Kerouac did not coin “Beat Poet” it was Bob Kaufman after he was literally beaten when he jumped on a cop car to deliver a poem. So Xeni, your new meaning is actually the old meaning.

Kaufman took a 10 year vow of silence after Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. When the Vietnam war ended in 1973, the first words Kaufman spoke were:

All those ships that never sailed
The ones with their seacocks open
That were scuttled in their stalls…
Today I bring them back
Huge and intransitory
And let them sail
Forever

thanks!
-Tonky

I do not like green eggs and ham
I do not like them Sam-I-am
I do not like them with a hat
I do not like them with a bat

4 detectives and 4000 beat cops.  Well thats because beat cops make us money and detectives dont…..  You dont make any money solving actual crimes, but you can make a ton of money arresting and getting bonds from thousands of innocent people.  Hell why not sit along the streets and highways and ticket people for things that “might happen”  Brilliant!  I know how about we blame the poor people for the economy instead of the mismanagement of money from the top down….  That’ll trick em.

tHe EnD iS nOw!

“If the bubble touches me, YOU WILL BE ARRESTED FOR ASSAULT.”

Look at other news events and the way an awful lot of people react.

10 year old get’s raped? Victim blaming. 
(Also:  Won’t somebody think of the accused and their reputation!?)

Lose your house in a predatory loan? Victim blaming.
(Also: Those poor people ruined our economy!)

I think it’s the toxic side of our worship of the individualistic and self-sufficient ideal. In fact, I think most people in the US *think* they are anti-authoritarian… for the same reasons they *think* trickle down economics works.  To me the victim blaming comes less from the fact that people in the US are willingly authoritarian (we love big government?) and more from the fact that people in the US would rather believe that a) it’s your own fault if something bad happens to you no matter what because that means you can keep it from happening to you and who cares about anyone else and b) admitting there is a problem would mean there’s a problem!

Remember most people see themselves as good, and they’ll protect that good self image over everything else. 

The thing is, if you are in the business of keeping control of people that is a very easy mindset to manipulate.  As long as people see themselves as *the good guys* and the protesters as *not like them* then they will see the cops as punishing people who are lesser people.  

To me the US national mindset is like an insecure narcissist just on the verge of an awful confrontation with reality.

If I remember this correctly, some autonomen types participating in “anti-globalization” protests in Italy during the late 1990′s developed an entire system of comedic rioting. They would wear white jumpsuits and body armor improvised from foam and inner tubes and basically create a buffer zone to protect the crowds from attacking cops. It was serious business but they had a playful attitude about it and treated the police like they were just participants in a game rather than combatants in a violent street battle. I think humor is the best way to defuse tense situations, and reframing the actions of the police in ways that makes them feel silly is a great way to motivate them to stop. I do like the paint bombs, but on the spectrum of tools useful in a situation like this it crosses a major line that is best not crossed unless they escalate the violence. Throwing potentially toxic substances at them will make them extremely angry. Throwing things at cops in general is best avoided. I think if we throw anything at them it should be completely absurd and pose minimal risk of causing physical harm, like donuts… imagine the surprise when they attack the crowd and in response a wall of delicious donuts begins raining down on them. You know most of the cops are going to think it’s awesome if we only fight back using donuts, and we can juxtapose video of these cops munching on the donuts with their bosses on TV whining about “coming under repeated projectile attacks from protesters” and then stammering through an answer whenever some asks, “you were attacked with donuts?”

Weaponized donuts could be just the thing we need to transform the police into allies.

And that, in spite of the facts, is how I’m sure the story ultimately will be re-reported and repeated.

Last week, former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper published an essay arguing that the current epidemic of police brutality is a reflection of the militarization (his word, not mine) of our urban police forces, the result of years of the “war on drugs” and the “war on terror. Stamper was chief of police during the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, and is not a voice that can be easily dismissed.

Yesterday, the militarization of policing in the U.S. arrived on my own campus.

These issues go to the core of what democracy means. We have a major economic crisis in this country that was brought on by the greedy and irresponsible behavior of big banks. No banker has been arrested, and certainly none have been pepper sprayed. Arrests and chemical assault is for those trying to defend their homes, their jobs, and their schools.

These are not trivial matters. This is a moment to stand up and be counted. I am proud to teach at a university where students have done so.

1) The victim blaming. Basically, “Don’t stand in front of a cop who is holding a billy club if you don’t want to get hit”, or some variation on this. These are pretty easily dismissed, I think, because we understand the right to peaceful assembly, and the tradition of non-violent protest.

2) The call to arms. This one usually goes “I’m so fed up with this, when will somebody fight back!? Why are they just taking it!?” This one is a little more tricky, because I think when we see injustice and abuse of power, it’s quite tempting to let our anger guide us to violence. I feel it myself.

However,  I would argue that this second type is the much more dangerous comment. If there is anything the 1%, their media, and their bought-and-paid-for government officials want, it’s for this protest to turn into a riot. This would justify more beat downs, and disqualify the OWS protest’s messages very quickly. The media and officials already try to paint the protesters this way, but until they have evidence it’s not as effective. They’re waiting for it, and trying to provoke it.

I won’t claim that everyone commenting that they want to see the protesters fight back are agents provocateur, but consider that such a tactic would doom the movement as surely and as quickly as anything.