What If Occupiers Armed Themselves?

[Better Believe It]

December 21, 2011
They Don't Shoot Rightwingers, Do They?
What If Occupiers Armed Themselves?
by BRIAN J. FOLEY


You’ve probably noticed that our government and corporate-owned media treat the Occupy Movement differently from the Tea Party.

Think back to how some Tea Partiers brought guns to their protests, where some protesters even suggested killing President Obama. They weren’t pepper-sprayed. They weren’t bashed in the head, and they weren’t even told to take their guns home.

Why such different treatment? Some people say it’s because the Tea Party didn’t camp out. But does camping and building a library (which, in a move reminiscent of the National Socialists in 1930′s Germany, the NYPD destroyed) and chanting and sitting-in merit more government attention than armed people threatening violence against the President?

An even more disturbing difference is that the Department of Homeland Security — which is supposed to use its broad powers to protect us from terrorism – may have helped coordinate a national crackdown on the Occupiers’ nonviolent protest. The Occupiers pitch tents, not grenades. They hang expressive signs on buildings – they don’t pilot airliners into them. The Occupy movement shouldn’t even appear on the DHS radar screen.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/21/what-if-occupiers-armed-themselves/

Those who read the entire article will understand that the author is not advocating violence or proposing that progressive protesters bring weapons to demonstrations. BBI

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. It's because the tea party are owned by the same group of people who own the MSM.

And because the tea party are pro-deregulation, which would significantly aid their profiteering.

Weapons? You must be kidding me. Why would #occupy want to look like the 1%'s thugs? #Occupy have no weapons so you can tell the difference between us, and them, and what they most clearly want:



What would you like more of? Us or them? Follow the group most clearly representing your goals.

[LonePirate]

3. They would be branded thugs, criminals and terrorists.

However, if right wingers did the same thing, they would be branded heroes and patriots.

[BOG PERSON]

12. they're already branded losers, burnouts, freaks

which is not much better. however, most of the public does not agree w/ that characterization of the occupiers.

[RKP5637]

4. Yep, this statement from the article pretty well sums it up IMO. "But if you oppose the right wing

government, even nonviolently, well, you’re dangerous."

[tblue]

5. IMHO, here's why:

They don't fear Occupy -- physically. They fear the movement because it challenges the status quo.

It's the reverse for the Tea Party.

[RKP5637]

6. Yep, and they also realize the 99% is far larger than the Tea Party, and that actually some

in the Tea Party might start siding with OWS.

[HughBeaumont]

7. The TeaHad aren't going to be arrested or beaten by people who mostly agree with them.

Remember what America said after May 4th, 1970? That they "deserved to die" and "there should have been more"?

Remember in 2007, when The Gathering of the Eagles participants beat up a Gold-Star dad in full view of the cops . . . not ONE arrest? I was at that protests. Police pretty much left them alone despite continued threats of bodily harm and assaults.

And now all of the OWS arrests and Police-brutality-related injuries . . .

America does not like the left, nor do they like what we stand for. They just plain don't like us. The wealthy think "we don't know how the world works" (Stephen Moore) and that "we're babies in adult bodies" (Ken Langone) and "Imbeciles" (Bernie Marcus). The police hate us even more; either that or they're more comfortable identifying with fascists than they are peaceful people. Middle America's conditioned by the purchased media to love wealth and hate equality.

How do you combat that?

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. What if dems acted like republicans? Creative Speculation.

[SixthSense]

9. Who are the real occupiers?

A bunch of citizens assembling peacefully in a public space... or highly militarized law enforcement units?

The difference between what we have seen these past few months and an actual, hostile takeover and military occupation of the US gets smaller every day.

[firehorse]

10. 10, 20 people max at tea party events? And most of them motored around in rascals.

Occasionally there were attendees who were agile enough to hold up misspelled signs and rig an effigy lynching. But their problem was that 20 people manufacturing faux misplaced outrage, had little impact.

In comparison, the OWS shut down ports, generated bank transfer day, and massive crowds and creative demonstrations. The message of the 99% vs. the 1% ruling class resonated deep into American psyches uniting the middle and lower classes in a way that transcended party lines. We the 99% became united ... and the powers that be view that as more threatening than a couple armed seniors tooling around in their rascals.

If the OWS starts to shift from peaceful demonstrating and protesting to arming themselves like the teabaggers, they will make it easier for the those with militant minds to label the protesters as terrorists - and that label will justify the authorities to use even more violent methods to suppress the 99%. Its not right that the feds are involving themselves, or that cops are injuring peaceful protestors and abusing their power. Whats happening now is we as a country are coming out of denial, as we witness the fascist aspects of our nature of our country turning on its own citizens.

The bottom line is that powers that be are not threatened by a few old racists in rascals, in fact they like that kind of misdirection, but they are threatened by democracy in action and first amendment rights being exercised.

[cry baby]

11. "What if?" what if armed monkeys flew out of my butt?

same ol, same ol...unfortunately.

[HopeHoops]

13. Coming soon to a city near you.