Left Behind by the Revolution (in Berkeley) T_T

[daredtowork]

Tonight I tried to join the protest/march in Berkeley. I wanted to show my support against police violence, against a racist/classist society in general, and I also wanted to be a witness in case there was more police violence.

However, as a disabled person with mobility issues, I had trouble keeping up with the protest. At each leg of the protest I would start out near the front, but eventually fall 4-5 blocks behind. By the time I caught up to the location where the main group paused, they were ready to move on again. I was trying so hard to keep up, I'm in pretty epic pain right now, and it may take me as long as a week to recover.

At around 8pm, after 4 "catch ups", I finally lost the protest all together. I gave up and made my way home.

I wasn't the only one who was left behind by the speed of the protest. There were many stragglers who just gave up along the way. I saw one couple asking people randomly where the protest was. Another person was dejectedly dragging their sign. The most important "photo moment" of the night (if only I had a cell phone camera!) was of an old man with a cane/walking stick who had fallen as far behind as I had. Because we had lost the buffer of the crowd, cars were edging back in to the street. Here was this old man with his cane in the middle of the street grouching at the cars trying to take back the road from him while he was trying to protest!

I'm not sure why these protests have to move so fast. The same thing happened at Occupy Oakland a couple of years ago - I gave up after trying on two separate days. Are the leaders not aware that older and disabled people want to protest just as badly as they do? It seems to me that they would benefit from gathering as much headcount as possible, but instead the people who can't keep up peel off, give up, and go home.

If a protest wants to include these people, they will have a guided "slow group" - and they might have some emergency measures just for them like fold-out chairs and bottled water.

In this case, I want to make a general point rather than a complaint because I'm not sure I *was* wanted at this protest. There was some discussion ahead of time (though it may have been culture jamming to dilute participation in the protest) of whether "white liberal" Berkeley was hijacking #blacklivesmatter from more authentic protests in Oakland. Also, Berkeley is simmering with its own social issues right now, so a lot of the joiners will be hoping for a broader movement of social change, not just showing their support re: Ferguson. Do the organizers of the protest want that broader sentiment? I'm not sure: perhaps the reason the protest moved so fast as it marched toward Oakland is it wanted to shake off Berkeley and what they probably consider to be its privileged problems.

Well whatever happens with the revolution tonight, I won't be part of it. I'm pretty depressed about that. All I can report is that there were no black bloc shenanigans (though I did see guys with their faces covered) and no tear gas as of 8pm. I only saw one police officer the whole time, and she politely asked a disabled friend of mine if he needed help with a steep curb cut.

*Actually I may have also seen some undercover police officers. In my "Anarchists" thread someone posted a Youtube video of Oakland police officers caught participating in a march wearing hoodies and generally looking like skateboard dudes. I could swear I saw one of those same guys tonight. Perhaps that's why I didn't see any *uniformed* police officers...

UPDATE: Apparently some people are using the protest as an excuse for mayhem. A guy was hit in the head with a hammer for trying to stop some "demonstrators" from vandalizing Radio Shack. I was actually passing by when the ambulance was there, though I didn't know this was related to the protests. The reason why I didn't know this was related was the protest was FAR AWAY from this incident. At that minute, I knew from a bus radio, the protest was at Ashby (not sure of the cross street) - a good 10 blocks away. These guys were possibly just thieves pretending to be "demonstrators".

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/12/07/ferguson-garner-protesters-take-to-streets-of-berkeley-for-second-night-running/

[truedelphi]

1. Also one of the most important reasons why protesters should NEVER be rushed -

it sounds likethe protest you were attempting to be part of ws rather small.

But back in Jan and Feb 1991, when we had over 700,000 people on the streets of San Francisco to protest Iraq War One, there was also a move to rush the proteters. Myself and several others met with some of the parade moniters and got them to slow it down.

When the streets are filled to overflow with people, rushing people means that you can actually cause a stampede situation. Then there would be a loss of life that could number in the tens or even hundreds of deaths.

For decades, the media has presented those crowds that cause fatalities as the result of a stampede as being so greedy in order that they get a good spot at a concert or whatever. But in actuality, what causes a stampede has to do with people on the edges of a crowd pushing in just a marginal amount, and then further in, the amount of pressure lifts the people at the center of the crowd off their feet, and can cause them to fall tot he ground, where they can be trampled. And meanwhile, if ushers or parade marshalls, who are certainly not in the middle of a crowd, then they keep encouraging people to "Move, move move!" and that means people are blindly pressing forward, and those people don't even realize the damage they are doing, as the trampling could be happening quite a distance from those doing the small marginal bits of pushing.

[daredtowork]

2. I don't understand why they have to move so fast

Does it have something to do with trying to outrun police interventions?

If they just want to maximize the appearance of the "energy of the young", couldn't they stop every block for a chant to let people who use canes and such catch up?

[truedelphi]

3. THE only logical explanation I have ever heard about hurrying a crowd has to

Do with some group that has gone to the trouble of getting a permit for the protest, and maybe the permit outlines a specific set of hours? Even then, as far as I am concerned, too bad if protesters are on the street for a longer time than a permit states.

It sounds like there isn't a way to utilize your tremendous energies effectively by being out there protesting. I am in the same situation, as I don't have the economic means to travel into a city to protest, and also I am now at a point in my life where I wouldn't feel safe. (For the same reasons as you are describing.)

You might look for some group whose goals are the same as yours and where you can do some effective work. My solution was to join up with a group locally that is doing some Community Rights organizing, and that has given me an adequate outlet. (And who knows, maybe I am changing things?)

Of course,the internet might also give you the means to find out who organized this weekend's Berkeley protest, and then you could try and get together with them and present the ideas you expressed here. I think they are fine ideas, but I don't know who you should be contacting.

[daredtowork]

8. I think they were just walking fast

Berkeley is a small city - the protest was only around 400 people, so there wasn't a "long tail" following the lead group. The leaders were probably mostly students: young, energetic, fast walkers!

[marym625]

4. I'm so sorry.

I have heard on many livestreams, people trying to slow the protests down. Maybe it's adrenaline?

It's very disheartening to hear that others didn't try to help you all out.

How wonderful that you went and tried so hard. I wish I were out there and could help.

[daredtowork]

6. Well I was by myself

There were other people who were being helped, but they couldn't catch up, either. Several got lost at the same point I did (at the stretch on Shattuck after the stop in front of City Hall).

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because the "vibe" that goes into a protest that you support should be entirely positive. I guess I just want demonstration organizers to know that IF they want the participation of the disabled and the elderly, there has to be some special provision for their inclusion. The speed of the protests is just way too fast.

I did try very hard - I really wanted to be there tonight. I was astounded that Berkeley Police would bring out batons and rubber bullets *before any vandalism had occurred* on Telegraph avenue last night - and I really wanted to be a witness for the truth if that scale of poor judgment was actually going on.

From what I can tell, once the protests do move out on the freeway, confrontations with the police are forced, and thus police violence WILL happen. There are claims "police started it", but it's really hard to tell once the protest moves out of the "peaceful" zone of the city and into the "wild west" zone of the freeway.

[marym625]

9. Are you on twitter?

Those leaders answer people. Maybe you can ask them if someone is willing to help out. Let them you know you're coming. I bet something can be worked out

[daredtowork]

10. No, I don't even own a cellphone

If I did, I would have gotten a pic of that guy with a cane stuck in the middle of traffic!

I just saw a comment on Berkeleyside that gives me pause for thought. The suggestion was that leading the protest out to the highway got it away from the commercial district - that way the vandals/looters would be overturning police cars and not taking their idiocy out on local businesses.

If that's the case, perhaps the "hurry" was about acknowledging these types were in the crowd and trying to get them out of Berkeley as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite quick enough, as the guy who got hit in the head with a hammer at Radio Shack stumbled across a group of trailing faux "anarchists". (10 blocks behind the actual protest...).

Well that's a positive spin on it, anyway.

Now apparently some of them are back in Berkeley and threatening to wreak havoc on Telegraph avenue - probably in symbolic retaliation for the police violence there last night.

I have to say, that was a real idiot move on the part of the Berkeley Police. You just gave them a pretext, guys!!!

[marym625]

11. yep. they did.

Maybe it's better you had to go home. It's bad out there.

It's not safe to be out there without a phone. Not there.

[daredtowork]

12. Yep, can hear the sirens since around 10pm

I was thinking I witnessed a peaceful protest, but perhaps I just missed the not-so-peaceful part. The helicopters are flying pretty low overhead again as well. My money is another night of vividly demonstrated "police violence" for all the country to see on Telegraph Avenue.

I have to say it again @Berkeley Police Department: You walked right into that one, guys. Fail.

This is not helping either in support of Ferguson or to promote social change in general. Bleh.

[marym625]

13. about the woman you saw

[daredtowork]

14. That occurred last night

What I saw tonight was the aftermath of the looting of Radioshack, where one of the fake "anarchists" reacted to a peaceful protester who attempted to stop him by hitting him in the head with a hammer. Different incidents.

I didn't see the actual incident, since I was still too far behind. I only got there after the ambulance had arrived and the guy was being bandaged up. The "anarchists" were long gone. I was there because there was a bus stop at the same location. The bus came almost immediately, so I mostly learned about this incident once I got home. When I got on the bus, the driver's radio announced the current location of the protest at Ashby - that's how I knew they were 10 blocks away.

[Kalidurga]

5. I have the same problem when protests start moving

I can only keep up for a couple blocks.

[daredtowork]

7. Maybe we can start a club :D

By the second block, I was straggling toward the end and by the third block I was among few outliers...then by the fourth block I was alone and the protest was somewhere far ahead. I couldn't even hear them anymore and had to guess where they were. I managed to guess correctly for downtown Berkeley, Berkeley Police Department, City Hall, and back to downtown. Then I just completely lost them on Shattuck. Sigh.

[Kalidurga]

15. That would be cool a sitting protest or a straggling one either way is cool

I don't mind being behind the pack. As long as I get to show up its good.

[daredtowork]

16. There would need to be a rallying point

The reason the sitting protest didn't work in Berkeley is that the route of the protest was unpredictable (probably wise if they were trying to evade the police), and the circuit was large - they were heading out to Oakland and the highway.

This was also the problem with Occupy when it started getting steered out to far flung points like the Port of Oakland. For relatively immobile people, it's better to have a central point, and for the protest to be moving around that point.

[Kalidurga]

17. Occupy Minnesota was lucky in that sense

The downtown area is relatively small so there isn't really a far flung point. Mostly the protest was around the Government Center, but I would have liked to go along for the protesting that was mobile. Mostly I didn't go on those because I could barely keep up when we sometimes went for coffee a few blocks away.