Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Black Bloc Causes Backlash Against Occupy
Politics / Law Enforcement & Crime / Occupy Robert Gammon — Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 10:57 AM
When UC Davis police Lieutenant John Pike casually pepper sprayed Occupy protesters last fall, the shocking incident spurred outrage around the globe. Pike seemed to epitomize institutionalized callousness over income inequality and police brutality. But there’s reason to believe that if Pike or another misguided cop pepper sprayed protesters today it would produce a far more muted response. In fact, a significant portion of the population, turned off by violent Black Bloc tactics at Occupy Oakland protests, might even think that Pike would be justified.
Case in point: A federal jury in San Francisco yesterday exonerated a UC Berkeley cop for smashing the fingers of a student protester with a club in 2009 after she had rested her hand on a fence. Prominent Oakland defense attorney John Burris, who represented the UC student and is perhaps one of the most progressive lawyers in Northern California, told the Chron that the jury’s surprising verdict could be attributed to anger and frustration over violent Occupy Oakland protests. “What’s been taking place with the occupiers, there was an undercurrent in the case that was hurtful,” Burris said.
Indeed, the backlash that the Black Bloc and its “diversity of tactics” have caused against Occupy has been growing. Late last month, a KPIX-TV commissioned poll found that 57 percent of Bay Area respondents now say they oppose Occupy, almost opposite of what polls showed last fall. Some 26 percent of respondents in the recent poll said they used to support Occupy but no longer do.
The Black Bloc, in short, is not only severely harming Occupy’s reputation in the liberal Bay Area, but the violent actions of the group appear to be prompting residents to side with police who brutalize protesters — even when those protesters are not involved in Occupy demonstrations. The 2009 protest at UC Berkeley in which the student Zhivka Valiavicharska had her finger broken by UC police officer Brendan Tinney was over tuition hikes and predated the Occupy movement by two years.
This development — the public endorsement of brutal police tactics against protesters apparently because they’re tired of violent demonstrations — should be troubling for activists around the country, not just in the Bay Area. Indeed, it could set back the cause of progressive political activism for a long time.
Comments (17)
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The “Stand up or Shut up” comment was too harsh and I take responsibility for that. Sometimes anger seeps out in misdirected ways. @Mary – The social justice work that folks have been engaged in during the last 30+ years has indeed held the torch of truth through some pretty dark times. Without this we would be lost right now. And we cannot deny there has not been a movement in this country, since the Civil Rights, that has been as powerful or pervasive as the Occupy/De-Colonialize movement is. OWS is picking up where Civil Rights left off, with economic justice now in the forefront. And then we look at the Arab Spring! Something is happening. I beg of folks, please don’t form opinions of Occupy Oakland with the MSM as the prime information source. Please don’t become turned off by the one controversial action plastered on the front page, when there are literally thousands of unreported actions Occupiers are organizing every day. This is just the beginning. Join the movement, in whatever capacity that is allowed. Now is the time when radical change can occur.
like
dislikeThe numbers in this poll match exactly what happened in Occupy Vancouver. We started off with a 60% approval rating, but fell down to 29% after having six black bloc incidents, and with the camp going ferral. The polls were run by Iosos-Reed
People need to understand that the Occupy movement is a PR battle, not a street battle. And, we cannot succeed by exercising our individual rights, we need to think and act as a collective. The police & military military outnumber the occupiers and their weapons are stronger than ours ever will be. Fighting against the police is not only quixotic, but suicidal as well...
Genuinewitty.WordPress.com
Oh, and by the way, Mary Eisenhart, you appear not to have noticed that the burden of Gammon's egregious article is precisely that Occupy Oakland is *not* just sitting around singing protest songs. It's actually trying to challenge the totally wretched and ever worsening status quo, directly, in action. But I guess if you can find a reason to tell us to shut up, you will, no matter how specious.
So Mary Eisenhart, what are *you* doing about the absolute corruption of the government, the looting of the US economy, the looming environmental catastrophes of climate change and mass species die-off? Do *you* think that the social, economic, and political system can be fixed with a few piecemeal reforms? What movement of opposition are you part of?
The Shut Up option would be fine. Like these twits are the only ones who care about these issues, and their antics are a fix for anything.
We are the Folk Song Army.
Everyone of us cares.
We all hate poverty, war, and injustice,
Unlike the rest of you squares.
--Tom Lehrer, 1965
@Aaron I have had many conversations with folks who claim they no longer support the movement, for reasons including: violent protestors and flag burning, no focus of the movement, Occupy Oakland is not made up of Oaklanders, etc. And I read the constant stream of criticism coming from the Tribune, Chronicle and Chip Johnson, and Robert Gammon, all of which are doing their parts to saturate us with these notions (whether true or not, are in no way deserving of the amount of coverage they have received). As I see it, these are counterinsurgent tactics, being consciously used or not, to discredit the movement, to give comfortable people (or people teetering on comfort) the green light to opt out of participation. We are laying all blame on protestors for this drop in support. We are victim blaming. I would like to hold police violence and irresponsible journalists accountable, as well as the efforts of the 1%. Who benefits from Occupy’s lack of public support? It sure is not the folks who have lost their homes, our homeless brothers and sisters, our loved ones entrenched in poverty, incarcerated people or formerly incarcerated. Now is the time for all of us to take responsibility for our actions and create positive change. As I see it, Stand up or Shut up.
@Aaron Brickman: Well, I don't of course know about the sample of 600 respondents, but the responses suggest that many of them don't know how the police have actually treated OO participants. I guess Robert Gammon is extrapolating affirmation from ignorance.
It's also interesting that the big sticking point here appears not to be "violence," but the seizure of empty buildings that belong to someone else--in the case of HJKC, the City. In other words, to the extent this poll is accurate, what most upsets the plurality people is the supposed violation of private property law. This doesn't surprise me, since private property is the founding American religion and since the ideology of property (and accompanying monadism and selfishness) has been massively reinforced over the last three decades of neoliberalism. I guess there's going to be a nasty hangover as the majority of Americans realize they now own practically nothing, including "their" government. This also raises tricky strategic questions for Occupy in general, not just OO.
@ Adam - Check the link in the article:
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/01/3…
For the questions asked, please go to this link:
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollPrint.…
Again, I think the point is that lots of people are being turned off by the actions of a few people affiliated with OO and OO's refusal to condemn those type of tactics.
@Molly - In my experience professional surveys are significantly more accurate than an online poll. Maybe we should ask the Oakland Tribune to share the geographic locations attached to the IP addresses of those who responded to their poll?
Ultimately, this doesn't change the fact that turnout is good indicator of support. If Bay Area residents still supported OO as much as they did last year we would see more people at their actions.
My previous post to this thread was informational--clearing up what black bloc is and isn't. However, I now want to add my voice to the critiques of Robert Gammon's article, which is a breathtakingly shoddy piece of journalism. Mr. Gammon bases his rhetorical attack on OO on one poll (to which he does not provide a link). He cites the notorious UC Davis pepper-spray cop John Pike as his example of police brutality rather than the numerous bone-breaking, skull-cracking assaults by the OPD using not only clubs but projectile weapons--and then concludes, on no factual basis whatever that I can see, that the 57% of Bay Area residents who now allegedly disapprove of OO (again, we aren't shown the question they were asked) would therefore approve of the disgusting tactics of Officer Pike being used on OO! Well, Mr. Gammon, as some of us have been trying to tell you, those tactics and far worse have *already* been used on OO participants. Not only that, but the leap of logic from alleged "disapproval" to approval of illegal brutality is absurd on the face of it. Wretched stuff, Mr. Gammon. Just wretched.
No, Robert Gammon, you and journalists like you are the ones harming Occupy Oakland's reputation. And I find it pretty repulsive. Please stop your discrediting slam campaign. If you want to talk about violence, please focus your energies on the OPD, as the violence this gang has unleashed on OO protestors (and on people of color since the department’s inception) has been totally out of control and criminal. Oh, and by the way, there’s a new poll out, http://occupyresearch.wikispaces.com/Oakla…. 94% of 10,826 people support OO. As we should! This is a people’s movement. If there is something you don’t like, don’t simply complain and point fingers. Get involved and create positive change.
The author of this editorial, Robert Gammon, is comparing apples to oranges by writing “…In fact, a significant portion of the population, turned off by violent Black Bloc tactics at Occupy Oakland protests, might even think that Pike would be justified.” The Pike this author refers to is UC Davis police officer, Lt. John Pike, who pepper-sprayed a group of peaceful student protesters. The videotape of Lt. Pike’s actions went viral on the internet raising international complaints of police brutality.
The excessive force, callousness and disregard for the peaceful students by Lt. Pike and the UC Davis police cannot be justified on ANY grounds much less the actions of some people practicing Black Boc. As explained by another commentator, Black Boc is a tactic originating in Germany. It is not a group.
The Occupy Movement is just that a “Movement”. As in other movements in history including the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, the Women’s Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, it is made up of thousands, if not millions of people throughout the world , who have come together for a common purpose. As such many individuals in this Movement may do things the public disagrees with…albeit other members of the Movement disagree with.
Nonetheless the tactics of a few among even Occupy Oakland cannot be used to condemn the entire Movement and the other millions of people who are part of it. To do this is illogical, childish and does not consider the historial perspective of any Movement. Moreover, it does not take into account the Occupy Movement is not going away. In fact, for all any of us know, the Occupy Movement will still be around for the next 100 years as the issues underlying the Civil Rights and Women’s Movements still exist and are with us today.
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This comment was removed because it violates our policy against anonymous comments. It will be reposted if the commenter chooses to use his or her real name.
I think too much attention is being paid to questions of whether or not a certain tactic is violent or whether the Black Bloc is a movement or a tactic. Personally, I don't think property destruction is violence nor do I think calling the Black Bloc a "movement" is accurate. I am also neither a pacifist nor am I a practitioner of strict non-violence. However, what is clear is that the actions of a handful of people and OO's silence on the issue(s) is alienating average working people and negatively impacting OO's ability to do turnout to it's events.
On 11/2, OO had 15,000+ people marching on a week's notice.
On J28, OO had 4 to 6 weeks to plan for the action and MAY have turned out 2,000.
Most community/labor organizations don't want to work with OO anymore.
Most people I speak to that had at one point come out to OO actions don't want to anymore. It's a very real and depressing problem that is leading to the irrelevance of OO.
I guess the best question to ask is: Is it worth it to allow/protect/be silent on a handful of people to engaging in property destruction if it means that we have significantly less support from the community?
Unfortunately, the "Bay Area public" polled has been deceived, as has the author of this article, by a media/police frame. There is *no such thing* as a "Black Bloc movement." Black bloc is a *tactic*, invented in Germany, by which demonstrators who don't wish to be identified by the Powers That Be dress in black and wear ski masks etc. People doing black bloc in Oakland have mostly been on the defensive--protecting non-bb demonstrators from police violence, de-arresting people, and so forth. On Nov 2 a group of black bloc'ers did engage in stupid vandalism in downtown Oakland, breaking windows and so forth. Some others have done even more stupid things and reprehensible like throwing projectiles from behind a crowd of demonstrators. What's more, most of the people who broke into City Hall on J28 and did some small-scale vandalism--also stupid, imho--were not black bloc, as you can see from their unmasked faces in photos! But these are neither the majority of Occupy Oakland nor a majority of black bloc nor OO actions.
Although I'm not strictly an anarchist, I also object to the widespread identification of anarchists with black bloc. Plenty of people who do black bloc are not anarchists; most anarchists don't do black bloc. That said, there is plenty of debate and criticism going on in OO about tactics. I recommend going to the OO website or the OO media site (hellaoccupyoakland.org) for more information
Perhaps the public would feel differently about Occupy if there were reporters in Oakland actually on the ground and accurately reporting why the protests get violent in Oakland and almost no place else. No way it could have anything to do with the police department that is so corrupt it could be placed in federal receivership, right?
When John Burris sees Occupy as money out of his pocket, that's a sea change for sure.
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