Impact

[Terry Bain]

The Money Power won a few battles last week, and captured a few tents - they still, however, are losing their war against us.  According to  a Think Progress article by Zaid Jilani,"The Republican Governor’s Association met in Florida this week and featured pollster Frank Luntz, who....told attendees that he’s “scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death.” The pollster warned that the movement is “having an impact on what the American people think....” 

In an October poll, a majority of Americans, "Some 59 percent of adults either completely agree or mostly agree with the protesters, while 31 percent mostly disagree or completely disagree; 10 percent of those surveyed didn't know or refused to answer."  Bulldozing a few tents will not make Occupy America go away. In fact, the people ordered to do the bulldozing are becoming a real problem for the Money Power.

Chris Faraone wrote, in The Boston Phoenix, "As Occupy camps from coast to coast face evictions — and in many cases have already been pushed out of parks and plazas like so much human trash — it's clear that the institutional response to the movement is escalating dangerously....But as tensions build between Occupiers and Big Brother, what's also true is that individual officers are increasingly concerned about their role in combating Occupy. Even in cities where the overall police response has been barbaric, there's a growing sense that cops who've been charged with breaking camps are unnerved by such orders.

"Earlier this week, Los Angeles authorities avoided a riot by working with protesters, and even thanking them publicly for demonstrating their right to free speech. On a smaller scale, last month in Oregon an officer was seen sobbing in his combat gear while raiding a Portland encampment. In October, Albany police — along with state troopers — refused to arrest protesters despite pressure from the city's mayor and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo," according to Faraone

After visiting Zuccotti Park,  Author Naomi Wolfe wrote "...it is hard for cops to be put in positions that dehumanize them too and psychologically traumatizing to be forced to act against their morals. This is a war and they are forced into front lines they did not choose." 

According to Wolfe, "Occupy is in a very powerful position if they only begin to understand this. If If you REALLY want to know how the game is played — a game that is being played right now AGAINST you — you would have the OWS reps in every city go to a meeting with police benevolent association with your LOCAL REGISTERED VOTER LISTS in hand and say, “we want to put better pay and retirement for cops and other first responders on the ballot and are willing to get out the vote for this.”