It’s a very simple question. Just how peaceful is Occupy Wall Street (OWS)? Before we start, let’s level-set some words. ‘Peaceful’ is not equivalent to ‘lawful’ and there are multiple antonyms to ‘peaceful’, including both ‘violent’ and ‘disturbed’. Supporters claim they are a fully peaceful group exercising their 1st Amendment rights and non-violent civil disobedience (see here for a great write-up about the limits of the 1st Amendment; hint – 1st Amendment rights are not absolute and do not allow infringement on the rights of others). Opponents claim they are a violent, disruptive, and lawless mob that has no regard for the rights of others including property rights. I suspect that one of the disconnects in the argument for/against OWS’s peacefulness is whether it’s in relation to violence or disturbance. Supporters seem to think in terms of only the former while opponents seem to think in terms of both. In other words, supporters believe OWS can be simultaneously peaceful and disruptive while opponents disagree.
Really, it depends on how much emphasis you are willing to put on the actions of the worst in the crowd. I’m generally an advocate of not demonizing a big group based on the actions of a small number of problematic people and I recognize that many OWS protesters are of the non-violent variety, but that does not mean we can simply overlook the bad actors, who have become too egregious and too numerous to ignore. I’d like to do that here from a couple different perspectives.
I follow @OccupyArrests on Twitter as my source for OWS arrest information and they are currently showing over 5,600 arrests since this whole thing started about three months ago. Their numbers are higher than my own informal tracking, but I suspect this is because people are actually actively giving them more accurate information than what I’m able to find and they’re clearly spending more time tracking it than I can. Because of that, they’re doing a better job picking up accurate numbers and the smaller incidents than I am, so I defer to them.
Their numbers show that, while a good portion of the arrests occurred in high-profile incidents in which hundreds, were arrested, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Oakland riots, and big demonstrations from California, Chicago, and Boston, most of the arrests stem from smaller incidents. Unsurprisingly, there are far more numerous smaller incidents in which the arrest count remained in single digits or the teens. The big incidents account for maybe a quarter or a third of the arrests to this point.
It’s one thing to look at arrest numbers, but we need to go a bit deeper than that, and we start to see an escalation. Early in the movement, within say the first few weeks, there were really no single incidents that were making headlines aside from the Brooklyn Bridge. Of course, we’ve seen pictures of off-the-wall stuff like defecation onto a burning American flag and a police car, but these were (relatively) benign actions.
As a couple weeks more passed, we started to see some pretty robust vandalism, which was sometimes followed by a note or even further graffiti stating that said act of vandalism was not approved by the General Assembly. I somehow doubt that makes the victim feel any better because they’re still out the cost to repair the damage, and if OWS really wants to make it right, they’ll pay for the damage instead of using the money to buy TV commercials. But, I digress.
Within the past few weeks or so, we’ve seen the escalation continue because now we’ve had multiple reports of sexual assaults. That situation even prompted some groups to create woman-only areas and formalize procedures for dealing with troublemakers. Also, there have been multiple drug overdose incidents, gunshot incidents, and even a Molotov cocktail.
More recently, several OWS camps have been broken down due to public health, fire hazard, and law enforcement concerns. This was sometimes done in the middle of the night to minimize the number of people in the camp and minimize their ability to coordinate resistance, such as in NYC. In the days following the camp breakdowns, we’ve even seen injuries inflicted on both protesters and law enforcement as tensions rise.
But, wait, there’s more. OWS has even been responsible for some rioting and is actively attempting to disrupt commerce by occupying several seaports. This is a noteworthy escalation because it has a more global impact. Camping out in a city is really just an inconvenience for that city’s residents and visitors. Blocking ports, however, is disruptive throughout the business chain as delivery schedules are thrown off. When delivery schedules are thrown off, payment schedules are often impacted, creating problems with things like cash flow and inventory management. As with the victims of vandalism above, I somehow doubt the entities losing money due to the port disruptions are very happy about this, be they workers or businesses. These are the ports of the 100%, not the 1%.
As if trying to shut down ports wasn’t enough for one week, OWS escalated things further still over this past weekend when OWS attempted to take over a vacant lot owned by the Trinity Church. Essentially, OWS figured that since the church wasn’t using it, they could take it.
As incidents like these stack up, the narrative of a peaceful OWS, whether in relation to violence or disruption, is very much challenged. If they want their movement to be successful, they need to quickly slow and reverse this escalation. They also need to shake what I see as a blatant disregard for collateral damage and the rights of others, as evidenced by the sexual assaults, violence, occupations, vandalism, rioting, port disruptions, and attempts to take over a church’s property. OWS is trying to get the general populations’ attention and rouse them into pressuring their elected officials. However, I don’t think the little attention they’re receiving now is good attention and OWS is running the risk that the people will not push lawmakers to address OWS’s issues, but OWS itself.
Links:
http://revmagdalen.blogspot.com/2011/12/occupy-wall-street-1st-amendment-is-not.html
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