Most of my hesitation is due to poor camera handling, but I suppose that it's difficult to maintain a stationary position in the middle of a protest. In a lot of instances, I've been shown clips of police grabbing random people in crowds, throwing them to the ground, and bracing their knees against the protestors' necks while two to four other officers assist in arresting them for no visible reason. That's the poor camera handling that I'm talking about.
Now, I'm not one to speak ill of police officers, but history, even recent history in my own neighborhood, has taught us that excessive force is a real thing. In some circumstances, this maybe be exaggerated, but the thing I'm worried about is the possibility of another Rodney King fallout.
If you're unaware of the Los Angeles riots of 1992, I'm summarize it for you. After a video was publicly released by a local media network, that depicted an African-American man being beaten by police, a trial was held to determine the validity of excessive force and police brutality. All of the five officers involved were acquitted of assault, and three of the five were acquitted of excessive force. This sparked an enormous outrage from the people of Los Angeles, who took to the streets in a violent "protest" that ended in a six-day riot involving widespread arson, violence, and even murder. All in all, the fallout included:
"...53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damages to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $1 billion in financial losses."
The Occupy Wall Street movement has been labeled as a "peaceful" protest, and given that no one has died or received fatal injury, I'm willing to agree with the description. However, the videos recorded by the protestors have disturbed the surface of this metaphorical pond, so to speak, and it's the ripples that I'm worried about. The video I linked at the top of this post displays many attempts by officers to "subdue" random protestors that aren't visibly causing disruption, but the question of provocation still lingers.
Though I'm not particularly worried about this escalating to the level of Tienanmen Square, I am worried about the possibility of media coverage being skewed in favor of the protestors, and the consequence leading to a non-peaceful movement. Right now, the people involved in Occupy Wall Street are doing the right thing by gathering together and attempting to incur peaceful change. I won't argue that they're very unorganized, and that their "demands" (more seemingly "suggestions") of taxation on the rich and universal healthcare are a bit generalized and are without any sort of "how", but plenty of "why". The fact that they're gathering plenty of support, however, might indicate that this movement is really a movement, and not some short-lived media event.
All in all, I'm hoping that Occupy Wall Street continues as peacefully as possible, yet that it also continues to expand beyond New York. As long as the protestors refrain from provoking police officers, they'll have my support if any sort of police brutality occurs.
In light of this all, I encourage you to follow these links to some easy reading and listening. It's totally relevant, and is in no way me exploiting the topic to get you to listen to my music. Not at all. Now go listen.
