So some rather dumb "Occupy Anarchists" in Cleveland were snared in the Fed's classic entrapment scheme that has been used so successfully against multitudes of Arab "terrorists" and others in our great and glorious war on all kinds -- well some kinds -- of terror...
I guess it's good to have confirmation that the Feds are looking at "Occupy Anarchists" as yet another variety of Domestic Terrorists. We knew this from the way civic paramilitaries (ie: police forces) were treating the Occupy Encampments and their eradication as if they were engaged in a National Special Security Event and that Occupy constituted an existential threat to the State.
If there was any doubt before, it should be laid to rest now.
The format is the same pretty much every time: an informant/provocateur is planted among the target group to troll for willing -- or sometimes not so willing -- participants in some grand scheme to blow shit up, cause mayhem, murder, or what have you. Whoever indicates interest in going along with this scheme is then targeted for investigation and arrest. The plot is always under the control of the Feds and their informant/provocateur and the public is never in danger. So they say, at any rate. The targets have no idea what's really going on.
It's happened so many times in the Muslim and Arab communities (and some of the others that have been targeted, like the "eco-terrorist" community and the anti-globalization community) that the signs of targeting and provocation and infiltration are generally well-known and anticipated. It's getting harder and harder to find willing (or not so willing) fools and victims.
The paranoid among the Occupiers have suspected this sort of infiltration/provocation and entrapment has been a feature of the Security State in dealing with Occupy from the outset, but until now, there wasn't any certainty of it. Now that we know, for sure, what to do about it becomes something of a pressing matter of concern. That we found out, for certain, on May Day is intended to be a kick in the nuts, so to speak, to serve notice to Occupy that its continued presence and disruptive tactics will not be tolerated.
There was a prelude incident. On April 30, in San Francisco, a troupe of Black Clad Hooligans went on a rampage through the Mission District. According to witnesses, they were "escorted" on their merriment by the police. According to witnesses, these hooligans were unknown to Occupy SF; they were strangers, and immediately, it was assumed that they were provocateurs, either police or paid troublemakers.
News reports about the events on the 30th were strikingly similar, making the case that the kinds of vandalism and violence that occurred in the Mission on Monday night was a likely harbinger of what would happen ("Let's hope not!") during the May Day rallies and marches.
The TeeBee news reports were so similar and the paint-splattered Mission police station backdrop so identical that it seemed to me -- and to some other observers -- that the whole thing had been carefully orchestrated to foster an image of "Occupy Violence" and thus dissuade the dissuadable from participation in May Day events.
Just so with the Cuyahoga Bridge Affair.
The authorities know they can't keep everyone away from Occupy events, but if they can keep the Good People away -- that is to say, those with a stake in things as they are -- then they have accomplished their objective.
That is, I'm convinced, what most of the garment rending in parts of the "nonviolence" community over Occupy's "failure" (because of all the violence, dontyousee) is really about. Making sure that those who superficially or sincerely believe in the "Ghandian" and "Kingian" ways of nonviolence, or who would like to pretend they do, don't get involved with Occupy and stay firmly attached to the system as it is.
In the meantime, we can be sure that if this relatively mild strangulation strategy doesn't work to end the Occupy uprisings, other, harsher, tactics will be employed.
We have seen this movie before, you know.
More new police tactics, Sexual Assault Against Female Protesters:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/david-graeber-new-police-strategy-in-new-york-sexual-assault-against-peaceful-protestors.html
What is to be done? How long till we pass the Guatemala threshold?
david-graeber-new-police-strategy-in-new-york-sexual-assault-against-peaceful-protestors
ReplyDeleteWhere has David been? It's not a new strategy for NYPD, they've been grabbing boobs and sexually assaulting the female OWS demonstrators almost since the first arrests.
ReplyDeleteI can't find it right now, but there was a picture of one young woman at an OWS event being molested and sexually assaulted by New York's "finest" plastered all over the internet last September.
Oakland's PD tried out it's new Snatch-N-Grab policy at the May Day festivities, to disastrous results. They were obviously out of their league and their befuddlement at their own fuck-ups would have been sad if it weren't for the fact that they were using real people as guinea pigs for their mayhem.
From the videos it looked like they were firing flash-bangs and tear gas at their own selves. The presence of plain-clothes infiltrators wasn't just painfully obvious, their efforts to start something were pathetic.
David is right, though, to note a changed tone in police anti-Occupy strategy. The point being to dissuade citizens from protesting and demonstrating or joining their local Occupy for any reason.
It's working pretty well. Rounding up The Ohio Boys is like the cherry on the sundae.
Well look at that. I found the pic in the comments to the Graeber piece...
ReplyDeleteHere
"firing flash-bangs and tear gas at their own selves"
ReplyDeleteWell, in that case they had the right targets.
I realize this has been going on for longer than this blog post would imply, but any acknowledgement of it is good.
I'm not sure why David is promoting this as a "new" strategy. But it did get noticed, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteChe,
ReplyDeleteI imagine the police see organized public protest in the same way the FBI saw Martin Luther King. And so, they will continue to harass, and do covert ops to break up and demobilize any such movements, and too, be in a position to eliminate anything or anyone who becomes noticeably more effective. So, we shouldn't be surprised that certain police units are not "up to speed" with their organization, or counter-movement tactics. For them, it's a developing process.
You said,
"...The format is the same pretty much every time: an informant/provocateur is planted among the target group to troll for willing -- or sometimes not so willing -- participants in some grand scheme to blow shit up, cause mayhem, murder, or what have you. Whoever indicates interest in going along with this scheme is then targeted for investigation and arrest. The plot is always under the control of the Feds and their informant/provocateur and the public is never in danger. So they say, at any rate. The targets have no idea what's really going on..."
This has been the practice of the FBI in Oregon, too, against environmentalists. They get someone to involve themselves in a plot to blow up a power line tower, or power plant, and eventually, when they get exposed and arrested, come to find out the person who offered to supply the bombs and the truck to get them to the site was the FBI informant. This strategy has been going on for decades here.
I see the problem as another aspect of the fact that the public has little or no influence on democratic institutions. And elections do not provide any real way to change policy or direction.
People were out in the streets during the Vietnam war because the Congress as an institution was not something the public could change. So, people were in the streets as a last resort. In the case of the current corrupt government, again, the people are unable to do anything to clean things up, so they are left with occupying this or that as a last resort.
I think the most significant failure of the Occupy movement was allowing their protests to be about them. Yes they want to keep issues alive, but when it becomes about the protesters themselves, then the message about the crooks in charge can be swept under the rug.
s.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteI think the police at this point see it all as a game, a training exercise. They have so objectified their target Occupiers, they have no human existence at all, and a big part of what's been going on is a test to see how far they can push matters before there is serious resistance.
By "serious resistance" I don't mean by the people in the streets. They don't care about that at all. They care about the resistance that might come from their sponsors and owners, and to date the People Who Matter have had very little to say about the excesses of the police in controlling the Occupy movement.
That's been somewhat surprising to me. There have been very few well-placed voices raised against the routine brutality of the police in any case, but in the context of Occupy, there seem to be even fewer than usual. Silence is complicity.
Che,
ReplyDeleteI am reminded that for mass media, the audience or clients for the media are not the people who buy and read or watch the media, but, rather, the advirtizers who pay the bills. The police, I believe, may be understood in the same way. There are people who pay the bills, or who donate to police benefits, including city movers and shakers or the powers that be that run local politics. The police are, then, in the business of controlling or manipulating the unruly mob who can act, in some ways, to make life difficult for the powers that be.
So, every once in a while the police have to shake up the mob, or teach it a lesson, to teach people who's boss on the street, and so on.
The reason none of the powers that be complain about the behavior of the police is that, I suspect, the behavior by the police has been calculated to frighten the mob and thereby is something the powers approve.
The police exist to intimidate the mob more than to "uphold" the law.
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteTangling with the police is not most people's idea of a good time (though some enjoy it of course.) The police serve their masters, and as is demonstrated day in and day out, their masters ain't we, the people.
As more and more Americans find that out, more and more become radicalized. As more and more become radicalized, strategies and tactics become more and more sophisticated.
And so it goes.
This can go on for quite some time to come.