Our Brother Vince has some great perspective on why we are non violent. Please read.
Occupy Chicago
Nonviolence
25 September 2011
Addressing the Suggestion of Acts of Violence
By: Vincent
The purpose of this statement is to address an issue that will confront the Occupy Chicago movement from time to time and already has from the very beginning. This issue could potentially derail any progress made by the movement and dash its credibility very miserably. The suggestion of the use of violence is a serious threat to the survival of this movement and many people’s lives could be adversely affected.
Three main points can summarize this very clearly. First, if anyone comes to one of our assemblies and suggests that we shift the method of our resistance from peaceful occupation and free education to acts of violence or destruction, they are immediately putting us about one step away from possibly being indicted by the federal government—that one step being if anyone agrees with it, even in conversation—and they might have already incriminated themselves just by suggesting it.
Second, federal agents are well known to insert informants into nonviolent youth movements to lead on impressionable, good-willed activists to commit to acts of violence, leading to arrests and convictions. A well known example of this is the case of David McKay and Bradley Crowder, two activists in their early twenties who were led on and indoctrinated by a well known activist who had turned into an informant for the FBI, Brandon Darby. For over a year Darby built these young activists up psychologically and physically to wage violent resistance to government injustices while being an informant the entire time, carefully documenting all of their activities. At the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, after the first protests, they all went to Walmart and bought the ingredients for Molotov cocktails. After McKay and Crowder had fully assembled the devices, Darby recorded David McKay saying he would use them to attack police vehicles and that he was fine with killing or maiming an officer that might be inside a targeted vehicle. McKay and Crowder were arrested and after two trials McKay pled guilty instead of risking a longer sentence if Crowder testified against him. In 2009 Crowder was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison and McKay 48 months.
And now third, separate from these two legal reasons and highly above them in importance, is that this movement is a peaceful movement that hopes to build a broad base of support in the community and high level of credibility so that we are listened to, able to achieve the reforms we are seeking and respectfully raise awareness among the people. This movement seeks to reduce violence as much as humanly possible in our world by more closely aligning the actions of our democracy with the will of the people so we can determine our own destiny and make our defense and foreign policy decisions more honestly reflect the will of the American people. We are seeking to do this by demanding accountability for corporate greed and corruption, reforming campaign finance laws, closing tax loopholes and ending corporate personhood. Our means are totally peaceful and that is why we cannot be stopped or defeated, so long as we can retain sight of why we are doing this and maintain nonviolent discipline. We are here to preserve the freedom and peace we already have in this nation, and put more power in the hands of the people in an effort to expose those trying to usurp it from us. The surest way to threaten the freedom and peace for all American citizens and the entire world is by trying to incorporate acts of violence into this peaceful awakening movement. Any type of violent action would only give the governmental powers all the reason they need to repeal even more of our fundamental rights, and it would threaten the safety of everyone living in this country far more than it’s already threatened. We wish no violence upon anyone, and the last thing we want is to threaten our fellow countrymen with acts of war or terror. We are peaceful.
Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Chicago has modeled our style of protest from the examples made by the millions of brave people in the Middle East and North Africa who are determinedly and peacefully standing up to government massacres and torture in the name of freedom, equality, justice and democracy. All throughout they have remained superior to their adversaries by continuing to resist peacefully, even after being arrested and tortured by regime forces, the same people return to the streets and continue to resist peacefully until their tyrants either step down or fall. This is because it is very obvious for the people in these situations that peaceful resistance has the regimes totally scared and the people unafraid. The people are growing stronger and stronger as their tyrants continually grow weaker and further lose their grip on the people. These peaceful protesters are truly inspiring and will remain in history as perhaps one of the most astonishing examples of human courage and sacrifice. They shout it loud in the streets and more and more of the world is hearing it, “Salmiya! Salmiya!” Peaceful! Peaceful!
We could not have chosen a much better example to follow—in Egypt, hundreds of thousands of people spontaneously flooded the streets and they all knew they must be peaceful in order to be successful and keep violence as subdued as possible. They took to the streets and defended themselves with stones against police that were firing live ammunition and thugs wielding swords. When groups of police were separated in the protests, protesters formed human chains around them to keep them safe from anyone who might hurt them. They bravely defended themselves when their lives were in direct danger, and they were careful to cause very little damage to property. They were going up against a brutal regime, and because they hated the regime’s violent and corrupt practices, they refused to stoop that low and instead they showed their oppressors the example of how they wished to be treated. In doing so, they got most of the world’s support and were able to keep the pressure on Mubarak until he stepped down. Their struggle continues and they have made incredible strides, everyone vastly agreeing that they must remain peaceful.
Peaceful determined action cannot be subverted by violent oppression. They would need us to get violent to subvert us, and we are out here because we have a love for peace and all people. To anyone suggesting we resort to any type of violence or intimidation through threats of violence, this has no place in our movement whatsoever. Do not try to promote or incite any type of violence. It will be handled very seriously because we don’t want it around us, we don’t want it in our country or any other country. The success of this movement is in our ability to stay peaceful and persistent. This is not an opportunity for extremists to recruit us or for federal agents to entrap us. We have to look out for and protect each other from these threats and guard our movement diligently. Threats of violence should be taken seriously, they should not be tolerated in our movement and law enforcement should be made aware if there is a threat. The occupation of Chicago should continue peacefully, respectfully and promote national cohesion because it is in times like these that nations start to split, and that can be horrifying and something the people of this movement wish upon no one. There are already enough groups in this nation and world trying to stir enmity and create further polarization and hatred. Our movement is the opposite, trying to build national cohesion by reminding people—from the workers on the farms and in the factories, to corporate employees and politicians—that we all need to be here for each other as well as for ourselves, and no longer against each other. The best way to expose an absurd system is by remaining the most reasonable in the debate. We need to be vigilant for more threats like this as people adversarial to our causes are sure to attempt more subtle acts of sabotage and subversion. We will remain peaceful and reasonable.