The subject of stay-away orders has been something that TOL has been mentioning on the stream for a while now. To summarize, the Alameda County District Attorney has has been issuing so-called “Stay-Away Orders” against people taking part in Occupy-related protests and activities, most noticeably in Oakland and at UC Berkeley.
These orders require people to stay 100 to 300 yards away from Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza or, in the case of the UC orders, away from ANY UC PROPERTY IN THE STATE, with the exception of going to class or to work-related activities…
Several weeks ago at a protest, Pirate bumped into Joseph (“L.A. Joe”) Briones, one of the recipients of a stay-away (and the first to be arrested for violating his order… or did he?) who had just been released from custody. At the time, Joe was recently free from a week in Santa Rita jail and didn’t feel up for speaking about his experience.
Wednesday afternoon, while attending an OO rally in support of Oaksterdam after Monday’s Federal raids, Joe caught up with Team Oaktown Live and was ready to talk about his situation, his experience with the stay-away orders, and how he never got arrested before Occupy…
We were born into this existence to perfect the art of giving and receiving love. Today and everyday let our desires and actions to create a better world be motivated by LOVE.
Love conquers all. ~Virgil
#occupylove #occupyyourheart
Occupy Protesters Sue New York City Over Pepper Spray Incident
Two women caught on camera being doused with pepper spray by a New York police officer during an Occupy Wall Street march in September have sued the city, saying it failed to train police officers properly.
In a viral online video, Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna was shown pepper-spraying several protesters involved in a march in September, about a week after the Occupy Wall Street movement set up camp in a park in the city’s financial district.
The video helped draw attention to the Occupy protests, which spread throughout the country last fall with calls for greater economic equality before the movement lost some ground as many U.S. cities evicted them from tent camp footholds.
Chelsea Elliott of Brooklyn and Jeanne Mansfield of Massachusetts filed the lawsuit last week in Manhattan federal court against Bologna, the city, the police department and other unidentified officers.
Bologna was docked 10 vacation days for “using pepper spray outside of department guidelines,” police said in October.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office opened an investigation into his conduct but has not released any results. A spokeswoman for the office declined to comment on Monday.
Aymen Aboushi, the lawyer for the two women, said he waited several months for the investigation to conclude before filing the suit.
“We’ve given them more than enough time to follow up on this,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the city’s law department said in an e-mail on Monday that the city had not received a copy of the lawsuit but would review it upon its arrival.
THE CAN’T TURN THE LIGHTS OFF NOW - ep. 2
Know your rights as a photographer this election season!
Produced in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida http://aclufl.org/
Original Concept by Teafaerie
Music and Lyrics by The Gregory Brothers http://www.thegregorybrothers.com/
For more information about your rights, visit:
http://www.aclu.org/photorights
http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/PhotographersRights.pdf
Oakland Lawyer seeks to Censor Livestreamers to
Facilitate Crime at Occupy Protestsby Sue Basko
(February 7, 2012) This past weekend, an Oakland lawyer named Michael Siegel, (who appears to have been admitted to the bar in 2010, to distinguish him from other lawyers with the same name), advocated on Twitter his stance that livestreamers shooting video at Occupy Oakland protests were “snitches” and “informants” if they did not avert their cameras to avoid filming crime that was taking place in front of them. Mr. Siegel proposed that Occupy Oakland should issue its own press passes given only to livestreamers who agree to distort truth and facilitate crime in the manner he has proposed. Mr. Siegel, who uses the twitter handle @OaktownMike, was apparently supported in this outrageous proposal by a man apparently named Marcus using the twitter handle @MCompost.
The reaction by the prominent Oakland livestreamers was one of disgust and shock.
However, one streamer supported Mr. Siegel’s proposal: A woman apparently named Eiko Huh, who uses the Twitter handle of @BellaEiko, who also videos some of the protests, joined in calling other livestreamers “snitches.” She claims she is only videotaping police brutality. She then used her blog to allow Michael Siegel a forum to post his anti-First Amendment, pro-crime proposal. It can be seen HERE .
I am shocked on so many levels. I am shocked that a lawyer, of all people, would think destructive criminals acting against the community and against the peaceful Occupy protest itself, should rule the day. I was doubly shocked that Michael Siegel thinks Citizen Journalists should be forced to agree not to use First Amendment rights and journalistic honesty — so that what? So that some jerkwads can run around breaking windows and starting fires? Journalists are going to give up their First Amendment rights and their journalistic duties to tell the truth so that petty criminals who call themselves “radicals” can throw bottles at the police? I was even more shocked that a lawyer would try to coerce livestreamers into an agreement that is very likely criminal conspiracy to aid and abet. You don’t agree in advance to facilitate crime; if you do, you are conspiring to aid that crime. I am also shocked that a lawyer could be licensed and yet be so unaware of the laws and Constitution and his duties with regard to them.
I wrote a reply Comment and posted it onto Bella Eiko’s blogsite. It was removed. This is what it said:Hello, My name is Sue Basko. I am a lawyer in California and Illinois. I have a JD magna cum laude. I have a B.A. in Film and Video. I also completed all coursework for a M.A. in Mass Communication Media Arts in the Journalism Department with an emphasis on digital production, media law, and First Amendment rights. I also have Continuing Legal Education in Music Law, Media Law, Internet law, etc. I am proficient in web design, Garage Band music producing, ProTools, Final Cut Pro, and some HTML.I HAVE APPROXIMATELY 35 years of work in the media fields. I have produced and directed literally hundreds of low budget videos and TV shows. I was one of the first media activists, most notably beginning with the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Tianamen Square, and much more.Now, I am a lawyer and I work with people in music, film, websites, writers, etc. I write two very popular blogs - one on Music and Film law: http://suebasko.blogspot.com and one on how to conduct legal peaceful protest: http://occupypeace.blogspot.comI helped get many of the Occupy sites up and running and provide legal information for Occupy protests both nationwide and worldwide.THIS IS MY TAKE ON IT:The streets are free places in California, where anyone and everyone can have a camera or video camera. In a protest of 1,000 people, quite likely 700 of them have a camera. If there is a protester who wants to cause property or personal damage during that protest, he or she will surely be on camera. If there is a police officer who wants to beat a protester, he or she will surely be on camera.It is NOT RADICAL to condone violence. In fact, it is the opposite of radical: It is oppressive. It is NOT RADICAL to try to censor cameras. In fact, it is the opposite of radical; it is oppressive.Anyone livestreaming should read two things and know them - the REPORTERS COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, which is at http://www.rcfp.org/ This will be your best help in the whole world to know your rights as a person with a camera.and then read the SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS CODE OF ETHICS: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp This will give you REAL guidelines on how to conduct yourself.MOST IMPORTANTLY - We as good people should strive to assist what is good and what is just and right. As a lawyer, I am REQUIRED and sworn on oath to uphold the law and not to condone criminal acts. As a person respecting society and the rights of others — I know it is wrong to break windows, light fires, or conduct protest in ways that are not peaceful or orderly. It is wrong to hurt your own community or someone else’s community. It is wrong to be disrespectful to the property and businesses that are trying to serve the community.PLEASE BE AWARE - Do NOT be involved with ANY agreement that says you, with a camera, will agree in advance to refrain from filming crime that is taking place near you on the street. IF YOU DO, you may be CONSPIRING to aid and abet. If you are considering agreeing to any such thing, PLEASE consult in advance with a lawyer whose main work is criminal law. If you cannot find one, call the State’s Attorneys office and speak with a prosecutor and ask if this is legal. Or ask both.
-I saw Officer R. Kirkland shove a protester over the bike she was walking, and then the riot-line advanced and got their snatch-on.
-The same Riot Line had just shoved a senior-citizen to the ground and almost snatched him up too. [Video by fellow livestreamer Jeff Kloy]
-Among the footage my fumble-fingers did not save (but which was streamed live) included the same Officer R. Kirkland using his baton to swat the cell-cam out of a protester’s hand while the snatch-team was arresting another marcher who had fallen. The phone’s owner stood his ground and demanded his phone back (which was behind Kirkland). A Sgt came forward and allowed him to get it back.
-I saw Occupiers with defensive shields made from garbage cans being met with flash-bang grenades, bean-bag rounds pepper-balls fired from paintball guns (a.k.a. “The Battle Of Oak Street”). The grenades were used (again) in violation of OPD’s proceedures i.e. that they not be thrown directly at protesters. If that was a battle, how come only one side was armed?
-I saw a 19-year-old street-medic w/ cancer that the insurers won’t cover (pre-existing yadda-fucking-yadda) being treated by paramedics, crying out in pain.
Earlier at the 19th & Telegraph illegal kettle, was assiting someone who’d been tear-gassed, Badge number #119 swatted her with his baton while running uptown towards the YMCA where the march had gone on to. When I came to her, she’d gotten worse and friends had called paramedics.
Guess who OPD badge #119 is? R. Kirkland again. I wonder how hard it would be to google “R Kirkland 119 Oakland Police” and see if he’s already been d0x’d (not that I’d ever post such a link to the blue). But no, really. As an Oaklander, Rodney Kirkland, badge #119, is a piece of shit.
-I saw a snatch-team of imported cops grab a young woman for dancing threateningly at them. Nasty robot she had going on.
-I saw a metric fuck-ton of cops declare an unlawful assembly and square off against me & 2 other pot-smoking livestreamers, a few MSM cameras, and barely enough people in Oscar Grant Plaza to fill the Peet’s Coffee on 13th.
-I saw Alameda County Sheriff’s bring a fucking TANK to arrest ~400 people who, after an illegal kettle w/ no avenue of escape offered, were ALLOWED INTO THE YMCA BY THE STAFF INSIDE WHO UNLOCKED THE DOORS. About a hundred made it out the back door, ~ 300 got arrested.
WHY THE FUCK DOES ALAMEDA COUNTY HAVE A FUCKING TANK AND WHY DID THEY BRING IT SATURDAY NIGHT?
The mainstream media is full of shit. Get a fucking camera and get out there, see/film for yourself. Pix, or it didn’t happen. BE THE MEDIA!
And like I posted a little while ago:
Film the police, run a tape for the underclass
Get the face, name, number on the badge
They flash, we flash back
When they act disorderly, react accordingly & capture all we see
Nightstick, zipties, and tasers, think you’re licensed fore type-vicious behavior
Make the tight fist with the video trained towards the pigs like this
They trip, and we make ‘em famous
For all the raw vid from the day (that I saved), go to my stream page: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/oaktownpirate
Retired Episcopal bishop George E. Packard (purple robe) and other protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement are detained after climbing a ladder to illegally trespass on a privately-owned piece of land near Juan Pablo Duarte Square during a march in New York December 17, 2011. Hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters took to the New York streets in an attempt to establish a new encampment, with a number arrested as they tried to move onto church-owned land.
OCCUPYEarlier in the day, the Rev. Stephen Chinlund, 77, an Episcopal priest who retired seven years ago, held a placard reading: “Trinity Hero of 9/11. Be a Hero Again.”
The mission of the church was to help those in need, he said.
Word is coming across twitter that #OO’s vigil permit has been revoked minutes ago and OPD will be clearing the square.
Maybe now is thte time to take a Constitutionally-protected leisurely stroll downtown
All right, let me start by saying that the residents of Casa LexiMonkey are barely emerging from our ante-Solstice funk. That said, I recognize that I came out of the gate a little strong on the subject of secrecy behind #OccupyOakland’s #J28 planning. People wanna plan it that way and sign up for that, go for it.That’s a tactical choice with tactical consequences. It’s also a boat that has left port.
Still, I realize that I had a very visceral reaction to the whole J28 plan, and I’ve had some time to think about it.
Oh wait, some of you don’t tweet. “WTF is ‘J28’, Pirate?” Lemme ‘splain.
On 12/21/11 The Occupy Oakland General Assembly voted to approve a plan to, on Jan 28 2012, occupy a large building in Oakland:
We propose to occupy and hold a large building that will serve the purpose of becoming a social center, convergence center and headquarters of the Occupy Oakland movement on Saturday, January 28th, 2012. The building will have sufficient office space for all of the Occupy Oakland committees and an auditorium large enough to hold Occupy Oakland general assemblies and adequate sleeping space. It will be a vacant building owned either by a bank, a large corporation of the 1% or already public. The occupation of the building will take place in daylight and on a weekend to ensure more safety and aim for maximum participation. The building will be the destination of a mass march, promoted as a “Move-In Day March” starting at Oscar Grant Plaza at 1pm and finishing up in the new building. Together we will enter the space, clean it, set it up and occupy it…
I made a big deal on Twitter about the location being secret, known only to the (as I put it) “Cabal” a.k.a. the cool kids. Strongest arguments I’ve seen or thought of for keeping the location secret are:
-So the place isn’t filled with cops that would prevent an occupation
-To keep the planners from getting harassed/arrested for planning an illegal takeover like this.
The secret planning is now ancillary to what I’m thinking. What I’m focusing on is what is the endgame? What is the objective? How does the J28 building occupation play out?
I’m a strategy-game geek from way back, so I spent a little time in my head gaming out the broadly possible scenarios:
SUCCESS
A.1) #OO occupies the building and is able to (as the proposition calls for) defend and hold. Success of this type comes in two flavors.
A.1.1) The community of Oakland rises up, embraces #OO’s efforts, and forms rings of bodies around the building to thwart OPD’s eviction efforts and signal community solidarity behind the action.
A.1.2) Insufficient numbers of Oakland community members join the effort to block OPD nonviolently with bodies, so the occupiers barricade themselves inside “Fortress #OO” and are able to deny a heavily armed, thoroughly trained police force entry to a space they intend to enter. Where #OPDX learned “Light infantry retreats when faced with heavy infantry”, this scenario involves #OO hunkering down for a siege.
A.2) #OO occupies, the sky rains down magic pixie dust, and some eus ex machina miracle happens where #OO is allowed to keep possession of the community center and OPD doesn’t come to evict them.
Yeah, I know. I just put it in for a sense of completeness. Moving on.
FAILURE.
B.1) Failure to occupy due to police interference. The cops frustrate #OO’s attempt to take over the building. This is one of the biggest arguments for secrecy-culture surrounding the planning.
B.2) #OO occupies, but is evicted from the space in basically the same manner as the failed Traveler’s Aid Society (TAS) occupation on November 2. I see B.2 as having the most possibility for a nightmare scenario, what I call the “CQB Clusterfuck option”. (I’ll explain this below.)
Outcome A.1.1 (community support, large numbers of bodies peacefully blockading) is basically the optimal scenario. It’s the technique that we used to shut down the Port of Oakland twice in two months.
But I don’t see it happening on J28.
The biggest reason: #OO does not have nearly the level of social capital necessary to pull it off. A week after OPD got their cop-riot on downtown, beat Kayvan Sabeghi till his spleen ruptured, shot Scott Olsen in the face, and then flash-banged the people and medics trying to come to his aid, Oaklanders who may not have previously been general supporters of the Occupy movement came out en masse on November 2 to march on the Port, largely in condemnation of OPD’s brutal repression of political dissent.
Many fewer people (though still enough) showed up for the #D12 Port shutdown. #OO had burned a lot of social capital between November 2 and December 12 over the Occupy/Decolonize name-change issue, on top of the ongoing PR War #Fail we seem to eagerly embrace.
And now the target of the J28 occupation is a secret.
We will not get mass numbers of people to show up to this event not knowing what the target is. Sure, some people will turn up on faith. But if OO are really going for a building of the size the proposal describes, I can’t imagine people showing up in large enough numbers to link arms outside and defy the OPD on behalf of the occupiers inside. Not going into it blind.
Last time the TAS was occupied, people set up flaming barricades on Broadway. Every reason to expect they’ll show up again at this occupation. I don’t know that for a fact, I just think it’s quite likely.
Outcome A.1.2 involves #OO succeeding in an active, physical defense of the building against the OPD’s efforts to gain entry and evict/arrest everyone inside. Sure, could happen. Right?
No, not really. But even I’m romantic enough to have embraced the possibility for a moment.
Anyone who thinks that OPD is going to let #OO barricade themselves inside “Fortress #OO” and get away with it is out of their minds. This is not a tree-sit. OPD will effect an eviction LONG before midnight on J28. No matter how many flaming dumpsters out front, boarded up windows and barred doors, they will get in.
They will call enough reinforcements until they have their way. Rely on it..
So yeah, I really don’t see outcome A.1.2 (Fortress #OO successfully defies OPD) as a viable option.
So, if (as I predict) enough bodies can’t be rallied to defend the building peacefully — and successfully defending against a siege of the building is a pipe-dream of people smoking better stuff than we get here at our local dispensaries — that brings us to the FAILURE options.
Outcome B.1 (occupation thwarted before entry) basically sucks. All that organizing effort and a big march, gone fizzle because the cops got there first and made occupying impossible.
And now, outcome B.2. The “CQB Clusterfuck” option. The one that makes hospital stays more and more likely the longer it remains unresolved once the breaching team gains entry to Fortress #OO.
People ask me why I so often think in terms of “What’s the absolute worst way this situation could go appallingly sideways and involve screams and blood?” Besides having a father who’s way more pragmatic-pessimist than I’ll ever be (and who fully earned said pragmatic pessimism), I was a first aid Ranger out at Burning Man for 4 years. It became a habit to at least game those options through.
In this scenario, an occupation is effected, barricades are put up when there isn’t community support to form a linked-arms blockade, but said barricades are insufficient to stop OPD and they gain entry to Fortress #OO.
Here’s why it could become a nightmare.
“CQB” is short for “Close Quarters Battle”. It implies conflict at very close range, up to and including hand-to-hand combat. Urban combat inside buildings is a classical example of it. Because when OPD have to go room to room to room and clear/secure every last damn one to make sure no one with a gun is hiding in the corner, that’s gonna get the adrenaline up. When they’re already wearing their Darth Vader armor and carrying their Team Vader weapons.
Once the OPD effect entry to the building, they will attempt to establish control of the situation and arrest everyone. If they have to break down barricades to get in, they’re gonna come in hot expecting violent resistance. (This is Oakland, people. Let’s not be fucking coy about this.) It’s going to be a dark, crowded, LARGE building with lots of places for occupiers, many or most of whom have zero tactical experience, to run and hide inside and force hostile, twitchy, heavily armed OPD to root them out while being in guard for ambush.
And if OPD and occupiers are intermingling in that environment… it could be a street-medic nightmare. Now, #OO’s got some talented and dedicated medics. But flash-bangs are even more effective indoors where they’re designed to be used. Pepper spray in a building corridor anyone?
#OO is not a Satyagraha-oriented group. Far from it (Realistically, a lot of a non-zero population of #OO look at the satyagrahis and think they were stupid schmucks who deserved to get their skulls broken.) Someone is gonna resist arrest. Someone is gonna yell the wrong thing, show a little too much attitude, and OPD will put them face-down on the mat like it’s professional wrestling night. That will get more occupiers (righteously) riled up when they see their comrades getting jacked up as they’re taken into custody in what they’re claiming as their new #OO homeland. #OO mobs like that*.
At which point #OPD will escalate their efforts to forcefully establish control of the situation. Because the one thing they WILL DO is assert dominance over the situation. Once they come in hot, any delusions occupiers may hold of having established a Temporary Autonomous Zone… well, “temporary” can be a real short time..
If the OPD efforts to evict the occupiers were not 100% successful at first, repeat, adding more physical force with each iteration.
Some occupier(s) is/are gonna get freaked out when Team Vader storms in through multiple points of entry and will bolt into the depths of the building. Go back to the description of the desired building they’re looking at. The Traveller’s Aid Society bldg on #N2 was only so large. There was only so much space to hide in. A building big enough to suit the proposal’s needs is gonna have boo-coo space to hide in. And making the cops search you out in a dark, possibly dangerous deserted building, not knowing what kind of “diversity of tactics” they may meet when they do find you…
SWEET ELVIS, I don’t even want to think about what happens if some knucklehead actually attacks a cop while they’re inside the building arresting people. THERE is when the tragedy-o-meter pegs the scale and everything gets a rocket-assist on its downhill trajectory. Insert screams, blood, and hospital stays to the arrests. Ooh, is this deserted building a fire hazard? Did one of those trouble-making protesters drop a cigarette where they shouldn’t have? Did some pig toss a flash-bang on a pile of oily rags? Are the exits splintery gauntlets quickly filling with smoke? Oops…
Here’s the thing: The closest I’ve come to anything remotely like CQB is playing paintball in a dark, retrofitted warehouse. Running confrontations from room to room where the opponent might just pop out from behind a door and pop you is TRIPPY. Your heart gets up, adrenaline pumps, you get twitchy at every last movement. Hell, people have this kind of experience just sitting in front of a computer or console playing a FPS videogame. Anyone whose actually seen it first hand and wants to comment below, please do.
OPD already actively dislikes #OO. Force them into what could easily be a dangerous ambush for them…
The more I think about this, the more I can’t imagine a scenario that doesn’t end with #OO getting forcefully evicted in short order. Because the OPD would much rather prevent an occupation than besiege Fortress #OO.
ESPECIALLY if the target is Henry J. Kaiser Auditorium.
Fits the bill: large; auditorium for GAs; space to sleep people and set up offices for the various #OO committees; symbolic link to the 1946 Oakland General Strike.
SO MANY KINDS OF BAD IDEA.
You want to alienate Oaklanders and have them chanting outside for the OPD to go in and kick some black-hoodie anarchist ass, take over HJK on J28. Even people who are down with OO and who have been taking part (participating in the Port shutdowns, going to GAs, etc.) have already said that their reactions will be, publicly and vocally, “Oh HELL no!”
Considering what I see are the options, they all end with eviction. So what is the endgame of J28? What is #OO playing towards?
EITHER:
-The organizers actually think that this is a viable plan, and that one of the SUCCESS options is going to come through, and that it will be an ongoing situation.
Not gonna happen. OPD will be kicking down the doors before the first dustpan of litter is collected. There will be no offices, no community center, no sleeping space. People are delusional about the prospects of any building take-over lasting more than 6 hours at most. Talk of a 2-day festival is utter madness if taken seriously.
OR:
-The organizers want to provoke a direct confrontation with the OPD.
There are people who relish the idea of a head-on confrontation with the OPD. The #OO hashtag on twitter is loaded with more than zero people who condemn “fetishizing nonviolence”*. There are people who fucking YEARN for the opportunity to light fires in the street and play live-action Paris ’68 while the boom-truck is bumping Rage Against The Machine. They are in love with the idea of militant resistance against state violence, and think that if they just lead the way, THE PEOPLE (tm) will rise up seeing their righteousness and charge to join the fight.
And when that doesn’t happen, they can take off their black hoodies, unmask, and melt away and hide among the non-combatant population.
Of course, guerrilla warfare tactics like that require a population that’s actually gonna shield you, rather than livestream your ass while narrating “Look, these were the fuckers setting the flaming barricades, now they’re looking to exfiltrate through civilians and leave behind the mess they created.”
Guerrilla warfare cannot be waged without a supportive (or intimidated) population in which the guerrillas can hide. Now, there is a vocal contingent of #OO who think “solidarity” means “Under any and all circumstances, no matter what, without criticism or question”. I disagree. That’s a basic social fallacy. Occupy can and has the right todeal with its asshole problem. Solidarity no matter what is not a law of nature. It’s a choice we as people make or don’t.
The more I think about it, I feel like I’m standing in the Belfast shipyard watching the Titanic being built.
Pirate
FREE KHALI!
HELLA OCCUPY OAKLAND!
OCCUPY ALL STREETS!
* Honestly, at that point so will I. OPD look at me and see just another fucking #OO. And #OO had a moment of sincere concern when people thought I was arrested at 21st and Mandela but wasn’t on the roster. I know whose back I got and who’s got mine.
** I will point out that Occupy Wall Street and the NYC General Assembly, the seed from which every Occupy out there has sprung, fetishizes nonviolence so much it’s woven into the basic statements of who and what they are. #OO, not so much.
PREVIOUSLY in O,DIKTO?:
-Militant. Radical. Pacifist. Language and Occupy Oakland
-Berkeley PD Arrest #OccupyOakland Medic for Standing In The Street
-Here Comes Oakland!
-#D12 West Coast Port Shutdown: And after that…?
-Why I am voting “No” on changing the name from “Occupy Oakland” to “Decolonize/Liberate Oakland”
-18 And Linden is HELLA OCCUPIED!
-Running Wolf is PISSED!
-Why was shutting down the port ok, but occupying the TAS was met w/ POLICE VIOLENCE
-#OCCUPYOAKLAND: Beware of Wolves in Sheeps Clothing
Recently on the #OO Twitter hashtag, @OaktownMike mentioned that the NYT had declared #OccupyOakland the “most militant” of the Occupies. #OO has shut down the Port of Oakland twice in two months, and has a particularly confrontational attitude with the local police compared to most other American Occupies.
I tweeted to Mike “I’m not becoming more militant, but I am becoming more and more radical.” He asked me what the difference was.
“Militant” comes from the Latin root word militare, “soldier”. It connotes hostility, aggression, combativeness, belligerence. Check, check, check, check. We got that. People active in #OO regularly hurl abuse and vituperation at the #OPD whenever they come by Oscar Grant Plaza. Of course, when they do come by Oscar Grant Plaza they have been known to bring a fairly heavy hand. Oakland has a long history of political/social militancy AND a long history of a troubled relationship with the police, most of whom don’t live in Oakland.
Militant actions are things like bringing helmets and shields to a march with the intention of using them to confront the riot line head on*. John Brown’s raid. Setting up burning barricades on Broadway. Hurling stones and firebombs at the police. Jesus driving the moneychangers from the Temple in Jerusalem. Militancy is about replying to outrage with violence.
“Radical” comes from radix. It implies getting to the root of a problem. Proposing solutions and actions that are more extreme, more drastic, going beyond the traditional, the accepted, beyond the way it is. Radical action is direct and shakes shit up. But radical action can also be non-violent. Examples?
We shut the Port of Oakland down twice in two months with non-violent marches. Mario Savio’s “Bodies upon the gears” speech. Father Roy Bourgeois and his crusade to see the US Military’s School for Torture and Authoritarianism shut down. Mills students chaining themselves to the gate in 1990. Tree sitting. The Waterman Building occupations when I was in college. Foreclosure defense. ACT UP. Pancho getting arrested while meditating at cops in a threatening manner. Brian Willson being run over by the train. Bishop George Packard in his purple vestments being the first over the fence at Duarte Park in NYC, bidding people follow his example. Scott Olsen.
Tank man.
One can be radical without being militant. Just because one has reached the conviction, “I must put my body and freedom on the line or I am standing back and cooperating with wrong”, that does not mean that one comes at it from a position of hostility, hatred, or violence.
I tweeted, “Buddha was a pacifist AND a radical. He was profoundly attacking the foundations of his society and preaching radical personal empowerment.”
Mike said he didn’t like the term “pacifist”. Too much like “turning the other cheek” rather than standing up for one’s rights.
I’d like to unpack that phrase a little.
But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil;
but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Matthew 5:39
In the time and place Jesus lived, to backhand slap someone was the highest form of disrespect. Not only that, it implies superiority and dominance of the striker and the inferiority of the struck. Given that the left hand has all sorts of unclean associations, one wouldn’t use it to perform an activity that (in part) signals one’s social status. So assume a blow with the right hand. And where does a right-hand backhand blow land?
On the right cheek.
But if one then offers up the other cheek, there’s a counter-signal beyond “Hit me again”. Because to strike someone offering their left cheek with your right hand is to strike with a forehand blow. Either a slap or a punch.
And a forehand blow is how one strikes an equal, not an inferior.
Turning the other cheek is signaling “Not only will I not respond violently in return to the violence you offer me, I will demand that you respect my human dignity while you do it.”
The root of the word “pacifist” is not “passive”, but “pacific”. Peaceful.
The opposite of pacifist is not activist, it’s militant.
What does radical, non-violent direct action look like? This scene from Gandhi comes to mind.
The more time I spend involved with #OO and Occupy Wall Street, the more I see the violent police repression of non-violent Americans in America protesting what they see as the corruption of their government and economy, the more I am certain.
Radical, sure. Direct action? Love it.
Militancy?
I’ll tell you this: I come from Filipino and Irish ancestry. I come from people with long histories of violently resisting oppression. I’m named after a man who helped lead his village fighting as guerrillas against the Japanese.
If we start seeing in America what they’ve had to go through in Tahrir Square in Cairo… well, we haven’t.
But right now, I maintain a Zen-based meditation practice and when I sit quietly with myself, I know my commitment to non-violence is the right choice.
Radical. Nonviolent.
Less systemic greed-head, degrading, abusive up-fuckitude, more love and fun. That’s all we want.
But we will have that much. And we’ll probably have to take it for ourselves.
2012 gonna be an interesting year.
Pirate
Hella Occupy Oakland!
FREE KHALI!
OCCUPY ALL STREETS!
