Occupy Strategies and Tactics

I've been very impressed with some of the strategic moves and tactics of the Occupy Movement. From the public bullhorn to the camp outs to the live feeds, they're doin' it right!

But with the events of the past week, with so many confrontations with the police over the use of public space, I think it might be time for people to focus on the local political leadership. So far they have not been targets of protests, but perhaps that time has come.

As the political leaders command the police forces to use aggressive tactics to clear out encampments, there should be a strong response from the Occupy community towards those making these decisions and issuing these orders.

They should be held responsible for ANY injuries that occur as a result of their orders. The local political machines should be put on notice that they will lose their jobs if they don't address the needs of the Occupiers, as well as the big picture needs that caused these protests.

So far the political establishment has been reactionary or silent, other than the usual condemnations on the part of Republicans and conservative pundits.

There's no way politicians can spin these events to their advantage, and these aggressive moves on the streets serve nobody's interests, and are nothing more than political posturing in an election season.

There is fear in the establishment over the way this movement has grown so fast and garnered so much support. They fear the people, and so the only tool they seem to know how to use is force, which should always be the last resort.

So pressure must be applied upon the political establishment to come up with new rules on protest encampments and new restrictions on the methods used to confront protesters. Police must accept new rules of engagement that are non-aggressive. Otherwise force will be met with force as seen in Oakland last night.

People should confront the political establishment in person. There are usually weekly meetings in city halls where the public can attend and be heard. Has this been going on lately? Sit-ins, teach-ins, are sometimes effective in getting the message across to those in power. I know they've been doing this, but keeping it in your encampment isn't confronting the powers that be directly. Only the media and the police are there in your face. Although I guess a few politicos have managed to come down and associate themselves with the movement. But there haven't been many.

As the profile and menace of the American Police State becomes more obvious, what other strategies might be useful for the Occupy movement to try?

 

Here's a novel tactic... Make a CEO or board member your "pen pal"...

 

The Oakland Occupy movement is organizing a strike to protest police treatement.

Boycotts should be focused at one corp at a time on a National if not International level. That way one corp at a time can feel the heat! The others will get the message pretty quick!

If a different company gets chosen for a weekly or monthly boycott (preferable), it would show some impact, esp. if the boycott is worldwide.

In fact, maybe they should just keep up the boycott until the company changes its policies and addresses the boy-cotters directly.

In that case you could target multiple companies at one time, and keep the boycotts going until they give in...

And as our own government has shown us, boycotting something by yourself isn't going to work. You've got to pressure others to join boycott too. Just like the US pressures other countries to go along with sanctions placed on countries like Syria and Iran.

So there should also be pressure on companies that do business with those companies under boycott. If they don't likewise cease biz with the boycotted company, they too get boycotted...

There can also be a lot of political pressure put on elected officials to terminate government contracts with boycotted companies.

If you do a full-court press against a company, they'll likely respond pretty quick because their reputation would be at stake, as well as that intangible thing called "good will" which makes up a HUGE part of their balance sheets!!!

 

LMAO! They love it! Just threaten to put LSD in the city's water supply. That'll bring out the National Guard and regular army with machine gun nests on the streets. Worked like a charm in Chicago in '68!

 

Sure.... Just like Obama promised to not allow lobbyists in his administration, and then proceeds to select one lobbyist after another to advise him (most from Goldman Sachs).

We can't allow politicians to say one thing to get elected, then do exactly the opposite of what they promised once in office.

It seems it is the OFFICE itself, and the SYSTEM itself that causes this, since it doesn't matter who it is who gets elected the system will change them.

So it is the SYSTEM itself that must be changed.

I see the Occupy movement as creating an alternative way of governing ourselves.

This is exactly how I envision a new system coming about. You build up a new system alongside the old. Then one by one, the new system finds a better way to replace the old way of doing things. And once the new way becomes accepted, there's part of the old system that crumbles away!

For instance the people CAN replace the big banks, and are already doing that by moving their money out of those banks into credit unions. They can refinance their home loans with CUs too.

Now if small bizes do this too (and many are), this will eventually cause the big banks to fail, which is what MUST HAPPEN if we are ever to free ourselves of the FED and change this fucked up system!

 

At first I thought that the Bank of America occupation yesterday was done by "flash mob" but that wasn't right.

I thought that "flash mobs" would be useful to the Occupy protests. I realize not everyone has a cellphone, but most do.

The advantage of course is that you can do actions without advance notice to the police. They'll probably get the tweet, but it takes them a long time to organize and move a lot of personnel and equipment to a location.

But I bet it will soon be taken up as a tactic by the occupiers as the Police crackdown more and more...

 

Can the protesters make Citizen's Arrests against the Police?

If the police violate the law, the citizens should be able to make citizen's arrests. So if someone is being arrested and hurt, they should be able to turn it into a citizen's arrest and demand the policeman(men) in question should also be arrested and taken down to the station for booking.

This would make sense in a democracy, but this ain't a democracy anymore.

Here's some laws regarding citizen's arrest. Evidently most state laws are like this:

Arizona Revised Statutes
13-3884. Arrest by private person
A private person may make an arrest:
1. When the person to be arrested has in his presence committed a misdemeanor amounting to a breach of the peace, or a felony.
2. When a felony has been in fact committed and he has reasonable ground to believe that the person to be arrested has committed it.

Nevada Revised Statutes
171.126 Arrest by private person. A private person may arrest another:
1. For a public offense committed or attempted in his presence.
2. When the person arrested has committed a felony, although not in his presence.
3. When a felony has been in fact committed, and he has reasonable cause for believing the person arrested to have committed it.
(Added to NRS by 1967, 1402)


North Dakota
29-06-20. When private person may arrest. A private person may arrest another:
1. For a public offense committed or attempted in the arresting person's presence.
2. When the person arrested has committed a felony, although not in the arresting
person's presence.
3. When a felony has been in fact committed, and the arresting person has reasonable
grounds to believe the person arrested to have committed it.

I like the "breach of the peace" statement in the Arizona law. Certainly the police have been guilty of that!

If anyone were to make an arrest of a police officer, I recommend the following: have plenty of witnesses and video of the crime.

Don't do it if you are outnumbered by police. They won't like it one bit. So make sure your numbers are much higher than theirs.