It was only a matter of time before the protests over income inequality and corporate power in the United States provoked governmental violence. In Oakland, police cleared out an encampment with the use of tear gas and beanbag rounds. [1] In Atlanta, police wearing riot gear moved into an encampment and made more than 50 arrests.
On Sunday, more than 130 were arrested in Chicago for violation of a park curfew. [2] Among those arrested were were several volunteer nurses from National Nurses United, a national union of registered nurses, who had established a first aid station.
Meanwhile, 43 percent of Americans agree with the views of the Occupy Wall Street movement according to a new CBS/New York Times poll. [3] That amounts to a plurality, since 30 percent don’t know what their position is, and 27 percent disagree with the aims of the movement.
Public sympathies being what they are, politicians would ordinarily be rushing to get in front of the parade. But this is different. These protests are a direct challenge to the nation’s plutocracy, which owns most of the political class. Thus, we can expect a continuation of, or, perhaps, even an increase in, governmental violence as the protests continue.
It can be reasonably anticipated that the gap between public sentiment and the actions of government will widen. This, in turn, will make increasingly plain the extent to which American democracy has been tampered with.
The turning point will be when the police themselves come to the realization that they have been ordered to attack their own allies in the conflict. Conscientious law enforcement assumes a level of benignity in the making of policy.
But as the public becomes more and more sympathetic to the movement, and government reprisal becomes more and more aggressive, we will move closer to the point where the police will first question, then disobey, the orders they are given. Once the plutocracy loses the police, it will all be over.
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