Blog Post 4

Protesting is something that is apart of the American culture. Protestors have caused up roars against several different topics in America’s history. Currently we have protestors vocalizing their views on America’s economic situation. These protests are not limited to just one location and they have been named the “Occupy” protests. Protests are lawful as long as they are deemed to be peaceful and do not disturb any other daily functions or laws, but it can be very difficult to play by the rules when protestors are limited by several laws. For example if there is a city curfew for a parks, then protestors are unable to assemble at the park past the open hours. Or if you are occupying a side walk and the flow of traffic is blocked you are unable to assemble at that location. With this comes frustration not only from protestors, but law enforcement as well. When laws are broken by protestors the police men and women are called in to disassemble the groups. Many times the protestors are unwilling to leave, because they feel as if their rights are being violated or that their message is being suppressed. This friction between the two groups usually ends up resulting in violence. The violence also catches the world’s attention, which in return fuels the violence of the protestor so they receive more coverage resulting in their message being heard.

            With the “Occupy Oakland” protest headlining our local news everyday for its success and violence it was clear that the protestors were gaining more exposure due to their violent mishaps. According to an article written by Jesse Strauss a girl named “Anne” was interviewed about the violence presented to her boyfriend who was apart of the protest. She went on to say this about her boyfriend, "I talked to him twice now since he’s been in Santa Rita [County Jail] and he said they were basically torturing him there. They beat him in front of a bunch of people, including a nurse, and then they took him to another room and they put his head in a toilet, put his hands in a toilet, threw him against a wall." The allegations could not be independently verified.” (Al Jazeera). Though the claims made by Anne are quite shocking about the Oakland Police Department Strauss did a good job clarifying that the statements could not be verified. Every story does have two sides and the Oakland Police Department has started investigations to make sure that misconduct is not being committed according to Chief Howard Jordan.  The protest has seemed to evolve in Oakland from being a stationary assembly like the normal protests to moving around the city, so that the protests could be held and different locations.

            Most recently the protestors have ended up at the ports of Oakland, which is the 5^th largest port in the United States. The goal of the protestors was to shut down the port from its daily operations by protesting at the port. According to BBC, “Hundreds of city workers, including teachers, in Oakland, joined the call for a strike. The crowds also stopped traffic at a junction where a military veteran was seriously injured last week as protesters clashed with police. Ex-Marine Scott Olsen, 24, is recovering in an Oakland hospital after being struck on the head with a tear gas canister fired by police. That incident catapulted Oakland, which is on San Francisco Bay, to the centre of the national Occupy Wall Street movement and has spurred fresh demonstrations across the US.” The article does not really supply the facts as too why the tear gas is being shot, but as history shows tear gas is a non lethal way of having crowds disperse. It is sad that the violence in the current “Occupy Protests” is what helps people’s voices get heard. Prior to the violence the media covered each city and their “Occupy Protest” pretty evenly. When the Oakland Police Department began to push back against the protestors and violence began to take place, then the city was propelled in to the spotlight. Peaceful protests just do not get the message across as clearly as their violent counterparts. This is our unfortunate reality, but maybe we can change it by protesting?

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/10/20111026135124919772.html

http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca/groups/police/documents/pressrelease/oak031967.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15568057