Police violence at Occupy demonstrations.

Trying to understand police violence at peaceful demonstrations around the country?  From Atlanta to Oakland and places in between, those who show up ready for violent confrontation are the ones initiating the violence.  The question now is who do they serve, who do they protect? Stay strong and nonviolent Occupy movement! We are the 99%!

For the second day in a row Oakland police have used violence to disperse peaceful demonstrators, and last night Atlanta police conducted a mass arrest of peaceful demonstrators in that city. I would like to remind the police departments across this country of the following: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” It’s just a little thing called the First Amendment, and it guarantees the American people the right to assemble for a redress of grievances, which is exactly what the Occupy Wall Street movement is doing.

Are the police acting on their own?  Hardly.  I’m quite sure in both cases that they were simply enforcing some local city ordnance, probably about trash, or public grassy areas.  In New York the local ordinance that daily confronts demonstrators is about amplified sound.  And while such city ordinances sound banal enough, and may have even been put on the books with the best of intentions for public safety, cleanliness, and quality of life for a city’s residents, the fact remains that in the cases of this mass social movement currently underway in our country, these ordinances are being misused to violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens.  What has happened in Oakland and Atlanta, and has been repeatedly threatened in New York City, is not about trash or public lawns.  It’s about silencing the voices of descent, which the New York City ordinance on amplified sound makes perfectly clear. 

The mass arrests of demonstrators this week in major American cities is not about local municipal ordinances; it’s about attempting to silence those who are daring to speak up and collectively say that things are very wrong in this country, that the status quo is what caused this mess and therefore must be abandoned to solve it, that many of the policies that led to this mess were not in the interest of 99% of the population, and that that 99% demands to have a real role in working to solve this mess.  And, the arrests and attempts to break up the protests are specifically about the fact that the powers that be do not want to change the status quo or open decision making back up to the majority of the people.  Just like corporations use loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, the powers that be are now using local municipal ordinances as loopholes to subvert the rights enshrined in the US Constitution.  Sure, Congress didn’t make the laws that allowed Oakland and Atlanta PDs to break up peaceful demonstrations, the cities of Oakland and Atlanta did.  But the fact that those laws exist and are being used to violate the civil rights of American citizens is a significant impediment to our democracy and civil rights.  I for one do not think that city ordinances should be used to violate the Constitution, but that’s just me.

You may not agree with the Occupy Wall Street movement, after all we are still young and in the process of formulating our ideas.  But you cannot dismiss that things have gone terribly wrong in our country.  And if you are OK with the First Amendment rights of OWS demonstrators being violated than you better be prepared to have your First Amendment rights violated as well.  We’re here.  We have the right to be here.  And we are going to keep coming together until things get better.  At least, that’s the way I see it.  There are long term problems that need to be solved, but they cannot be addressed by preventing the voices of the American people from being heard and violating our First Amendment rights.

Are we who are in some way or another involved in the OWS movement trying something new?  Perhaps; though the idea that direct democracy is new seems very odd to me.  Are we disrupting the status quo?  Most definitely.  Does the US Constitution guarantee our rights to free speech, peaceful assembly, and seeking redress for our grievances?  Again, a resounding yes.  So stop arresting us and start joining in our conversations.  We are serious about trying to solve the mess that this country is in.