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I'm seeing this a lot. Today I heard someone say, "I don't think some of these people know what they are protesting." He said, "I don't know what they are protesting." I think it becomes confusing when people are arrested and police have to take action against unpeaceful protests and violence. That is a sad situation when some want to resort to violence to get their own ideas across and it may not even have to do with the "american dream" or jobs, healthcare, taxes, etc..
Very interesting what is playing out in Oakland and Denver. I look forward to seeing what develops with those two cities over the next couple weeks. I would hate to see this OWS movement turn into something of domestic terrorist attacks somewhere. I hope.. I can't reiterate it enough, I HOPE it doesn't come to that. I hate to be cynical but I also can see the daily violence and the bigger picture. I also do see some changes, for the OWS movement too though, in a positive way.
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My comments are about Occupy Oakland because I am most familiar with them. I bolded the things I want to address.
Frankly they are very clear about what they stand for and why they are protesting....it's economic injustice. Anyone who does not understand what economic injustice means should get their head out of the their ass.
No one in Occupy Oakland is in favor of violence. All the Occupy people across the country are organized around non-violent priniciples. It does no one any good to use the term 'protestors' when talking about the anarchist assholes (and other assholes) who intentionally reeked havoc in downtown Oakland. They wanted tear gas and riot geared police to come after them. It is how they operate. It has nothing to do with Occupy Oakland or any other Occupy group. Opportunists always appear with any populist movement.
I don't understand AT ALL how anyone can equate the Occupy movements with domestic terrorrism. Violence is not part of the Occupy movement.
I will make one comment about breaking windows............I really don't give a shit if big bank windows get broken or if big banks are shut down for a day or an hour. What does piss me off is small business getting windows broken and taggers spray painting all over downtown. I'm not to upset about dumpsters on fire in the middle of the street. I have helped set a few of those in my time....but we set the fires and then drummed and danced in circles around the fires..... It was done to draw attention to HIV/AIDS.
ALL populist social movements in the US have had violence show up. It is the hardest thing to understand and/or control in these movements. Fringe folks hellbent on chaos and anarchy always get the press. Violence breeds fear and make the corporate media very happy. They can show the violence and mayhem with the caption of 'protestors get violent' and guess what? People believe that the Occupy folks are violent in spite of having at least 7,000 people peacefully gather and march in the streets and shut down the Port of Oakland.