Taking Occupy LA forward

THE CITY was able to get its story about the eviction out to the media very effectively. The lasting story they've been able to tell is that the police were very restrained and did a very good job. As an arrestee, what was your experience?

THAT WAS a really interesting phenomenon. To begin with, it started with the city making a media pool, which really was, in many ways, illegal. That's something you can do for a Lakers game, when there's limited press passes, or in the event of a natural disaster or something like that--or even riots, because then you'd need to keep numbers down for safety reasons.

But this was, as promised, nonviolent on our part. There was no violence--it was civil disobedience. And then, of course, there were arrests of people who weren't planning on risking arrest and who were, in fact, dispersing. This violence was only violence against occupiers by the police. But it seems very strange to me from the get-go, there was this limit on who from the media was permitted to be present.

[LA Mayor Antonio] Villaraigosa and [LA Police Chief Charlie] Beck had this opportunity to have a press conference, where they were patting themselves on the back. And it was horrifying to me, because I was one of the last few arrested in the circle in the South Plaza. We saw Villaraigosa there, we saw him show up, and he's there in an LAPD jacket, talking to guys in suits and just sort of chatting and laughing.

When I was taken away, it took three or four policemen inflicting serious pain to my body, using pressure points, for me to release from the human chain. We were screaming out. I was crying for parts of that night, and Villaraigosa could just stand there and laugh and chitchat--and immediately afterwards pat himself on the back.

I heard from people that they were tackled and beaten. One of my friends in particular had been on his way to see one of the police officers he was familiar with from some of his work in the community, and he was told, "You need to leave. You should get out of here." My friend said "Okay," and started walking away, and another cop said "Get him!" Some cops tackled this guy and were like "Stop resisting, stop resisting." And he said, "I'm not resisting, I'm not resisting." I believe they broke his ribs.

What's horrifying to me is that what's in the papers is "Congrats to the LAPD, they did such a good job." They managed to get us out of there without pepper spraying us, without tear gassing us--but honestly, what they say is "nonviolence" is not our definition of "nonviolence." In our nonviolence pledge, we agree to refrain from carrying weapons, from assaulting any person and from destruction of property. That night, the LAPD engaged in all three of those activities, and we engaged in none of them.

And not only did the police carry their weapons, in some cases, they used them. Not only did they destroy property, they got the bomb squad trucks to run all over everybody's belongings. Not only did they assault people, they were putting pressure on people's eyeballs to get them to release.

I found out once I got to jail that one of my ears was bleeding. Then there was the man whose ribs may have been broken. I would not call it a "nonviolent eviction."

IT'S BEEN exciting seeing to see the different actions that have been happening, drawing people together and getting people excited about doing things together and trying to find ways to really push against the system. How do you think we get a lawmaker and his 1 percent backers to sign? How do we force them to change?

THE WAY that you do it is through popular pressure and popular support.

One of the things I always try to reiterate is we need this movement to win the actual support of the 99 percent of America. We really need the public on our side, because once we have that, there's political pressure. If there's very little pressure and somebody says, "Oh, I'd like to pass this thing," they're going to get a lot of pushback or it will be seen as jeopardizing to their political career.

But once you have immense public support, it's a no-brainer, because it's like, "Oh, everybody wants this passed." That's really what we need to continue to work toward. We're working on the issues that we can as far as trying to get the moratorium on home foreclosures and responsible banking.

I do think that's the other thing--to get it through at the city level first. It's not going to make a change for the whole country, but it's a place to start. That could help millions of Angelenos.

To go from there to the national level, it's about continuing to put political pressure and popular pressure on politicians and on the 1 percent--on the banks. It's about really working when we can carry out actions which escalate and which polarize the public in our favor.

I think that the evictions were a part of that. Whether or not you agree with the movement--even if you think that the Occupy movement is stupid--if you see a cop macing seated, peaceful student protesters with their heads bowed, you're going to have a visceral reaction. You're going to say that that's wrong--these people shouldn't be treated this way, and you're going to have some sympathy.

Let's hope it doesn't take continued police beatings to get sympathy and support, but that's why it's almost absurd to me that it's advantageous for the police and the powers that be to behave that way towards us. Particularly with the international support we've gotten as a result of both Amnesty International and the United Nations condemning the way the U.S. is allowing peaceful protesters to be treated.