Meet The Faces Behind The Occupy Movement
Whether you support the two month old Occupy movement or not, there is a lot of violence going on between the cities and the protesters. Is the violence rampant on the part of the protesters? Is it right-wing propaganda? I personally think it is a bit of both. In any case, there are wrongs being done on both sides of the protest. This isn't a Democratic-Republican feud. The people aren't "stinky" and "lazy" and "looking for privileges". They are people - just like you and me - with legitimate gripes and they are trying to be heard. While, I understand this may not be the way you would try to be heard, it doesn't mean they are wrong. Here are some images that have been taken in the past few weeks.
OCCUPY WALL STREET
This is Brendan Watts. He was beaten to the ground with a police baton on November 17, 2011 during the 'Day of Action' protests on Wall Street. He suffered a fractured skull and was charged with a felony. What did he do? He knocked the hat off of the police officer that bashed in his skull...
OCCUPY SEATTLE
This is Dorli Rainey, an 84 year old grandmother who was pepper sprayed in the face in Seattle on November 15, 2011 in Seattle. She was one amongst a serious group of thugs that included a 19-year old pregnant woman and a priest. Ms. Rainey has been a protester on different causes most of her life. At the time of her being pepper-sprayed, she wasn't doing anything wrong. She was standing at an intersection and became the victim of a random spraying on the crowd by police.
OCCUPY OAKLAND
Scott Olsen is a 24 year old marine and Iraq War veteran. He has served his country for two tours in war and had been injured. He had gone to the Occupy Oakland protests along with his group, Veterans for Peace. Olsen wasn't just a shiftless and jobless person. He has a job working at a software company in San Francisco and went to the rally to protest the wrongs he sees in the United States. For his patriotism, he was hit by a fired teargas projectile which fractured his skull and caused his brain to swell. Protesters took him to the hospital where he was in fair condition.
OCCUPY PORTLAND
This picture was snapped at the Occupy Portland rally on November 18, 2011. The girl being hit in the face with pepper spray is Elizabeth Nichols. She is screaming at the moment she was pepper sprayed because a female officer had just jabbed her in the ribs with a night stick and then put the stick under her chin. While she ended up being all right, Nichols was taken to the hospital for her injuries.
OCCUPY UC DAVIS
This scene was taken at the University of California at Davis. These students are having a sit in. They aren't yelling at the police. They aren't throwing anything. They are sitting. That was when Police Lieutenant John Pike (personal email and phone number provided) decided to walk up and down the line of protesters and shoot them with pepper spray at point blank range. The officer said that this was "fairly standard police procedure". UC Davis Chancellor, Linda Katehi, commented the incident as "chilling" as the students and faculty is calling for her resignation.
[...] individuals on the ground accompanied with his personal email address and phone number (which was re-posted here). Now, at the speed of the internet, the Lieutenant's image has been turned into an internet [...]
Jimm,
” The people aren’t “stinky” and “lazy” and “looking for privileges”. They are people – just like you and me” I can’t speak for you but these are not people like me. The list of demands details mostly marxist ideals.
VII. Policies to reform education: •Debt forgiveness for student loans
Sounds like privilege to me.
VIII. Miscellaneous policies related to political economy: •End capitalism / Get rid of capitalism / Abolish capitalism.•Forgive loans and debts / Debt relief for individuals
And replace it with what? Marxism or Communism…Debt forgiveness is somehow not Marxist.
The list has many issues that they address with a focus on giveme programs like free healthcare, debt forgiveness, wealth redistribution all Marxist themes.
Jimm you maybe ready to experiment with communism but I am not. History has tought us that most revolutions depose one set of tyrants just to replace them with thier own set of tyrants. So far there has been three rapes and one sexual assault of a 14 year old girl at these rallys. I can’t even comment on the number of assaults committed by the movement. This sounds more like the Khmer Rouge than Gandhi.
I don’t see where this has to be an “all or nothing” debate. There are many socialist programs in our society and they work well. No one cries when the fire department comes to your house to put out a fire or your trash gets picked up or your drinking water doesn’t contain arsenic.
When taxes become fair for everyone; not 33% for one group and 15% for another, when the banks quit getting bailed out while America gets sold out, when our politicians can get along peaceably without saying “NO” to everything; then maybe this country can grow.
No one thinks that the protesters are just going to get free education. However, everyone in this nation should have healthcare available to them paid for with our taxes. Is that Marxist? No. It’s part of what every industrialized nation in the world offers their citizens. While our politicians are more worried about what women do with their bodies and if we should be able to carry a gun across state lines, our people are dying because insurance companies “know more” than the doctors.
Congress needs to get off of their collective asses and start working for the American people and I am referring to both Democrats and Republicans.