All across the United States, Occupy Wall Street members have been holding protests, demonstrations, pickets and drum circles. Many of these gatherings have been peaceful, but police and protesters in Oakland have been violently clashing for days, with police using bean bag rounds and tear gas to disperse crowds, and angry demonstrators setting fires and throwing objects at the officers.
Oakland became a demonstrator rally point when Scott Olsen, an Iraq war veteran, suffered a fractured skull from a projectile allegedly fired by police.
On Nov. 14, the Oakland Police Department issued a second eviction notice to Occupy Oakland members, which said that their protest were “injurious to health, obstruct the free use of property, interfering with the comfortable enjoyment of (Frank Ogawa Plaza), and unlawfully obstruct the free passage or use of a public park or square.”
On Oct. 28, Occupy Oaklanders held a demonstration, just days after Scott Olsen was injured. The latest violence happened on Thursday, Nov. 10 when a man was reportedly shot to death during a dispute with other unknown men. This last act has spurned the second eviction notice, and police are ready for the protesting to end as soon as possible.
In an open letter released November 11, 2011, the Oakland Police Officer’s Association plead with protesters to stop rallying so officer’s can return to crime filled neighborhoods. The letter asked the Occupiers to stop, “With last night’s homicide, in broad daylight, in the middle of rush hour, Frank Ogawa Plaza is no longer safe. Please leave peacefully, with your heads held high, so we can get police officers back to work fighting crime in Oakland neighborhoods.”
With the violence between officers and protesters, both sides have defended their actions. Police had issued similar warnings the morning of Oct. 25, and that evening fired tear gas and bean bag projectiles at demonstrators who wouldn’t disperse when ordered. After the injury to Olsen that evening, people have said that the department was using too much force to stop the protests.
Oakland is not the only city whose police have come under scrutiny for using excessive force, an Internet video allegedly shows a NewYork police office striking an unarmed Occupy Wall Street protester.
Most departments have stuck behind their officers, saying that the protests are in violation of the law, and that in many cases the demonstrators taunt and assault police prior to any use of force.
I feel that these protests do need to stop in the manner that many of them are happening. The Occupy Wall Street movement is an organized objection to the United States economic structuring, and a call for change. Many of the protesters present at Occupy gatherings can’t tell you why they are there, and protests often look like an impromptu hippie rally instead of a demonstration of over-worked and underpaid people demanding more economic dispersion. This does nothing but take away from the validity of the movement, and destroys the credibility of an issue that desperately needs to be heard in Washington, DC.
Our country is broken, and politicians have chosen party over people. The Occupy movement not only should be heard by both parties in DC, it needs to be heard. The disorganized gatherings and violent protests have harmed the central message of this movement, and typical police responses have taken the focus away from the issue.
What Occupy Wall Street needs is leadership; strong leadership that will accurately convey what 99 percent of citizens want and need from their country to the politicians in DC.
All of the theatrics have distorted the message that the movement is trying to relay, that decades of corporate selfishness and irresponsibility have led to an enormous gap in wealth. Whether or not we like it, the vast majority of us fall under the 99 percent, and there truly is a large disproportion in the distribution of wealth in our nation.
The violence that has been taking place is not beneficial to the overall goal of the movement, and only diminishes the strength of the message being sent. Organization amongst protesters is crucial in order to get the message heard by people who matter. Without order, these demonstrations will sputter and lose momentum, and nothing will be gained.
On Nov. 13, police assembled at five in the morning and peacefully evicted the remaining Occupy Oakland protesters. In an online article, the author described the scene as police organized themselves, writing that demonstrators gathered together drumming and singing. That the police were able to dissolve the “protest” peacefully is a good thing.
The disheveled, grungy people we see in Occupy photographs are not an accurate portrayal of the 99 percent. But unlike the amateur drummers and hippies of the world, the real 99 percent are too busy working for a measly paycheck that barely buys the groceries to take time off and protest how unfair the distribution of wealth in our country really is.
Thankfully, the Occupy Oakland protest has come to a peaceful conclusion, but I truly hope the Occupy Wall Street movement will live on, and reach the ears of politicians in Washington.
There are many people in the United States who are unhappy with the current state of our country, and it is the job of our Congress and Senate to listen to those who elect them.
David Adams can be reached at dadams@spartans.ut.edu