We’ve long been warning — beginning with Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s initial arrests of 175 peaceful Occupy demonstrators in late October, and again following the subsequent brutally violent crackdown by the Oakland PD on peaceful Occupiers there on the orders of Democratic Mayor Jean Quan — of the growing likelihood of an “#OccupyDNC2012” at next year’s convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, unless Dems wise up (and quickly) and figure out that it’ll be far smarter to work with demonstrators on their legitimate grievances, rather than fool-heartedly try and crush the Occupations in hopes that they will simply go away.
Given that, shamefully, we’ve seen a series of (theoretically) left-leaning Mayors continuing the use of this ill-considered technique — even upping the violent ante in many of the “crackdowns” since — one must wonder if all of these Democrats have simply forgotten about 1968, are too young to know about what actually happened there, or simply don’t give a damn for some unknown reason.
The BRAD BLOG’s legal contributor Ernest Canning — who was deployed to Vietnam at the time, so was unaware of what had actually happened outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968 in Grant Park (the very location where, ironically, Barack Obama would give his moving Presidential victory speech in 2008) until learning about it upon his return home the following year — flagged these poignant reminders for us all…
Look familiar? Ignore those videos, and history, at your own peril, Democrats.
Oh, and look, the official website for the 2012 Democratic Convention offers this helpful advice at the very top of its home page!:
The 2012 Democratic National Convention is about you. And the success of this convention will be determined by your participation.
So get involved, raise your voice and be heard!
Do you suppose they really mean that? If so, do you suppose they’ll still really mean that by the opening day of the DNC on September 3rd next year?
Brad:
At least we know that the father of the President’s present CoS outed himself as an anti-Semitic asshole at that convention. Hell, the Daley family men are all toadies for the 1%.
Um, why bother conjecturing on the what the Dem party will do for their convention? There will be no competitors. It will not be a grass roots, people-based campaign. He’s predicted to raise $1billion for this one. The majority of it will come from the 1%, the corporations. Defending/supporting/campaigning for Obama will be like the xtian right wing poor defending tax cuts for the million/billion/trillion-aires while their medicare/welfare/community funding/education gets cut. I think OWS should focus on surviving past the next election, not demarcating it.
Born in Chicago, I consider myself more a representative of Illinois than the tool Democrat 1%er President Obama or any of the other political sellout robot majority in political office.
I don’t like to see non-violent protesters who are asserting their constitutionally guaranteed rights to assemble for positive change to be injured by a mongoloid armed police force, or military force, but the ruling elite are calling their hand as they did in ’68.
Unarmed protester can be fearless however in the name of self preservation they have to be smart!
I think there are many people around the world who understand that we will do whatever it takes to strip the power away from this dangerous careless elite group of criminals that has completely subverted the people’s form of government before it’s too late.
The ruling class will continue to used law enforcement and the US military if they get “their” way as an iron fist to maintain their control at the expense of Americans, World People, and the air, land, and sea.
These super wealthy ruling elite threaten to destroy the planet where we all live including the last threatened species and people are waking up.
Their 1% titanic is still sailing although the melted iceberg in the night that will destroy these parasitic loser humans remains in the shadows under their noses.
The prions that cause Tyranny are no respecters of political parties. Like the prions that cause Kuru they will share dementia with any member of any political party anywhere.
Humility, honesty, and kindness build resistance to tyranny, not to mention avoiding political cannibalism.
We KNEW the cops were pigs Back In The Day.
The only thing that’s changed is the lipstick.
I’m with Michael G. Occupy has thus far managed to stay apolitical, and it should stay that way throughput the 2012 election cycle. I would prefer to see that Occupy shuns both political conventions. It should stay close to the home front and the core issues, and not give right wing media opportunities to denigrate its supporters.
Shunning both conventions would send a powerful message.
From the Wiki report of the ’68 Democratic contest
The protesters at the ’68 convention had two candidates who shared their convictions, Eugene McCarty and George McGovern. OWS has no candidate who represents its concerns. Its presence in Charlotte would have the potential to cripple Obysmal they way Humphrey was crippled in ’68. The question that must be answered is, will it be worth it?
Ghost of 9-11:
Yes. The 3 branch system of checks and balances has become completely corrupted and ineffective to wear the title “representative gov of the people.”
Stripping away the current form of legalized bribery in which billionaire corps continue to install their political representatives to forward their agenda and screw everything else must end.
Just like the fact that electronic computer voting machines that cannot produce a paper trail must be abolished.
Articles on this website document the fact computer scientists like Clint Curtis and Election Integrity Experts have proven that these machines can easily flip votes at the point of voting and or tabulation undetected by a remote computer using a program that eats itself.
Since there are no paper ballots to count, Voters must simply trust an election official for the results and no recount is possible because there is nothing to count. How does this define a fair transparent election process?
You don’t hear either major US political party talking about this issue because as long as they can get away with it, this system benefits their people staying in office.
The truth about all the people that died on 9-11 and continue to die in Bush jr.’s turn Obama’s justified wars so banksters, war profiteers, and energy companies could greatly increase their profit margin must become the official version of reality.
I don’t think these treasonous lying war criminals deserve to have their increased wars powers gained using the 9-11 excuse or the rights to carelessly destroy the future of endangered world species and the last wild with their robots in Washington. Occupy wins… WE ALL WIN.