The Occupy Police Drama

Honey — and by Honey, I mean my blog subscribers — we need to talk.

I’ve been cheating on you with Daily Kos.

The last few days have been high drama.  I’ve kind of sort of met Anonymous.  I mean they say “Expect Us,” and I do, because I’m not completely stupid.  But you know, I kind of didn’t.  It was interesting. I even had to learn how to use Twitter a little.

I heard about an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement called “Occupy Police,” designed to bring sympathetic police officers into the fold with the accepting Occupiers.  Anyone who reads this blog knows that’s right up my alley, in fact it could be called my thesis statement.  They had a General Assembly on Twitter.  I quickly got up and running on Twitter to attend.

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UPDATE MAY 2012:  After much animosity between myself and Occupy Police, we were able to establish a line of communication and find a way to work together.  At this point I believe that the individuals in question simply had a good idea and launched it without researching it enough.  They didn’t understand public safety culture very well at that time and should have gone through Occupy Marines for leadership.

That being said, they have accepted feedback and altered course.  At this point I believe we are working toward common ends and I do support the work I see them doing now.

XO

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Below are my blogs on Daily Kos. I’m adding a few clarifications in brackets in case you’re Twitterly challenged like I am.

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#OCCUPY_POLICE IS A SCAM!

So I rearranged my schedule to attend the @Occupy_Police thing on Twitter. Confession:  I am one of the “tap tap is this thing on?” people.  But I believe I understand.  And I’m really, really pissed off.

I CANNOT ENDORSE  OCCUPYPOLICE AT THIS TIME

I RECOMMEND YOU DO NOT SEND MONEY

I RECOMMEND SERIOUS DISCUSSION WITH THE GA AT #OWS FROM WHOM THEY CLAIM SUPPORT

This is absolutely by, for, and about civilians.  They may have an officer involved.  But I am in no way convinced they have the positive intention of bringing police and civilians together.

I’m going to ask your forgiveness in advance if anything I say gives offense.  I know you are good people.  Please forgive my anger.  Believe it or not I did censor my response.  I am livid.  Please understand how painful this issue has been for me long before OWS started.  I cannot tolerate this.

I rearranged my schedule to attend their bullshit GA on Twitter. Which, as KenBee was nice enough to advise, doesn’t necessarily provide the kind of anonymity a lot of first responders would need to participate comfortably.

They showed up 7 minutes late for the meeting.  That’s cool if you’re a civilian.  It doesn’t happen in public safety.  Cultural misstep No. 2.  I tweeted that in my world, 14 minutes early for your shift is late.

The first cultural misstep was the hour before the GA started, I went to their FB page.  Which is covered in cop bashing posts.  Drowning in them, really.  A few cops came forward and mentioned hoping they don’t lose their jobs.  They did not participate in the GA.

I will actively discourage first responders AND OWS supporters from engaging with OccupyPolice.

I guess I should just copy and paste the tweets.

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police You have an awful lot of cop bashing on the facebook page

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis lol

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police that’s funny in what way?

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police If you want actual police to get on board you need to get serious. This right here isn’t gonna get it.

No reply for several minutes.

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police OK, so it’s pure and total bullshit. Check.

Occupy_Police
We have major additions coming to the site over the next few days as this takes off, PLS send your photos of police in solidarity w/people

Can I just say from my perspective, how little I give a shit about warm, fuzzy pictures?  That’s a civilian circle-jerk thing.  First responders need a much more gut level of support in this.  My teeth hurt right now, honest to God.

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police Your response to my concern about cop bashing was “LOL”. Funny in what way?

siggysour
@Occupy_Police As an actual cop follower, how many actual cops have come forward as followers and how many are hopefull civilians?

I counted him and one other.  And me, who got completely disrespected in this conversation.

I emailed him [siggysour] separately.  His email to me at the bottom.

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police I like the idea of this. But this is obviously by and for civilians.

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police @batman You people are not going to get any officers coming forward unless you pull your heads out of your asses

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police @batman I’m getting extremely pissed off and am about to go take a sloppy dump on this project on Daily Kos

At this point I saw another tweet where they were asking for donations.  There were several minute gaps in between all of these tweets.  In fairness, they may have posted the panhandle tweet out of sequence.  I’m not very good at Twitter.

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police YOU CAN’T ANSWER A FUCKING PARAMEDIC’S QUESTION BUT YOU CAN ASK FOR MONEY?

siggysour
@Occupy_Police Is there a way for cops support anonymously? Hard 4 some to openly support movement w civil disobedience feature.

[Emphasis added; the reason I highlight this is that this is the most obvious concern of any first responder who might want to participate, like a first thought.  Whoever is behind Occupy_Police has never considered this.  They have absolutely no business running this project.]

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis Your comment was about us being 14 minutes early to our mass tweet correct?

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police That was one issue. I note that you take no action about the cop bashing on your FB page. You reply “LOL” I reply WTF?

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis It is for both civilians and police

[The next comment refers to the fact that these idiots tweeted invitations to the meeting to every police department in the country, thinking in their infinite wisdom that the chiefs would all send their officers off to join the Occupation with a little kiss on the forehead.  Several agencies sat in on the meeting.  Surprisingly, they didn't post, just watched.]

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police did the officers advise you to get all the agencies watching? You understand that their personnel can’t participate now eh?

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police I am in the process of calling bullshit in the loudest possibly way on this project

@Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police @batman I’m getting extremely pissed off and am about to go take a sloppy dump on this project on Daily Kos

batman
@Xavier_onassis as will we at occupytheplanet.org, as it doesnt seem we can get a straight answer

[This is where it gets interesting; I realized Batman was feeling out their credentials at the same time I was.  What I did not realize, however, was that he was reporting from occupytheplanet.org, which is run by, um, Anonymous.]

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis What is your question?

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police SCROLL THE FUCK DOWN

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis REALLY! We will look into that on asap, we would not support something like that. May have been a mispost from iphone update

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police Stop taking money.

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis Please redirect you anger to about “lol” post to technology, it was an error for sure

SHIT LIKE THIS IS WHY THEY DON’T GIVE ME A TAZER.  Don’t tell me where to “redirect my anger.” Expletives deleted.

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis Your entitled to your opinion, we encourage people to speak their mind

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police @batman I’m not saying I’m going to donate. I’m saying this looks like a scam to me, and I’m not OK with it

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police @batman How much of this is being driven by officers right now? I sense ZERO

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police So, again, there’s an awful lot of cop bashing on your FB page. Plans about that? Please don’t LOL again, seriously

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis Who will pay for this? We are a small group of civilians and officers who’ve spent thousands already, in setting this up -

Cost of domain name:  $10
Web hosting:  $15/month
Facebook page:  Free
Graphics for logo:  Homemade
Twitter account:  Free

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police So you’re saying this is driven by actual police officers? Because it seems very civilian to me

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis This is the people’s movement and if neither police/people care for it, it will cease to exist

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police It’s not that people don’t care for it. it’s that you don’t seem to have the requisite cultural sensitivity

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis It’s ok if you don’t, but be aware that we have limited funding, we will be working with #OWS on this going forward

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police What about the cop bashing on your FB page? Plans to fix that or no?

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis @batman we’re a loose group of friends from Boston,

WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE PRICE OF CHICKEN?

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis @batman and as much as you wish they would show their faces, they won’t, and I don’t blame them

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis It was started by a civilian, it was my idea, i am not a cop, but the guy sitting on my couch is, and he’s not happy

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police @batman Those answers don’t make any sense for what I asked. Are you going to delete anti-cop posts on your FB pg?

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis Not sure what you are referring 2

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police OK. My suggestion? Put the cop on the mic. Because the way you’re running this aint getting it

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police OK, so now you’re just fucking with me

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis We don’t censor any of our pages, we’ve answered this question 3 times already

Occupy_Police Police For The 99%
@Xavier_onassis @batman we will not censor any of our pages

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police That’s the first answer I’ve seen. So you think that’s a smart way to engage police? There are no police involved in this

WARNING- PUT ON YOUR HIP BOOTS, BECAUSE THE BULLSHIT IS ABOUT TO GET REALLY DEEP

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis This isa network of both police & non-police, to fully endorse the actions of either would be bias & defeat our true purpose

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police So you don’t see a difference between “fully endorse” and “allow bashing”?

Occupy_Police
It’s after 9 and we have alot of work to get done if we’re gonna push this forward against the people like our blogger friends #OWS

Occupy_Police
A little bit about me before I go, I am an advocate for homeless people here in Boston, and we have sympathizers from #BPD nuff said

NUFF SAID?  DOES THAT RHYME WITH DISS-MISSED? Oh I just typed some really bad things, fortunately I deleted them before posting.

Occupy_Police
This is a little revolutionary, so we’ll take our time Historically, Police are the last to support change in a society

String of all capped obscenities deleted.

Occupy_Police
That being said, we will take our time, please don’t rush our officers into the “Heroic Limelight” if they’re not ready for it

Since we don’t have any.

Xavier_onassis
@Occupy_Police Hm, it kinda looks like you blocked me on Facebook. Not censoring?

Occupy_Police
@Xavier_onassis Why would we block you, we’re following you on twitter

Occupy_Police
We wanna thank @SiggySour for stepping forward tonight, he’s a Sargent with Daytona PD, please support him going forward

Yeah, let’s all give him a big happy ending for validating our bullshit.  He’s like our one black friend who doesn’t mind if we use the N word cause he knows we’re cool.

So wrong in sooooooooooo many ways.  I won’t even go into all the cultural nuance of what’s wrong with this picture.

I call for a general shutdown of this destructive, self-centered scam.

[My discussion with one of the two cops participating in this meeting, siggy.  The other one smelled a rat and bailed.]

XO:  Hey- I’m a paramedic, former firefighter, been blogging on progressive public safety issues.  Have a very bad feeling about Occupy Police. Please visit my blog.  I would love to network with other progressives in public safety.

Siggy:  Had a look at what you said and you’re spot on.  We can’t protest, we can’t disobey legal orders to make arrests.  We have to do our jobs.    We can have opinions though and express support for the ideals of a movement.  Even if I’m not going to hold up signs.

There are plenty of right wing politically active cops.  At some point us left wingers need to at least let our opinions be known.

At this point in my career and with the state of the nation, I’m not afraid of the legal battle if I get messed with over 1st Amendment rights.  I’m also lucky to have a rank, a positive reputation at the department, an existing understanding that I’m REALLY lib and a highly ethical chief.

Thanks for taking an interest though!

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I’m going to continue corresponding with him.

THE CURRENT OCCUPYPOLICE NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN AS A SCAM.

[End of first blog on the topic]

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Next day’s post:

ANONYMOUS HACKS OCCUPY_POLICE

As reported in my diary yesterday, “Occupy_Police” appears to be a scam organization.  The crude con requested donations and claimed having spent “thousands” getting the webpage, Facebook page and Twitter account up.

Claims of allegiance/support from blue shirts debunked by Xavier Onassis.

Claims of allegiance/support from occupytheplanet.org debunked by Mike.

Private message today in response to my demand that they cease and desist:

“these are good men here, who have finance issues 2″

Recently posted on @Occupy_Police’s Twitter feed:

Anon guy
@Occupy_Police I just supported your web site with a key logging virus & am collecting the IP addresses of your visitors as well. Good day.

Anon rep apparently arrogantly dismissed by feed’s owner as was this reporter.

Anon guy
@Occupy_Police Yes that’s a good one…Do you realize who anonymous is? #cabincr3w

Occupy_Police still tweeting about events in Oakland, however their website is  reportedly down at this time.

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They got taken down for a day.  Then they were back, thumbing their nose at me, thumbing their nose at Anonymous.  Thumbing your nose at me is child’s play.  There’s really nothing I can do about it.

Anonymous, on the other hand, I probably wouldn’t laugh in their faces.  But that’s just me.

So they kept on posting crazier and more inane stuff,intermittently asking for money and developing delusions of grandeur about ordering police chiefs around.  I honestly think they’re hardcore drug users, because some of the stuff they tweeted was insane and delusional. And yet people were flocking to it in droves, even a few police officers.

When I tried to warn people and asked them to stop forwarding OccupyPolice’s messages, they kept telling me that’s just my opinion, and wanting some validation other than the many obvious clues.  The new paradigm is going to be hard for a lot of folks to adjust to if they don’t learn to question everything, steady as they go.

OccupyPolice got hacked a few times, got it back together, back and forth.  I kept telling them to cease and desist, stop asking for money, stop disrupting my efforts to genuinely support the police who sympathize.

They started tweeting about how they’re being annoyed by “trolls.”  Seriously, I guess they were high if they think Anonymous are routine internet trolls, even after getting hacked repeatedly.

One woman following complained about “all this arguing and hacking isn’t productive.”  Which I thought was just kind of funny.

They got back on and tweeted out crazy stuff like this:

@ Officers afraid 2 lose their jobs: we will pay your salary 2 protect us if you step up for us, PROMISE

At that point Siggy apparently decided they were too crazy to bother with.  He still disagrees with me (and apparently Anonymous) that they’re actually in it for the money.  Anonymous told them more than once to stop asking for money or they were going to get it.  They said things like, “We have the funding we need for now, we’ll let you know when we need more.”  Were told again to stop.  Came back on later asking for more.  Judging by the things they said, I’m sure they went and bought drugs.  I am stunned by how long it took people to figure this out, even with assistance.

Then a series of messages:

brothers, Occupy_police is a scam and a fraud. We have an operation in place against them. AnarchZ in IRC

you have been warned enough. last chance to shut your fraud down or it will be shut for you. again. for good.

you are a fraud trying to profit, and also trying to sow discord and are being dealt with

you are a liar and a fraud. you are stealing money from legit occupations. we do not forgive, we do not forget.

Now all their crap is gone.  ::poof::

Thanks guys.

They didn’t do it for me, they did it because it was the right thing to do.  But I’m still extremely grateful.

Meanwhile, on Anon’s page, personal information of a bevy of Oakland police officers has been posted in retaliation for their savage attacks on peaceful protestors.

That’s a whole nother can of worms.