The Fall of Occupy LA, directed by Tony McGrath

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The Fall of Occupy LA, directed by Tony McGrath

Postby admin » Fri May 19, 2017 1:49 am

Part 1 of 2

The Fall of Occupy LA
directed by Tony McGrath [and the FBI? Question: Is almost every person featured in this movie FBI?]
[Partial Transcript Re Infiltration of LA Occupy, transcribed by Tara Carreon]

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[Narrator] On October 1, 2011, Occupy LA took over Los Angeles City Hall Park. Overnight, it became the biggest occupation in the country….

October 4, 2011

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[Eric Garcetti, LA Council member] Stay as long as you need to. We’ll continue to work with you.

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[Bill Rosendahl, LA Councilmember] Tomorrow we’re putting in a resolution. It will show support and solidarity from the City of LA with what you’re doing. We’ll see you tomorrow!

[Narrator] In early October, LA City Hall approved a resolution supporting the occupation. But over time the relationship soured. With Occupy Wall Street evicted, the clock was ticking on Occupy LA. Within Occupy LA deep internal divisions had formed. Camps developed within the camp. By the final weeks of November, things were coming to a head.

November 15, 2011

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[Woman Occupier] This is an American city! We are all in this together. And we have to stay on message, regulate Wall Street, and put the bastards in jail. We have a paper trail. We can find out who they are. We know the head of Goldman Sachs’ name. He should be in there with Madoff, and all the heads: Jamie Diamond. And we need to stay on message. And we need leaders!

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Identity Now! (Lloyd Blankfein under Anonymous mask), by Tara Carreon
-- Occupy Wall Street and “The American Autumn”: Is it a “Colored Revolution”?


[Julia] What are our demands as a group? How do we want to advance this movement? Not just in Occupy LA, not just in Los Angeles even as a city, but to national and even international proportions, so we can gain power for poor and oppressed people worldwide?

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Zen Politics? Just Say “Noh,” by Tara Carreon
(In dishonor of Adam Pek)
[Adam Pek] To me the fact that this movement does not have political agenda and list of demands is its greatest strength. Because we do not have a platform it becomes impossible for some politician to rise on it to the next election and kidnap the movement. Because we do not have a single demand we do not have a bull’s eye that can be attacked or exploited by media and those in power. Because of this almost every one can identify themselves with and be part of this movement. Occupy Wall Street movement is for people and as long as we keep it clean of opportunities for the greedy and dishonest we will keep it alive and maybe with time it will become our third option created by people for people. It’s more like evolution than revolution.


-- Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, by the Al Capp Organization and the Ford Foundation


[Narrator] Each night the Occupiers met at the GA: the General Assembly.

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[Sarah] There was an article in the Minneapolis Examiner today talking about how these raids that have happened in Oakland and New York and Portland and other places were coordinated coming down from the Obama administration, Homeland Security, and the FBI. They had a conference call and went through a game plan. The game plan included the fact that police should use overwhelming force, should do it when the press was least likely to be there, and should look for a legal excuse to raid a camp.

[Narrator] A group of Occupiers – the City Liaison Committee – had been secretly holding negotiations with authorities. This was just beginning to be known by the camp.

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[Patti] In the LA times on the Internet today it was saying that someone from Occupy LA is in negotiations with City Hall and LAPD.

[Male Occupier] What the hell?

[Patti] Yeah, that’s what I said.

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[Lucero] We have concerns right now. We’ve actually had people, different sources, say that there is an exit strategy that’s in the works. But unfortunately this exit strategy would undermine the solidarity of Occupy LA and the Occupy movement as a whole. We do not collaborate with the police! We do not do the police’s work! We are here to occupy! We are here to build a movement based on solidarity! If you are part of these negotiations, which have not been endorsed by Occupy LA, please come forward and address us!

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[Mario] Uh, to dispel a lot of the bullshit that’s been going around, we are not working with the police on any particular issue. We are coordinating what we’re doing in secrecy to work for Occupy LA. So we --

[Occupiers] [Screaming]

[Mario] No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

[Occupiers] [Screaming louder]

[Mario] Because Occupy LA represents social and economic justice, and we have this total transparency thing. Now you say you want strategy -- you say strategy -- and then you come to a public place like this, and then planning for an expansion or anything like that, how can you have an expansion or anything like that while you’re talking about it on the freaking Internet? I mean, all I’m saying, all I’m saying, is that there is no betrayal of anybody’s anything –

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[Male Occupier] You do it by not working with the police!

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[Mario] Dude, nobody’s working with the police. The fact is, we’re trying to expand. We ain’t trying to sell any other group out to do any particular, to go under the bus for Occupy LA. We’re trying to take care of our own.

[Male Occupier] That’s bullshit!

Take Care of Our Own

I recently had the pleasure to talk with Chris Allen the President of Hunting For Heroes a unique organization that is helping disabled police officers connect with other officers in similar situations and give back to them some hope, some joy and even in some cases a sense of purpose again.

Founded in 2010 by two active duty law enforcement officers, Hunting For Heroes (H4H) reaches out to officers across the country to connect them with other officers who have sustained life altering injuries. H4H provides a hunting camp environment where officers and their families are able to step away from daily struggles and enjoy time outdoors.

Hunting for Heroes actually began as hunting television show. The founders, Chris Allen and Chuck Bowles, were police officers in the St. Louis, Missouri area and were both avid hunters. They were working on a hunting television show working with both the law enforcement and police angles. As the show concept was being developed, the talk of hosting a charity hunt was presented.

We then began to search out those organizations that were taking care of our disabled law enforcement officers. Only to find out there were NONE. We could not find one organization that was providing services specifically… to the disabled law enforcement community. As being cops ourselves and understand the specific needs of a law enforcement officer we found this fact unacceptable.

The motto “taking care of our own” was easily developed as these are the words that we live by. We challenge you to do the same! Hunting for Heroes provides resources, such as recreational therapy and counseling, to disabled law enforcement officers who were injured in the line of duty.

Hunting for Heroes is worthy of your review, and donations. If you have the time they are looking for volunteers. Let’s accept their challenge and really and truly “Take Care of Our Own”.

-- Take Care of Our Own, by Cops Alive.com


November 17, 2011:

Why did this happen in 2011?

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[Sarah/Time Person of the Year] Obama was elected in 2008. I think by 2010 it was pretty clear that things were not getting better.

[Mario] The country is ripe. The country wanted, in it’s psyche it deeply wanted to talk about this. I mean, in other countries, in Europe the issue of class is talked about, the issue of inequality is talked about.

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[Joan] The original call to action from the Adbusters’ website was very clear, that the point was to get money out of politics. What was going on in 2011 had to do with the failure of the bailout.

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[Mario] If you create certain circumstances where people are unable to rise out of poverty, then you’re going to have a permanent underclass which affects our democracy. We have such low voter turnout and there’s a reason why. People feel unengaged, they feel like there’s no reason for them to be engaged. What happened in 2011 was the economic inequality spread to the middle class. The middle class began to feel the strains of an economy that wasn’t working. A lot of people in communities of color were saying, “Well, this is something we’ve been dealing with for years. We’ve been talking about this for years. Nobody heard us. Nobody spoke to us. Nobody raised a concern. ”

[Crowd chanting] Banks got bailed out; we got sold out!

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[Narrator] LAPD arrested 73 people on November 17. Most were released the next day.

November 18, 2011

[Infiltrators? wasting everyone's time with their corny, feel-good stories]

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[Sarah] On our way up, I walked with a small group of girls. Our mission was to scout and see what was going on around the perimeter of Bank of America Plaza. We were stopped by an older woman, she was a business woman, and she asked us if we were Occupiers. And we told her yes, and she said "thank you, thank you so much for what you're doing." She said, "I want you to know that there are so many of us at home, and we watch TV every night, and the only thing that makes us hopeful is this Movement."

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[Matt] Our fight is not with the police, it's with the banks! When a citizen issues a citizen's arrest, that citizen holds the offender for the police until they arrive. When a corporation issues a citizen's arrest, they bring out 400 cops, Homeland Security, FBI, close down a 4 block radius, bring two paddy wagons and a bus.

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[Richard] The thing about yesterday was having the chance to be able to have a teach-in with the police. We had at least 45 minutes where they were standing there, and we were able to educate them on revolution, and the role that they play in revolution.

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[Matt] This is our fight. We must shatter the manacles of control by reminding the police that their duty is to protect first and serve second.

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[Alex] I want to talk a about standing our ground. When the police finally move in, they want their job to go as easily as possible. If you lock arms and do not let go, it will make their job harder. This does not mean that they can't throw the book at you.

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It just means that most of the time, to make their jobs easy, cops are full of shit!

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So stand your ground!

A lock-on is a technique used by peaceful protesters to make it difficult to remove them from their place of protest. It often involves improvised or specially designed and constructed hardware, although a basic lock-on is the human chain which relies simply on hand grip.[1]

In the United States lock-ons are often referred to as lockdowns.

In American protest movements dating from the 1960s and 70s, the term lockdown applies to a person's attaching themself to a building, object, fence or other immobile object.

The safe removal of the protesters necessitates the involvement of skilled technicians, and is often time-consuming.

The lock-on chosen by the protester may be the difference between being arrested or not, or may vary the kind or number of charges brought against them by the police. If a protester can remove themselves when asked to by the police, they may stand a better chance of not being arrested. However, if they can remove themselves and they chose not to, they may receive a charge for refusing to remove themselves from the lock-on. If the protester cannot remove themselves, it is likely that potential charges are not as important to them as what they are protesting about.

Locking on is a very successful means of slowing down operations which are perceived by the protesters to be illegal or immoral; it is also often used to allow time for journalists to arrive and record the scene and take statements from the group spokespeople.

-- Lock-on, by Wikipedia


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[Richard] Martin Luther King said, “Hate the system, not those caught up in the system.” We are all caught up in each other’s humanity. I said to them, “What would you guys rather have? We all order pizza, and eat pizza together, or you shoot tear gas at us?”

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I saw a couple of them who were very robotic crack a smile. They had their last name on their helmet. And I said, “Magellan! I saw you smiling. You want pizza, don’t you?” And he couldn’t hold his smile in any longer, and he started to laugh. Then I saw another one start to laugh. And that’s what Mark is talking about when he says that we humanize the situation.

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[Sarah] And I am so proud of everyone, the people on the inside and the people on the outside. We could hear you chanting even in the bus, and it was beautiful.

[Narrator] From the beginning, a committee had been meeting to try and work out the demands and objectives of the movement.

November 19, 2011

Occupy LA Objectives and Demands Committee

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[Male Occupier] About three weeks ago the governor of Illinois said that if Occupy doesn’t stand up for some goals that their movement will fall apart. If the movement doesn’t have goals it will fall apart. So I think that this is the most important part of the movement, more important than anything else.

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[Chris] Objectives and demands that turned out to be reformist because of the way they were collected and the survey and cultural bias, or whatever complaint you could have about methodology, that’s just one avenue, okay? There’s actions, marching, demonstrations. This is just one thing --

[Narrator] A survey of what Occupy LA wanted had been circulated, and the results analyzed. But only a small number had responded.

[Do you believe this? Or seeing how important they were, did some infiltrator throw the rest in the garbage?]

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[Steve] Just 36 people turned it in, which is why I’d like to let you know that obviously we have to state that this is not a statistically really valid sample.

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[Dave] We’re gonna take the sample of 35, or whatever, we’re going to take out the top 10 or whatever, and then present them as – what, I don’t really know -- because that expresses the will of the people here. But if we know better based upon our experience and our research, then somehow it wouldn’t be appropriate to analyze them with those tools of wisdom and experience. The method requires that we reinvent the wheel again. We don’t learn from history.

[Chris] I think that we need to let people make up their own minds and just present the facts, the raw data.

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[John] This is the first pass, almost the first issue of a newspaper, the first issue of demands. And then we take another round of surveys, possibly modifying the survey a bit to enlarge them, because it’s now been informed by the thinking and discussion that’s been done by this committee.

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[Suzanne] I think that as long as we have the caveat you know that, I -- you’re right, 8% is not bad for survey results, honestly -- but my only concern is that it’s going to skew too many people to think that this is the only things that we’re considering.

[Chris] Essentially what we want to say to GA is this isn’t a finished process. I mean, that’s the essence of basically what we want to communicate.

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[Male Occupier] You’re extending something you can’t extend. If we don’t come up with issues, we’re dead.

[Suzanne] I don’t agree with we’re dead. It’s our decision whether we die or not.

[Male Occupier] Well, if you don’t come up with goals you’re dead.

[Suzanne] I disagree with that. Anyway, let’s go back to the –

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[Male Occupier] Rankings for each demand so you can see just visually the raw data. And you can almost see a clustering affect for the issues that got voted as, ranked number 1 the most times. So (1) Ending corporate personhood, (2) Wall Street money out of politics, (3) Overturn Citizens United,

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(4) Investigate the banks and bankers for fraud, (5) stop the wars,

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(6) divert military spending, (7) Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, (8) Enact electoral reform. So here’s a heat map right here. So this is a linear formula where every rank, the rank of 1 got, for the purposes of this linear scale, the rank of 1 got a point value of 20, and the inverse for the rank of 20.

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So the rank of 20 got a point value of 1.

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[Steve] I want to say I’m enjoying the detail that you’re going into for us, and I appreciate the work and the intelligence and everything that’s in here, that’s marvelous, but that level of detail for your presentation tonight isn’t going to work. You know what chaos GA just normally is.

[Narrator] A month earlier, the GA was temporarily replaced by an open mic People's Forum.

October 19, 2011

[It's not an "Open Mic People's Forum," but rather infiltrator?/anarchists putting terrorist fear into the Occupiers of a police raid happening due to their wild behavior.]

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[Male Occupier] This is the GA!

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[Male Occupier] You have our attention, but we need to have a moment of silence. We need to calm it down.

[Anarchist Infiltrator?] No GA! No GA! No GA!

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[Female Occupier] Yo, this is like modern day Rome right now; this is like fucking Parliament;

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you guys are not doing anything special; you're just crying. If you're not going to listen to each other, you're just crying!

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[Male Occupier] Stop following him. Get in a circle, please! Get in a circle! Ignore him! Let him be; he'll get tired!

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[Anarchist Infiltrator?] Love your future leaders,

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your new tyrants and dictators shall be benevolent; check them out in action. They're rad. They're totally awesome.

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[Male Occupier] You're going to bring the LAPD down here right now. Why don't you calm down? Calm down!

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[Male Occupier] Get back in the circle, please, please, get back in, get back in the circle!

[Male Occupier] Return to the circle; find your hearts there.

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The Perils of Consensus, by Tara Carreon


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[Anarchist/Infiltrator] This is what's wrong with the open forum.

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Mic check!

[Male Occupier] Don't follow the rabbit. Please return to your seats.

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[Male Occupier] There is no growing up in this, the time is now!

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[Anarchist/Infiltrator] You don't know what the time is; you don't know how many occupations there are; you have no clue.

[Male] Is this the end of the movement?

[Male Occupier] No brother, this is the movement.

November 19, 2011

GA discussion: Leadership

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[Male Occupier] This is a leaderless movement. How do the people in this movement feel about leaders? Are they important? Are they necessary? We ask you to break out into groups of about 7 or 8 and discuss the topic. Select a spokesperson, send them over to a stacker, stackers raise your hands.

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[TJ] Excuse me, my name is TJ. I feel that we’re all leaders. We don’t necessarily need 4 or 5, 10 people leading us anywhere. Because that’s how we got into this situation right now because of the leaders that were supposed to be for the people are not for the people. So I totally say, “Fuck leaders.” Be a leader your own self.

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[Female Occupier] The problem with leadership right now is not that we have leaders, it’s the influence on the leaders. And the influence on the leaders is big money. So leadership in itself is good. I think it’s important to have a spokesperson for the people. As long as there is no ego investment or monetary investment, then the leaders have no reason to not represent the people. So I do believe in leadership that is truly representative and rotates out, and is viewed as a community service that you don’t necessarily get paid a stupid amount for.

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Occupy Tucson: Where is Your Head?, by Tara Carreon


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[Anthony] The non-violence statement says that we are a movement of leaders, okay? So that means we all have collective responsibility to work for the betterment of the movement. And that doesn’t just mean taking it upon yourself and doing autonomous action whenever you feel that’s necessary. That means openly bringing it up to everybody, teaching people, taking responsibility for your actions, and promoting the collective leadership. Okay? As a movement of leaders we can’t all just say everything and then have it happen, okay? We have to come together as a group and decide what’s best for everyone.

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[Colin] The role of leadership, whatever that means, entails a great deal of responsibility. And the responsibility is to the people who you lead. And the difference between a tyrant and a leader is a leader is concerned about those values, concerned about what their role represents to the people who are, I guess, followers. A tyrant is a person who imposes power from top down,

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and they are not a leader.

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[Female Occupier] If we’re going to have a leadership without having structures in place to protect people, we’re just building the same system. And that’s really what it is. And there are already people that are messing things up, and I think that we already know who they are. And it’s dangerous. It really is.

[Male Occupier] It’s about transparency of information, and the information that produces greed in the leadership. So the people who have that information aren’t going to give it because now they’re in a position of power, and they are unwilling to compromise in any way because they think that it compromises their meetings which are important to them.

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[Bilal] Leadership doesn’t necessarily mean being the boss, or having followers. Leadership means taking initiative and responsibility when something needs to be done. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Take the initiative and do it upon yourself. That should be the understanding of leadership, not bosses and followers.

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[John] I think there’s two different kinds of leadership. One is a kind of horizontal leadership that operates in the community on the ground, like the “keeping it real” committee. It’s a matter of touching base for a lot of people, bringing the people together to deal collectively with problems. There are needs if you’re talking to Oakland, or talking to the City, or whatever, the Fire Department or Health Department. You have to have a representative or a couple of representatives. And if you don’t like the way they perform, you just replace them. But they’re delegates, they are representatives.

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[Bilal] We are trying to create another world, a better world, so I think we need to talk, what is our definition? We define what a leader is. I like her idea of a rotating thing. If Martin Luther King came in here in this circle right now, he wouldn’t be a leader, right? He couldn’t lead us to shit, right? Malcolm X? My leader is Malcolm X, and I’d follow him to hell, right? But if we talk about leadership, let’s define what a leader is regarding what we’re trying to build here. And we’re creating a new type of leadership here. I think it’s a word that people get too hung up on. Like I said, I see things that have to be done, I organize things around here, and we get it done.

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[Tiffany] But if you don’t agree, and they are doing something in my name, that is the problem. In fact, that’s completely against what Occupy was set up for in the first place.

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[Female Occupier] My group felt that Occupy is a leaderless movement. The 1% relies upon leaders to assume control

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of the entire population. The 99% must work together to create a peaceful and just society.

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[Lawrence] Our group discussed the concept of vox populi, which means “voice of the people.” We do not have leaders that make decisions. Decisions are made by open source groups that anyone can participate in. A vox populi leader is a charismatic person to answer questions and to speak on behalf of vox populi. And they are constantly rotated.

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[Lucero] I just wanted to say that I was not elected by my group to speak to you right now, and the reason I’m speaking before you is to give you an example of what happens if I was to decide on my own that I was representing my group. So please keep that in mind when we talk about transparency and when we talk about having spokespeople that we all agree represent us to the police, or the city, and any other official.

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[Male Occupier] We believe that we are in a transitional period. The majority of us have come from a society that did not teach us to be leaders. We need to educate ourselves and others on how to be leaders. When we reach that point, we will all be spokespersons for the movement. We will all represent the needs and the goals of the movement. Thank you.
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Re: The Fall of Occupy LA, directed by Tony McGrath

Postby admin » Fri May 19, 2017 5:34 am

Part 2 of 2

November 21, 2011

[Narrator] The City Liaison Committee continued to meet with the powers that be. On Day 52, rumors of a “deal” led to an impromptu meeting on the West steps.

[Seraphime] Until we have arrived at a consensus among all of us, this is not something that we should be showing rough drafts of. Let us crystallize our plan of action first, and then let the media have at it.

[Male Occupier] Whoever wants to move it, they are not able to convince the group, this will end up being a public conversation.

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[Chase] Either way, we have to present all this information to the GA.

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[Jared] I want to open the floor to anyone who has a solution to this.

[Paul] We are already here. We have the information. We do not have an update. I really think we should have the meeting here.

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[Leo] Whatever information is to be given to us, it’s already public! Strategy though is different.

[Male Occupier] The LA Times reporter has left!

[Male Occupier] She’s right there, she’s right there, man! Right there by the pole!

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[Male Occupier] If the strategy and the report back are the same, are we to understand that the police are aware of our strategy?

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[Jim Lafferty, National Lawyers Guild] I think it’s important that the press not know what we’re thinking about until everybody at Occupy LA knows what we’re thinking. At the General Assembly, everybody will know what the press knows.

[Male Occupier] Can I get a temperature check on hearing a basic report back and then immediately breaking up this meeting? Obviously they want their lawn back.

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[Jim Lafferty, National Lawyers Guild] They know, and promptly so do our lawyers know, we can’t get around the damn camping laws. Nevertheless we said we’re not prepared to move unless something very sweet is on the table. For example, as in New York, which now has building space, we thought you might like to have 10,000 square feet of building space in Civic Plaza. We thought that some of you might like to grow vegetables on a couple of plots of vacant land. We thought that you would want to have some of the homeless that are with us have a place to stay. We thought you would also want to have a continued presence on City Hall lawn. So far, to our utter amazement, they’ve agreed with all of that. We’ve been very clear with them that even if this happens, our protests will not be diminished. They can expect to see us in the streets more than they’ve seen us in the streets so far! They must accept it as a reality because there we have the law on our side! When push finally comes to shove, we’re hoping to come back to you with their best offer. At that point my guess is some people will want to accept it, some people will not want to accept it. And nobody else in the country has done this. It will be unprecedented. You will have a chance to have a permanent movement, while everybody else is scrambling.

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[Jaredr] Jim, I for one am still unclear as to exactly what the report back was. If there is something that wasn’t reported back, please state those things. Such as, was there a date?

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[Jim Lafferty, National Lawyers Guild] I don’t think we need to worry about a particular date, but I do think we have to be conscious that we don’t have a lot of time to either accept the offer or not. It's not open-ended. In fact, what we did, we talked literally with the best civil liberty lawyers in the country and you simply cannot legally sleep overnight on City Hall lawn.

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[Jared] Mic check, mic check, mic check! We're getting into strategy, and that's what we said we weren't going to do here in public.

The General Assembly: an hour later

[Jim Lafferty, National Lawyers Guild] We have said to the City, “We do not represent you, we only are telling you what some of you have said to us that you want. The day is growing near when they will not allow this occupation to continue. And we won’t agree to nothing until and unless you have decided what you want to do.”

[Male Occupier] This building and its lease, will it be in a contract form?

[Mario] We have to see the lease to ensure that the rug isn’t pulled from underneath us.

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[Lucero/Fellow Traitor] I want to say that today is day 52! And I want to celebrate. At the same time I’m very disturbed. I’m feeling betrayed and confused, and I’m not exactly sure why. This is the first time that all these discussions/negotiations are coming to light. I don’t appreciate people appointing themselves to represent me, to represent us, without us selecting them. Because if the people are speaking on our behalf, we have a right to know what happened during those discussions and meetings. And my question is, “Who was in those meetings?”

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-- A Traitor Walks the Plank on Occupy Tucson’s Blundership Hallelujah!, by Tara Carreon
[Tara Carreon] I regret that I have but one Facebook identity to give to the cause of freedom.
OccupyTucsonNapsky’s slogans: (1) There’s no “I” in Team, (2) You’re either with us or against us, (3) The ends justify the means, (4) Better Red than dead, and (5) UNITY!

--The Revolution Business, report by Patrick A. Hafner, Alexander Steinbach


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[Jim Lafferty, National Lawyers Guild] [Very angry] I understand the question! I’ve identified myself, and I’m sure everybody else who was at those meetings would be proud to do the same,

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because nobody spoke for anybody at those meetings.

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And I resent the implication that we did!

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[Mario] I was at the meeting, and I remind people at the first GA I was appointed at that GA to be City Liaison.

[Female Infiltrator] 9/26!

[Mario] 9/26! I said no. But I was asked again. So I said okay. So I was there.

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[Scott] At the first meeting, I was there with Mario.

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And Jim Lafferty was there for the National Lawyers Guild, and two other people were there. At the next meeting there were six people there: Jim, myself, and Mario,

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and three other people. They were new people. At the next meeting, there were 12 people there. Today there was another meeting: Jim Lafferty was there, I was there, Mario was there, and 8 other people there.

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[Emily] Is this measure trying to get us to separate from the people and say, “We’re Occupy LA and not look for the best interest of the people?” When I was arrested, someone was telling them exactly what we were doing, and I don’t understand why.

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[Mario] I believe being here we’re just preaching to the choir! We are no longer a movement because we’re stagnant. We need to go out to the neighborhoods. We’ve been talking grandly about doing a general strike on May 1st, but let’s get real. We’re not going to do it by just talking to each other. We have to go to East LA; we have to go to South Central; we have to go to Long Beach; we have to go to San Fernando Valley; we have to go everywhere, and really organize a general strike. It’s not going to happen if we waste 90% of our time dealing with camp issues.

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[Kandist] For exactly how long has this discussion of the building, of the farmland, a home for the homeless been going on? And also, why is it now just being brought to the GA?

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[Bradley] Okay, the reason why you’re hearing about this today is because we didn’t have anything on paper. Anything before that was hearsay and pure speculation, and people let their imaginations run wild.

[Male Occupier] Why didn’t you and Mario talk about this?

[Bradley] I’m in the meeting –

[Crowd roaring]

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[Bradley] Mic check! Mic check! I was in the meeting -- two of them -- so I’m trying to put another face on this.

[Male Occupier] Why won’t Mario talk about this?

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[Mario] I was happy to answer, but Bradley wanted to answer.

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As Scott pointed out,

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we had five meetings. We didn’t have anything to bring back until we had something in writing.

[Female Occupier] You don’t expect us to believe this shit?!

[Mario] You know what, we thought until we get something in writing we can’t bring anything back. Because we were –

[Male Occupier] Who said you could negotiate for us?

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[Male Occupier] I wanted to thank Mario and the rest of the City Liaison Group for finally sharing with us a discussion, which I believe is actually a negotiation.

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Why has there not been any announcement regarding the future of the location of the general assembly meetings which should take place on these steps!

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[Male Occupier] You said the City basically says we have a deadline to be here, and they have offered us this building. Is that building going to be in place by the time we are told to move from here?

[Male Occupier Infiltrator] [Yelling] Yes!

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[Suzanne] Let’s first go into our hearts. I think everyone here wants the success of this movement. My question is that I don’t understand how anti-camping laws trump the First Amendment.

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[Jim Lafferty, National Lawyers Guild] The camping laws do not trump the First Amendment everywhere. But the camping laws do trump the First Amendment in certain locations. You have no right to occupy public space indefinitely to the exclusion of others who might wish to occupy. Like the farmers; like the boy scouts; like whoever the hell; like the 4 million people in Los Angeles who want to occupy.

November 22, 2011

Occupy LA Objectives and Demands Committee

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[Suzanne] Last night they brought forward a proposal that we should present to the GA that basically asks the GA to consent to a statement saying basically we were getting work done, to show what kind of work we had been doing as a committee, and included in that was the top demands.

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We agreed last night that having the top demands from the survey was premature, but that Chris still wanted to make a statement saying we had done work to show City Hall that we were getting work done that was in our First Amendment rights.

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[Chris] Evidence in the form of demands and objectives that were submitted in that statement, it really kind of lost its relevance.

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[Suzanne] That's what I thought we had talked about that we were going to look at it and talk about the value of bringing forward a statement to show the GA and the world that we had made all this progress. That's what I thought we could --

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[Matt] We don't want to, again, insinuate that hey, this is our final cut.

[Chris] Yeah.

[Matt] It's not our final cut, apparently.

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[Steve] Temperature check on that, I mean, I think we all have a consensus that after [inaudible]. Basically, I think that what we're doing here most of the time is an extremely valuable process, that it reflects a very important social phenomenon, and an important juncture in political development of our society and in our nation. It's happening in the encampment, but it's also happening here in a higher level, let's face it. I think that the process that we're engaged in is extremely valuable and often I've been hearing, "I wish we had videotaped that because that was so great!" You know? It's too bad more people haven't been in on this.

[Suzanne] so the proposal is?

[Steve] My proposal is that we have a series of public forums at a location such as USC which is really nearby in an academic environment, or some similar sort of environment, where certain issues or groups of issues, or demands if you want to call them, objectives are put on the table, where advocates of certain points of view on the issue can call witnesses of certain kinds, you know, whether academic or professional of some sort, to speak and be asked questions.

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[Matt] Is this an expansion of the demands and objectives committee, or is this an expansion of our occupation teach-in style?

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[Steve] We just discovered here that people aren't informed enough on some of the specific demands to really render an opinion. You know? You kind of got a bit of a sense of that like you were saying earlier.

[Matt] This requires educated individuals on issues that come and speak like you're talking about, and that sounds like a time period that has been reserved for individual types of demands, not necessarily the large process that we have been involved with at a granular level here.

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[Steve] I'm saying it would be more of an extension.

[Matt] A research committee outreach committee --

[Steve] We can talk about it some more, but I think it's a valuable idea.

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[Matt] Alright, I'll see ya'll then.

[Steve] Okay.

Raid

A raid is an offensive operation, usually small-scale, involving a penetration of hostile territory for a specific purpose other than seizing and holding terrain. It ends with a planned withdrawal upon completion of the assigned mission.

Raids are typically conducted to destroy enemy installations and facilities, capture or free prisoners, disrupt enemy command and control or support activities, divert enemy attention, or secure information. They are characterized by surprise and swift, precise, and bold action. Ideally, a raid force reaches its objective undetected, spends a minimum amount of time there, and executes an orderly and rapid withdrawal. A raid force requires mobility and speed. Depending on the mission and situation, helicopters are an effective means of mobility for raid forces.

The commander may conduct raids in the defense, as spoiling attacks to disrupt the enemy's preparations for attack; during delaying operations to further delay or disrupt the enemy; or in conjunction with other offensive operations, to confuse the enemy, divert his attention, or disrupt his operations. Raids conducted in conjunction with other tactical operations normally are controlled by the tactical commander in the area. If the raid is an independent operation carried out deep in enemy territory, a higher authority normally controls the operation. The raid force withdraws from the objective area after completing its mission and unless it is an infiltrator or stay-behind force, normally it will return to friendly lines. The route of withdrawal should be different from the route of advance when possible.

Raids normally require detailed planning, preparation, and special training. The last stage of training includes rehearsals on replicas of the objective area. The organization and composition of a raid force should be specially tailored to the specific mission.

-- Military Operations Under Special Conditions of Terrain and Weather, by I.M. Datz


[Narrator] On November 25, Mayor Villaraigosa called a press conference. He announced Occupy LA had until 12:01 a.m., November 28, to leave City Hall Park.

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[Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa] We're asking the participants in the Occupy LA encampment to begin to pack their belongings and to leave City Hall Park in an orderly manner. I'm proud of the fact that this has been a peaceful, nonviolent protest. It's been peaceful because we decided to do things differently in Los Angeles. We've not started each other down across barricades and barbed wire. From the start we've talked with one another and we've listened to each other.

[Male Occupier] You haven't talked to the General Assembly!

[Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa] I trust that we can manage the closure of City Hall Park in the same spirit of cooperation. And we've worked hard and we'll continue to work hard to ensure that this chapter will be known as the peaceful, nonviolent event that reminded our city of these essential truths: we cannot and must not neglect social justice.

November 25, 2011

[More feel-good nonsense by a bunch of nerd infiltrators]

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[Male Occupier] I am a student currently occupying our school

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with the success of 27 days!

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[Male Occupier] The greatest thing that has come out of this is that we have gotten away from our televisions, from our boxes, and come out into the streets and talked to one another.

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[Richard] This experience has changed me so much. I have grown so much.

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It's like the Grinch with his heart at the end of the movie when the heart gets three times bigger. That's what happened to me here

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because of all of you. And that has nothing to do with Wall Street, but it has to do with humanity. Instead of arresting us, they should be arresting and tearing down Monsanto's camp, Goldman Sachs' camp, all these people who are destroying the whole planet earth! We're just chilling, and they want to clean up this mess. But we are trying to clean up their fucking messes.

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[Evan] The system has got to die! You raid us, we multiply! The system has got to die! You raid us, we multiply! Yeah!

[Bradley] ... have our strategy blasted everywhere so we almost forced their hand to have them come tonight instead of Wednesday because we have the people --

[Female Occupier] I don't understand. What massive outreach?

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[Bradley] Well, if we respond to that and then start drafting something for Wednesday for massive outreach and make that plan, you know, whether it's real or not, make that plan publicized, they might think they may have a bigger crowd to contend with on Wednesday, so they might just want to get it over with tonight.

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[Old Lady] People are wondering how long can you stay here? And what is your message? Do you have a message?

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[Chris] We occupy because animals are a part of the 99%. We occupy because there are no jobs after college, just debt. We occupy because of the gross economic inequity of our times: there are no decent jobs and everyone should have the opportunity to make a decent living. We occupy because we have been inspired to learn to cooperate and work together and to build community! And finally we occupy to figure out how to share the abundance of this earth in a fair and sustainable way.

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[Jared] Again, this is directed specifically at Matt Szabo and Mayor Villaraigosa, and others who have expressed publicly that they do not understand how to talk to us.

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It is also addressed to any people who have had negotiations on our behalf without the consent of the general assembly.

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[Richard] Mic check! All I know is I haven’t checked my clock lately, but I know it is past 12:01 a.m. last night.

[Female Occupier] And we’re still here!

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[Cheryl] My concern is this is a statement, and I can’t see what that statement is. I see the proposal, crosses out and additions, I want to see what is going to be given to the officials!

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[Jared] Mic check! And I’ve offered to reread the statement in full exactly how it’s going to be delivered. Any individual who wishes to communicate on behalf of our movement, there are several methods to do this that we the people have consented upon.

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[Joel] This eliminates committees’ ability to do their job by making the facilitation committee

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the only conduit to have a discussion between the mayor and Occupy LA.

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[Female Occupier] No, that’s not true. Point of process! That’s all his proposal is, that proposal has already passed through GA.

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[Jared] Mic check! What she’s trying to say again, all this does is bullet point out already accepted and consented upon methods of communication with the general assembly. And it in no way curtains any individuals or committees from having any discussions with anyone they like. They just can’t do it on behalf of everyone.

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[Joel] I still have my hard block. Because what you just said is not clear in the wording of the proposal.

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[Mike] I agree with the proposal, but I don’t agree that we should agree that we should even talk to these people, they lied to us.

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[Cheryl] This is a statement that’s going to be given out. Before we approve it,

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it should be perfect.

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[Female Occupier] Consensus has been reached. I know it’s a long process but it’s amazing when it finally happens!

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Unity is Communism: Fuck, Yeah!, by Tara Carreon
-- The Fallacy of Collectivism, by Ludwig von Mises


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[Narrator] The GA decided Occupy LA would have no more negotiations with City Hall.

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[Narrator] No demands were ever released by Occupy LA.

November 29, 2011

[Narrator] Just after midnight, LAPD raided and declared Occupy LA and unlawful assembly. Occupy LA was evicted. 292 people were arrested. By early 2014, internal divisions had torn apart what was left of Occupy LA. But some seeds had grown.
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