The Shocking Truth About the Crackdown on Occupy: The violent police assaults are no coincidence

The Shocking Truth About the Crackdown on Occupy
The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence.
by Naomi Wolf
November 25, 2011


But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."

In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.

For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president.

So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organized suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.

Read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/11/25-7

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x821842

p.s. Maybe after you read what is on the link above you'll be wishing you could have your rec back ;)

If you go to the link in the OP it says:

"The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests."


We already knew there was a conference call of mayors set up by the U.S. Mayors association.

No where in the article or on the links within the article is there any quote from the mayor that says that DHS was in on the call.

Bottom line: the Mayor of Oakland DID NOTacknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.

Folks need to stop pushing the UNSOURCED article with the false info that the mayor never said.

:loveya:

I sincerely hope you stay as interested in the movement as you have been. But it will become increasingly uncomfortable for you to support both the movement and the president's actions.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2327356


p.s. The mayors have a scheduled conference call more than once each month - it is normal for them to do so, has nothing to do with OWS.

from a Private/Public organization, whose funding we have yet to discover, called PERF. An organization that is 'International' and is made up of former Police Chiefs, such as that paragon of virtue, Bratton and DHS members.

Whether the attacks, and they were Global btw, were coordinated by the mayors and/or the Police, one thing no one doubts, they WERE coordinated and many American citizens were severely injufred, nearly killed.

The NYPD works closely with the DHS and the FBI and CIA.

We need a thorough investigation into this brutal attack on American citizens doing nothing other than exercising their Constitutional rights.

This is outrageous and NO ONE should be defending it.

We need to know first, who is funding PERF and who asked them to advise so many Police Depts? And we need to know what those mayors discussed, whether that conference call was a result of advice from PERF to advise them of what the Police Depts were about to do.

We also need to know whether or not the President was aware of the impending brutal attack on Americans. He certainly hasn't condemned it.

Unacceptable, all of it and it will not go away no matter how much some people would like it to.

I am very disappointed in the immediate knee jerk reaction of many Obama supporters who fail to take into account the very obvious high degree of militarization of local police forces all around this country. Whether DHS has taken a central role in coordinating the attacks on protestors and the Occupy movement or whether or not Obama has participated directly, DHS has been funding and equipping police around the country for many years now (since passage of the Patriot Act) and many local departments are advised by DHS and the CIA. The militarization has been ongoing and the Obama administration has done nothing to stop it but instead has continued to perpetuate it. It doesn't matter if Obama directly coordinated the police violence. It's his g-d damn administration and as the old saying goes, "the buck stops here'! How can people be so naive as to think that the massive militarization of civilian police authorities was not going to eventually be turned on anyone (including peaceful protestors) who in the minds of plutocrats pose a threat to their amassing of huge wealth and power and not just be used against so-called terrorists?

Especially like your words:

The militarization has been ongoing and the Obama administration has done nothing to stop it but instead has continued to perpetuate it. It doesn't matter if Obama directly coordinated the police violence. It's his g-d damn administration ...
####
Thank you!

When I watch fellow Democrats stand up for Obama and his Administration no matter what, and when fellow DU'ers even act as though Homeland Security would not lie to us, I realize how it was that 23% of all Americans supported George W even during the Autumn of 2008.

Sad that belief in loyalty to a party's twist on the ideals that it should hold has more power over some individuals than the actual ideals.

just woke up, in Grant Park, Chicago, August 1968.

So very very deja vu.








http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/occupywallstreet.html

we wouldn't have put up with it if *ush had done it, why now?

How Bullshit Magically Turns Into Fact


by Karoli on November 25, 2011 · 8 comments


I used to write these stories debunking the right wing only, and usually in the context of Fox News. But lately, it seems as though the entire angry political blogosphere, whether right, left or libertarian, seems to need to magically transform bullshit into fact. I’m going to give you two examples of how this works so you can actually figure out for yourself why it’s important to keep your critical thinking cap on.

Naomi Wolf wrote a nonsensical piece today that’s being spammed all over Twitter. It asserts that there is a deliberate plot afoot via collusion by the United States Congress, the Department of Homeland Security and our oligarchical overlords to undermine the very populist, leaderless Occupy Wall Street movement. One of her key pieces of evidence is an unsupported and unverified report that 18 mayors coordinated their crackdowns with the Department of Homeland Security. There’s only one problem with that: It’s nothing more than innuendo. Here, let me show you.

Here are the two links she provides as evidence: One to Wonkette; the other to Washingtonsblog.com. Both articles point back to this absurd article on the Examiner.com site (a very, very right-wing Phil Anschutz, write-out-of-your-butt-with-no-evidence kind of site). Washingtonsblog goes one step further, updating with this:

-snip-
Got that? The headlines on both of these stories (Wonkette and WashingtonsBlog) were splayed across the sites in very large heading fonts: “Homeland Security Coordinated….” and yet the AP confirms everything BUT DHS coordination. Still, that didn’t stop Wolf from ignoring the AP story entirely and writing a piece for the Guardian that included links to bolster her argument that clearly don’t.

http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/2011/11/25/how-bullshit-magically-turns-into-fact/

I'll post this as its own thread.

Thats the sound of truth hitting us right between the eyes.

Wish I could recommend more than once.

Excerpt:

" ... admitted in an interview with the BBC that she and leaders across various other cities experiencing Occupy protests recently participated in a group call ... "

http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-oakland-mayor-jean-quan-admit-cities-coordinated-to-bust-occupy-protests/

So, yes there was a conference call, but NO the DHS was not on the call, and the call was only a NORMALLY SCHEDULED CALL that the mayors have more than once each month.

For more info regarding the mayor's conf call see the OP here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2327356

For "self defense only" look up "Get Tough" in pdf online (or "Fight Back"). It's WWII quick taught close quarter gutter fighting methods that cops still use. With the attack methods and the counter methods all in one short text by a crazy Brit who developed them in early 1900's Shanghai - the most violent place on the planet at the time.

The concepts are simple, fast to learn, easy to use, and very effective.

:kick:

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=2340717

:shrug:

How much more obvious does it need to be???

For more info see the following link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x821842

conference calls don't exist and politicians would never conspire to bust up mass movements and the cops are just engaged in crowd control and "professional leftists" are just trying to make the government look bad and ......

Feel better now?

:rofl:

that doesn't mean that they are conspiring with DHS.

See the OP here for the conference call details: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2327356

And this link explains why your OP is false, that Naomi Wolf is only parroting things that were already debunked:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x821842

Who's surprised?

:hippie:

Keep trying.

Oh, and good citizens check for duplicates.

Sid

Well, maybe two: Are you people all blind? Can't you see what's been going on all around this country for the last 10 or so years (including during the Obama admin), as far as militarization of local police forces? Oh, I guess you thought it was all for use on those "terrorist types".

:shrug:

Give patient and give them time, they will learn.

Sid

...they talk about how to deal with it. SHOCKING. News at 11:00.

Please. What a bunch of conspiratorial nonsense. And is there any evidence the DHS was part of the 18 mayor conference call?

I love how this commentary touches all the conspiratorial tones with phrases like "the picture darkened" and "terrible insight".

What is so complicated anyway? City mayors don't want protesters living in their parks and making them a base of operations to further any political cause. If OWS weren't a progressive movement, they'd have been thrown out of the parks on the 1st night. The only reasons many of the mayors played along is because they are mostly Democrats who liked the idea that OWS might change the national conversation from debt to income equality. Since this change in national discussion would tend to benefit Democrats and as it might lead to more urban area funding from the federal government (or at least fewer cutbacks), they offered a little sympathy and some initial support.

Most mayors were never going to allow people to live in parks indefinitely. To do so would create too many other headaches - starting with the fact it would set a precedent and forever more anyone would be able to pitch a tent in their city park and call it a protest.

So you need evidence of that?

A ton of evidence has been presented on Democratic Underground and also on the White House websites of George W. Bush and now President Obama!

What more do you need?

Seriously, are you shooting down a 'conspiracy' with one of your own?

This is an interesting statement: "If OWS weren't a progressive movement, they'd have been thrown out of the parks on the 1st night."

And patently false.