----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck0" <chuck at mutualaid.org>
> At the same time, we need to challenge American activists who continue to
> seek permits for protests. What they need to understand is that if you
have
> enough people at your event, the police can't do much. They won't do
anything
> if there are families and kids present. Activists need to understand that
the
> police fear negative publicity more than they fear a crowd getting out of
> control.
Chuck, "permit-getting" is not a principle. You sound like the old abolitionists who read Frederick Douglass out of the movement because it was wrong to vote.
If we try for a permit, and they deny it, then of course we march anyway. We can't let them take away our rights. And people will confront the police, go into the streets, etc. That's a righteous **defensive** struggle.
If we just say "we won't get a permit because we hate you", we are in essence trying to wage an **offensive** struggle against the police over a side issue, and then a lot of people among our own participants will be arguing about permit-getting instead of important stuff.
Don't you think that there will be plenty of struggle coming out of the state trying to take away our rights without us having to manufacture occasions?
As for 'they can't do anything if there are a lot of people', WHAT? There were a lot of people in Chicago in 1968. There were a lot of people in NYC yesterday and they arrested 400 people and beat people. I decline to be as TRUSTING of the police to be as wise, kind to children, calculating, non-violent, etc., as you are. They are planning to murder hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq without fear of negative publicity, and you think they won't beat people up for fear of negative publicity!!! Where is the negative publicity about the people they DID beat up yesterday?
Lou Paulsen