Occupy San Diego lost its legitimacy

Hi there,

Im just wondering what happened? Why did the Occupy protesters call the police? Did you say "on each other"?

I, too, am curious what happened on the 8th.Who called the police, on whom, and under what pressures?

Ximena, while I feel your frustration with San Diego's Occupy movement, it's really bad practice to speak in such hyperbole. OSD might be weak, it might be toothless, and it might occassionally be hypocritical, but it most certainly is not a "branch of the Nazi Party" -- and nor is anyone else who simply calls the police for that matter.

-- EL13

I was at the Balboa Park meeting on September 8th.  Briefly, what happened was:  There were six people present - 3 older women, one older man, one middle-aged woman, and one middle-aged man.  The middle aged man began presenting his list of complaints about everyone else, in a loud manner such that other people in the park were staring at us.  He could not be quieted or made happy by anything anyone else said, and continued in what I would call a rant.  Finally, a total stranger (male) came over and told this man "you've had your say, now move on". He may have feared for our safety.  That gave us a few minutes peace and then it started again.  Two of us packed up our things and left, as nothing could be accomplished except looking foolish.  At that same time, the woman who had done her best to try to keep order finally decided to call the police.  In my view, she was entirely justified in doing so. 

You're illegitimate! Who's trying to be legitimate over here? I don't know what Occupy means to you, but to me, it means a bunch of people getting together without rules, expectations, or restrictions. Those people suffer many discomforts including police brutality or police bullying just because of their faith in the principle of people getting together and working towards improving their surroundings. They endure cold, rain, annoying little petty arguments. They even endure each other, sometimes even appreciate and come to love each other. Most importantly, we get shit done together and have fun doing it. The one practice I have found necessary to keep moving together as and when we choose is to try to respect each other and honor our differences as much as possible without judging each other as much as possible. Therefore, although I don't imagine that I'd need to call the cops on another occupier, I would never judge or have any expectations of another individual who chooses to endure so much to be there to do whatever he/she needs to do to feel safe and still participate. So label anything you want whatever you want. In the mean time, I'll hang out with all the cool individuals I met through Occupy who work together towards what we believe needs to be done.

At the time the police were called, one aggressive middle aged male was spitting at the feet of others, lunging hastily at a woman older than his mother, she felt threatened and she called the police. She felt her safety was in jeopardy and to our failure, we were not able to protect her. So she called the cops and let them deal with him. When your safety is at sake, I hope anyone would feel the freedom to autonomously act as they feel is necessary, and not one of us has any right to judge another for doing what they feel they must to be safe.