What do these conditions remind you of?

[Are_grits_groceries]

1-Sexual assaults
2-Severe beatings
3-Rats
4-Fire hazards
5-Public urination

Although not at all confined to one area, some of the public housing projects where decent people have to live because of economic conditions suffer under these incidents all the time. Many people are under the thumb of unscrupulous landlords who refuse to take the legal steps required to bring their buildings up to code also suffer from such actions.

These types of things aren't unique to low income areas, but the response to their occurrence there is starkly different than that taken in 'better' economic areas. The police response to what occurs there is also very different than the response to OWS. I don't advocate that type of response, but just a small amount of effort that was expended by the OPD in these other areas would be a better use of money to serve the public good.

These are the alleged actions that FORCED Mayor Quan to order the police to act. They acted all right. They acted like thugs in uniforms who have no respect for the people they are supposed to serve or the law they are supposed to uphold. To say that these events could have been headed off and handled much differently is an understatement.

This movement is not going away. The authorities can either work with the groups to come to some agreement about the right to protest and what it will entail or they can storm in like uncontrolled banshees on meth. There will be arrests either way, but the number and the manner will depend on the action taken. The protesters have spent a great deal of effort to self-police, keep sanitation levels up, and to stop unlawful activity such as drug dealing and such. There are exceptions, but they are just that. The groups are not made up of DFH!

I hold no great hope that their will be sensible action taken. I fear, as others do that, 'Kent States' will occur. The fractured skull of an Iraq vet is tantamount to such an action. Because of the injury to the Marine, a line may have been crossed. They don't take their motto 'Semper Fi' lightly. They are trained and may be very ready to rumble. The protests still need to remain peaceful so that the lines of brutality are clear. That will keep turning public opinion to the side of OWS.

They have force, and we have numbers. OWS needs to continue to expand horizontally to bring in more and more people. That is the card we have to have to be able to play. OWS has to reach many, many people.

I have no idea where we are going, but we are on our way.

[Are_grits_groceries]

1. It's on now! Nt

[Javaman]

2. We all know where this is going.

the police started it.

the class war has begun.

This is early in the first round.

I just hope we don't devolve into Jacobins.