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The City Council and the Mayor have endorsed Occupy LA and are allowing OLA to camp in the park at City Hall based on the protesters Constitutional Rights to Free Speech and Assembly, which are superior to local ordinances. They have asked the LAPD to respect the City Council Resolution and its intent.
This situation is all well and good as far as it goes. However, a large proportion of the campers at City Hall are NOT affiliated in any way with OLA. Some are violent hard-drug users and/or mentally ill, some are merely homeless (some OLA people are also homeless, but that's not the point), others just wandered in because it looked like a party and really have not a clue about what OLA is or what the Movement's aims are. None of the non-OLA campers in any way further OLA's objectives. They are not protesters and lay no claim to Free Speech/Assembly Rights. Their presence and behavior are often the basis for complaints from the public, unfairly directed at OLA.
The situation has become intolerable. The camp is an increasingly dangerous place for the OLA protesters. Many people who would be valuable to OLA feel they cannot join the encampment because of the behavior of the non-OLA campers, others, mostly women, are leaving; a tragic loss of human resources. Scarce material resources and space are also lost. Donors are put-off. OLA becomes less and less effective at furthering the aims of the Movement because too much time is spent trying to cope with the numbers and/or problems of the non-OLA campers. Solidarity and espirit seem lost to the OLA campers because they are so diluted by extraneous people in their midst. I imagine it would be very different if the protesters could eat dinner together around the south steps and discuss plans rather than quickly retreating with their plates to the relative safety and sanctuary of their tents.
I am very sympathetic to the victims of homelessness, drug-addiction and mental illness, however, I feel that OLA must pick its battles. We either further the larger aims of the Movement to bring our society, economy and environment back into balance by breaking the hold the global elites have over the 99% or we abandon that and administer an amateur outdoor homeless shelter for the indigent, drug-addicted and mentally ill. OLA cannot do both. The success of the Movement would ensure that social services would cover all the needs of society's most vulnerable. I feel that is the best way for OLA to help everyone.
I do not know why the City Council and Mayor do nothing about non-OLA campers, perhaps the hope is that OLA will be destroyed by the situation, as is a distinct possibility (although perhaps that is uncharitable of me). If this is the situation I have to admit using scary street people is a very effective weapon against OLA (and the poor neighbors by default). This leaves OLA is in the unenviable position of having a sanctioned place for their encampment without any control over any and all who piggyback in for whatever reason.
I am asking that OLA request that the City Council and Mayor immediately make real efforts to find appropriate places for the non-OLA campers who have filtered into the park within the next 10 days to relieve OLA of a burden they are no way qualified to shoulder. The Mayor says he is looking for somewhere for OLA to relocate. If he had somewhere in mind perhaps he should utilize it to immediately start a professional outdoor homeless mission that welcomes all comers and leave OLA in place to further their protest.
New York has the very same problem
Submitted by tovangar2 on
I should have waited one day cuz I could have just posted this from the New York Daily News & skipped writing my own post: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/occupy-wall-street-central-a-rift-gro...
I'd heard that New York had had some success with moving on the freeloaders by redesigning their camp site, but it sounds like some folks are pretty intrangident. I've proposed a draft encampment redesign for OLA that may eliminate some of the problems, if anyone else agrees and/or some version of it gets implimented.
Same points are made in the Daily News as I made in my initial post above including:
That the increasing numbers of non-Movement people are overwhelming the camps attracted by the food & the cop-free zone.
That the authorities may be encouraging this situation as a weapon against the Movement
That by continuing to accommodate "these people we’re creating a space where other people, and particularly women, don’t feel safe — and by default we’re excluding them.”
Full Daily News Article:
At Occupy Wall Street central, a rift is growing between east and west sides of the plaza The Wall Street protesters determined to “Occupy Everything” now find themselves, in a sense, occupiedBY HARRY SIEGEL
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, October 30 2011, 6:22 PM
Seth Wenig/AP
The Wall Street protesters determined to “Occupy Everything” now find themselves, in a sense, occupied.
Six weeks after a handful of activists took up residence in Zuccotti Park — the privately owned, publicly accessible plaza covering the block between Liberty St. and Cedar St. from north to south and Broadway and Trinity Pl. from east to west — the occupation has grown beyond all expectations, filling the park to near-bursting while becoming a national symbol of economic discontent and political frustration.
A few hundred occupiers sleep in the park on any given night; many hundred more come during the day to exchange ideas in the sort of public commons that had disappeared in the era of laptops and cell phones; hold and read signs; take in or add to the scene; or join the nightly General Assembly, the governing body of the movement that’s open to all comers and built on principles of participation and consensus.
“What we’re trying to build here,” said Jeff Smith, a member of the Occupy Wall Street press working group, “is a model for the bigger society we’d like to see.”
(Richard Drew/AP)
And there’s the rub: The “model” civilization that’s sprung up at Zuccotti is itself increasingly divided between the stakeholders in the nascent movement who feel invested in the emerging economic, social and cultural causes of “the 99%,” and hangers-on, including a fast-growing contingent of lawbreakers and lowlifes, many of whom seem to have come to Zuccotti in the last week with the cynical encouragement of the NYPD.
The dedicated participants’ stronghold is on the park’s east side, facing Broadway. The stragglers tend to cluster on the park’s west side, facing Cedar. The rift between them is growing. And two of OWS’s core values, generosity and inclusion, are being put to a crucial test.
Every protest scene or dissent park draws from a dark carnival element, and Zuccotti has had members of this group since the first week of its occupation. But the swelling ranks of freeloaders and disturbed characters in the last few days has pressed the working group members who’ve organized the protest and so far kept it from going off the rails to refine their ideas about just how open their movement should be.
Walking from east to west through the plaza, the stratification is stark, especially at night, when the gawkers and press have mostly cleared out. Inside the park, just past the General Assembly steps, are the library, the press and information tables, the legal table, sanitation and so on. Most of the working groups have been clustered at the east end of the park in order to share one of the few generators they had installed (the FDNY removed those generators Friday, ostensibly because they posed a fire hazard), and the space behind the tables has been the closest thing to a formal area, with only active participants behind them.
Most of the non-participants in turn pitched camp west of there, as far as possible from the workers. That dynamic reinforced itself, as occupiers nervous about their possessions and safety slept by their equipment and each other to the east, while the carnival crowd kept to the other side of Zuccotti.
It’s a fast drift from political theater and experiment into tarp and tent city, where sleepers block the walkways and the organization breaks down. The west-side anarchists are in 70s-punk costumes, and to the extent that they have discernible politics, many of them would be more fairly described as nihilists. At the Liberty-facing steps, where the much-discussed drummers are based, there’s a post-apocalyptic feel at night, with the spiritual meditation circle sharing space with a shady mélange of crusty punks, angry drunks, drug dealers and the city’s many varieties of park denizens.
(Richard Drew/AP)
The number of non-participants taking advantage of the resources that the activists have provided — free food, clothing, tarps and sleeping bags, hand-rolled smokes and even books, not to mention a sense of protection from the police, who have increasingly left the park to protect itself - has exploded over the past week, and is threatening to define the occupation itself and overshadow its political and social ambitions. Despite those resources, “spanging” (spare-changing, or panhandling) at Zuccotti has become commonplace, as have fights, near-fights and open-air drug sales.
“I mean you wouldn’t see somebody at the General Assembly smoking a joint,” said Smith, reflecting the frustrations shared by many working group members who have invested their time and energies in the occupation. “But in the back, they’re selling crystal meth.”
Ongoing efforts to change that dynamic by better distributing the working groups’ tables across the park have been frustrated by the limited number of generators they have to share and the unwillingness of many of the less-active occupiers to clear space for them. Members of the sanitation group say that more than 30% of the occupiers refuse to move their tents at all to accommodate the big weekly cleaning each Thursday. While the so-called Community Watch has significantly expanded in recent days, the sense of disorder has so far persisted, and concern has grown among the organizers, who understand that the scene in the park is — for the millions watching from afar — a symbol of their broader cultural and political ambitions.
The watch, though, has only powers of persuasion and pressure to try and enforce the rules, and no way to remove people from a public park. The police, whom many occupiers see as the enemy and who work under a mayor who’s made no secret of his distaste for the occupiers, have little reason to help them maintain order, and rarely seem to have entered the park over the last week for anything short of an assault. When officers have gone in, a wave of people carrying drugs (or with other reasons to fear arrest) moves away from them while others circle tightly around, cameras out. Even when organizers have requested their intervention, police enter to a mixed chorus of “brutality” and “pig” calls side by side with chanted reminders that “you are the 99%.”
But while officers may be in a no-win situation, at the mercy of orders carried on shifting political winds and locked into conflict with a so-far almost entirely non-violent protest movement eager to frame the force as a symbol of the oppressive system they’re fighting, the NYPD seems to have crossed a line in recent days, as the park has taken on a darker tone with unsteady and unstable types suddenly seeming to emerge from the woodwork. Two different drunks I spoke with last week told me they’d been encouraged to “take it to Zuccotti” by officers who’d found them drinking in other parks, and members of the community affairs working group related several similar stories they’d heard while talking with intoxicated or aggressive new arrivals.
The NYPD’s press office declined to comment on the record about any such policy, but it seems like a logical tactic from a Bloomberg administration that has done its best to make things difficult for the occupation — a way of using its openness against it.
“He’s got a right to express himself, you’ve got a right to express yourself,” I heard three cops repeat in recent days, using nearly identical language, when asked to intervene with troublemakers inside the park, including a clearly disturbed man screaming and singing wildly at 3 a.m. for the second straight night.
“The first time I’ve heard cops mention our First Amendment rights,” cracked one occupier after hearing a lieutenant read off of that apparent script.
“A lot of you people smell,” a waggish cop shot back later after an occupier asked if he might be able to help find more appropriate accommodations for a particularly pungent and out-of-sorts homeless man.
“The police are saying ‘it’s a free for all at Zuccotti so you can go there,’” said Daniel Zetah, a member of several working groups including community affairs. “Which makes our job harder and harder because the ratio is worse and worse.”
(Robert Sabo/New York Daily News)
Organizers, who have already cut kitchen hours and taken other steps to discourage freeloading, are hoping that the winter cold will help clear out hangers-on and give the active participants time to consolidate their gains to date and refine their structures (including a bid to shift some power from the general assembly comprised of the semi-random group of people who show up on the Broadway steps each evening to the working group members who have invested time and effort in the occupation) to ensure the park maintains a high ratio of political participants to pilgrims drawn to a free-food, cop-free Eden.
“We’re in a limited physical space,” said Zetah, “and we’re past carrying capacity. By including these people we’re creating a space where other people, and particularly women, don’t feel safe — and by default you’re excluding them.”
Siegel, a writer based in Brooklyn, is a former editor at the New York Sun, New York Press and Politico.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/occupy-wall-street-central-a-rift-growing-east-west-sides-plaza-article-1.969320#ixzz1cJioPsPS
British Blog on "Going Beyond Safer Spaces"
Submitted by tovangar2 on
http://visionon.tv/web/mermaid/home/-/blogs/going-beyond-safer-spaces
beyond safer spaces 10/27/11 2:14 PMAs the sad report of a rape at Occupy Glasgow shows, we need safer spaces policies. I asked a woman at Occupy London Finsbury Square whether, in light of the news coming from Glasgow, they had a safer spaces policy there. No, she said, “we’re such a small camp and it feels so safe already here, that we haven’t felt we needed to put one together”. Of course you never realise you needed something until it turns out that you need it, and if you haven’t already got it you’re a bit stuck at that point. There’s something in the old scout’s motto ‘Be Prepared’.
But I think that’s the classic problem with safer spaces policies. As a friend involved in squatting social spaces pointed out, they are usually seen as policing documents setting down rules for use as a last resort, when things go wrong. When they should be seen as something we set down at the start of creating a new space in order to make it intentionally, consciously safe from the outset. How else can we expect people who routinely or often, or ever expect sometimes brutal and violent oppression to feel that our self-organised spaces are places where they will be welcome and included?
Because let’s face it, while our self-organised spaces may feel a lot like the utopia that we hope to live in one day, but in the end they are just bubbles, surrounded by the prevailing social oppressive racist, sexist, classist social structures.
And they have porous boundaries – when people enter a self-organised autonomous space they don’t automatically, magically experience an erasure of their privilege or oppressive behaviours.
And this is where I start to think that we need to go beyond what we currently think of as ‘safer spaces’ policies and think about what we really need to make our self-organised, autonomous, albeit temporary communities really inclusive. Because really, we don’t want to be ‘safe’ from others, we want to be equal to each other, and in order to achieve this, we want to know that we are entering spaces where all who take part consciously acknowledge and claim their privilege, and the power differentials accorded to us by society and resulting from the privileges we inherit.
Granted it’s not as cool as a kind of magic, psychic footbath that will wash away all oppressive behaviours as you cross the threshold into an incense-filled, rainbow-hued utopian self-organised space. But if we’re going to be conscious about the oppression outside our spaces, we have to be conscious of the privilege we carry into our spaces, and determined to claim and address our privilege. Only then can we stand a chance of making spaces where all can feel included and empowered to participate as equals.
Another article...
Submitted by tovangar2 on
http://xo99percent.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/policing-itself/
October 31, 2011 Policing Itself By xo99percentThe New York Daily News has published a sensational piece alleging police are directing the homeless and criminal elements to Liberty Park. It editorializes, “[t]he Wall Street protesters determined to ‘Occupy Everything’ now find themselves, in a sense, occupied.”
While the publication has a history of biased reporting against the movement, its claims have been echoed by at least one unnamed occupier, according to Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones Magazine.
Harkinson later reported that a spokesperson from NYC Dept of Homeless Services denied allegations that the NYPD was directing homeless persons to Zuccotti. In fact, the spokesperson said, they were conducting outreach at the park, encouraging people in need to “accept temporary housing.” As far as the criminal element is concerned, Sharman Stein of the Department of Corrections told Harkinson that inmates released in Manhattan are routinely dropped off at Canal and Center streets, which is about a twenty minute walk from Zuccotti.
Justin Elliott, posting on Salon.com, said:
Whether the specific claims made by the New York Daily News are true or not, the story finally made public questions that myself, other occupiers and the public have had about security at Zuccotti and the overall willingness and ability of Occupy Wall Street to ‘police itself’. I believe it is necessary to take security measures both to protect the freedoms and safety of occupiers and to preserve the integrity of the movement. Last night, via Twitter, I had several enlightening conversations about possible solutions to the problem.
My overall view:
- If someone does not accept the legitimacy of a group, they will not comply with its rules. OWS knows this better than anyone. There are likely other people at Zuccotti who have no desire to participate in the GA, marches, or other actions. It is a good place to blend in and, frankly, freeload. Zuccotti has no borders (and it should not) and is not an exclusive club, so we have no ability or justification to prevent anyone from entering the park. This unfortunately may include criminals (petty or otherwise), or people who generally want to disrupt things for the sake of it or because of an agenda. They may be provocateurs, those who do not think OWS is radical enough (ie they may not be committed to nonviolence), or people who just want to cause trouble.
- Engaging the police is to our benefit. First, they may be more likely to deal with you gently or even be more supportive of Occupy. Second, how can we expect their help with issues if we are calling them ‘pigs’ and treating them with hostility? One of the first things we chanted on Wall Street marches was “cops are the 99%”. We have seen the positive outcomes of engagement in Albany, where police refused to arrest protesters. @korgasm_ and I always made a point to reach out to the police, offer them food and water (they can’t accept in uniform but they appreciate it) and I believe it helped. One morning while I was still asleep, @kennethlipp came back to our site from the media tent and took my cellphone back up there to charge it. The nearby officers actually came over and asked me if I knew him (to try to determine if he had stolen my phone).
- OWS has to be responsible for itself. Just as the sanitation committee has mostly solved cleaning issues, the security committee and ALL responsible occupiers have to be responsible for policing OWS’s self-designated home. One suggestion is to ‘name and shame’ people-I certainly wish we had done a mic check and outed the kid who tried to steal (pardon, ‘salvage’) Kenneth’s computer. He made us uncomfortable the rest of the time we were there, and who knows what he may have done to others. Just as occupiers made signs saying “he doesn’t represent us” to follow the man with the anti-semitic sign, occupiers who witness violent or criminal acts should speak out. Maybe consider having responsible police liaisons report severe acts to a trusted officer. Maybe appoint and train a rotating committee of trusted occupiers to a mediation council to solve personal or low-level disputes.
- Finally, address issues openly and with transparency. This will preserve Occupy’s integrity. There are already so many elements against us and they have and will continue to speak about these issues in an attempt to discredit us. Beat them to the punch. Universities do periodic crime reports (by semester or annually). Consider putting out a bulletin listing incidents and, more importantly, how they were addressed by the community.
There are many places and groups from which we can solicit advice on this problem. One suggestion, by @KNDEA, is to contact Native American nations about tribal process. This would both guide OWS and be great outreach to some of the most marginalized people in the 99%. OWS has the fortune of being near the Shinnecock Indian Nation, located on Long Island, and nine other nations:- Cayuga Nation in Seneca Falls, NY
- Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut in Mashantucket, CT
- Mohegan Indian Tribe of Connecticut in Uncasville (Montville), CT
- Oneida Nation in Verona, NY
- Onondaga Nation in Nedrow, NY
- Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in Akwesasne, NY
- Seneca Nation in Irving and Salamanca, NY
- Tonawanda Band of Seneca Indians of New York in Basom, NY
- Tuscarora Nation in Niagara County, NY
Another possibility is any number of the self-sustainable communes and communities that exist in this country.Finally, the homeless should not be viewed as a problem. Sephir0t:
I’m not suggesting anyone has this mindset, but how disgusting would it be if people fighting for a better society were to think of themselves as doing the homeless a ‘favor’ by ‘allowing’ them to share food and supplies with OWS. If we think we are better than the current institutions, we should be conducting outreach to those who do not have the luxury of choosing to live in parks.
post removed
Submitted by tovangar2 on
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'Antifa' Out themselves as Infiltrators of the Occupy Movement!
Submitted by Seth Spinolla on
Just reading Tovanger2's article linked to the 'ladylibertyslamp' blog was quite amusing! Occupy is 'Antifa'? Leaderless? Apparently, the 'Antifa' seem to think only they are the righteous and therefore qualified to decide who is good and who is bad...and well certainly their arrogance is without bounds in smearing others they simply DO NOT like (for whatever reasons).
Antifa are among the most arrogant and violence-prone group of sad sacks of Fascists in 'Anti-fascist' clothing there ever was! Hypocrites beyond measure. Beware these infiltrators and closet racists (that's a great deal of their obsession) apart from their Communistic dogmatic ideology. Take a good hard look at this and related umbrella groups, the financing behind them and you will see whom they serve.
Without free speech no search for the truth is possible, no discovery of truth is useful. Better a thousandfold abuse of speech than denial. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.
?
Submitted by tovangar2 on
Hi Seth, I don't even know what 'Antifa' is or really what you are talking about but if you think that last article was inappropriate or 'amusing' or w/e, it's been taken down.
Could you explain what 'Antifa' is? I never heard of it. OLA is leaderless, but maybe you think otherwise. Pls explain.
I thought the article might be useful as many groups (not just the ones mentioned in the article) have tried to co-opt OWS or at least some of their energy. For example, Howard Dean's group sells bumper stickers with his group's name paired with OWS' on them, which seems fraudulent to me, at least highly misleading by any standard.
Thanks for your feedback Seth.
Thelibertylamp: "We are Antifa"
Submitted by Seth Spinolla on
The link you made was to an 'Antifa' blogsite. One reply from 'The libertylamp' to another poster (Oct. 31, 2011): "Zeitgeist, Neo-Nazis, and the Ron Paul movement are all power hungry conspiracy cults that have nothing to do with the good of the people, they want power and you $."
"We are ANTIFA, we have Antifa 'comrades' in Sweden whom we have very close ties with. You don't think that when we get reports like this: http://www.fria.nu/artikel/90276 ....we are going to ignore it? Sorry, but no" [end quote]
This blog was under the heading: Infiltrators of the Occupy Movement.
Who are 'Antifa' that they should represent themselves as 'guardians' of the Occupy movement by pontificating on who or whom are 'infiltrators'? Are they the Occupy movement or are they 'infiltrators' also?! I thought possibly you were a promoter or contributor to this 'Antifa' movement. I've done tons of research on them, but I am sure you can find out for yourself that they are like the pot calling the kettle black and often the pot is in their ideological imagination.
Simply put--is that the 'antifascists' are NOT attacking the REAL Fascists, but simply people who do not share their anarchist/Trotskyite views.
Without free speech no search for the truth is possible, no discovery of truth is useful. Better a thousandfold abuse of speech than denial. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.
Thx Seth...
Submitted by tovangar2 on
...For the explanation and no, I'm not a promoter or contributor of that group. I got the link from a person I thought was a reliable tweeter
Another article re OWS & safety issues
Submitted by tovangar2 on
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-occupy-wall-street-has-become-2010-11
SIX WEEKS LATER: The Truth About What Occupy Wall Street Has Become Linette Lopez and Robert Johnson | Nov. 1, 2011, 9:54 AM | 104,326 |Image: Robert Johnson
It has been about 6 weeks since protesters made camp in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. What was once a small band of young people has turned into a world wide demonstration — that is obvious.
But what is less clear is that the character of the movement has changed as well. That is what we realized when we spent some quality time at the camp this week to check in and see how things have progressed.
Some of the changes we observed are for the better. The protesters clearly have gained a solid understanding of how to interact with the police, especially during an arrest. It looks like their necessities (like laundry and garbage collection) are more organized as well, which is good because there are more people camping out down there.
It is those people who are making the real change at Zuccotti Park. It is, after all, an occupation and these are the occupiers. Now, instead of just being a fully dedicated band of activists, the residents of Zuccotti Park also include young runaways, convicts, and homeless people of all ages.
It isn't that the park is completely unfriendly, it's just that there is an edge to it now. Things can happen to you there at night. Not everyone is there for the cause. And it's as if Zuccotti has lost its innocence.
All of that is because the protesters can't control who comes to live in their community, and the police refuse to intervene. Last Tuesday night, there was an emergency General Assembly meeting in the park to address the dangers within. A security team has assembled, and they've resorted to shaming trouble-makers into leaving camp.
We at Business Insider have one recommendation for you, Occupy Wall Street. Leave the park for the winter and go indoors where you can control who joins you. If not, you'll expend too much energy trying to keep people safe. You can maintain a presence in Zuccotti, but choosing to live in the park on principle takes time away from the movement.
We thought your mission was to police all of Wall Street, not just one tiny park on it.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-occupy-wall-street-has-become-2010-11#ixzz1ccb47o1I
OLA Neighbor claims City Council says OLA "threatens violence"
Submitted by tovangar2 on
@Marie Elks@facebook Marie - I for one do not tolerate it and I live across the street from it. City Council tried to be nice to them by letting them illegally camp and stay which was a big mistake. I wont be voting for Jan Perry or VIlla for anything. And I recommend anyone in Malibu Bill Rosendahl's region or right wing district Richard Alarcon, not vote those morons back into City Council again since they were the original supporters (without bothering to ask residents).
Anyway Marie - there's a new problem. I've spoken to everyone in City Hall and they all admit allowing the encampment is a mistake but now Occupy has become full blown nutty and are threatening Oakland violence if anyone tries to move them. No one wants them there, other than them and the few who don't know the whole back story of their nutty behavior and threats of violence. Posted on October 30, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Last Resort@twitter (#168,330)Since they moved in a block away they've made no attempt at embracing the community they've infested. They kicked out our long standing and small farmer's market because they were paranoid it was the City's attempt at screwing them. They laugh at the fact that they're costing taxpayers a minimum of $450k in property repairs with illogical arguments: "Oh you're mad about trees and grass but people are unemployed." They have access to pretty much any land at this point and everything to the West, North, and East of them has no residential neighbors but they've pointed an illegal high power "Power of Green LA" PA system directly at gov elderly homes and apartments/condos of which they have Lolla-palooza style concerts and evangelical style loud rants from 11am - 11pm everyday. When we've collectively asked them to compromise with us and to move the PA to the other side they called us 1% er, bigotted, detractors who are violating their 1st amendment right... never-mind the fact that we are all supposed to be protected under the 14th. I'm a waitress btw who can't afford health insurance - hardly a 1% er. With the annexation of skid row in their camp now they've definitely increased the aggressive drug addict/vagrant criminal behavior around here. I have to walk home at 2 am. I chose this neighborhood a year ago because it was safer than most and affordable. Now I see all kinds of weird creepers on my walk home that put me on edge. I watched in horror as some young dude, who was out of his mind on something (probably PCP), chase down some of my dog walking neighbors earlier this week.
I was really excited initially to get a chance to go over everyday and help them but since they've been so introverted and externally hostile, I haven't bothered. They really are scary people. My friend and I walked through the camp one night and we got hissed and glared at.
Occupy LA is fail. It's unfortunate but it's fail. They're abusive and uncoordinated. They aren't concerned with national solutions over their own self-promotion (ex: Power Of Green LA stage bringing in endless concerts and noise to perpetuate their business and ideology.)
And we have no recourse. LA CIty Council foolishly gave them permission to illegally camp without asking residents (Not voting for Jan Perry for anything in the future) and now they're eating their words. My neighborhood association is now dealing with these Council members who have admitted to us they're worried about the stability of the occupiers, especially after Oakland. LA City Council has told LAPD to not enforce any laws protecting the surrounding area from loud parties/music/PA systems, from public intoxication, from public urination etc ... because LA City Council says Occupy has threatened violence and they (City Officials) have to figure out a way out of this mess now.
Posted on October 29, 2011 at 7:19 pmExcellent blog post from Ruth
Submitted by tovangar2 on
http://www.occupylosangeles.org/?q=node/1551
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