Watching the police riots that that typified the attacks on OWS demonstrations across the country one can only be shocked by the brutality. Seldom did one see police directly striking people in the 1960s and 1970s during peaceful gatherings. Seldom also were the arrests of reporters or scenes of their beatings (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...). One can see Mike Wallace being beaten in Chicago during the Days of Rage while Phil Ochs is singing (http://www.youtube.com/...). Former Police Chief of Seatle, Norm Stamper argues that our nation's police in response to the demonstrations of OWS show how militarized they have become (http://www.thenation.com/...).
One wonders why the mayors of American cities are so afraid of OWS? Is freedom and free speech less important than sanitation? In the 21st century could it be possible that we would rather spend millions to clear our city parks of peaceful demonstrators than cooperate with them and use our technology to clean the parks while they are occupied? Do we only encourage demonstrations when they are in China or Africa? These mayors would rather risk injury and death and pit police against citizens exercising their rights than provide services to allow for democratic meetings.
As I watched the OWS demonstrators take beating after beating where the police pepper spray and then beat and then gas protesters, I wondered at the peaceful yet uncreative behavior of the OWS people. In the 60s I saw demonstrators dump bags of ball bearings in front of advancing police lines or squirt bottles of grease in their path resulting in lines of falling police and a stalemate of repression vs demonstration.
This confrontation should not be. Our mayors should be promoting democratic participation not fighting it.