The attack on the Boston encampment, the attempt to restrict its growth as more and more Bostonians, a city of more than 3 million people, is not a simple "housekeeping" event. The Mayor and his police force augmented by state police made an attempt to strike back on behalf of the 1% by concentrating on the expansion into a second park space and destroying tents and equipment, and beating persons peacefully assembled there.
Why did this happen? This is a test cahttp://www.boston.com/... for a model to deal with the #Occupy Wall Street Movement, a peaceful assemblage to redress grievances, to summon the best and the most eloquent of our people who have been shut out of governance and plunged into a deep crisis with no end in sight. (more below)
Hundreds of cities, a thousand Occupy events, with more added daily!
The attitude of the authorities was to deal with this growing movement as if it is a flash in the pan, a circus of little significance. As weeks go by and exponential growth occurs in spite of ignoring, and mocking and villifying it in the corporate media, a new tactic is employed. Make no mistake, this was not Menino's choice alone.
The attacks on the encampments in Boston are the pushback to attempt to take away a source of inspiration and a model of organizing that the authorities on behalf of the 1%, their top down hierarchs, want to see aborted and crushed. Make no mistake in thinking this is a rogue or "insensitive" individual mayor.
This is a calculated attempt at taking a PR hit now vs the objective of terrorizing, roughing up, and destroying what Boston has built so far.
Boston has an opportunity for pushback with the October 15th Demonstrations by #OWS across the country only a few days away. At that point the defiance of Menino who is acting on behalf of the 1% will be taken to a new level.
This effort is now too big, too deep, too widespread to be coralled by destroying some tents and rousting some people sleeping on the ground. The Boston General Assembly will deal with this attack as they have dealt with launching their participation in this movement, with a calm and sensible plan for raising the visibility/pushback as they see fit on the ground.
9:07 AM PT: Some news from the article in Boston After Dark worth noting here:
Boston has an ordinance or law that states 5 armed people or 10 unarmed people together in an "unlawful assembly" may be arrested and subject to a 500 dollar fine and a year in jail. Who decides what is an "unlawful assembly"? Does sleeping in the park after the closing time of 11 PM qualify? Apparently so. But a law this general can be applied to anybody. People on the street. People in a certain neighborhood. Who determines what is an "unlawful assembly"? Doesn't this fly in the face of the Bill of rights? It sounds very much like a law ignored unless there is a particular purpose top dispersing people. How convenient.is that!
10:06 AM PT: video from Boston at time of attack on campsitehttp://www.youtube.com/...
Wed Oct 12, 2011 at 12:48 PM PT: Apparently a few ? was battered by the staves or the billy clubs. some people, 129 arrested to the police report, 110 according to the legal observer(?) were detained. There is still a controversy over wether the expanded protest had a permission to stay from the foundation controlling the space.
The story is getting some minimizing and some controversy as if the rough treatment is OK. One older gentleman was hospitalized with bleeding from the cuffs. several had bruises. More than it showed the other night, but the growing pains have to be addressed.