Community | November 26, 2011 | 44 comments

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdow...

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Vierotchka
Occupy Wall Street protester Brandon Watts lies injured on the ground after clashes with police over the eviction of OWS from Zuccotti Park. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."

In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.

To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.

I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.

Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks – under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop – awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response.

That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted.

(click on the link for the full article)
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44 comments // The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf

  • CalPal
    • 0
      CalPal  

    • There is one assumption in this article I don't like: it assumes that the President and Congress are working together on this issue.

      Wouldn't it make more sense to assume that these are organized solely by congressional members, who actually have a lot more to lose as this article says? Certainly the Republican-majority GOP wouldn't want the President interfering - if he could find a way of whipping the congress back under his control, he could use it to help him win the next presidential election, regardless of who they front for the Republican nomination. This would devastate the Republicans for years to come, and I think that, if this is true, the Republicans are making sure the President doesn't know about it, or can't act on it.

    • 6 months ago
  • kennymotown
    • +2
      kennymotown  

    • The Elite who really control our Government and Media are getting worried. I am not surprised by the coordinated dismantling of OWS sites around the country. Our Government no longer represents the people, so it is up to us to go to faze 2. Occupy the halls of congress, the courts, and local city councils! In order to get money out of our political system it will take a gargantuan effort on the part of the people to force that change. Camping in parks at this time or disturbing the shopping in retail stores will not win much favor from the public. Get it together folks, if we get the money out of politics everything will fall back into place!

    • 6 months ago
  • EmperorThan
  • VoyagerFilms
  • Progresshiv
  • AreOh
    • +2
      AreOh  

    • Unparalleled brutality? As much of a fan I am of Ms. Wolf, this particular line gives me pause, well, simply because it's not true.

      The minority population of America has been subject to this kind of policing for decades. They have long told us about the strong armed and often illegal reaction to whatever they consider 'wrong' for a long time now.

      I do think seeing white Americans getting beat up so often is a bit of a new occurrence, hence the mobilizations, out cry, etc, but America has been like this for awhile. A lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum, left and right, have just been ignoring it because it hasn't affected them directly.

      Don't get me wrong. I think the protests are necessary. I just also think they are late. America has been on this slope for awhile now. I'm glad people are waking up, ha, but it sure did take them long enough.

    • 6 months ago
  • sharin
    • +1
      sharin  

    • find it sad that Wolf has bought int the hyperbol of the rightwing. I read two articles about Wolf's blogpost that folks should read before they give her fears posted as facts any credance
      Ihttp://crooksandliars.com/karoli/shocking-truth-about-factless-assertionsWolf's

      ",,,hyperbole does harm to the OWS movement and those honest people out there conducting themselves peacefully and with clear intent, because she intentionally tried to stir the fires of anger and discontent and anti-government sentiment on an international level. She should have to either retract or clarify her accusations."

      http://www.politicususa.com/en/emo-prog-ows-obama-derangement-syndrome

      ..."hey, don’t let the fact that once again the right wing has infiltrated the left bother you. You can trust their agenda. I mean, it’s not as if they don’t support OWS. I kid.

      We are being sold paranoia about the DHS from the right, the very people who loved the DHS under a Republican, and through this, it’s inferred that Obama (evil! hiss) hates the people and is urging congress to kill OWS by telling DHS what to do.
      There’s no proof regarding the accusation of a congressional role in colluding with DHS to abuse the people’s rights. Of course, this isn’t meant to imply that police, mayors and other authority figures are not stepping on the rights of the people. In fact, it appears that collusion is happening, but among and ordered by whom we don’t know. My best guess at this point would be to look first at the entities with the most to lose due to OWS (aka: corporations) and their lobbying efforts with DHS directly or through others, such as mayors, with power."

    • 6 months ago
  • artemis6
  • Milieu
    • +1
      Milieu  

    • First they came for the communists,
      and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

      Then they came for the trade unionists,
      and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

      Then they came for the Jews,
      and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

      Then they came for me
      and there was no one left to speak out for me.

    • 6 months ago
  • artemis6
  • ecoalex
    • +1
      ecoalex  

    • DHS is a Fed Govm'nt agency.Obama does have control over this agency.Obama is silent about the brutality.His past cowing to the 1% shows he is their pawn.Make no mistake,the 1% is scared.The DHS has coordinated the police response.It took a few weeks for them to formulate a response.This movement has no single leader,no single issue,so they are in new territory,but they will respond to codify the power of the 1%.The banks are mad after the transfer of accounts both individuals,and cities,counties,States.A recent report told BOA to get ready for huge losses.

      Do you really think the banks,wall st,the corporations will allow the public to be shaken out of their apathy? The police,campus police especially are the guards for the oligarchy.Violence ,intimidation is their method.

      As Gandhi said;

      -First they ignore you
      -Then they ridicule you
      -Then they fight you
      -Then you win

    • 6 months ago
  • nanac
    • +2
      nanac  

    • Some people are ready to believe any/everything negative about President Obama, however I don't think that he has anything to do with the brutalization of OWS protesters. It's will take more than accusations/speculation for me to believe this crap.

    • 6 months ago
  • Argon18
    • +7
      Argon18  

    • That just gives rise to so many more lawsuits for false arrests and police brutality and much more attention for support of the Occupy movement, especially with journalist having first hand experience of it.

      "Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."

      http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/24/1039658/-Occupy-Wall-Street:-First-Fede...

      "Two Occupy Wall Street protesters filed the first federal civil rights lawsuit brought against the NYPD in connection with the OWS movement on Monday, claiming they were falsely arrested and subjected to excessive force last month during a protest at a Manhattan bank.

      Heather Carpenter, a 23-year-old Port Jefferson Station nursing student, and her fiancé Julio Jose Jimenez-Artunduaga, a 23-year-old Colombian immigrant who works in bar-tending and construction, were arrested Oct. 15 in front of a Greenwich Village Citibank branch.

      The arrest, which was captured on video and posted to YouTube, shows the couple standing in front of the Citibank branch at 555 Laguardia Place, where protesters were still inside after Carpenter had closed their accounts with the bank.

      Heather Carpenter is the woman shown in this video being forcibly carried into the bank by an undercover officer. This same under cover officer was later outed by witnesses inside the bank as the loudest and most disruptive protester inside the bank."

    • 6 months ago
  • GavinTheMother
    • +4
      GavinTheMother  

    • "Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on 'how to suppress' Occupy protests." These people think they own us. We need to make sure they understand who owns who. The people can take the rug right out from under their feet as soon as we have the will to do so. Occupy Peter King! Especially you New Yorkers. Let him know who works for who.

    • 6 months ago
  • Argon18
    • +7
      Argon18  

    • http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/23/1039333/-Ex-AIG-CEO-sues-US-Taxpayers-f...$25-Billion-MORE-BAILOUT-MONEY!-They-didnt-get-ENOUGH-free-money

      They are fighting back because they don't want their crimes exposed and Occupy is making too much noise to bring attention to things they want to keep hidden. Like Jesse LaGreca points out about AIG

      "And they wonder why we Occupy Wall Street! Just get a load of this . With job creating geniuses like this, who needs sociopathic super-villians? Former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg, however, thinks that the American people haven’t done enough to protect his massive fortune, so his company filed a lawsuit demanding even more taxpayer money:

      Starr International, the company run by the former head of insurance giant American International Group (AIG), has filed a $25 billion lawsuit against the federal government, arguing that the takeover of the insurance company at the height of the financial crisis was unconstitutional.
      When the government took an 80 percent interest in AIG during the financial crisis, it did so without “due process or just compensation,” in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, according to the suit filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

      The unbridled arrogance of this lawsuit is astonishing. While the wealthy insurance baron is correct that the Constitution does not allow private property to be taken “without just compensation” — a requirement that generally requires the government to pay a property owner the fair market value for their property — his legal complaint can be rebutted with just one chart:"

    • 6 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • artemis6
    • +5
      artemis6  
    • coolplanet:

      Do you NEED a leader ? I can help . Elizabeth Warren . If you must follow , find someone you agree with and help them . I think you can lead yourself . Read "the art of leadership" i have forgotten who wrote it . basically , the best leaders are not known to be so , they are servants of the people they are leading , like a good trail guide , just keeps them out of trouble .

    • 6 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  
    • coolplanet:

      Are you still tryin' to play by THEIR rules ? The soundbites (talking points) they spew are not REAL dialogue . A Way OF Life cannot be usefully defined in a slogan . Name any revolution in history that has a single defining sentence ..... until long after the fact . I repeat . They want us to play by THEIR rules , because it is the only way they can win ...

    • 6 months ago
  • Vic_Romano
  • artemis6
    • +3
      artemis6  

    • I also disagree with the characterization of it being a "civil war" ... It is a conflict between the .01% and the rest of us ..... in my assessments , we have just changed our minds about corporate rule (not that they asked our permission)... there really is no contest , it is just a matter of education of the actual facts , and a simple question . Do you want to be a slave to a psychopathy ? I thought not .

    • 6 months ago
  • artemis6
    • +5
      artemis6  

    • Obama is irrelevant , because he did not stand with WE THE PEOPLE . We are the rightful authority in this country , and we must always be so , if our children and the planet is to survive .

    • 6 months ago
  • mikem0487
  • Argon18
    • +7
      Argon18  
    • mikem0487:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhtKlB0zUXU

      It's already being done.

      "Occupy Wall Street protesters arrived in Washington after a two-week walk, decrying the congressional supercommittee’s stalemate in efforts to reach a deficit-reduction agreement.

      “We need to continue to raise the issue,” Michael Glazer, 26, told reporters today after reaching McPherson Square, where their Occupy DC counterparts are camping.

      Glazer was among about 70 people who marched from New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to raise awareness of income inequality. The group waved flags and chanted, “We are the 99 percent,” a slogan of the demonstrations that spread from New York to cities on four continents.

      Marchers, including some who had camped in Zuccotti Park after the protests began in lower Manhattan on Sept. 17, set out on Nov. 9. They traveled about 20 miles a day and held rallies along the way"

      http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/18/1037869/-Unions-and-progressive-groups-...

      "“Thousands of people have signed up to come to Capitol Hill during the first week in December,” [SEIU President Mary Kay] Henry says, adding that protesters are invited to make their way to Washington on their own, too. “We’re figuring out buses and transportation now.”

      One idea under consideration — pending various permitting and other logistical issues — is to have a series of tents set up on the lawn outside the Capitol, each representing a state, with the number of unemployed in each state prominently displayed. But the optics are still being worked out.

      One goal of the protests, Henry says, is to pressure Republicans to support Obama’s jobs creation proposals. More generally, the aim is to highlight Congress’s misguided obsession with the deficit and overall inaction on unemployment."

    • 6 months ago
  • Conniepae
  • Leen61
    • +4
      Leen61  

    • The powers that be want to stifle this OWS dissent because it is calling into question the corporate takeover of this country, with the complicit help of the current administration.

    • 6 months ago
  • Incredulous
    • +3
      Incredulous  

    • Maybe Obama is behind this, but I can't help being disturbed by the fact that the direct beneficiaries of this violence against OWS are not Obama and his administration, but rather, the GOP. If the GOP can convince people that Obama is responsible for this violence being enacted against peaceful protesters, then they can much more easily usher in another GOP goon as president in 2012. As always, I think it is of utmost importance to follow the money, or in this case, the beneficiaries...

    • 6 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • wolfess
    • +1
      wolfess  
    • Incredulous:

      From the article: #3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors. ----- THIS affects ALL members of our government, and this is what Bush-dark and his vermadon are fighting OWS about.

      Pwr 2 the 99%! DIS[fucking]MEMBER the oligarchs and their political WHORES -- that's YOU Obama!

    • 6 months ago
  • GavinTheMother
    • +1
      GavinTheMother  
    • Incredulous:

      I think Obama is confident that only a dyed-in-the-wool GOPer could vote for any of the flavor of the month clowns that mass media claims is the new "it" schill for the corporate owned party. He knows he can beat them all except for possibly Ron Paul who he knows that the GOP brass and the mass media are scared of more than the Dems are. He's anti-corporate. He's the enemy of both parties. So Obama can do whatever he wants. He knows he doesn't have to answer to the people. He's already been chosen by our owners.

    • 6 months ago
  • Incredulous
  • Incredulous
    • +1
      Incredulous  
    • wolfess:

      sighhhh, I'm not sure we will ever comprehend the full implications of how Congress uses both position and power against, rather than for, the people they have been elected to represent. I have long been a Naomi Wolf fan, I just don't trust anything about the current political climate, and find myself incapable of not questioning it all.....

    • 6 months ago
  • Incredulous
    • +2
      Incredulous  
    • GavinTheMother:

      agree, although honestly, given the performance of the American people on 'black Friday' I am beginning to think any one of the 'flavor of the month clowns' has as good a chance as the next one....okay, that and I just watched "Idiocracy" again.

    • 6 months ago
  • Ambill94
    • +2
      Ambill94  
    • Incredulous:

      By witness of what has been occurring in the past two years of the Obama administration, and the two plus months of the Occupy movement, this article comes as no surprise, but mainly sad confirmation of how deeply ingrained the corruption is.

      There is no reason to believe that some/many Dems are not part of this same systemic nightmare...and the Pres is at least complicit in all this...damn this could really get ugly before its over...

      One thing certain about power, it is a drug and can be addictive for many people...another thing about power, no one gives it up without a fight on some level...the more power, the bigger the fight.

      Many thanks for this post "V", and special thanks to Naomi Wolf...she's a brave lady. We need to send this link to everyone we know...we want our country back!!!!

    • 6 months ago
  • Incredulous
    • +1
      Incredulous  
    • Ambill94:

      “The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!”

      yes, perhaps Nietzsche is right....but I suspect most people expect to go through life without ever being forced to really confront this aspect of their own nature.

    • 6 months ago
  • Ambill94
    • +1
      Ambill94  
    • Incredulous:

      I don't remember too much about Nietzsche but I do recall that the will to power notion and the post-humus book of the same name has very dubious beginnings and may not be his work but his sister's.

      Regardless, we are confronted with power choices from the moment in life when we have the faculty of reason. The fact that the world is not in a constant state of anarchy; that man creates laws/rules etc.of behavior etc. belies the argument that we are "...the will to power and nothing else!"

    • 6 months ago
  • Incredulous
  • Ambill94
  • JanforGore
  • wolfess
    • +2
      wolfess  
    • JanforGore:

      It's not like he's responded to what that message said, is it? If it takes D-A-Y-S for a man in his position of power to decide HOW to respond he most assuredly is NOT the man I want deciding the fate of the free world. Damn him and the 'mandate' he rode in on!
      Pwr 2 the 99%! DIS[fucking]MEMBER the oligarchs and their political WHORES -- that's YOU Obama!

    • 6 months ago
  • wolfess
    • +3
      wolfess  

    • It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent.

      We already knew Obama was intimately connected to this crackdown, but not in black and white like it is now. This sonofabitch HAS to be removed from power -- along with all his congressional allies.
      Pwr 2 the 99%! DIS[fucking]MEMBER the oligarchs and their political WHORES -- that's YOU Obama!

    • 6 months ago
  • dinm76
  • wolfess
    • +1
      wolfess  
    • dinm76:

      I don't want him to die, I just want his campaign to :-)! We can't afford another 4 years of Bush-dark! And that goes double for ALL the reptards currently running for prez, but then Obama can't really even be considered a Dino he's so far right; I guess that means we can't afford any of the reptards -- including Bush-dark :-)!

      Pwr 2 the 99%! DIS[fucking]MEMBER the oligarchs and their political WHORES -- that's YOU Obama!

    • 6 months ago
  • JanforGore
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