When the orders began in the past couple of weeks that tents and structures were to come down from Occupy encampments across North America many people were rightfully upset. They saw a system that was infringing upon their rights to protest, and while laws exist to prevent such encampments, the form this protest took was in many ways dependent upon the tents. The Occupy movement received very little media attention for the first few weeks of the protests, and was initially spun off as a joke by mainstream media, and the social elite they were protesting.
These same occupy opponents praised law enforcement and local governments for finally doing it’s job by destroying these encampments and shutting down protests without permits. Many said it was okay to protest but not to break the law, overlooking one simple fact. The United States as a country was created through acts of dissent and civil disobedience. The Boston Tea Party, the civil rights movement, and the anti-war protest, which were all examples of iconic moments in America’s history that employed these tactics.
With the application for permits often being subject to political ideology, and camps being illegal, the movement faces an uphill battle. They face law enforcement tactics that are becoming increasingly confrontational and violent. With the potential of the erosion over freedoms and liberties these confrontations may lead to an escalating cycle of violence on both sides of the issue.
While the occupy movement has understandably come under fire for lack of focus, it has remained largely peaceful, however the comments and actions by it’s opponents have become increasingly aggressive, and outline why people have been protesting and setting up encampments across North America for the last two months. The American system and arguably much of the political system of the developed world has ceased to be about the people. Democracies, which were founded to give their people the best opportunity and to give individuals a voice, have become co-opted by large corporations. On one hand these groups push for less government regulation, as was the case with the banking industry, yet when through their own actions, and mistakes found themselves in financial crisis, were among the first to ask for government money to help them survive.
These big money lobbyists have a power that citizens do not. Through campaign donations, backroom deals, and connections they steer the direction of lawmakers to their favor, with very little consideration to the citizens that government is supposed to protect. They fight to create and protect policies which support an elitist system, full of loopholes designed to protect a massive collection of wealth and power, loopholes which are not accessible by those outside this highly connected power structure.
It would be easy to write off this growing movement if the relationship between big business, political policy and those who make it were mere conspiracy, however with corporate fraudsters stealing millions or billions serving little to no jail time, and bailouts going to corporations with little or none being received by low to middle income families who face mounting debts and home foreclosures, the evidence ads up to a system where the normal laws and rules simply do not apply to those connected to the power structure.
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staggering-genius posted this
