The tactics of the radical left in the Occupy movement...wait...they're all on the radical left...let me re-phrase. The tactics of the Occupy movement are pretty clever one has to admit. Most likely based on tactics used by their beloved European rioter friends, and possibly from those in the "Arab Spring" (catchy names for spontaneous events right?), the tactics used by the Occupiers play a pretty dirty trick on the mind and eyes of the 99%.
Videos of "police brutality" run rampant on sites like Youtube, and are an attempt by Occupiers to drum up support. The videos usually pit Occupiers against police. Oppressed against the oppressors. In virtually all cases (I have yet to see otherwise), the videos start at the moment of police action, which I see as a pretty convenient coincidence. And in a most recent account of "brutality", seated protesters were reportedly pepper-sprayed for being peaceful. It is all failry convincing, too, until you begin to use your head. It's something liberals don't think we conservatives do much of.
In my opinion, these videos are nothing short of propaganda, something the radical left is also a fan of. This propaganda is not your traditional fist-and-hammer Commie advertising, though. It now takes the form of modern digital and social media that promote the cause in a more relevant way. After all, print media is just not hip enough for a group such as Adbusters, who takes credit for the Occupy movement. Knowing that fact, I found it not surprising they would take full advantage of such propaganda by posting this article on their blog: Suppressing Nonviolent Dissent.
This post presents an anthology of the terrible police brutality taking place at the Occupy events. Except there isn't really any police brutality. In each instance, no reason for arrest was presented, just as each video of "brutality" starts right as the arrest is taking place. This is a problem because without context, any arrest could be pegged as brutality. Police aren't in the business of playing nice when it comes to criminals. That seems to be a little fact Occupiers miss. Although I've never been arrested, or am not an officer, I can bet they don't receive training on how to make arrests as comfortable of an experience as possible. Being arrested should be an unpleasant experience so that, I don't know, you don't want to be arrested again.
Keeping all this in mind, I find little in the way of legitimacy to the claims of the Occupiers, or groups like Adbusters that refer to officers of the NYPD or other forces as brutalizing "pigs" (a favorite term for police among the Occupy crowd). While I haven't been to an Occupy event, the Occupiers themselves seem to be itching to provide as much evidence as they can of the so-called brutality. Even with the countless instances floating around the web, I have yet to see one bit of evidence of true police brutality at an Occupy event.
In all instances I could find, the so-called peaceful well-meaning Occupiers who were being arrested were either not peace-full or not well-meaning. They usually were resisting arrest, ignoring the police, or in many cases instigating police to arrest them while ignoring their orders. On the Adbusters website, they went so far as to say police were pepper-spraying grandmothers in the face. Seriously?
On the campus of UC Davis, the cops had a near loss in the battle against the lies of brutality. However, while I will say in terms of PR pepper-spraying seated UC Davis students wasn't exactly the best choice, it was in no way brutality. News sources reported the students were repeatedly warned to get off the SIDEWALK so people could USE IT (I'm assuming...because that's what sidewalks are for). Adbusters says that possibly two officers participated in the pepper-spraying. Whew. Brutal. Another comment says "great reporting on the indefensible pepper-spraying of UC Davis protesters". Is pepper-spraying supposed to be defensible? If so maybe the police should find a different tactic. One gripping title on the Adbusters website says this "Female protester on the front line of Occupy Portland is sprayed with pepper spray directly in the face by riot police". Yep. That's where it's usually most effective. In yet another video that would surely expose the rampant brutality of the police, a "whitness" describes this scene at Occupy Wall Street:
"uuuhh...a couple people got arrested...were sort of getting man-handled. Um...one girl was being picked up by...um...like they had her hands behind her back and they were like holding her by her arms and legs..."
This sort of brutality has got to stop. Ok...it isn't brutal, it sounds like people just getting arrested.
And, in the most brutally non-brutal video I have seen, an Iraq War veteran was "beaten" by cops at Occupy Oakland. It is here that context is imperative. I would venture to say on this night, the police were on full alert, and wary of a protester like Kayvan Sabeghi who attempted to show his dominance to a squad of riot officers. In the video, police clearly attempt to warn Sabeghi to get out of their way. He refuses. When they continue approaching him, one officer breaks formation. The officer then procedes to chase (and curse at) the protester and billy club him as the protester is trying to run away.
Out of context, this series of events could almost surely be pegged as brutality. On this night, however, it was only a natural human response by one officer trained to be aware in situations like this. The events on the 3rd-4th of November at the Occupy Oakland rallies were the worst rioting to date of the Occupy protests. A general strike was declared in Oakland and what ensued were full blown, cars burning in the street, buildings on fire Greece style riots (refer to Francis Piven). Occupiers started a bonfire in one street of Oakland, broke windows and graffittied buildings. On this night, the protests weren't hippies sitting in parks, but people who truly wanted chaos, and would go through police to get it. As a result, someone standing off with police in an act of defiance is a pretty good way to get police to act which is exactly what this officer did.
In conclusion, I would advise anyone to be sceptical when a sympathizer of the Occupy protests claims police brutality. Our nation's police forces, especially the NYPD who are at the epicenter of the movement, have shown that they can keep their discipline in the face of annoying, instigating protesters who desperately want to be in the picture that will go in the history books of social movements. As these protests continue, and our nation's police forces are pushed to their absolute limits in terms of patience, the exceptional discipline a majority of the officers have shown may become a more rare occurrence.
When this happens, police will need as much support as possible in order to preserve order in our nation. The propaganda of the Occupy movement is infectious because it is simple, as any propaganda is. It's a simple and almost cliche tactic to peg police as brutal. It's harder to understand that the Occupy movement is trying to turn people away from the police because the police stand with the system they wish to destroy. Any authority figure will be targeted in Occupy, and the police are the authority on the front lines. Any self-respecting person of the 99% should think before they demonize the police, however. What is their alternative to police if they have such disdain for them? Would an Occupy security assembly that pushes rape under the rug be better than police? Could the Occupiers deal with murder or violent crimes better than police? If everybody turns their back on police, there really will be like...anarchy everywhere, and brutalizers that won't be police, but people who will take advantage of chaos. Is the 99% really about that?
