VIDEO about Police/PrisonsPeace/WarIndigenousDirect Action posted on November 8, 2011 by mike
VPD attacks Occupy, Extinguishes Ceremonial Fire, Assault Elders
Following Gregor Robertson, Suzanne Anton made talk of respect and acknowledgement of the Coast Salish people; the Musqueam and Squamish peoples; the VPD attacked violently the Sacred Fire of the Elders at the Occupy site. They came with fire department, and violently accomplished the putting out of the fire being peacefully defended.
A final cultural beat down by the armed wing of colonial culture. Shame on the VPD, shame on Vancouver city council, shame on Robertson and Anton.
Cultural oppression and denial of Charter rights is totally illegal in Canada. Violent attack on a cultural event isn't legally OK these days. VPD and Vancouver fucked right up tonight.
Search for more vid, it was streamed and shot by hundreds of people.
For those who think colonialism was a historical event...
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Comments
Hopefully, all the trash
Hopefully, all the trash talkers on twitter an FB can consider that we acted instinctfully to protect ourselves and others, and the fire that we identified with, as Sacred to the Elders and Firekeepers present, as symbolic of their spirit and survival and resistance.
We we're attacked, and now the VPD issues a statement that spins the situation to a new 'violent' and less 'collaborative' vibe, where they were attacked. Once again, video footage shows what happened, there are more high quality versions than shown in this video. Also once again police issue a spin statement, and once again 'allies' show scorn and verbal attack towards people who were together and acted according to their instincts.
The VPD has threatened immanent attack, and tried to frame it as protester violence. Saying "all 'legitimate protesters' should vacate. They obviously do not comprehend the nature of the social critique going on.
ALL 'legitimate' protesters to the street! Defend the people. Police violence is coming. Come out support humans above corporate, political, police state.
Anytime the First Nations people want to start a Sacred fire, support them. They deserve to celebrate their survival, and ongoing struggle. They are all of our Elders.
Maybe we need a bit more @ Sacred Fire like in Tdot.
B.T.S.
I was at the mayoral
I was at the mayoral candidates debate on homelessness and the occupy people were insanely obnoxious. Constantly interrupting everyone, including the homeless and aboriginal people who were asking the candidates questions at the end, and the inclusive pastor who had argued with the cops to let them in and was trying to get them to show the tiniest bit of respect.
They were chanting, screaming, and cutting off any form of communication and discourse in regards to solving the homelessness problem. The panelists were asking difficult questions in order for the candidates to produce real and concrete solutions and expectations on shelters and affordable housing, and the mob just yelled out inane rhetoric in an effort to prevent the candidates from answering under the spotlight.
Everyone single person in that room, regardless of political affiliation or cultural background, hated them by the end and vengefully expected them to get kicked out of tents the next day.
I went to the occupy march in Vancouver, and work in the downtown Eastside. There is no excuse for the level of intolerance and ignorant rudeness on the part of the occupy mob, they successfully alienated everyone from their movement and proved only that their hypocritical righteousness is the same fascist shit we'd expect from selfish rich people.
I take it nobody agrees with
I take it nobody agrees with the argument that the fire poses a legitimate safety risk? I mean, somebody DID die in the camp, and it doesn't seem implausible that a fire could rapidly spread in a tent city. I'm sure there are city bylaws about open fires in public areas, and simply because it is a sacred fire doesn't automatically allow you to break those bi-laws.
I don't personally think it
I don't personally think it was dangerous. It was not an 'open fire' it was in a barrel with holes punched in the bottom to facilitate burning without smoke or sparks, sitting on six inches of sand. Fire cannot 'spread rapidly' anywhere in a rainforest. Sparks don't light tarps or tents on fire, they just burn a little hole.
Obviously this was a huge and polarizing event! Hope the support for real change is still out there! It's feeling a little negative on this thread:) I guess it seems like the cops were right and we were wrong. I don't personally think so.
You were told no open fires, you're just asking for trouble.
It was made clear that there were to be no open flames at the protest. You are allowed to protest, but please, for your own safety and the safety of others, no open flames. So what do they decide to do? Host a fire ceremony.
When people are in clear and obvious violation of the rules that have been put forth to them in order to allow them to keep their position on the site and they blatantly disregard them then they deserve to have it shut down. When you know that what you are doing is not allowed to be done, how can you get mad because it was stopped? You cant. You may want to, but arguing your point is not only a waste of breathe it just goes to show that you were not willing to cooperate in the first place. People think that the police are being too violent, but if it were some other law being disobeyed that you agreed with you wouldbe on the side of the police.
Even if the ceremony was non violent and under control it still directly violated rules that had been made. Not agreeing with something does not make it okat to disobey. Society will not allow people to break rules just because it does not agree with their belief. If it did, there would be chaos.
Maybe instead of looking at what the city is doing wrong, look at what the people themselves are doing wrong. Your voice and opinion cannot be heard if you are voicing it in a way that are not recognized. The response of the fire getting shut down should be nothing short of expected.
Another view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuM-8lzj7bU
Note police brutality, assault, and the peaceful collective resistance of occupy
Give me a break. Cut the
Give me a break. Cut the dramatic bullshit and stop trying to create conflict. There was violence, but it wasn't all on the part of the police. Let's be clear, you guys broke the law by lighting this fire. It was a deliberate, stupid provacation, hiding behind religious freedom, and any violence that occurred was because you guys refused to stop breaking the law.
Could you stop acting like a bunch of fucking retards for 2 minutes? Do you really think you stand a chance of building a populist movement with this shit?
Stop your wanky, self-absorbed radical bullshit and start acting smart. I'm sick of radical fuckwits consistently hijacking movements and making dialogue impossible. Want a sacred fire... go light it someplace where there hasn't been a direct order from the fire department forbidding it due to safety reasons (tonnes of flamable tents, packed too closely together, with significant numbers of intoxicated or mentally ill individuals nearby)
Jesus panty sniffing christ guys. It's not that fucking hard to avoid constantly creating conflict. You just have to use that shit between your ears.
And cut out all this "elder" horseshit and analyse their actions as critically as you would anyone else. Just because they're old doesn't mean they aren't full of shit, or is that just White old folk?
"Also once again police issue
"Also once again police issue a spin statement, and once again 'allies' show scorn and verbal attack towards people who were together and acted according to their instincts."
Yeah, the cops are probably spinning it, but are you going to say that this "article" isn't spinning things? Come on. Look at that frothing headline. It reads about a billion times worse than anything you'd see on Fox news.
Allies are showing scorn because that's what you deserve. As you said yourself, these people acted on instinct, which means they stopped using their fucking brains, and that's the last thing we need right now.
As I mentioned in my last bitchy comment, if you want to build a populist movement, you need to come to the middle class, not spout anarchist bullshit and expect them to come to you.
On that note, I should probably be speaking all nice and reasonable here, but fuck it. The far left has once again fucked it up for everybody else with their blind pursuit of ideologies and I give up on trying to reason witgh you retards. If you can't even win the support of people who basically concur with the Occupy movement, how will you win anyone else?
Maybe eventually we can expect you to recognize how you keep failing over and over and over again to achieve anything through this sort of behavior, and smarten the fuck up.
I hope your plans are going well
sorry if you feel 'we' have hurt your populist movement. I don't think that's the case. I think that people are directing negativity towards the folks who were present.
So onwards and upwards hey? Hopefully your plans to organize your community are still moving forward.
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