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Thursday, May 24, 2012
What Does the Fight for Justice and Fairness Look Like?
by Brendan Bishop, published on October 19, 2011 at 11:25 AM
Storyline: Occupy Sacramento
Community Tags
big banks
cesar chavez
nonviolence
occupysac
occupy sacramento
politics
protests
wall street
My name is Brendan Bishop and I am 27 years old. I have no college debt, my house has not been foreclosed on and I have a job, but I too am part of the 99%. This movement is about everyone, not about me. I was born in San Francisco and have lived in Sacramento for 3 and ½ years. The Occupy Wall Street movement that is quickly spreading throughout the world and here in Sacramento has the potential to actually change the way Wall Street gamble’s our money. It is not that we hate corporations; the issue is that we do not like how they are unfairly treated as a person, with the same rights as a human being.
The media claims Occupy Wall Street is disorganized with no message, plan of action or direction but I beg to differ. The message is to end Wall Street and corporate greed. Wall Street got bailed out while the 99% got sold out. We are now carrying the burden. We are scrambling to find a living wage job all while corporate fat cats are receiving their bonuses and continue to 'scew' the American public. Wall Street must be regulated and Congress must pass legislation that truly stops the takeover of Main Street. I have heard some people say that this is a response to the Tea Party and is not a “movement” and that Occupy Wall Street is just a bunch of pot smoking crazy hippies whining that they don’t have any money and the rich do. I will have to say that this too is severely incorrect. I have seen more people at Occupy protests, around the country and world wearing business suits. The Occupy Wall Street movement is supported by nurses, unions, young graduate students, Vietnam War veterans, and small businessmen all demanding an end to corporate corruption and big bank bail outs.
Over 400 Sacramentans marched from Cesar Chavez Park on Saturday October 15th to the North steps of the Capitol. I did not see one news crew or Sacramento newspaper present. I noticed that the march did not pass any OPEN businesses including the downtown Wells Fargo branch. How are we going to get our message across (and that were organized with a clear message) if the news doesn’t report what is going on?
Myself along with 17 other non violent protesters made a conscious decision to remain in Cesar Chavez park because the first amendment does not stop when the sun goes down. At 12:25 AM, the riot police in their power and their might showed up to arrest us who were peacefully protesting at Cesar Chavez Park. What would the architect of community organizing say to this? Apparently sitting near the edge of the park chanting peacefully is considered a riot. We were charged with failing to disperse from an illegal assembly, aka a riot and for loitering at a park after hours. Since when was sitting in a park holding signs and chanting become a riot? I was not camping in the park. I was simply voicing my frustration and sitting in solidarity with the thousands of other protesters around the country and world.
The Sacramento police surrounded the entire park with riot police holding pellet guns and batons in hand. More than 30 cop cars, 2 paddy wagons and a dozen or so bike cops. Really? Is that necessary? Shouldn't the Sacramento police use their man power to actually potrol and PROTECT its citizens, not arrest them? I understand WHY there are ordinances that ban people from parks after dark. More crime occurs when the sun goes down, more drugs, rape, etc. But I would like to ask that the city reexamine this issue. I would like the city to try to understand the purpose of what we are doing. Can we come to an agreement? Is that possible Sacramento?
While in jail for almost 9 hours, I was treated like scum. I was told that we were wasting taxpayer dollars for our protesting in a PUBLIC park. How about Sacramento is wasting taxpayer dollars for thinking they need so much police presence? I was dehumanized all for the cry for help from our government and our elected representatives who are suppose to be looking after the well-being of their constituents. We voted in our city council and mayor, and if they will not up hold the Constitution, then we will easily without hesitation vote them out.
Sometimes the fight for justice is not pretty. Sometimes the fight for justice will send you to jail.
We all need to come together. We need to VOTE. We need to voice our opinions and frustrations both on the street and at the ballot box. It is easy to become disinterested in the political system, but we all need to realize that our demands will not be met by politicians who are bought out by Wall Street and the Big Banks. Our demands will not be met until they see we are not going to back down and we are not afraid to vote out any politician who fails to represent THEIR constituents. We have been pushed down hundreds of times throughout our history, but with people united, we have always gotten back up and fought even harder. Now is NOT the time to give up. Now is the time to push forward even harder for TRUE change; for fairness; for regulation of Wall Street, and most importantly to bring back the 99% of America (and the world).
Disclosure:
I personally was arrested on Saturday, October 15th during a peaceful protest in Cesar Chavez Park. I was exercising my first amendment right yet I was wrongfully arrested.
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In your post you talk about Wall Street getting bailed out and you talk about not being able to exercise your first amendment rights. Who is responsible for both of these transgressions? Government, of course.
How can we expect the very government that bailed out Wall Street to be the regulator of them? I'm sure you know that lobbyists control the regulators. The lobbyists are from Wall Street! So, of course any new regulations are going to written in a way that sound tough but are actually beneficial to the politicians donors. This is not a good solution.
Why is this dynamic even present to begin with? The answer is that the federal government has way too much power! If they did not have the power, the lobbyist problem would disappear overnight because there would be no incentive for companies to lobby the government.
I believe, when a company goes bankrupt, they should never, ever be bailed out. Those companies on Wall Street should have gone under. On the other hand, the federal government was responsible for many of the programs that provided incentive to Wall Street to package up all of these mortgage loans and then sell them to government backed entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. After all, if a company is guaranteed a profit by the government, all the risk is transferred to the taxpayer. This is what created the housing bubble along with the Federal Reserve manipulating interest rates for the credit boom and then bust.
If we had a constitutional federal government, the wrong economic policies would never have caused the artificial boom/bust, many wall street firms would have gone bankrupt and employment levels would be near their normal levels.
Do we really want to give more power to the federal government after they just sank us? I think it's time we revoke their power.
Regarding your call to action, lay out some specifics. Its been 3+ years since the Wall St fiasco, so there certainly is enough perspective and data available to be specific about the change that you want to see.
* Whom does Occupy Sacramento recommend that we vote for, or against?
* What specific Wall St regulations does Occupy Sacramento want to see?
* Which individuals on Wall St need to be prosecuted, and for what? (Name names)
* While you are at, provide the names and offenses of the politicians that enabled the Wall St corruption,
If you just continue yelling about not being able to hang out in a park between 12-5am and not about the real problems, more and more of your potential support base is just going to tune you out.
I do have some questions about the arrest. I had thought that staying in one place and "occupying" was an act of civil disobedience. In this case did you see yourself in those terms? It sounds like you had not intended to perform such an act of civil disobedience and were surprised by the arrest. Were there any warnings or an opportunity to go home without being arrested?
These are my questions out of pure curiosity. I simply don't know enough about your motives or the mindset of the local protesters and would love to hear more of your perspective on the events unfolding in our town.
If Joe paid Frank $100 to punch you in the stomach... who is the villian?
In this scenario - the Tea Party would blame Frank. The OWS would blame Joe.
The OWS has their priorities mixed up.
In order for you to remove the rights of a corporation, you would have to remove the rights of individiuals... because a corporation is just a group of individiuals(shareholders). If you want to restrict corporations, then also restrict the rights of: labor unions, clubs like Boys Scouts, or two guys standing on a street corner... because there is no difference between groups of people unless you want to violate the 1st Amendment whereby people are free to assemble & speak or act for common purpose. (But let's not pretend... the OWS movement is about socialism/communism and looting the wealthy. That's why they only talk about corporations & not unions)
Unions do not cause nearly as much problems and they only exist because of employers exploiting wages...wages have long leveled off while jobs have been going overseas, making for continued profits for employers for smaller and cheaper workforces, here in the US. This is why your analysis of corporations v unions, and OWS being communists because they want a sane system, does not make sense.
On socialism, its hilarious to see people make a big issue of it as if our nation has not been socialist for a very long time...people are 'fighting' socialism just because they think it is a bad word. There has always been socialism in varying degrees...and when you fight socialism, you are fighting things for the public good or benefit (like ANY government service). That means against public education, health, against police, fire, and medical emergency services, against regulations to make sure consumers and citizens are protected, and even against courts that enforce contracts. Those are all public services or goods and thus are socialist constructs. Socialism is not necessarily a bad thing, just because it is an 'ism' and because people associate it with all sorts of other things.
It focuses on labor and working wages, and the profits of companies, how things have progressed up to today.
Brendan Bishop is a political and policy research consultant.
Brendan has been with Jim Gonzalez and Associates since 2008. He has worked on various projects within the firm including lead organizer in Sacramento for Proposition 7, membership coordinator for the Renewable Energy Accountability Project and organizing the LGBT community in Las Vegas to re-elect Senator Harry Reid. Brendan brings his passion for social justice, public policy and equality as well as his experience in grassroots organizing to the firm.
http://www.jimgonzalez.com/clients.php
http://www.jimgonzalez.com/profiles.php
Sounds like a movie plot... Lobbyist by day, anti-lobbyist by night (except between the hours of 12-5a).
I wonder if his boss Mr. Gonzales knows that Brendan has been out in the park rallying against corporations (such as their very own client, multi-national conglomerate Sumitomo). Absolutely classic.
"When the majority of Americans can no longer effectively control the government because they can’t afford enough lobbyists, we no longer have a functioning democracy."
http://occupysac.com/?p=292
I actually am sympathetic to the Occupy movement. I love to see American free speech in action, and its great that the malfeasance on Wall St is getting attention again. But even with the little Sacramento movement its apparent that Democratic Party power politics and their lobbyists have already infested the proceedings.
Nothing wrong with the Democratic party and all, but I guess i had some hope this was something other than a watered down version of MoveOn.org.
I'd like to see this same level of scrutiny on the cozy relationships that seem to have formed between corporations and our leaders...particularly the defense and intelligence industries because they have signed up our nation for infinite war and infinite profits, while we squabble on how we are to fund day to day things at home.
Your college professors failed to explain the difference between capitalism and crony capitalism. Ask yourself -- Is the free market to blame, or is it that fact that it's not a truly free market?
No one can fault Wall Streeters for wanting to be bailed out for the awful decisions they made, but we can and should blame government for giving in to their wishes. That decision was completely immoral and unfair.
The root of the problem is politicians being paid off. The outrage of the Wall Street protesters is real but misguided and should be directed at a system that allows for undue influence of political leaders for the benefit of those who can afford them.
Watch as Occupy Wall Street gets co-opted by the Democratic Party. It’s already happening.
Hmmm....it is as if this administration and its allies in Congress needed something to draw attention away from them.
Or maybe I should drop the "it is as if".....
"system that allows for undue influence of political leaders for the benefit of those who can afford them." That I agree with totally and this means we need a better and more useful government. But only blaming it on government draws blame away from the groups that are fighting the changes, so this is why it is fair for OWS to keep anger on Wall Street and banks because they have been fighting reforms, not lending to those that need it, and have been proposing raising debt card fee's...interestingly people are fighting back and getting those groups to back off, from consumer efforts. I hope for some broader policy efforts to happen as well...I think this is beyond our 2 parties, people are very upset with our political system.
On a personal note, I have heard reports from friends who live near Cesar Chavez Plaza and have felt offended and inconvenienced by actions of some of those who have occupied the park. These friends are also among the 99% and have a right to their freedom to move around and through the park, get to sleep at a reasonable hour, breathe the air through their open windows. You do not speak for everyone.