|
printable version
- js reader version
- view hidden posts
- tags and related articles
by Rafael Renteria
Friday, Aug. 11, 2000 at 3:09 AM
renteria22@aol.com
Distancing ourselves other activists as they are being attacked by the state is not only immoral, it's political and tactical suicide.
There are divisions among us when it comes to the question of tactics, but there is one group whose tactics we need to pay special attention to, and whose tactics we need to be very conscious about condemning in the press. That group is the police and the power structure behind them, and their tactic is to divide and conquer us. They're using the myth of "violence" to do it.
For those of us who have never been hit by a cop, who've never been in the midst of a police charge on horseback into a crowd, who've never seen a cop hit a woman behind the knees with a baton to drop her to the ground, or seen blood on a friend or comrade's shirt....
For those who haven't felt survivor's guilt for being one of the few not to get busted, still on the streets wondering who to call and what to do, for those of you who've not known these things, or who've not been in jail or faced felonies or thousand bails or been busted on political charges, its hard to describe to you fully just how deeply we need one another and will need one another during and after the DNC.
The other side, the powers that be, need something, too. They need to divide us and isolate us, they need to use us one against another. They know that no one can discredit us better than we can discredit each other.
Now the terrain is getting tougher. In Seattle it was "broken windows". Today, after the events in Philly, its "assault against a cop". How will we deal with this? By chiming in on the system's attacks on our fellow protesters? (Not that whether or not one even touches a cop is relevant to these kinds of charges. In Houston at the RNC 8 years ago assault on a cop was the standard charge against large numbers of targetted activists in situations where there was no "violence" at all except by police. )
Recently I had the misfortune to see leading activsts from from CORE and another group that led an illegal march earlier in the week on a FOX national news program, and they were both busy condemning other Philly protesters.
The fellow from CORE was vicious, saying the radical protests on August 1st were an effort to gain media attention by a group too small to warrant attention by the press.
But in a way, the other person was worse. When asked specifically about the arrest of John Sellars of Ruckus and his one million dollar bail- she acted as though she knew nothing about the circumstances of the arrest, made no effort to support the leaders set up for pre-emptive arrest, said not a word about the brutal treatment of protesters in jail in Philly, and replied only that her group believed in "peaceful" protest. She did take the time , however, to condemn the "violent" protesters. She left the impression of trying to distance herself from "non-violent" direct activists - in just the same way some of the "non-violent" protesters try to isolate others for a broken window.
This woman was probably not a "bad person" or any kind of intentional "traitor". My guess is she was immobilized in the face of having to respond to the charges of violence, and had to fall back on the only thing she knew - rote defenses about "peace."
At one point in the discussion the hosts rolled some video showing a protester apparently spraying pepper spray in the face of a cop in a car, supposedly an "innocent" cop doing nothing. The cop leaps out of the car and starts chasing some people. A protester takes a swing at the cop, connects, and the cop goes down. He gets up pulling his gun. Some protesters are taken down and that's that.
So here they have incontrovertible "proof" of protester "violence" against a cop.
And if they rolled that video and you were there, what would you say?
Well let's look at it. Here you are on national TV. They run this footage, expecting you to be cornered into condeming other protesters.
The first thing you could say is this. "Why don't you role the footage of the helicopter shot of the Philly cops surrounding, kicking and beating a suspect Rodney King style side by side with this footage and let's talk about what it means and whether the protester taking swing at a cop armed with a gun and a baton even compares for "violence" with the other footage. Why didn't you bring me on the air to talk about and condemn THAT? Come on, run them side by side and then ask me your question again, if you have any interest in "balance and objectivity."
"And while you're at it, roll some footage of pepper spray guns in Seattle, then roll the film of one cop sprayed with one jet of something- apparently it wasn't pepper spray or it didn't hit the cop cause he sure wasn't impaired. It didn't stop him from running fighting or grabbing his gun."
The same kind of answers are possible here in LA, where there will be abundant police violence, and where the "outrage" of the media toward protesters will bear no resemblance to the calm they display about Rampart or other police crimes like the murders of Margaret Mitchell or Tyisha Miller.
A good example of this is a recent Daily News editorial that calls Tuesday's protesters a "vicious few." It also calls those being held on million bail (including apparently John Sellars of Ruckus) the "worst of the mobsters" and condemns D2KLA for opposing police use of rubber bullets and tear gas, calling it an "outragous request that casts shadows over the organization's motives."
The media would never say such things about the Rampart scandal, calling Rampart CRASH cops the "worst of the mobsters" or the "vicious few." They would never think to say that police spying and pre-emptive arrests of protest leaders are "outrageous" or that such activities "cast a shadow over police agencies motives."
And all we have to do to defeat these kinds of spins is think in opposites and call out the questioner's hypocrisy. There is no need to defend ourselves or to attack other protesters, especially given that the LAPD is a sitting media duck with an international reputation for racism, brutality and corruption. We don't have to answer questions on their terms, we can answer instead with the truth about who the real criminals are.
The state is trying to sieze the high ground on the question of violence, and it is absolutely foolish to let them have it. Are we really going to let the government that bombs Iraq, that killed two million Viet Namese, that has 2 million of us locked up in prison, that sponsors death squads, torture, assasination, starvation and genocide throughout the world - are we really going to let them claim a few people breaking windows are "Violent" ???
But here's the icing on the cake. If we let the state paint some protesters as "violent" and beyond the pale, and we let them get by with it, if we chime in with our own condemnation, if we do not stand in solidarity against the state, then the government will get the message all right.
They will know that all they will have to do is arrest anyone of us on phony charges of engaging in some kind of "violence," and sheep-like, the rest of us will "distance" ourselves and the targetted activists will be on their way to prison, hell, or both, completely without respect to innocence or "guilt". And today's distancers will become tomorrow's victims, charged with the same "crimes" and doing the same time as the activists they distanced themselves from yesterday.
In a word, not standing with other activists as they are being attacked by the state is not only immoral, it' s political and tactical suicide.
Whatever we do, let's not do the cops job for them. Let's NOT help create a media atmosphere that helps the system send our brothers and sisters to jail or prison, no matter if we disagree over tactics- we are STILL on the same side, and the tale will still be told on the streets - we dearly need one another.
The powers that be can only divide and conquer us if we allow ourselves to be divided.
Report this post as:
LATEST COMMENTS ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
Listed below are the 10 latest comments of 6 posted about this article.
These comments are anonymously submitted by the website visitors.
TITLE |
AUTHOR |
DATE |
What freedom looks like in Texas! |
Sueann Campbell |
Friday, Aug. 11, 2000 at 5:54 AM |
Off topic. |
Fedge |
Friday, Aug. 11, 2000 at 7:00 AM |
Check Out Bulletin Boards NV v. V. topic list |
Relegator |
Friday, Aug. 11, 2000 at 7:34 AM |
Response on Rafael's Comments |
peter morgan |
Friday, Aug. 11, 2000 at 8:47 AM |
Violence and the Anti-capitalist movement |
David |
Monday, Aug. 21, 2000 at 1:05 AM |
new list re v/nv at mobilizations |
alyosha Witness |
Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2001 at 5:53 AM |
|
|
|
Local News
GUIDE TO REBEL CITY LOS ANGELES AVAILABLE
A12 5:39PM
lausd whistle blower
A10 11:58PM
Website Upgrade
A10 3:02AM
Help KCET and UCLA identify 60s-70s Chicano images
A04 1:02PM
UCLA Luskin: Casting Youth Justice in a Different Light
A02 11:58AM
Change Links April 2018
A01 11:27AM
Nuclear Shutdown News March 2018
M31 6:57PM
Join The Protest Rally in Glendale on April 10, 2018!
M29 7:00PM
Join The Protest Rally in Glendale on April 10, 2018!
M29 6:38PM
Spring 2018 National Immigrant Solidarity Network News Alert!
M19 2:02PM
Anti-Eviction Mapping Project Shows Shocking Eviction Trends in L.A.
M16 5:40PM
Steve Mnuchin video at UCLA released
M15 12:34AM
Actress and Philanthropist Tanna Frederick Hosts Project Save Our Surf Beach Clean Ups
M06 12:10PM
After Being Told He's 'Full of Sh*t' at School Event, Mnuchin Demands UCLA Suppress Video
M02 11:44AM
Resolution of the Rent Strike in Boyle Heights
M01 6:28PM
What Big Brother Knows About You and What You Can Do About It
M01 3:30PM
Step Up As LAPD Chief Charlie Beck Steps Down
F14 2:44PM
Our House Grief Support Center Hosts 9th Annual Run For Hope, April 29
F13 12:51PM
Don’t let this LA County Probation Department overhaul proposal sit on the shelf
F13 11:04AM
Echo Park Residents Sue LA Over Controversial Development
F12 8:51AM
Former Signal Hill police officer pleads guilty in road-rage incident in Irvine
F09 10:25PM
Calif. Police Accused of 'Collusion' With Neo-Nazis After Release of Court Documents
F09 7:14PM
Center for the Study of Political Graphics exhibit on Police Abuse posters
F07 9:50AM
City Agrees to Settle Lawsuit Claiming Pasadena Police Officer Had His Sister Falsely Arre
F04 3:17PM
Professor's Study Highlights Health Risks of Urban Oil Drilling
F04 12:42PM
Claims paid involving Pasadena Police Department 2014 to present
F04 10:52AM
Pasadenans - get your license plate reader records from police
F03 11:11PM
LA Times Homicide Report
F03 1:57PM
More Local News...
Other/Breaking News
Biodiversité ou la nature privatisée
A20 11:22AM
The Market is a Universal Totalitarian Religion
A20 7:14AM
Book Available about Hispanics and US Civil War by National Park Service
A19 5:52PM
The Shortwave Report 04/20/18 Listen Globally!
A19 4:01PM
The Republican 'Prolife' Party Is the Party of War, Execution, and Bear Cub Murder
A19 11:48AM
Neurogenèse involutive
A18 9:21AM
Paraphysique de la dictature étatique
A16 10:13AM
Book Review: "The New Bonapartists"
A16 3:45AM
The West Must Take the First Steps to Russia
A14 12:25PM
Théorie générale de la révolution ou hommage à feu Mikhaïl Bakounine
A14 3:30AM
The Shortwave Report 04/13/18 Listen Globally!
A12 3:50PM
“Lost in a Dream” Singing Competition Winner to Be Chosen on April 15 for ,000 Prize!
A12 3:48PM
The World Dependent on Central Banks
A12 4:43AM
Ohio Governor Race: Dennis Kucinich & Richard Cordray Run Against Mike DeWine
A11 9:40PM
March 2018 Honduras Coup Again Update
A10 10:52PM
Apologie du zadisme insurrectionnel
A10 3:33PM
ICE contract with license plate reader company
A10 1:14PM
Palimpseste sisyphéen
A09 11:23PM
Black Portraiture(S) IV: The Color of Silence...Cuba No...Cambridge Yes
A09 5:32AM
Prohibiting Micro-Second Betting on the Exchanges
A09 4:18AM
Prosecutors treat Muslims harsher than non-Muslims for the same crimes
A08 10:33PM
Amy Goodman interview on cell phone safety
A08 10:29PM
Mesa, Arizona police officer kills unarmed white man
A08 9:50PM
Israeli leaders should be prosecuted for war crimes
A08 9:48PM
Paraphysique de l'autorité
A08 12:11AM
Two Podcasts on fbi corruption
A06 10:13PM
Fbi assassins assault & try to kill DAVID ATKINS
A06 7:29PM
EPA Head Scott Pruitt: Of Cages And Sirens
A06 2:15PM
More Breaking News...
|