OccupySacto.org

I made this suggestion at the Occupy Oakland Forum. Part of the problem with many police departments is that many of their officers reside outside the areas they work in which means they don't particularly have any vested interest in the community per se. If more officers actually resided within Sacramento then perhaps there would be a greater understanding between protesters and law enforcement and less confrontation. As such, I want to suggest that measures be introduced before the city council that requires Sacramento officers to in the least have to reside within the county and more preferably within the city itself.
Along these same lines, I'd also like to see university police departments disbanded in favor of private security.

Eric, You have good ideas.
I wonder if you could expand discussion of the police further? That they don't live where they work is a good point, though I'm sure some do. And yes, police on a college campus is absurd. I could only fully defend such a statement by a different approach though. Education is quintessentially the "nonviolent" way of getting things done. I've had long experience with Sac State's police and rotc mentality. The school is plagued by it. Still I would like to give Sac State some credit, especially their library.

However the whole kiten-caboodle of how Occupy relates to police needs to be revamped. I think Occupy started as a totally novel event no one could have predicted. As Jitendra Darling said on occupycafe.org in reference to the interactions between Occupiers and the police, "One of the most extraordinary things about emergence is that it's governed by events of extreme novelty...that is, events so new and different, you can't imagine them...our solution is sitting right here. It's just not in focus...yet."

When he says our solution is right here and its not in focus, that mimics the discussion at OcSac's farm where OcSac's Foreclosure Working Group has drawn a bit of a line in the sand. Foreclosures is planning to win that case against the bank. The question was, if we had made progress? It was remarked that we woke people up but they are still rubbing their eyes. And that was in discussion with SeanT, who as we know has a decided relationship with the police.

My introduction to how we can learn to relate to the police differently starts by me saying that I emailed Officer Valdez when Joe was in the tree and proposed to him that "Occupy can't succeed without police help." We have veteran Occupier's who deal with the police on many levels. I've spoken to them, to arrestees, to the police, and have considered this from many angles. I want to avoid saying: what the police are, and what they do, and how can we react? I want to talk about what we can proactively do so that the authorities and police are on our side!

Yet there is deep ideology rigidly held that says we must have class warfare. Such opinions include extreme remarks about what must -- but what in fact simply can't -- be done, regarding capitalism and other isms.

I have tried to explain that -- as Brother Carter says, "we don't complain, we explain". So if some rigid positions could be loosened, and if there were no more secrets or private meetings held. Why can't people do the opposite of what Nicky said that they do? In the discussion at the farm she said, and she was referring to OcSac's dedicated Occupiers at GAs who try but fail, because, "People don't want to do things if they're not done the way they would do things". Such is a tweedle-dee way of seeing things. In that discussion it was noted that SeanT supported Anne's idea to thank a City Council member for supporting women, even though most people at the GA didn't want their name associated with the thank-you, because, "It was not the way they would do it".

So SeanT has learned a lot as we all have and we might still learn a whole lot more. As Mariah said and Nicky agreed that "we know a lot today, more than before". So my idea is that Occupy knows how to deal with authorities and the police and once we start doing things, even if they aren't "the way we (personally) would do them", once we start cooperating, we can win. There are influential people in OcSac who distrust people who "deal with police on many levels". That distrust needs to become trust.

To understand the full breadth and depth of what we have learned and now know, that makes our prospects good today, as well as to discern the direction of our further learning, I continue to argue that we must look to the work of women and of Karl Marx. As to the former its not a case of "women's rights" somehow being bad for men, or that we are quote "equal". Quite the contrary. As for the later, its not a case of irredeemable class conflict. Quite the contrary.

We've passed beyond The People's Mic. We're allowing free flowing discussions at GAs. Black, Indigenous, and women leaders are succeeding in Occupy. So let's buckle down and get the job done. Let's envision ending foreclosures. Let's plan for our events leading to May Day. March 3rd preconference? March 23 gathering of environmental Earth tribes at the Capitol. March 24 UOC conference with Sacramento Neighborhood Groups. April 10 foreclosure standoff in Superior Court. April 23 Earth Day. And May 1 May Day.

Secretive people and meddlers, come out of your closets. Anal people, loosen up. You have nothing to lose but your chains. Let's do it the best way, or the way that will win, even its not the way we had originally thought of it. I will repeat. We can not succeed without the police on our side. And the authorities only oppose us because of what we do proactively, or fail to do proactively. Failure can't be blamed on capitalism, or police, or greed, or anything, except ourselves.

Anon201025 makes threats. Matt Darcey knows that I befriended him and I still think he can be an asset.

We will control the police if we control ourselves. They will help us accomplish what we need to accomplish. That a police informer infiltrates us is not at all surprising, only its good that we know who he is. Perhaps those who work with him will learn. Our chief job is to teach. We don't complain, we explain. OcSac's GA has made very slow progress. The future can still be won. Secret meddlers already have and can continue to hurt us more than a police informer we know about can. Notice though that that's who David Keane works through. Anon201025's fears as well as Darcey's "asking me to leave the GA" both consist of ignorance. The Democratic Party and some Labor Unions (not the rank and file) don't want us to succeed. They are who benefit from informers and other weaknesses. We are doing what the Green Party did and probably still does. We refuse to learn feminist and womanist theory. Perhaps we'll learn. The people that I said were duped haven't defended David Keane. Get with it Matt!