Tag Archives: police

Occupy outcomes: community, rhetoric, and law

The influence of successful social movements generally plays out over a longer time than the movements themselves. What happens afterwards is complicated and contingent, and activists aren’t always quick to claim credit for what they’ve done. Nationally, Occupy effected a … Continue reading

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Policing police at Davis

Nearly a year after a campus police office at the University of California pepper sprayed students nonviolently protesting against tuition hikes–under the banner of Occupy–the University has reached a settlement with the students.  The LA Times reports that the police … Continue reading

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Small protests in Charlotte, so far

The protest story from the Democratic convention so far is pretty similar to the stories from the Republican convention–minus the storms.  There are fewer demonstrators than organizers promised or journalists expected, lots of police, and scattered relatively small events mostly … Continue reading

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Protest, police, and pepper spray at UC-Davis

Most students, including even protesters, don’t encounter pepper spray during their studies at the University of California. Last November, however, a campus police officer sprayed students protesting tuition hikes at the UC-Davis campus.  It’s worth looking at. And it’s worth … Continue reading

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Occupy diversifies; takes a building

Occupy San Francisco has seized a building on 888 Turk Street.  Located in the Tenderloin District, the building, owned by the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The takeover followed an April Fool’s Day march, and police apparently stood by as the … Continue reading

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Drawing a line from ALEC to Trayvon

George Zimmerman fired the shot that killed Trayvon Martin, but ALEC wrote the Stand Your Ground law at the core of his legal defense.  Taken just a slight step further, ALEC also pressed for the budget cuts that have led … Continue reading

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Protest makes it harder to ignore injustice

Full Disclosure: I started wearing hoodies in high school and they’ve been a staple part of my wardrobe since. That’s not the only reason, of course, I was disturbed when Geraldo Rivera suggested that Trayvon Martin’s attire was responsible for … Continue reading

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George Clooney does politics outdoors–and indoors

George Clooney was arrested this morning in Washington, DC, protesting outside Sudan’s embassy.  They trespassed to call attention to President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir’s military blockade preventing food and humanitarian aid from getting to people on the border of Sudan and … Continue reading

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Occupy Oakland and the militant wing of a movement

Occupy, like all large and successful social movements, includes people with a broad range of political viewpoints and a very diverse range of action strategies.  While some activists are working to move inside the political system by lobbying or contesting … Continue reading

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Vacating Occupy LA

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has consistently praised Occupy LA, camped out on the lawn in front of City Hall for two months.  (The most interesting achievement, according to an environmental activist, was destroying the environmentally unsound green lawn.)   Throughout the … Continue reading

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