Lawful and legal Occupation Movement Guidelines

[Sugar]

In order to prevent police violence and arrests of our Brother and Sister of Occupy Chicago, We must remain lawful , peaceful, non-violent, and educated. When we break the law, such as marching in the street without a permit to do so, it leaves us open to be arrested. Arrest is the LAST resort. It is not something to brag about, take pride in, or glorious. Anyone who is here in the interest of becoming arrested and wishes to push that agenda will not be in line with the ideals of Occupy Chicago’s peaceful

and lawful Occupy Movement.

 

1) In order to properly protect our Brothers and Sisters, before we engage in lawful and peaceful actions we must be prepared for the worst case scenario. Before actions take place, we must have in place, properly trained medical professionals and security on location both at HQ and while on an outreach march 24 hours a day.

2) Until all committees have provided the Tech team (specifically Andrew or Todd) with information on who their publisher will be AND a list of point people with a schedule as to who can be contacted at what times. We currently have general mail boxes for most committees; however, Tech needs to know where to send these emails. Without this, we are missing

opportunities to provide information and receive tools, both of ideas and supplies.

3) ALL actions must be approved at GA by vote.

4) All large scale actions by Occupy Chicago will be a “All hands on deck” situation where all security & safely personnel are present.

5) All marches will be done as a single group at a single starting point.

6) The “Buddy System” will be in place, even while marching.

7) Live Stream will be set-up and supported for 24 hours a day coverage so that we are in line with outside media and education for the world that is watching. It also provides documentation for all actions that may come against us. It is not only a PR tool and communication tool, it is crucial

to our protection.

8) Legal, Health, and Safety announcements will be done at every GA. This is to provide a clear understanding of the standard in which we have adopted as a Legal and Peaceful Occupation Movement. This allows for consistent and clear communication to the thousands to come. It will

act as a reminder of why we are here and who we care about. We are about transparency and communication, unlike the system that is failing us.

9) All actions by the Occupy Chicago Movement will be legal and peaceful.

10) All actions, taken by individuals or small groups, which are illegal and/or violent, are not those of

Occupy Chicago.

[ShyViolet]

I am not sure I can agree with the sweeping statement that occupy Chicago will never do anything illegal. I am all for peace and non-violence. But I strongly believe that without the civil disobedience component, this all amounts to nothing. If we stay polite and obey the cops all the time, we are nothing more than a group of kids having a daily parade in downtown Chicago. The establishment will have no reason whatsoever to listen to us. An effective movement has to make itself impossible to ignore. Where would we be today if the civil rights movement had vowed never to break the law and always to obey the cops?

With that said, any acts of civil disobedience have to be very carefully thought out, never reckless, and never violent.

Just my two cents.

[mattjohnson]

I think it's important that any intentionally unlawful actions should be thought out and heard by the GA.

 

That being said, I also think it's a big mistake to make a statement that OC is opposed to civil disobedience as a tool or tactic.  We seem to agree that this is a nonviolent movement, but peaceful and lawful are not the same thing.  It makes me very uncomfortable to see them sewn together like they are here.  

 

I feel that we should be smart and strategic, but let's not close the door to a powerful tactic.  Every day that people are out there occupying they are putting their bodies on the line, regardless of what we think is legal or not.

 

I feel that it would be shortsighted to think that not engaging in intentional lawbreaking will keep us safe from arrest.  Even if it did, nobody unwilling to take on the increased risk of arrest in any potential CD would need to.  

 

I'm curious as to what is precipitating this statement.  Why do you feel the need to have the possibility of intentional arrestable actions be taken off the table altogether?  

[Billy]

     I think it may be possible to combine what Sugar and ShyViolet said. Legal is truly a subjective term. If it were not we would not need judges and lawyers and cops would not be allowed discretion. Further there are different types of laws and different jurisdictions.

 

     Maybe we could pick and choose how we do civil disobedience to use it in highly grey areas or claim various jurisdictions or as to assert various types of law. The general idea would be to cause the administration to have to put it's self in a precarious legal situation of it's own by arresting us.

 

     What I'm saying is to me it would seem to make more sense to use getting arrested as a chess move than as a statement.

[arthurdent6]

With regards to your preamble...are you proposing that we should vote on whether or not we all agree with that statement?  And if we do, so what?  What would that mean, practically?

Almost parenthetically...personally I don't agree with the statement.  I think illegal actions could, under the right circumstances, be perfectly in line with the ideals of Occupy Chicago.  In fact, we're almost constantly doing things that are technically illegal, things we have been told are illegal, things the police has asked us not to do.  Whoops!  Am I not supposed to say that?  Better censor me for the good of the movement.  Get real here...we are breaking the law on LaSalle and Jackson RIGHT NOW and everyone knows it.  We are not a 100% legal movement.  There are shades of grey there.

With regards to proposal part (1).  We must do this and we must do that...again, what are you proposing?  What would it actually mean to vote yes on that point?  I could see adopting these guidelines as things that *should* be done, to help organizers plan events effectively in the future. But how can we vote on what things *will* be done in such vague terms?  How will these things be done?  Who will make sure they are done?

With regards to proposal part (2), I don't think it's a complete sentence, and I don't understand what you're even suggesting we should do.  One way or another I don't like that you should mention specific people in a proposal.

(3) agreed.  If the GA doesn't vote to do it as a group, how can we say we're doing it 'officially' as OC?  Is this not the case already?

In (4)-(6), if what you mean is that any official OC event should be organized and staffed as well as possibly to provide maximum safety and effectiveness, then of course I agree.  But how would voting yes on any or all of these change anything?

(7), if we were to vote yes on this, how exactly would the 24/7 livestream be accomplished?

(8) agreed.  We need a concise and consistent preamble to every meeting that addresses format, GA structure and procedures, and group safety concerns, including legal and political situations, of which everyone should be aware.  Personally I would also like to hear a concise mission and vision statement in that preamble to help us focus on why we're here and what we want to accomplish.  That said, I don't think you should be proposing this without the language of the announcement in hand.

(9) See above.  Not only do I not agree that this should be a firm guiding principle, but I'm again not clear on what it would mean for GA to vote 'yes' on a statement like this.

(10) After everything I've said, I think it's clear why I would prefer that any actions that are not approved by vote at GA are not those of OC.  But then that's already proposal (3).

[Sugar]

As I had talked about, there was an incident that happened that put my friend in needless direct harm because of lack of proper buddy system, lack of good communication of information to her, and did not have proper security for documention. It became even more personal to me and my trust with a lot of people got broken. I said that I was done and was leaving the movement. It was too hard. I was not that strong. I wrote a letter to address issues I saw that needed to be corrected so that we were in the best situation to deal with an arrest or violent situation coming to us. They asked me to read this letter at GA, but I did not feel like it was the right format. But in essence what was being asked was me talking about the problems I saw so that light could be put onto them and so that we could fix it. These proposals were addressing those things that should have been well in place by now.

 

After presenting it and listening to stack, I realized 2 things. 

1) My god this was just so emotional for me. As 99 told me, I am a mama duck watching her ducklings walk into traffic. I am not scared for me with getting hurt or arrested. I expect it. However, as a mama spirit and how deeply emotional this movement is to me, the only thing I know how to do it to prepare the best I can. And this proposal was really about asking for help to prepare.

2) It really needs to be broken down better and committees need to pull it together. But if nothing else, it gave the Security & Safety Committee the ability to talk to the topic and ask for help. They got 10 new members tonight. That is awesome! With that being said, and conversations that were had after, I will be working with a few people to better break this down and take out the stuff that committees are now getting help with, or soon will be.

 

I really appreciated all of the discussion on these things. I felt much better after sharing. If any of you have seen me talk before, you know that I am never shy or nervous. But tonight was a totally new emotion and I was not my normal shinny self. I was ready to walk out the door tonight if things were not getting into place. I found that really just sharing it was what I needed AND some good movement has already happened due to it. I thank everyone for dealing with the confusion. It was unintentional, but on a personal note, I feel better and I am so back with my Occupy Chicago family where I belong.

[Billy]

Sugar I respect your feeling on this. I understand that we need to develop better practices. I also understand this has been discussed and it seems here in the forum anyway decided that this is more of a procedural issue that needs to be developed than something to be voted on.

 

     I want to say something here to everyone and not just single you out. I understand how much we all love each other. This is an awesome movement with some really awesome people. I feel there needs to be a reality check brought to the situation though.

 

     Without going over the recent supreme court decisions and patriot act and it's ramifications we need to understand a few things. The Bill of Rights is no longer applicable. We have all seen our right to free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, freedom from unlawful search and seizure have all been violated repeatedly. A few years ago protesters in Chicago were pulled out of bed in the middle of the night and arrested by the FBI days later on trumped up charges. No knock raids are being issued nation wide for things like missed student loan payments. Jose Guerena had a swat team enter into his home, shot and kill him in front of his now widow and children. The case has been sealed by the courts there is no explanation as to what the search warrant was for. This could possibly be a hit on someone that knew too much or was suspected to become a whistle blower.

 

     We live in a police state. The fact that someone is not involved in any activist group does not protect them from that. If someone does not do something to stop that it most certainly will get even worse.

 

     We are here to stop that. We are here to reverse that. We are here to do so peaceably. I think it would be silly to look at the coverage of NYC and of the Pittsburgh and Toronto G8/G20 videos knowing that we have G8 coming in may and assume that we could do anything to guarantee that we will not wind up innocent victims of police abuse brutality or worse.

 

     I think what we are doing here and now is the best chance that anyone has to bring and end to these abuses in an entirely peaceful manner. Keep in mind that has not been the case thus far and there will most likely be more in the future. If we are vigilant we can make a better and more peaceful tomorrow and we can do so with relatively few incidents of abuse.

[ShyViolet]

I totally agree that we are a non violent movement. But I 100% DISAGREE with the idea of this proposal that we never do anything that breaks any laws, never disobey the police, always stay within the lines, avoid being arrested at all costs. I'm sorry but to me that is just bullshit, and it really makes me feel that we're never going to change a damn thing in this country. We're not out there for our own comfort and safety. We're fighting this fight so that our children and grandchildren can live in a country that is less fucked up. The only way that our movement has any chance of being effective is if business as usual is disrupted.