National News
From Oakland to New York, Occupy protesters won't back down By Saeed Shabazz -Staff Writer- Updated Nov 14, 2011 - 9:07:56 PM
(FinalCall.com) - Clarence Thomas, president of Oakland’s powerful International Longshoreman and Warehouse Local No. 10 described the early November general strike in the city as the “first manifestation in the 21st century of people’s power.”
Mr. Thomas noted the Nov. 4 general strike was called by Occupy Oakland and not organized labor.
But the one-day shutdown that literally closed businesses in the Bay Area city, and closed the nation’s fourth largest port, was in reaction to police violence Oct. 26 when nearly 900 law enforcement officers and Homeland Security police attacked the Occupy Oakland site at 5:30 a.m.
The assault resembled a full-scale military attack, a domestic “shock-and-awe,” with police using flash grenades, percussion bombs and tear gas, said demonstrators. Eighty-five people were initially arrested, but the number rose to over 100 as some 1,000 protesters clashed later that evening with police.
In the latter confrontation, Iraqi War vet Scott Olsen was hit in the head with a tear gas projectile, sending him to a hospital in critical condition.
“It was the video of Scott Olsen laying injured in the street that galvanized people across the nation,” Colin Neary, 21, a senior at the University of Connecticut, told The Final Call. “I am surprised that the police believe that their tactics would scare people away; on the contrary, their brutality has helped us,” Mr. Neary said, while standing in a packed Zuccotti Park, headquarters of Occupy Wall St. in New York City.
It was a Saturday, and while Zuccotti Park was alive with protesters and their supporters, some 20 people were arrested during a violent confrontation with police in front of the Manhattan Supreme Court building.
While the atmosphere Nov. 5 in the park was basically festive, looming is a potential showdown with police as pressure mounts on billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg, listed as the 30th wealthiest person in the world, to evict protesters from the privately-owned park since Sept. 17.
Supporters of protests said as similar encampments pop up across the nation, mayors are growing impatient, saying free speech is fine—just not here.
Gina Pappa, a school teacher from Rhode Island, told The Final Call she had to come to Zuccotti Park to see for herself what was taking place. “The way the police are behaving doesn’t surprise me. They need a way to stop this type of protest,” Ms. Pappa said, who described herself as a White middle-class Catholic.
Ms. Pappa’s eyes watered as she somberly said, “I am afraid that things are going to get a lot uglier. Someone unfortunately will die, like at Kent State,” she said. On May 4, 1970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired on a crowd of anti-Viet Nam war demonstrators, killing four, wounding nine.
At the United Nations, a spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told reporters use of tear gas and other dangerous projectiles against Occupiers was “acting responsibly.” When pressed by reporters to explain the standards that the UN applies to the U.S. versus the rest of the world, official violence in the U.S. is qualitatively less than in other nations, said the spokesperson.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, however, offered serious warnings and words of wisdom to law enforcement and President Obama for how to deal with protestors. The Muslim Minister was asked during a recent appearance on the Cliff Kelley Show on Chicago’s WVON-AM radio station: “What would you advise President Obama to do to prevent protests over the economic conditions in America from becoming violent?”
Min. Farrakhan said police strong-arming used in New York against Occupy protesters was “not the best approach.”
“I think President Obama and the Homeland Security secretary will probably instruct the police to be very, very careful. These are children, or young people, who are fed up with bailing out banks.” He warned against violence or tactics that could result in another Kent State incident.
“I tell you that militias in this country have been training for war against their own government, and will come out in the streets to protect these children,” warned Min. Farrakhan.
Speaking directly to the president, the Minister said: “I pray you will tell your police to be full of restraint. But when they are not, then be careful.”
On Oct. 30, his warning concerning the militias proved correct, as news circulated that a citizen’s militia group, the U.S. Border Guard, appeared at the Occupy Phoenix encampment, saying they were on scene to protect “free speech rights.”
The day before a judge in Memphis, refused to sign arrest warrants for Occupy protesters hauled in by police, saying officials had no right to invoke a curfew used as the basis for the arrests.
The peoples’ response in Oakland Nov. 4 was clearly a statement that protestors are willing to go to jail, or take a beating from police to change the dialogue and insist on Americans having basic needs, such as health care, education and housing, fulfilled, said Mr. Thomas.
David Heitholt, a database analyst, had a six-figure income until late 2002, long before the global recession, but at the time of the tech bubble crash, “Here I was a White male with multiple degrees and I couldn’t get a job at the same pay level; and I began to take a closer look at what was happening in this country,” he said.
“I began to see that issues such as police brutality were not parochial to just the Black community—these tactics were being used to silence all who spoke against what was happening. I was forced to see the other side of the coin,” Mr. Heitholt admitted.
Today, government “pays lip service to First Amendment rights. More and more our government is actively opposing our right to freedom of speech and assembly,” Mr. Heithbolt said.
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