Occupy Denver: we are a leaderless, non-hierarchical movement, so do what we fucking tell you
After getting a little more interested in Occupy Denver over the last couple days, I made the mistake of stopping by their website. Giving myself a migraine as I attempted to create some kind of sense out of the text therein. My absolute favorite:
Occupy Denver is a leaderless, non-hierarchical movement, comprised of autonomous individuals. Occupy Denver does not condone or endorse the behaviors of any individual claiming membership to or affinity for our efforts, and especially disdains individuals who promote, incite, threaten, or resort to violence under any circumstance. Individuals promoting or resorting to violence of any form are explicitly not welcome at Occupy Denver and contradict entirely with the avowed core values of the movement. While the movement prides itself on maintaining public health and safety, and order within its ranks, Occupy Denver cannot control private citizens who choose to act against our sworn principles of nonviolence, and deeply regret their appearance alongside our tireless efforts.
This gets clarified somewhat in the comments:
As you probably know, even at #OccupyWallSt, there is an element that engaged in direct conflict with police (most recently, snatching the orange kettling net from NYPD officers and running through traffic on Broadway).
Unfortunately, these extremist opportunists inject themselves into contexts created by kind, fair-minded people, and exploit those contexts to pursue their own rage-fueled agendas.
This is the kind of nonsense that doesn't really warrant comment, so I'll just try to sum it up: "Occupy Denver is a leaderless, non-heirarchical movement. But if you believe in a diversity of tactics which may not include, say, letting your ass get stomped into a puddle without resisting, then you're an extremist pursuing a rage-fueled agenda, whom we disdain. And being kind, fair-minded people — unlike you — we will expel your ass."
I'll be clear here. If a cop starts beating on you, I think it's probably best to seriously weigh the consequences of taking a swing back. It probably ain't gonna turn out real well for you unless you have a number of equally committed folks with you ready to jump into the fray. It's not something I recommend doing lightly.
But that's a pragmatic consideration, not an ethical stance. There is absolutely no ethical purity in letting yourself getting beaten brainless without lifting a finger to stop it.
By way of example, I would never demand that kind of lay-still-and-take-it horseshit from, say, an LGBT person being pounded to death on a backroad in Wyoming. Nor, say, of a woman attempting to resist rape. To do so would be a completely unethical demand. That doesn't change when the folks doing the beatings are state-employed.
Which leads me to this. We're lucky in Denver to have an incredible resource when it comes to defending yourself against police violence. The folks at Gumm Mixed Martial Arts are offering a seminar on Self-Defense for Activists. If you're gonna be doing this activism shit, there's nothing I'd recommend more.
