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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBlack Power Salute! Protesters Chain Selves to Oakland Police HQ: 25 Arrested
Last edited Tue Dec 16, 2014, 01:14 PM - Edit history (1)
Now that's what I call sending a message:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-protesters-chains-oakland-20141215-story.html
To add my own note: I found it really disturbing that the Oakland police kept their distance during the media-covered Black Lives Matter Million March in Oakland on Saturday, but as soon as the spotlight was turned away, jackbooted police were marching in *battalions* to surround and arrest protesters. While there may have been people engaging in criminal activities, I'm confused over why the police don't just focus on arresting them? Why do they let one incident of misbehavior - which can be committed by an opponent to a demonstration - shut down the entire demonstration? And why do they have yet to grok that these are protests against abuses of police authority? That means if some student has just been hanging out protesting, and has been within their rights to protest, and they think they have the right to argue that point, the police DO NOT come down like some World War III platoon and kettle everyone in sight for resisting arrest!!!!
http://winstonsdiary.com/2014/12/15/front-center-at-the-oakland-protests-the-politics-of-a-police-state/
People do find arrest, or even direct confrontation with the police, to be a traumatic - possibly a scarring - experience. The police have to stop exposing people to that "for kicks". And this Movement means the first thing they have to do is stop exposing black people to this sort of trauma on a regular basis just "for kicks". The Oakland Police Department needs to refocus their confrontation and their authoritarian attitude ON THE CRIMINALS.
And then, just maybe, they won't have to deal with human chains outside their HQ.
Power to the #shutdownOPD!
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Back in the late 60's, early 70's that closed fist salute was used by members of the "Black Power" movement,
a movement that the police brutally put down.
See this page for a great explanation:
The Black Power Salute That Rocked the 1968 Olympics
http://life.time.com/culture/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/#1
This is why I am thrilled to see so many people doing the "Hands Up" gesture in solidarity of the murdered black men.
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)And replacing the flag was awesome, too!
The most important thing these groups did at the march on Saturday was distinguish their tactics of symbolism and disruption from tactics of vandalism and looting. (Unfortunately Occupy is still posting complaints about "Good Protester/Bad Protester Narratives" without recognizing that the people who knock the teeth out of a Divinity student for trying to put out a fire don't achieve anything).
Now replacing the OPD flag with *your* flag - that's a statement!!!