Glass glass glass
A woman old enough to be a grandmother is quickly becoming the face of Occupy Seattle. Dorli Rainey, the 84-year-old, pictured in the photo below, has been an activist since the 1960s and even ran for mayor of Seattle in 2009, according to the Atlantic Wire. She ultimately dropped out of the race saying, “I am old and should learn to be old, stay home, watch TV and sit still.” As the Atlantic points out, she certainly didn’t seem to listen to her own advice. Rainey was among a group of Seattle protesters scattered by police on Tuesday. A pregnant 19-year-old woman was also reportedly hit by pepper spray Tuesday, The Associated Press reported, though police haven’t confirmed the incident. A priest was also among those pepper sprayed during the protesters’ march from their camp at Seattle Central Community College to Westlake Park, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Police officers on bicycles attempted to block the protesters’ way. After tensions mounted, the police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. “Pepper spray was deployed only against subjects who were either refusing a lawful order to disperse or engaging in assaultive behavior toward officers,” Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel told the Seattle Pi. Pepper spray has been used on multiple occasions against Occupy protesters in the last two months, first by NYPD officers in September. In late October,an Iraq war veteran at Occupy Oakland was injured after police fired a projectile at his head. The pepper spray incident came the same day Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the NYPD to clear protesters and their belongings out of Zuccotti Park in the wee hours of the morning. The activists’ fate in the park is still uncertain after the protesters’ court challenge failed to override the city’s actions. You can see more photos from Occupy Seattle, courtesy of The Seattle Pi, here. (ARTICLE CREDIT: Dean Praetrious)
This might be the kind of demonstration to show our government exactly how United these States are! I hope that it begins a necessary dawn of demonstrations to strategically pass the economic message on to our government. May it be as successful as the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Where will you show your support?
When will we really try and stop our government. Let’s beat them with the same knowledge they try to keep from us.
This is a shocking interview with one of the students that was sprayed at point-blank range by Lt. John Pike at a UC Davis protest on Friday. The imagery included gives the reader such excellent context to the days events.
This is a shocking interview with one of the students that was sprayed at point-blank range by Lt. John Pike at a UC Davis protest on Friday. The imagery included gives the reader such excellent context to the days events.
The genius of this approach is how insidious its effects are: because the rights continue to be offered on paper, the citizenry continues to believe it is free. They believe that they are free to do everything they choose to do, because they have been “persuaded” — through fear and intimidation — to passively accept the status quo. As Rosa Luxemburg so perfectly put it: “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”…
…For the first time in a long time, the use of force and other forms of state intimidation are not achieving their intended outcome of deterring meaningful (i.e., unsanctioned and unwanted) citizen activism, but are, instead, spurring it even more.
Our government used to use our military power to intimidate foreign nations; now however, they have turned that force upon its own people. We will not be frightened into submission.
