Get thousands of people out in protest and you can pretty much guarantee that some of them will cause trouble. This was the case at Occupy Oakland today as some protesters broke the windows of big banks and threw rocks. But, the majority of the protesters seem to have gotten the picture that peaceful protest is the way and have made a point to steer the Occupy Oakland events in the right direction and make sure the acts of a few are not seen as the style of the protest as a whole.
Bank of America, Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Whole Foods Market, and a couple other businesses received broken windows today in Oakland, but, according to reports, each time a small group of vandals got started, the larger group of protesters curtailed their destructive tendencies before things got too out of hand.
In one instance where vandals broke the windows of a local shop (which, to be clear, is quite against the general points of the Occupy Wall Street movement), a note left by others read: “This act of vandalism was not authorized by the general assembly. Peaceful protest.” In another location where a window was broken, a follow-up protester left a sign saying: “We are better than this.”
ATMs were also painted black in some locations or tagged with graffiti saying “Withdraw Only.” Other tags seen around (i.e. at a smashed in Bank of America) read “Shut It Down” and “Class War.”
In a standoff with police today, one group of protesters sat on the ground in front of them and several even bowed their heads while doing so.
While police cleared some streets with flash bang grenades and tear gas, protesters continued marching peacefully in the streets (with gas masks or faces covered in cloth) and shouted “Whose streets? Our streets!” And isn’t that the message? This is not a movement, for the most part, focused on war and fighting. This is a movement focused on returning to the people what is rightfully the people’s, through just and peaceful means.
Evene Police Chief Howard Jordan noted that the few acts of vandalism were not the acts of the main protesters but a fringe group of radicals (wearing masks or handkerchiefs to possibly obscure their face and/or in preparation for police responses to their vandalism).
In one instance where vandals broke the windows of a local shop (which, to be clear, is quite against the general points of the Occupy Wall Street movement), a note left by others read: “This act of vandalism was not authorized by the general assembly. Peaceful protest.” In another location where a window was broken, a follow-up protester left a sign saying: “We are better than this.”
ATMs were also painted black in some locations or tagged with graffiti saying “Withdraw Only.” Other tags seen around (i.e. at a smashed in Bank of America) read “Shut It Down” and “Class War.”
In a standoff with police today, one group of protesters sat on the ground in front of them and several even bowed their heads while doing so.
While police cleared some streets with flash bang grenades and tear gas, protesters continued marching peacefully in the streets (with gas masks or faces covered in cloth) and shouted “Whose streets? Our streets!” And isn’t that the message? This is not a movement, for the most part, focused on war and fighting. This is a movement focused on returning to the people what is rightfully the people’s, through just and peaceful means.
Evene Police Chief Howard Jordan noted that the few acts of vandalism were not the acts of the main protesters but a fringe group of radicals (wearing masks or handkerchiefs to possibly obscure their face and/or in preparation for police responses to their vandalism).
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Your pacifist dogma makes me sick
03.11.2011 11:52
You think after hundreds of years of being screwed by the ruling class that breaking a few windows is unjust? Some of you might only have started to notice that capitalism's really a bit shit when you suddenly find yourselves jobless, but it hardly needs to be said that for the majority of the world's population, extreme hardship and exploitation is an every day reality. We're at war and the sooner you liberals realise it the quicker we might actually achieve meaningful social change.
"Evene Police Chief Howard Jordan noted that the few acts of vandalism were not the acts of the main protesters but a fringe group of radicals (wearing masks or handkerchiefs to possibly obscure their face and/or in preparation for police responses to their vandalism)."
Says it all really, ie, you're doing the work of the state.
Quit condemning those that don't tow the party line and you will be much stronger for it. Remember Tahrir square and the myth that Egypt's was a purely pacifistic revolution: some people protested non-violently, others defended the barricades (though this is not to assume that there wasn't any crossover). Wise up, respect everyone's contribution, and FFS stop trying to appease the authorities.
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rubbish
03.11.2011 12:07
umm anyway
not approved by the general assemberly??
obvioulsy u can see the problems with that. i bet the general assemberly is jus made up of priverliged uni kids wanking over there new 'rebelion'
well....shut up cause windows mean nothing and your obbsession with pacify and hint of passion at demontrations makes me sick.
if i was an anarchist in the usa i would be sad to be on a march with you and embarssed and then it would be on ...fox news and my dad would be like..were you really with those hippy dick heads and i would be even more embarssed..
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YEA!!
Same here
03.11.2011 12:35
London protester
For the record...
03.11.2011 13:33
As for the window smashing, it is stupid, non-strategical for sure. But to whining about it, that's just show who these occupy people really are. Whining about lighting up a joint, can't make the camps a fucking safe place for themselves, calling the police for helping them out against criminals... Occupy Oakland has a better ratio of radicals involved, but at the first sign of radical action, they see these non-violents stabbing them in their back.
I hope that we have seen enough to learn the distance between radical action for a new society and the 99% cries.
Shelter of Crime
Sod a couple of windowz - Over 10,000 people shut the port!!
03.11.2011 13:48
the camps are catalysts, or attractors, or banners for people to organise around - get on it - people are pissed off everywhere - show some guts and start organising.
move on...