, without applying any specific complaints or proposed solutions?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Monday, October 31, 2011 5:06 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

We stand with OccupyWallStreet and haven't come up with a list of "demands" of our own. I don't think "we" will (since I'm only involved in outreach, I only know a few of "us"). At this point we are trying to increase awareness of our existence here in Marin and get more people to join us.

I don't think it's so much a matter of "demands", as it is bringing issues to the attention of the public. I wish there were another way to put it than "demands", because I don't think OWS is ABOUT demands, it's a movement, not a party or organization. I wish OWS would come up with something cohesive, because without it the movement will die and accomplish nothing. But I'm not sure what demands they could come up with--everything we're protesting can't be changed by demands, obviously, there has to be power behind it, and I don't think the "power of the people" will suffice. I'm looking to encourage the group here to take some of the steps Pizmo suggested long ago; work on a local level to change laws, elect people, etc. The problem with electing representatives is that both our local, state and federal representatives are ALREADY trying to bring about the chnages we need, they are just stymied (both state and federally) by the Tea Party and Republicans. We don't have enough of a majority trying to bring about change in any of those legislative bodies. So we're stuck.

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Tuesday, November 1, 2011 8:28 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Oh Niki, that post made me cry, its all horrid what happened in Oakland and that poor family, my heart tears for them. I'm hoping that those speech challenges and the brain differences are temporary and will go away with the right after-brain-injury therapies/techniques/treatments. The last thing I need right now is something else to be sad about, but the world marches on either way and I can't stop all the pain in it even for a moment.
:(

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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