Occupy Oakland confronted with tear gas

empathy is hard to come by. the last several decades, US politics has been finding ways to energize and polarize political bases. the game plan is "let's win" instead of "let's make this a better place" and it's the reason i haven't been able to seriously follow US politics for several years.

  On 11/3/2011 at 5:21 PM, theSun said:

exactly. what sorts of efforts do you think people would make to stop anarchists burning things? "i don't suppose you'd like to lay down your spray paints and we'll talk this over"

no you stand in between them and the object that they're trying to burn/paint/destroy. And in some cases simply saying "stop, don't do that" is enough. 50 non-violent protestors surrounding them should send the message.

Sectarian violence? Please those cops weren't getting involved until they got the order to do so.

Smetty - if what you say is true then clearly those people should not be claiming they represent the 99%.

And India's independence was won through a variety of means, including violent protests and there were a number of dissenting voices within the independence movement (i mean you wanna talk sectarian violence..geez). But that's for a different discussion.

  On 11/3/2011 at 6:09 PM, theSun said:

empathy is hard to come by. the last several decades, US politics has been finding ways to energize and polarize political bases. the game plan is "let's win" instead of "let's make this a better place" and it's the reason i haven't been able to seriously follow US politics for several years.

this is true and id say this movement is partially a reaction to that..

The anarchist group that was behind most of this were determined to cause some damage....they passed out some anti pacifist flyers and there were hundreds of people trying to stop them when they started breaking windows and atms during the 2pm anti-capitalist march.

I am more angry at the media...it seems easy to recognize that of the like 7000 people who were doing things around Oakland only like 30 or less did any real damage. But, there are headlines listing that violent protesters shut down the port and all we did was ride our bikes down and blockade the roads in and out letting workers leave as long as they had no cargo.

panoramics shot with my cellphone around noon

maybe the non violence protesters should bring fire extingquishers with them

Mustard gas sounds more delicious.

Well that's good that there were people trying to stop them. Get footage of that to Jon Stewart, since (as sad as it seems) he's the only one who covers this with any semblance of fairness (and even he's not above taking potshots at how some of the protestors look).

colbert is good but it's so satirical that i think many people don't really get it

who actually doesnt get colbert?

i don't know i think a lot of the recent stuff is just too much. like, it's funny that his show and everything is "sponsored" by dr pepper and doritos, but does he actually get money for the sponsorship? you bet.

there was a discussion like this in some other thread, but both colbert and stewart have not hit the mark for me lately.

yeah for me theyve gone pretty stale. aside from clips here and there on the web, i dont think ive actually sat down and watched a complete episode in a couple years.

i know the whole joke is that "hey, if you get your news from a comedy show, you're a moron!" but i remember when daily show was informative and funny. now it is rarely either.

  On 10/27/2011 at 1:44 AM, Boxus said:

i was in downtown oakland earlier that day, noticed the crowd had been uprooted and watched a horde of cops roll in on motorcycles. felt like i was walking through city 17. i didn't stick around for the fireworks, but damn. this is some surreal shit.

I KNOW! I wish the cops wore those helmets and had voice masking.

  On 11/3/2011 at 6:14 PM, chenGOD said:

  On 11/3/2011 at 5:21 PM, theSun said:

exactly. what sorts of efforts do you think people would make to stop anarchists burning things? "i don't suppose you'd like to lay down your spray paints and we'll talk this over"

 

no you stand in between them and the object that they're trying to burn/paint/destroy. And in some cases simply saying "stop, don't do that" is enough. 50 non-violent protestors surrounding them should send the message.

Sectarian violence? Please those cops weren't getting involved until they got the order to do so.

 

Smetty - if what you say is true then clearly those people should not be claiming they represent the 99%.

And India's independence was won through a variety of means, including violent protests and there were a number of dissenting voices within the independence movement (i mean you wanna talk sectarian violence..geez). But that's for a different discussion.

But half of India's ethnic populous didn't oppose Indian independence. That's my point. OWS isn't a "united" front against this corruption...this is mostly to do with media portrayal and increasing partisanship amongst the "two sides" of public America.

And of course they shouldn't claim to represent the 99%...in reality they are maybe 0.5% percent of the 99%, and then maybe 40% of the US pop. approves of the protests but aren't actively involved...doesn't quite add up...but hey, "We are the active 2.5% and have 48% sympathizers" isn't exactly the catchiest protest slogan.

  On 11/3/2011 at 9:11 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

And of course they shouldn't claim to represent the 99%...

ive never taken this literally. its a protest slogan that gets the point across.

  On 11/3/2011 at 9:23 PM, Z_B_Z said:

  On 11/3/2011 at 9:11 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

And of course they shouldn't claim to represent the 99%...

 

ive never taken this literally. its a protest slogan that gets the point across.

hence my post above you.

hehe i didnt finish reading your post

we are the foundation

holy shit, my sister got some fantastic footage last night, including of herself getting gassed

field recording i took from last night during the same time that video was taken, scroll forward to about 9:55 if you're impatient, that's when the gassing starts... in stereo!

it's a necessary tactic