At UC Davis, there were no winners, only losers.
In St. Louis, the cops came out on top with nary a molecule of capsaicin sprayed
The rest were advised to please continue to protest, over there on the sidewalk … and what happened next was the most absolutely brilliant piece of crowd control policing I have heard of in my entire lifetime. All of the cops who weren’t busy transporting and processing the voluntary arrestees lined up, blocking the stairs down into the plaza. They stood shoulder to shoulder. They kept calm and silent. They positioned the weapons on their belts out of sight. They crossed their hands low in front of them, in exactly the least provocative posture known to man. And they peacefully, silently, respectfully occupied the plaza, using exactly the same non-violent resistance techniques that the protesters themselves had been trained in.
The rest were advised to please continue to protest, over there on the sidewalk … and what happened next was the most absolutely brilliant piece of crowd control policing I have heard of in my entire lifetime.
All of the cops who weren’t busy transporting and processing the voluntary arrestees lined up, blocking the stairs down into the plaza. They stood shoulder to shoulder. They kept calm and silent. They positioned the weapons on their belts out of sight. They crossed their hands low in front of them, in exactly the least provocative posture known to man. And they peacefully, silently, respectfully occupied the plaza, using exactly the same non-violent resistance techniques that the protesters themselves had been trained in.
As Radley says
Instead of brute force, cunning and creativity. Low and behold, it worked. The Occupy encampment is gone. No one was sprayed or beaten. No horrifying photos or cell phone videos. No public funds spent defending lawsuits. No public relations nightmare. If it has to be done, this is how you do it.
Of course, some of his commenters are outraged anyway – must be their only emotion – that The Man dared to keep the proletariat down like that, even if it was done nicely.
I hope this story is legitimate and that somewhere, there’s a police chief who’s starting to see the light. Us v. Them is not conducive to society.
The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
I think the police evictions of the OWS protestors around the country are a false flag. Basically, I think the protests were fisling out. Most were down to a 100 or so protestors and the weather keeps getting colder. I think someone in the national government who wants the protestors to be visible (not necessarily on their side, useful idiots and all that.) decided it was better for them to go out with a media bang rather then a wimper. This keeps OWS more viable politically. It also explains the spate of evictions as if they were called for from on high rather then just one or two fed up mayors and a few supportive mayors etc. as you would expect from local decisions.