LOS ANGELES: Scenes of tear gas, riot police and government-sponsored violence is supposed to be a foreign ordeal. It doesn't happen in the United States, or rather hasn't happened in a long while. But this week, in Oakland, Atlanta and elsewhere, police ransacked occupy protests, deploying tear gas in Oakland that gave remembrance to the movement's inspiration: the Arab Spring. More than 100 people were arrested in Oakland, and in Atlanta, at least 53 people, including a state senator, were detained by police, in the most recent police crackdown of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has taken the country, and the world, by force. In Oakland, the images of tear gas and police clashing with protesters brings images of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria to the forefront of the mind, delivering a punch to the movement that has activists angered and average citizens frustrated, “I don't understand why they are doing this and what these people will get from the street,” said Mary Reese, a LA resident who works in downtown near where a few dozen activists have camped out for weeks. “They are not speaking for us all I know that,” she told Bikyamasr.com. Elsewhere across the country, activists have become emboldened and more determined by the police violence and crackdown. “If it took the Arabs this sort of violence to get rid of their dictators, then we are ready to stand and take the punches because we know we are right and what we stand for is justice and a better America,” said Joseph Grand, a 28-year-old unemployed graphic designer in Oakland. He told Bikyamasr.com that this sort of police violence toward peaceful protesters “is what my parents told me about the late 1960s and 1970s, so we must be doing something right.” Overall, he said that the activists who are part of the Occupy Oakland movement are more inspired as a result and plan to continue to demand an end to corporate greed in America. “We stand for social justice and the 99 percent in this country who are left out and cannot find a good job because of the greed and prejudice that exists,” he added. Since the movement began in September, thousands of activists in over 950 cities globally have taken up the mantle of anti-corporatism in the largest global movement in decades. Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the venerable counterculture magazine AdBusters, took to the micro-blogging website Twitter and other websites to help organize a campaign encouraging tens of thousands of Americans to have a nonviolent sit-in in lower Manhattan. The rally, dubbed #OccupyWallStreet on social networks, aims to tackle what protesters call “outrageous” greed on Wall Street, “which is hurting the American and global economy.” They argue that this greed led to the destruction of the American economy and spurred the global recession. Last week, there were reports of police interference and a few scuffles were reported on social networks, but by and large, the major networks have not reported on the protesters and their goals. Anger and resentment at American media outlets has been growing, with one protester telling Bikyamasr.com that he was “shocked and appalled that CNN and others have given us so little time. Are we not a story? Are our demands not for America? I don't get it.” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg characterized Wall Street protesters as misguided, saying their demonstrations are targeting working class people whose jobs are tied to the financial sector, not the rich. “The protesters are protesting against people who make $40,000 to $50,000 a year who are struggling to make ends meet. That's the bottom line,” Bloomberg said on his WOR 710 radio show earlier this month. BM
