Call Oakland what it is "The Battle Of Oakland"

[Katashi_itto]

Let's face it we are in a war. Our current weapons are peaceful resistance, cameras and grassroots social media. Combined with the ability to ruin any one cop/local politician's (see Oakland mayor) career in the time it takes to read this small post.

Thus we have to ability to inflict fear in the enemy this way. Constant exposure of the corruption they propagate by our stand, is our ultimate weapon.

No doubt as the war progress we will evolve new tactics to deal with new threats.

The enemy controls the media, are heavily financed and, have the ability to spin propganda 24/7. But they have much more to lose and they are in static positions. They can't go anywhere. The very vehicle they earn their vast fortunes with, is our weapon against them -the internet

The fact we are in multiple cities makes us almost a guerilla style resistance, a "whack a mole" destroy one camp, two spring up to replace it.

Our decentralized command and control makes us a multi-headed hydra. Hard to kill or discredit.

But let's not dally with spin, Oakland was the opening battle and it should be called such.

Just a few points I thought I would bring up.

Most important:

Each of you, start thinking strategically now.

We are fighting for the life of our country.

V for Vendetta: The Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ikQQk8cJQ&feature=related

"....And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?

Cruelty and injustice...intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance, coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission..."

#occupynavy
Former Admiral's staff, 2nd fleet

[TBMASE]

1. What about the bottles, plates, kitchen utensils and paint bombs?

while the majority of the crowd was peaceful, there were elements in the crowd who did attack the police.

[Katashi_itto]

2. I don't think I will dignify you with an actual comment.

[TBMASE]

6. Interviews, yesterday, with OWS members said there were people

throwing things at the police prior to them engaging the crowd.
I'm only repeating what people who were there have said. Of course the police with paint on them are hard to miss.

[Katashi_itto]

8. Non Violence is key. Eventually we may have a salt march confrontation

Gandhi Salt Works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XarpddX1BI

[Syntheto]

18. Oh, hell no!

We are right and our cause is just, don't bring up inconvenient bs.

[musiclawyer]

3. That is why the people must police themselves

Non-violence is paramount. In fact, it might not be a bad idea to form guardian angels type groups that do nothing but watch out for sabateurs and idiots

[Katashi_itto]

4. Truly an excellent Idea! Spread it to whatever group you are with.

[TBMASE]

7. Occupy Wallstreet has a security force that is confronting the homeless

and searching tents.
Obviously they see a need

[formercia]

20. Call in the Marines

We need Hall Monitors ASAP.

[NICO9000]

13. Let's see here

Bottles, plates, kitchen utensils and paint bombs. So these items were allegedly lobbed a heavily armed pigs in riot gear? And somehow this is an equal fight to you? The pigs are a bunch of fucking lying sociopaths. These fuckers will shoot you in an instant and not think one whit about it.

[TBMASE]

14. This was an admission from a person who was part of OWS in oakland

I've found that if you don't throw things at the police they usually don't respond with teargas.
There are people throwing rocks, bottles of urine and feces and paint from what I've seen in some reports.

And I've never been shot by a police officer at any protest or rally I've ever attended

[Zoeisright]

19. And that justifies attempted murder by the police?

I know exactly where you are getting this information, and it's not a democratic source.

[dtexdem]

5. But isn't TBOO taboo?

;-)

Well, the taboo 99% just have to keep up the pressure.

[meow2u3]

9. Battle of Oakland? No, it's the Oakland Police Massacre

Enough said. When police plan to attack unarmed civilians unprovoked, it's not a battle. It's an act of terrorism on the part of the police.

[Katashi_itto]

10. It was a planned attack. We knew something like would happen.

In the military, we were managers of controlled violence.

Here, we are choosing the most viable course of action. That will bring us success over the enemy. Non Violence.

Remember the murdered MS. civil rights workers. Heros. they knew the risks, but went anyway.

There will be more. Like this. No avoiding it.

We are fighting entrenched evil.

[Martin Eden]

11. You are correct ... a "battle" indicates violence by both parties

We need to adhere to non-violence.

[Katashi_itto]

12. No, we are committed to a course of action, Nonviolence, thats

our weapon.

We are an organized resistance. It was a battle.

Course if you think we are going to hold hands with our overlords and all sing "Kumbaha" together thats your right. But one thing, even if you don't think we arent playing for keeps, THEY do. They will act accordingly too.

There are elements in power that, if they could have gotten away with it, would have gunned everyone in the park down on some manufactured excuse. Never forget that. There are countless billions to be lost by those in power if we win.

From 1966 to 1999 nonviolent civic resistance has played a critical role in 50 of 67 transitions from authoritarianism. Recently, nonviolent resistance has led to the Rose Revolution in Georgia and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Current nonviolent resistance includes the Jeans Revolution in Belarus, the "Jasmine" Revolution in Tunisia, and the fight of the Cuban dissidents.


Earliest Known ones:

BCE 470–391 China Mohism The Mohist philosophical school disapproved of war. However, since they lived in a time of warring polities, they cultivated the science of fortification.

AD 26–36 Judea Pontius Pilate Jews demonstrated in Caesarea to try to convince Pontius Pilate not to set up Roman standards, with images of the Roman emperor and the eagle of Jupiter, in Jerusalem (both images were considered idolatrous by religious Jews). Pilate surrounded the Jewish protesters with soldiers and threatened them with death, to which they replied that they were willing to die rather than see the laws of the Torah violated.

1989 Czechoslovakia Velvet Revolution During the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak citizens responded to the attack on their sovereignty with passive resistance. Russian troops were frustrated as street signs were painted over, their water supplies mysteriously shut off, and buildings decorated with flowers, flags, and slogans like, "An elephant cannot swallow a hedgehog."

Now

USA Occupy Wall Street http://www.occupytogether.org As more and more information becomes available (both good and bad), a good place to start would be at the source by visiting the Occupy Wall Street http://www.occupywallst.org/.

Other first steps to informing yourself include The New York General Assembly http://www.nycga.net/ and their official http://www.occupywallst.org/ page. You can also visit their Youtube channel for a daily video from NYC. http://www.youtube.com/occupytvny

[Martin Eden]

15. There are "battles" and then there are "battles"

A "battle" of wits is nonviolent. The "battle" OWS is currently engaged in is being "fought" on many fronts, one of the most important of which is public perception. If the movement is perceived as engaging in violence ... with such terms as "battling" police ... the goals of the movement will be in jeopardy.

Ghandi and Doctor King understood this, and so do you given the historical examples you offered. I'm not sure why you jumped to the conclusion that I did not understand the concept of nonviolence or why you made erroneous assumptions about what I think (Kumbaha???) but it crossed the line into snark, quite unnecessarily.

Words have meaning, and often have different meanings for different people and in various contexts. The word "battle" in the context of violent police action vs OWS protesters can bring to mind the perception that both sides engaged in violence ... and if you "think" the corporate media powers that be won't jump on any and every opportunity to exploit that perception, then you are not quite as savvy as you "think" you are.

[Katashi_itto]

17. Not meant to be a snark, just hurriedly written. Had two meetings to go to :)

My apologies if it came off poorly.

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. Soicio/Psycopaths cannot stand to have their crimes forced in front of them to see.

First they deny, then they lash out, then they run away.

[snot]

21. We cannot win with violence; in that kind of contest,

we lose instantly to the 1%'s vastly superior firepower; plus we give up the moral high ground, an advantage the 1% will quickly exploit via the 99% of the traditional media that they control.

We are in fact vastly more powerful than the 1%; but if we provoke violence, we give up our greatest advantage: so long as we are peacefully resistant, even our oppressors secretly know we are right, and wish they were with us; and many of them will eventually join us.

"Hatred never ceases by hatred;
But by love alone is healed.
This is an ancient and eternal law."
-- "Dhammapada," Ch. 1, the Twin Verses 5, as quoted by Maha Ghosananda