"Occupy" turning to violence

[Hyena Dandy]

See, that's just dumb, if it's privately owned they have no right to be there unless the owners allow it, they can be evicted at any time and have no rights to stay there.

Occupy New York is also on private property. In both cases, it seems, the owners of the property don't have a problem with them being there.

Besides, why should a big corporation care that they're protesting on their park? The protest isn't hurting anyone. Especially the corporation.

[bara]

Here is a blatant misuse of police authority.
25 People arrested.

Judge's response: Bad cop, no doughnut. Let my people go! (I paraphrased that last part)

Links for reading enjoyment.
http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/a...oopers-charges
http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/a...hville-arrests

[Gravekeeper]

Oh wow, some fuck in a Mercedes in Oakland ran two protestors over because he found them "Irritating":

"Onlookers said the driver deliberately ran over the pair, accelerating after a man hit on the hood of the car. The windshield was splattered with what appeared to be a milkshake. After the car stopped at the other end of the intersection, the driver switched seats with his female passenger.

About 40 people gathered in the intersection and some pulled open the driver's door.

The woman inside shouted: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

The injured man and woman were taken away in ambulances. Police let the driver go.
"

Police let the driver go What the fuck shit hell?

[Andara Bledin]

Article at SFGate

BART officers (now there's a crew not known for their ability to react appropriately) responded when the man struck the pedestrians with his Mercedes.

Witness testimony is varied with reports that he was being harassed by protesters and that he apparently sped up when he hit them. Based on what facts are being reported, it appears that he's guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. I would suspect the swapping seats with the passenger was out of recognition that he wasn't currently fit to be driving. That still doesn't excuse what he did.

Also, while he was not arrested at that time (they didn't have enough evidence to arrest him? seriously? way to continue to make yourself look like asses, BART), that doesn't mean that he won't be in the future.

Also, since it's BART that's involved, it's worth noting that the driver was white and the pedestrians were black.

^-.-^

[Gravekeeper]

Also, while he was not arrested at that time (they didn't have enough evidence to arrest him? seriously? way to continue to make yourself look like asses, BART), that doesn't mean that he won't be in the future.

Yeah, I mean its not like its on video or anything from one of the multitude of cameras obviously in the area. He wasn't surrounded at all. One jackass got mad and was pounding on the hood of his car because he was inching up on him and he fucking floored it and ran him over at point blank range with zero regard for the lives of anyone present.

And they let him go? What the fuck?

[Andara Bledin]

I really wonder how much of the response from the police is based on the whole "protester vs person with enough money to drive a Mercedes," how much is "black vs white," and how much is "we're just too fucking lazy to actually do our jobs, even when we've got video evidence to back us up."

So, we've still got violence going on, and it's overwhelmingly being perpetrated against the protesters.

^-.-^

[Gravekeeper]

So, we've still got violence going on, and it's overwhelmingly being perpetrated against the protesters.

In all blunt honestly, time and time again the protestors have been the peaceful ones despite the constant, downright disgusting attempts by the police to incite them to violence. So they can get on with the head crackin'

Though I will admit, some of the resulting t-shirts make me laugh. >.>

[IDrinkaRum]

Occupy Oakland has gotten violent and many OWS people are decrying the violence in the California city

[Andara Bledin]

Damn. Oakland police have been douchebags to protesters for over half a century. They're really dedicated to looking like assholes in the press, aren't they?

^-.-^

[Greenday]

Occupy Oakland has gotten violent and many OWS people are decrying the violence in the California city

I feel like we've skipped the whole "shitload of protesters being violent" part and just went to "Some protesters aren't proud of violence". Can we rewind and go back to that whole violence part?

[Canarr]

And what violence part would that be? I still haven't seen *any* evidence that Occupy protesters were violent in any shape or form. Even "normal" criminal activitiy - thefts et.al. - seems to be below the statistical average.

Greenday, I think you've been asked several times to back up your claims of protester violence with evidence. So far, I haven't seen any. How about that?

[IDrinkaRum]

Police reported protesters vandalizing properties, lighting bonfires in the street and hurling explosives at officers. Police say protesters threw concrete chunks, metal pipes and Molotov cocktails. But officers left the camp intact.

Police fired bean bags and used tear gas to subdue the crowd.

On Thursday morning, graffiti covered a number of businesses around the City Hall plaza. Some windows also were broken, and debris littered the street.

The above quote is taken from this article

Sounds like to me the protestors of Oakland are those who don't believe in order and are just a bunch of people looking to be violent.

[Greenday]

And what violence part would that be? I still haven't seen *any* evidence that Occupy protesters were violent in any shape or form. Even "normal" criminal activitiy - thefts et.al. - seems to be below the statistical average.

Greenday, I think you've been asked several times to back up your claims of protester violence with evidence. So far, I haven't seen any. How about that?

You're kidding me right? Attacking news reporting vans. Rum posted a link about violence by protesters. Did you not read that?

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/03/402...nce-after.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...s-violent.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ISXqzg99s For those who think reading or following the news is too tough. Cops being hit with paint. Appears to be glass bottles thrown at cops. Injured cops.

Can't wait to hear why none of those are valid!

[Andara Bledin]

Sounds like to me the protestors of Oakland are those who don't believe in order and are just a bunch of people looking to be violent.

The problem here is that it's impossible to know without being there if the violent people were protesters or merely hoodlums looking for a place to cause havoc. It's appears that they were both, but without knowing whether they came with the crowd or after it, we can't be certain.

Although it's interesting to note that with an aggregate link listing a dozen stories of the ongoing protest (I would assume the lack of reporting on other locations is primarily due to the lack of anything particularly newsworthy, therefore no violence) there is only the 1 story.

We've got hundreds of thousands of people involved in protests that have been going on for weeks and months on end in dozens of locations across the nation, and trolling through the entirety of the reports there have been only a small handful of incidents to levy against the protesters, and a few of those appear to be misrepresented or outright fabricated.

As noted, that is below the normal threshold for crowds of this size and nature. You get more violence happening at a typical high-stakes sporting event than the vast majority of these protest locations, and yet some people are bound and determined to find proof that the protesters are just itching to become a violent mob when we have ample and continuing evidence that this just isn't the case at all.

^-.-^

[Greenday]

The mental gymnastics being used to protect the protesters' image is astounding. What other groups do does not excuse protesters who do violent things. The fact that not everyone is violent doesn't excuse those protesters who do commit violent acts.

One of my friends is at an Occupy protest not in Oakland. He said other than a lot of drug use and sexual assaults, it's not too bad lol.