Now, Occupy here is a mixed crowd, but good people mostly. There’s a large faction, about a quarter of the folks, who just love the Sizzlean when they have ridden alongside the permitted protest marches, snorting and gurgling atop their gleaming Harleys. They take heart in the fact that a beefy little Pork Pie might give a thumbs up or wink and smile at someone. To them, it’s a sign that the cops can be wooed to our side. I think this is horseshit, of course. But they seem to want, desperately, for this to be sanctioned. The smiling mendacity of Pork Power seems to do the trick.
After a march, people leave little monuments made of stones and pebbles and a thank you note to the police, “Thanky thanky Ossifier Friendly for being so awesome today. We <3 you all! xo"
It's like it's a talisman or something. If you rub it, it'll ward off evil spirits or something. Catch the eye of one of them and get him to look at you as a human; maybe it'll ward off the Snorting and Grunting of Pork Power Army. Or maybe uncertain as to whether they will brutalize protestors, they figure it can't hurt to be nice just in case - sorta like Pascal's wager. Granted, some folks have family and friends who are cops. One guy, who used to be a cop is, notably, not among the people who bother to write thank you notes nor does he get all teary-eyed when Officer Porkpie give a thumbs up,glinting an icy smile. I suspect he's quite aware of the systematic mendacity required of the human who occupies the role.
The permit was about to expire. We'd met with city officials who were cordial; nothing seemed amiss. They didn't say a thing. The next morning, there's was a text message: the permit hadn't been renewed. The police were at the encampment. There'd already been police stationed across the camp the night before, I found out. Which, fuck, what fuckers: they purposefully intended to send mixed messages. The pretext was camping without a permit. Three people who resisted were arrested. They took everything and unceremoniously disposed of it.
It breaks my heart to watch some of these folks try to comprehend what happened. All this time, they thought they were doing the right thing. They thought they were doing it according to the law, obtaining a permit, paying for portajohns, keeping the place clean, smiling at Ossifiers and writing them love letters. And yet, 9 people were faced with a couple dozen cops in riot gear at 6:43 a.m.
They are especially crushed by the riot gear, the stone cold stares, and the lies of city officials. The cry went out, "Why why why did they do this?"
Why did they lie to us?
They told us we would have 24 hours to clear things out. Why did they lie?
They were nice to us in the meeting. Why didn't they tell us yesterday?
The policeman smiled at me during a demo. They liked our notes. We wrote them thank you notes. Why?
We did everything we were supposed to. Why did they do this?
We fed the homeless. What did we do wrong?
Emboldened by the presence of Riot Geared Pork Power, workers at nearby office taunted and laughed, letting out pent up seething rage at Occupiers: "Get a job. Don't be lazy." "Thanks for letting us have OUR park back." "Do something constructive instead of camping out. Volunteer at a soup kitchen." "you're lucky they're just rubber bullets."
As they arrested people, one of the more agitated young men paced back and forth with a phonecam, taking shots of the scene and heckling the Pork Pies: "Why the riot gear for 12 people? What, got no money for schools, got no money for homelessness, no money for housing, no money for health care. Got no money. But you got money for this and for wars. That's where all the money goes. Your tax dollars at work folks." Up and down the sidewalk, a bundle of frenetic energy, cigarette dangling from his mouth, hair billowing. He tried to agitate the crowd into seeing how there was plenty of money for Pork Power and arresting a handful of unarmed people.
Then he started chanting, "Take off your riot gear there ain't no riot here." Up and down, over and over.
All day, it's been an endless stream of Whys? People just don't understand how this could have happened. They were convinced that they'd get treated decently and wouldn't be humiliated by goons in riot gear.
It just broke my heart to see them come to the realization that they did all that and none of it mattered. They were treated as no more than common criminals. But why the riot gear?
I explained on a forum that it was probably standing operating procedure when dealing with civil disobedience. They had a choice of course, but they weren't going to exercise it because the point wasn't simply to take down the camp, it was to do it in a way that was as humiliating and terrifying as possible: so you'd be cowed.
Yes, that's why they told you all was well and lied through their teeth. That's why they didn't formally bother to tell you that the permit expired. That's why, when they lied about giving 24 hours to take down the camp. All of it was the Political Theater of the Repressive State Apparatus. It's psychological warfare baybay. That's why they showed up at 6:43 a.m.
Are you destablized? Confused? Humiliated? Terrified? Feel like you did something wrong? Like you are a common criminal? That you are oddly and vaguely ashamed?
It's not a mistake you feel that way. The Riot Gear: to scare you. The 25 stack of plastic cuffs: to intimidate you. The unceremonious disposal of tents, coolers, tables, chairs, sleeping backs, ipods, laptops, generators, boots and clothes: to humiliate you. The mendacity of city officials and politicians: to show contempt. The batons, the gear, the black, the shields, the tear gas canisters -- all of it is the agitprop of the Repressive State Apparatus.
There are at least two audiences for their messages:
To us, we are meant to hear: You are scum, contemptible common criminals, possibly terrorists. You deserve nothing. None of the smiles or the thumbs up or the winks were forever, baby. Don’t even *think* about trying to take this camp back. Don’t even *think* about asking for another permit. Don’t even *think* about civil disobedience. In short, their message is: Die motherfuckers.
To critics of OWS, they are meant to hear: You have license to hold these common criminals in contempt. On the public stage, we have humiliated these motherfuckers, so you can too. Go ahead, stand out there and jeer at them, humiliate them, mock them, show them all of your contempt.
One thing that the psychologists of the Repressive State Apparatus understand when they write guidelines for putting down civil unrest: the bad subjects on occasion provoke the intervention
of the repressive State apparatus. But the vast majority of good subjects work all right by themselves
They are inserted into practices governed by the rituals of the Ideological State Apparatus: They ‘recognize’ the existing state of affairs.”
http://cleandraws.com/2011/11/12/political-theater-of-the-repressive-state-apparatus/ -- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)