Occupy response

Cody Courtney

Eng. 102

Michael Benton

10/16/2011

Response to the occupy video.

                I had a mixture of feelings upon seeing the videos of the occupy movements that are taking place across the country. If I said that I was indifferent or didn’t care I would be lying because when I saw the videos of people being harassed and in some cases abused by the police I was angry. These people were and still are peacefully protesting what they and many others feel is a serious flaw in our society. The sheer numbers of protesters that have and still continue to pack Wall Street gives me a strange sense of pride. Americans have always been told they have a voice but that voice usually goes unheard unless spoken by an elected official. But these people are uniting as on and making their opinions heard. This clear example of our freedom of speech is simply stunning to me. Although I have not been a part of any of these movements I still feel proud that these people are standing up for what they believe in. With all the good that these movements represent some people would have you believe that these protesters are criminals that deserved to be punished. The police are abusing their power in order to try and shut down the movement. The cases of this I have seen are video footage from the Wall Street occupation. The police in the video are shown abusing their powers and the weapons that they are sworn to protect us with are being used as weapons to hurt innocent civilians. The one example that clearly sticks in my mind is where the policemen walk up randomly and sprays pepper spray into the faces of people with their backs turned and in no way doing anything illegal. This is something that can’t continue to happen. Like the video talked about the Rodney King beating, the majority of policemen have handled this protest situation professionally and treated people with respect. But there are some police officers like there always is that abuse their power. The story of the 700 people being arrested and having pepper spray applied to their eyes with q tips really got me angry. These people were not resisting or in any way attempting to harm the police. They simply sat down and interlocked their arms in a sign of solidarity. These people may have been causing problems and yes they probably should have moved when the police asked but the use of violence to this extreme measure was completely un-necessary. I have to admit that I have never been in any sort of social movement but this particular example is one that I find very interesting. I hope that the movement continues and that hopefully some change will come from this. It may not be the full change that people want but I think any sort of positive change should be counted as a win for these protesters because like their motto they are the 99% standing up to the 1%.