Here’s an image from redstartstudio’s video of Occupy Berkeley’s response to continued police brutality of protesters and the repeated removal of their tents:
All over this country (and all over the world), the Occupy protesters use one specific tool as an example of their freedom of speech: tents. And yet, all over this country, city after city tries to stop these protests by using the law. Yet no matter how many legal barriers are thrown up by officials, the Occupy movement keeps throwing up their responses against the legal tap dance. November 17th is already a powerful date in history, and yet it is a day where student’s voices for justice have been heard the loudest:
- International Student’s Day
- Athen’s Polytechnic Uprising, which also create N17
- Velvet Revolution begins
- World Peace Day started by Peaceguy’s grassroots effort
- Articles of Confederation submitted for colonies to form United States (thrown in for irony – students of democracy)
As you can see, peace and conflict have coexisted precariously on this day as people build off of the past. After the latest rounds of police brutality and another effort to remove the tents of Occupy Berkeley, the protesters once again changed the form of their protest. Occupy Berkeley’s brilliant response took away the one thing that the police could attack, occupier’s tents, because it wasn’t being used for “camping”. Yet the tent still symbolized the original intent of the entire occupy movement, and that’s as a symbol of free speech. Yes, this movement has scattered voices, but their souls are one in their beliefs. A wall may be thrown up, but a door is always made to walk through it. That’s the power of unified voices for peace, and it’s truly inspiring.
Here’s an article written by Robert Hass, former US Poet Laureate, describing his and his wife’s mistreatment at the Occupy Berkeley protest on that fateful day: Poet Bashing Police.
p.s. On another campus also rocked by violence, Occupy Davis gave just as powerful a message for Chancellor Katehi, as did an assistant professor who was arrested by the police. Some powerful responses. And now one of the policemen involved in the latest police brutality has been identified here and here.
