posted on Oct, 26 2011 @ 03:21 AM
In all fairness I need to add something here. I wasn't in Oakland, but I was watching it all night on Livestream and the various media helicopters
running over it for most of the event. Granted, the media helicopters had a rather odd habit of going to refuel right before something happened...or
maybe visa versa for cause and effect, but it showed the build up.
What I saw down there was two things. First, a line of cops against a few hundred people pressing in and slowly creeping right up to the barricades.
I.E....very nervous if not scared (at a couple points) police. That is never a good thing.
I also noticed on a radio scanner site that carries Department alerts and warnings like road closures or major activity alerts, that Oakland PD had
put out a 'Multi-County Tactical Alert' for a Riot In Progress involving 500+ people. That went out early in the evening...which tells me they
really thought they were outnumbered at several to 1. The Alert just put every department within several cities in all directions on alert to send
more on a moments notice, and it shows their thinking.
I'm just wondering, what would have been so wrong about breaking off and dispersing for the evening without pushing the cops into gassing everyone a
half dozen times or more? Many decry the police, and that side has fair points too...but it takes 2 sides for this kind of fight, and the protesters
could have de-escalated just as easily since they were trying to get back into the park, not stay where they already were like happens in a raid.
If this is to have any chance at all...peace has got to be the first and last plan for how OWS acts. The more force used, the more peaceful we all
have to stay. If force continues without it being returned, it makes those using it look like true brutal animals and not simply responding to what
some would debate is a legitimate threat from where they're standing.
For goodness sakes....don't directly menace a line of cops when you outnumber them GREATLY.....the response will never be pretty.
Just my thoughts as one of the 99% who deeply believes non-violence and non-destruction is the only way to bring change and not simply anarchy.