scottrossi:

So I’m just going to quick talk about what happened tonight, 30 April, 2012, on the eve of the May Day 2012 General Strike. I don’t know everything yet, and I’m too busy getting ready for tomorrow to really sit down and do homework. You’re getting my on the ground observations and you’re getting the cursory bits of reseach and double checking i’ve done with others that were there. I’m not a journalist, I’m a big fat gay guy who spends too much time watching cat videos on the internet, so please remember to read actual news stories from this event. I am providing you with as neutral and informed an account as I possible can because I believe the truth is more important than being a movement celebrity and other dumb shit. 

So anyway, I believe we were hijacked and it was an utter clusterfuck. It started out as sort of a “pep rally” type thing at Dolores Park, but maybe 20 minutes after we got there, it turned into a march. I tweeted “LOL looks it turned into a surprise anticapitalist march. #osf #oo #ows #dolorespark”. although i frown on the tactic of spraypainting and paintbombing, it was a bit funny to see the normally sneering people outside some of the boojie restaurants in 18th street get a little taste of their own class warfare. that said, what happened once the march reached Valencia was a) the fastest i’ve ever seen a march fall apart in my life and b) the largest concentration of simultaneous D: faces i have ever seen in my life. This is where I disengaged from the march, advised people I was pulling out and they were on their own, and told some people who were distracted or otherwise slow on the uptake that the march was entering ‘smashy smashy land.”

So, rather than describe what happened (since 340958345 other blogs and news agencies will do just that), I think it is more important to point out who did this. But as I’m about to explain to you, I don’t know that I can do that. You see, I don’t know who, the people I’ll dub as the ‘ringleaders’ of the march were exactly. Nobody did. Yeah some of the aggro people we always have to deal with were there, but these guys weren’t it. You remember those asshole jock bullies in high school? Well that was who was leading the march tonight. Clean cut, athletic, commanding, gravitas not borne of charisma but of testosterone and intimidation. They were decked out in outfits typically attributed to those in the ‘black bloc’ spectrum of tactics, yet their clothes were too new, and something was just off about them. They were very combative and nearly physically violent with the livestreamers on site, and got ignorant with me, a medic, when I intervened and reminded them that I was there to fix them from police violence, not protester on protester violence. 

I am typically really bad with names, but I am great with faces. I love people. I love looking into their eyes, looking at their smiles and their body language and trying to guess at their life and stuff. I probably will forget your name the first few times I’ve met you, but I will not forget your face. Even people I pass on the street, I’ll remember you for weeks. With that said, I didn’t recognize any of these people. Their eyes were too angry, their mouths were too severe. They felt “military” if that makes sense. Something just wasn’t right about them on too many levels. I’m not one of those tin foil hat conspiracy theorists, I don’t subscribe to those theories that Queen Elizabeth’s Reptilian slave driver masters run the Fed. I’ve read up on agent provocateurs and plants and that sort of thing and I have to say that without a doubt, I believe 100% that the people that started tonight’s events in the Mission were exactly that. 

Now I’m not pointing a finger at SFPD, although it would not surprise me if certain elements were clued in on it. Generally, the officers seemed as upset and bewildered as we were. Remember that article that just came out about the banks cooperating against Occupy? They have hired Pinkerton, those fucking goons, the scourge of the labor movement from back in the day, to coordinate against us. It could be that they are the Feds, it could be that they are some corporate assholes or even some of our right wing blogger friends who stalk us at events. It very well could be SFPD, as apparently there were no arrests, yet several cruisers drove past myself and a few other people with what I assumed were protesters in the back seats. Bandanas still up over their faces. I actually laughed at them possibly being arrested, because of the damage they did (which is an asshole move, i’ll admit, but i did it out of anger.)

Isn’t it funny too, that for the last 6 months of sustained protests, we couldn’t fart sideways without riot police raising their truncheons against us anywhere in the Bay Area, yet these cops weren’t around tonight when the convergence in Dolores Park turned into a march. the 2 squad cars and van that were following us did so at a snail’s pace while the boojie restaurants on 18th street got vandalized. Some more police units on Valencia just let the protest pass, despite it’s obviously destructive intent, and the cops were driving past laughing as their cars were pelted with paint. The laughter is really what betrays something seriously wrong about tonight’s march. For six months, we’re beaten, harassed and arrested at the slightest provocation, park and public lodging rules enforced to the very last dotted ‘i’ and crossed ‘t’, but tonight, they let a pack of vandals run riot down Valencia street. 

The other thing that bothered me is the level of destruction and the targets. This was all Bay of Rage Indybay organized, from what I gather, but it was all wrong. Black Bloc goes after state or corporate property. They do not engage in violence but property destruction, let alone that of the working class and poor. I disapprove of that behavior, as it is not something I would personally engage in, however, this was off. This wasn’t directed against corporations or big banks, with the exception of one single ATM I saw smashed. This was specifically directed against mom and pop shops, local boutiques and businesses, and cars. Lots and lots of cars. I won’t weep for the hipster dives or the WASP nests for nouveau riche white trash, but the working class, poor and immigrant owned places I will. At first it was a few luxury cars, but as I followed the march down Valencia from a distance, it was all types of cars. There was a little girl crying and her mom was holding her and telling some onlookers that people smashed their car windows right in front of them as they were walking to it. She’s always going to remember the ‘mean people’ smashing. Everyone everywhere was really upset and blaming Occupy. 

We’ve spent months radicalizing and empowering the Mission, working with and learning from groups who have already been here for decades, trying to use our momentum, enthusiasm and appeal to energize moribound organizations and skittish and apathetic people. We’ve been encouraging people to feel empowered to organize themselves, to get unions for day laborers, to march for and bring attention to our terrible immigration practices, hell the list goes on and on. It’s just convenient that these so called ‘protesters’ acted in such a way to undermine and burn all those bridges we’ve been so carefully building. The destruction was too calculated and precise in it’s seeming randomness to be Black Bloc or even those fucking suburban scumbags who get an anarchist patch at Hot Topic and think that gives them license to come to Oakland or SF and burn shit down. 

Like I said, I don’t know who did this, but I am 1000000% certain they were not OccupySF and they were not OccupyOakland. I know the action was marketed as an action against gentrification, but too many regular people suffered tonight. Too many car tires are slashed. An old, brown minivan on the corner of Valencia and Duboce has all the windows busted out and the tires are flat. How is the owner supposed to drive that to work? The point is, the Mission, my neighborhood, a working class neighborhood, albeit one infested with yuppies and hipsters, got fucked up tonight. All that work we’ve been doing is now jeopardized. All the interest in what we were doing that brought people in the Mission to ask OccupySF to help them organize is jeopardized. I’m sure the woman wondering how she’s getting to work in the morning because her car is jacked up now finds her job and way of life jeopardized. 

This was not OccupySF, this was not OccupyOakland. What it was, was fucked up and a failure. I don’t care about delusions of anarchist grandeur and being the vanguard. That’s masturbation. I care about results and I care about how I’m getting them. The end does not justify the means, the journey is just as, if not more important than the destination. Fuck the yuppies and the hipsters. They’ll join us when revolting becomes ‘cool’ and claim they did it all along. By doing this, and by allowing ourselves to be led on by provocateurs, we alienate them, we push them back into their sleepy little tyranny enabling little coccoons. If you’re gonna break windows, if you’re gonna smash cars, be real with your targets. Even rich WASP assholes are family when your their your neighbor. None of you that live in the mission tonight, none of you that live along Valencia know what damage was done here. For months, years even, this will be a nest of counter revolutionary sentiment because of the actions tonight. If there’s one thing to be thankful of, at least the media isn’t blaming OccupySF or OccupyOakland for once. It’s strange when they actually bother to do research and report correctly. 

Anyway, I’m tired, it’s May Day and I’ve got a long day ahead of me. Good luck, stay safe, and be smart and considerate in your tactics. This shit was bunk as fuck tonight. 

PS: i get that certain affinity groups may have been involved in the planning and execution of this action, and that you may have worked with these people for years, but i’m telling you that the little love and revolution sandwich you have made has some fucking bacon in it. thank you, love scott.

mainstreamrevolution:

Once again, Sticker Robot & ObeyGiant have teamed up to give away some beautifully silkscreened stickers, in support of a very important social movement. In 2008, we printed and disseminated nearly a million of Shepard Fairey’s iconic HOPE image in support of Obama’s bid for president.

Today we are supporting a new call for change.

GET A FREE OCCUPY STICKER

We have a very limited quantity to give away, so we are offering one sticker per person/per household.

Simply send us a legal sized S.A.S.E.* to the following address:

Sticker Robot / Occupy
PO Box 1189
Woodacre, CA
94973 USA

philocoffee:

Alongside upcoming votes on a bill that will end any free exchange of media considered “piracy” and completely ban similar sites outside of the U.S. in a sort of “Big Brother-esque” censorship practice as well as a recent bill approval by congress allowing the U.S. Military to arrest any U.S. citizen on “terrorist” suspicions without warrant, things in the U.S. are beginning to look a lot like early Nazi Germany. 

kwikset:

“In one of the greatest signs yet that the 99 Percenters are having an impact, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, today introduced an amendment that would ban corporate money in politics and end corporate personhood once and for all.

Deutch’s amendment, called the Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED) Amendment, would overturn the Citizens United decision, re-establishing the right of Congress and the states to regulate campaign finance laws, and to effectively outlaw the ability of for-profit corporations to contribute to campaign spending.

“No matter how long protesters camp out across America, big banks will continue to pour money into shadow groups promoting candidates more likely to slash Medicaid for poor children than help families facing foreclosure,” said Deutch in a statement provided to ThinkProgress. “No matter how strongly Ohio families fight for basic fairness for workers, the Koch Brothers will continue to pour millions into campaigns aimed at protecting the wealthiest 1%. No matter how fed up seniors in South Florida are with an agenda that puts oil subsidies ahead of Social Security and Medicare, corporations will continue to fund massive publicity campaigns and malicious attack ads against the public interest. Americans of all stripes agree that for far too long, corporations have occupied Washington and drowned out the voices of the people. I introduced the OCCUPIED Amendment because the days of corporate control of our democracy. It is time to return the nation’s capital and our democracy to the people.”~ThinkProgress

Another article/interview from The Washington Post: House Democrat: Occupy the Constitution!

More info on Florida Rep. Deutch: http://deutch.house.gov/  or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Deutch  «check out the https on that linkage..poke poke @tumblr))

douchebags-of-the-occupation:

socialistexan:

shortformblog:

jeffmiller:

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So I guess the Tampa police brought this out to face the Occupy protestors down there.  If the movement is looking for something discrete to protest, perhaps they could protest LOCAL POLICE OWNING TANKS.

The Tampa Police Department wins the award for most unnecessary ownership of a tank. Here’s another photo, for those who thought this was Photoshopped. (Our BS-meter was admittedly turned on there.) Here’s a description of the unit from the City of Tampa’s police site: “The 12-ton Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) can drive through five feet of water and withstand winds up to 130 mph helping police operate under the most severe conditions. The carrier, nicknamed “high-top shoe” for its tall silhouette look, can be used for search and rescue during a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. The APC is bullet resistant, can hold 13 passengers and it is virtually unstoppable. On pavement, it can reach speeds of 60 mph. This one of a kind APC was purchased from the military and it was paid for with a Federal security grant.”

Man, APC’s look a lot more intimidating in real life than they do in Advance Wars.

Why in the world does a police station need an APC?

Because they’re DOUCHEBAGS?

(via )

NY Daily News: Whole world watches city’s shameful response to Occupy Wall Street protest

Click through to read more

randomactsofchaos:

Jim Morin/Miami Herald (11/19/2011)

(via kwikset)

kwikset:

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Occupy Wall Street movement is a big enough problem for U.S. banks that they should pay for opposition research into the political motives of protesters, said a firm that lobbies for the industry.

Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford, a Washington-based firm, proposed the idea in a memo to the American Banking Association, an industry group which said on Saturday that it did not act on the idea.

The four-page memo outlined how the firm could analyze the source of protesters’ money, as well as their rhetoric and the backgrounds of protest leaders.

“If we can show they have the same cynical motivation as a political opponent, it will undermine their credibility in a profound way,” said the memo, according to a copy of it on the website of TV news channel MSNBC, which first reported on it. (See MSNBC’s report http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/19/8896362-exclusive-lobbying-firms-memo-spells-out-plan-to-undermine-occupy-wall-street-video)

Clark Lytle Geduldig counts the banking association among its regular lobbying clients, U.S. Senate records showed.

Other clients include MasterCard Worldwide and a banking coalition concerned about interchange fees.

The firm did not respond to requests for comment.

Its memo said it could deliver research, survey data and plans to use the information in 60 days at a cost of $850,000.

Banking association spokesman Jeff Sigmund told Reuters the memo is authentic, but his group was not interested.

“Our government relations staff received the proposal - it was unsolicited and we chose not to act on it in any way,” Sigmund said.

The memo is dated November 24, five days after it became public. Sigmund did not respond to a follow-up question about the date. November 24 is also the Thanksgiving holiday.

The memo said U.S. financial firms should be concerned about comments that Democratic campaign consultants have made in the news media about trying to harness the energy of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

“This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street firms,” it said.

“If vilifying the leading companies of this sector is allowed to become an unchallenged centerpiece of a coordinated Democratic campaign, it has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bull’s-eye.”

The memo is from Clark Lytle Geduldig’s four name partners. Two of them, Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, are former aides to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican.

Using shorthand for Occupy Wall Street, the memo said:

“It may be easy to dismiss OWS as a ragtag group of protesters but they have demonstrated that they should be treated more like an organized competitor who is very nimble and capable of working the media, coordinating third party support and engaging office holders to do their bidding. To counter that, we have to do the same.”~Yahoo/Reuters

occupyallstreets:

Leaked Memo

CLGC’s memo (above) proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. 

The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.

According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”

The CLGC memo raises another issue that it says should be of concern to the financial industry — that OWS might find common cause with the Tea Party.

Source

Good, you should be afraid of the people working together to expose your corruption. We know of your plans. Expect us to retaliate.

(via kwikset)

parkvisit:

Eviction: This was the Community Altar on Flickr.

Read more at parkvisit.tumblr.com/post/12850663221/tuesday-eviction

A wedding took place here just last Sunday: www.flickr.com/photos/siwc/6345023380/in/photostream/

www.flickr.com/photos/siwc/6344276857/in/photostream/

(via kwikset)

saboma:

Our Enemies in Blue: Why the Police Are Not Part of the 99%