The Police Are Not the 99 Percent
They are the enemy, unless they disobey orders and join us (photo by Adam Lempel):
I am sick and tired of hearing people say the police are one of us. They are not. They are the enemy. They do not exist to protect us. They don’t give a fuck about your safety or your rights. They are there to serve the corporate state. Sure there may be some cops who oppose the measures they have been ordered to take, but those who feel this way and nevertheless trample on the Constitution must be called out for their cowardice, and as a whole the police are a gang of thugs paid to protect the oligarchs who control America. We do ourselves a disservice by failing to recognize the enemy when we see it. Unless they choose to disobey orders and obstruct the corporate state, which I urge them to do, the police are not one of us. We must never stoop to their level, but rather continue our nonviolent resistance, which is the only way to defeat them because they fear and don’t understand the language of peace and love.
Anyone who questions these accusations should attend an Occupy Wall Street rally. You will see yourself surrounded by a long phalanx of officers riding on motorcycles, accompanied by dozens on foot brandishing guns and batons. They are trained to look tough and menacing. They bark orders and ignore us when spoken to. And when they attack they are ferocious, like guard dogs let loose from the leash. They throw punches, swing nightsticks and fire pepper spray indiscriminately. They attack everyone in sight, including journalists. On Saturday they trampled on an 81-year old Holocaust survivor at Times Square. And they almost always provoke in an attempt to create conditions to carry out such flagrantly illegal and inhumane actions. It seems only a matter of time before they actually murder somebody.
When people are given a license to use violence they will invariably abuse their power. There is a perverse Freudian undercurrent in all of us to dominate others. When the law awards cops free reign to unleash violence, many will transfer their general anger over problems at home or with women onto whoever happens to be in their path. They relish battle with sadistic pleasure. For many, this is fun, an occasion for a good laugh.
I cannot tell you how many people I’ve interviewed who told me they were brutally subdued for exercising their right to protest, arrested with cuffs unnecessarily wound as tight as possible to cut off circulation, and hauled into paddy wagons, where they were forced to sit for hours on end, unable to move, given no access to water and suffering from the beatings inflicted on them earlier. Often one of the prisoners needs serious medical attention. But the police guarding the paddy wagon just ignore the pleas for help. They usually laugh. A friend of mine was severely hurt during his arrest. His arm may never fully recuperate.
On Saturday evening, as I left Times Square at around 7:30, I saw a massive throng of police cars charging towards the protest. There must have been hundreds, I hadn’t seen anything like it since 9/11 (I’m from New York). It was clear something significant was about to occur. Sure enough, 92 demonstrators were arrested, while others were beaten and harassed. Their crime? Participating in democratic action. In some cases cops lifted barricades and started pressing them against people. In others they charged at the crowd on horseback.
Later that night at Washington Square Park the police were ready for us. They were determined not to let us occupy another park in New York. It’s impossible to articulate the sense of outrage I felt when after eleven o’clock the NYPD stormed the area with hundreds of officers, many dressed in riot gear, others riding on horses. Buses to ship us off to prison were parked on the streets and along the sidewalks. They were looking for a fight.
Perhaps the most astonishing thing about the showdown is the simple fact that Washington Square Park belongs to us. Even more so than Liberty Square, which is a private/public park, Washington Square is entirely public property; we fund it with our tax dollars. Bloomberg and all the other scumbags running things have absolutely no authority to tell us to leave. How dare they arrest 14 people! If the NYPD were really there to protect ordinary citizens in a truly democratic system we would be giving the orders to the NYPD to leave. But alas, they exist to serve Bloomberg and the oligarchs.
This fact is on sorry display for all to see in a video taken the other day of people who closed their CitiBank accounts in protest of the corporate coup that has hijacked our democracy, as illustrated by Chase’s $4.6 million donation to the NYPD. The police locked the protestors into the bank as punishment before incarcerating them. One woman cried “shame, shame” as an undercover cop pulled her aside, pressed her up against the wall and arrested her. While watching this video one wonders, could this really be happening in America? But folks, this is how far we’ve come. For those who didn’t realize it before, the crackdown on Occupy Wall Street is a serious wake-up call about just how draconian our police state has become.
So let’s be clear about something. The police are not one of us. Those who refuse orders to revoke our rights and take off their uniforms deserve commendation, and I urge officers to be on the right side of history and join us. But as far as I know none has done so. As such, they are all slaves at best and criminals at worst. The slaves do not deserve our sympathy. I keep hearing that we should feel for them because they have families too and are just doing their job; they need to put food on the table and pay medical bills; we’re fighting to protect their pensions and stave off budget cuts. Those who feel this way are entitled to their own opinion.
Personally, I am not fighting for the police. I don’t care about their pensions, and I hope they do face budget cuts, especially from corporations like JP Morgan Chase. They are human, but they are trained to behave like animals. It’s in their nature to mindlessly follow orders, and they unleash their frustrations and feelings of inferiority on us. They are the corporate state’s henchmen. They know they are at war with us. We must never thank or applaud them for “letting us” do anything, whether it be to continue occupying Liberty Square or to allow us to enter the park from more than one location. It’s not theirs to give. It all belongs to us. They belong to us. They work on our dime. And we, not fascists like Bloomberg, should be giving them orders on how to protect the people, not the corporations.
The only way to defeat them is to refuse to respond in kind, but rather show respect and let the public see the state-sanctioned savagery for themselves and choose between love and hate, change versus the status quo, and the rule of law versus injustice.
Great footage of Times Square brutality,courtesy of Paul DeRienzo and Joan Moossy
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Great clip of Marine confronts cops: “there’s no honor in this,” very moving
“I am not moving,” powerful video
Luke Rudowski of wearechange.org gets beaten and pepper sprayed by cops
Tagged with: Chase arrests customers • Chase donates 4.6 million • Civil disobedience • know your enemy • nonviolent resistance • obstruct the corporate state • Occupy Wall Street • the police are not the 99 percent
Filed under: Occupy Wall Street • Police State
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When I hear arguments like the police have family to take care of etc, what comes to mind is that the lesser of two evils is still evil. Thanks for having the courage to speak your truth! There will never be a logical, ethical or moral argument for the police treating people the way they do a majority of the time. I’d rather my family were lining up a soup kitchen and living in cars than reconcile my desire to take care of them with being a police officer.
Keep Up The Great Work!
Bret
do you ever think instead of bashing the police you go after the ones who put the police there in the first place they don’t go out in new york on their on.somebody tells them to go there in mass instead of bashing the police find out who has them going out in the first place believe it or not they are the little man too.blast Bloomberg or the politicians of new york who has them out there in mass instead of patrolling the streets OF NEW YORK FOR THE PEOPLE.i’m sure there are some who get off on being jerks but i can promise you most support the movement and instead of creating more hostility go after the rich new york politicians who put them in that position to start with.don’t go after the wrong people now remember the goal.
Its the ‘little guy’ cops who are propping up the ass holes at the top. Basically its on the cops to decide for themselves wether or not they will go on following orders. I am an Irish man and historically many of Americas law-men came from Ireland (thats why they call the police vans ‘paddy wagons’) as the children of those men went on to follow in their fathers foot steps and so on. My uncle was a cop and so is my cousin, but if the cops here in Ireland tried that it would end up the same way, disgraceful behaviour.
If the police murder someone, you can rest assured that the victim “resisted arrest.” Why do the police ALWAYS act this way whenever there is any kind of protest or demonstration, excluding, of course, Tea Party festivities?
Perhaps the baggers were better at acting tough (dressing wildly and shouting hate-filled insults) without provoking confrontations with the Police. Perhaps they also bothered to apply for and stick to permits issued.
poor to the army-unlucky to the priesthood and STUPID to the police. Do u think a caring sensitive and inntelligent human being is caplable of punching a girl in the face or pepper spraying in their eyes? These scum are whores for the oligarchs
Garry,
You are an idiot, do you have a job??
That is all.
This video features Chicago lawyer, Jerry Boyle, from the NLG, giving a workshop to Occupy Chicago. In it, he discusses the low intensity warfare being waged against the OWS movement. This is a very informative workshop, given by a life long activist. If there is a protest in Chicago, Jerry Boyle is there pro bono with the NLG. He is a Chicago Institution.
Please share this. It will help the protesters protect themselves and others.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS TRAINING: http://99getsmart.com/?p=146
Anytime you see a uniform, ranking ensignia, and a weapon you are looking at a militarilly organised unit. It’s very easily identifiable. At it’s finest, it does serve and protect. But there are individuals, even groups of individuals that are under the illusion that a military unit serves anything but the source of it’s power. And that is not clearly, the people, as it is idealistically framed in the US Constitution. Police are subject to law and are designed to protect order, as defined by the particular government that funds and controls it. Police are a part of government and not immediately responsive to groups of people milling about in the “public domain.” There are many examples of police acting against groups of citizens in US history, including violently. The Chicago protests that turned into riots come readily to mind. Look to the recent violence in New Orleans. People reacting in kind to uniformed people acting violently (Police brutality)only serve to give the Police on the scene, the justification they were looking for to rationalize their own violence. And it’s not like they (the Police) have it coming to them. It’s that ultimately, the Police act to protect their own physical health in violent situations (or in a percieved threat situation) and then realise that other’s violence, reflexively must be put down, through available means, in order to restore their definition of order.
So “good luck” trying to out police the Police. You will ultimately be outnumbered and face superior arms. That is why it’s better to remain calm, rational and protest peaceably – even in the face of blatant provocation (both from within and without.) Pay attention to the larger goal and disregard small, transitory loses.
Oh my! You were certainly angered by the injustice the occupants of Liberty Square have been receiving haven’t you? I am too. So weird to see such profound writing, then insert F-Bomb. Haha! I love it to death. I’m obsessed with your blog and what you stand for. I am shouting about this blog on rooftops! Rambling…sorry! Keep up the good work! Your views will change the world. TRUST!
Hope to see you soon at Zuccotti Park again, along with the rest of my friends!
Thanks a lot.
I agree 100%! The cops are not on the people’s side. Many of them were bullies in high school. I know from experience that I was bullied by someone who later became a cop. He got fired because I exposed what he was doing to people on rip off report.com That’s one good way to get them. Expose them through internet websites. It worked for me. Aside from that they harass people to entrap them. Once the people retaliate the cops can exercise their punishment on them. One method cops use to entrap people is gang stalking. They tell the community a person is a pedophile, drug user, terrorist, sex offender or whatever to make that person look bad, then they are placed on a watch list and constantly harassed, no only by the police, but also by people of the community in which that person lives. They then follow that person wherever he or she goes and constantly watches them. Everyone in the community is notified when that person comes into town including aircraft pilots. They use Highway Patrol aircraft to annoy the target until he or she does something illegal such as shoots at the plane. The pilot then radios in to the cops that the targeted individual just fired a shot at him, then the cops show up and take the person away. If it’s not aircraft, they use regular people of the community to drive past the individuals house in loud vehicles, and then once they come out and shoot at the vehicle they are reported. This goes on everyday, and must be exposed. It’s entrapment and yes the cops, FBI and CIA are in on it!
I mentioned in my last post that the method known as gang stalking is what cops use to entrap targeted individuals. Here’s something else that you may have noticed during the Occupy Wall Street protests. During the protests an individual asked the cops if he could walk over to the other side of the protest line. The cops agreed. Once he started walking the cops tackled him, not just once cop but 5 cops tackled this guy put their knees in his side like he was a dangerous criminal, handcuffed him and took him away. This is entrapment! Don’t think cops don’t get away with this! They do it everyday! It’s away to eliminate certain individuals from society, mostly those who are dissidents of the system. Cops love it when a person retaliates against them because then they have a “right” to use brutal force against that person. These murder suicides that you hear about on the news, how does the public know it wasn’t some form of entrapment? People who are called or termed “targeted individuals” are people who are added to FBI Watch Lists, and constantly watched and followed by society. Communities use this list to flag individuals and watch them constantly. How would you feel if someone was watching you, or had you under surveillance? Would you feel the world is turning against you? If that’s not enough these individuals are gang stalked, and gossiped about. John Lennon mentioned something on a night show in 1974 with Dick Cavett about “government targets” He said the following “We’re getting blamed for the Chicago Convention now. It’s no kidding when we approach people for help, somebody somewhere rings them up and says these people are criminals. If we were given a job on the drug abuse council to help people try and explain drugs in a realistic way to kids because you know nobody else is doing it, then immediately after we got the offer somebody rings up the office and says what are you letting those criminals on for,? Don’t you know about this that and the other? Don’t you know they were part of the Chicago Convention?“ This is a form of isolation used by the FBI. So this begs the question was John Lennon a targeted individual? How about Michael Jackson? And now we have another targeted celebrity who’s not far from the same fate, Lindsay Lohan. Unless this sick system that the FBI uses to entrap people is exposed, it will only get worse, and America will become a police state. Now you must ask yourself, do you want America to be under police surveillance? Do you want innocent people to be harassed and tortured by the police just because of their views? Do you want innocent people to become victims of the “entrapment” game police use to eliminate people from society? If not then this system, this SICK system must be exposed!
Wrote this this morning, then searched and found your posting, which is of the same sentiment.
“Although they have much in common with us, the police are not part of the 99 percent. It is true that individually the people who make up the police force often are kind, polite, generous, even sympathetic. This in turn, however, can make it difficult to reconcile the purpose they fulfill in our society and political economy, but it behooves us to remember this role: namely the weapon of the status quo, the protectors of property and capital, the guard dogs of the elite.
Many will argue that those who join the police do so not with these intentions in mind, but out of financial necessity. And while it is no doubt the fault of the system that being a cop is one of the increasingly few stable jobs, we must come to view these individuals as lost to us. For despite any empathy they show to us on a one-to-one level, when the order comes down for them to attack, to enforce laws of oppression, they do not waiver. And so long as they hold these positions of dominance, neither shall we forget to view them for what they represent, and treat them accordingly.”
Great article, and I completely agree with you. It’s incredibly annoying to watch protesters yelling “We’re doing this for you!” to the cops who just smashed others to the ground, etc. The police are showing themselves for what they are: the hired mercenary army of the 0.1%. The corrupt like Bloomberg know that this is an existential conflict, and they direct their thugs accordingly.