It’s a sign of deeply damaged liberal thinking that I have to explain to the likes of Tommy Christopher and Keith Olbermann why the rapes and other crime associated with the Occupy matter. There’s no doubt that these crimes occurred (despite Olbermann’s initial blanket denials) and so now the lame defense is that somehow they just are random occurrences that have nothing to do with Occupy, really.
This is dangerous balderdash; the assaults of Occupy are directly related to the philosophy and organization of the Occupy movement, as a series of emails between Occupyiers about a rape at Occupy DC makes clear.
Tommy Christopher has a particularly contemptible article up on Mediaite right now, where he says…
Giving Olbermann the benefit of the doubt, based on his later tweets, he meant, respectively, that the sexual assaults reported at Occupy camps did not constitute a “wave,” and that those assaults could not fairly be characterized as “Occupy rape.” He went on to point out that the assailants were often outsiders, while the victims of the crimes were Occupy protesters. The counter-argument is that he was just back-stopping his earlier errors.
First, factually – it’s not true that the assailants were often outsiders. They weren’t and the fact that Christopher repeats this lie is disgusting. For the sake of Keith and Tommy’s ideologically warped perspectives, let’s be super clear about what the issue here is and what it is not.
It’s not just that assaults happened at Occupy encampments across the country. It’s not just that the assailants were member of Occupy. Are the victims of crime at Occupy also members of Occupy? Yes, of course. That’s true by definition – the crimes happened at Occupy, so the victims were at Occupy. One of the reasons that I’ve covered this story and made it public is out of concern for the victims. I’ve stated publicly a number of times – nobody deserves to be assaulted for attending a political protest.
Are people within the Occupy movement concerned about these crimes? Yes, of course – many of them are naturally concerned for their own safety and the safety of others. And we have reported that they are frustrated by Occupy’s response. The consensus process and security processes simply haven’t worked.
The issue is that the leftist ideas and organizing principles behind Occupy ARE the problem. These concepts and structures have CAUSED the problem and they make the situation dangerous for the victims.
A recent email exchange unearthed by citizen journalist Joe Brooks shows this clearly. Please take the time and read the whole thing– it’s all a conversation between radical activists and members of the Occupy movement. One them of recognizes that the far-left process in place for dealing with these problems simply is not working — something that Keith and Tommy are pretending isn’t the problem.
Listen to the frustration from activist Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture:
Need I remind people that a crime,perhaps a felony, happened in our movement on federal property against one of our sister/comrades? Please buy a clue from Wal-mart and take this unfortunate situation more seriously; having more “meetings” and “discussions”, etc., does not prove a person takes this situation seriously. While our movement does indeed need a “due process” process to handle conflicts, etc, this current situation jeopardizes our entire movement and its continued integrity and no one person should be allowed to “buy” their continued participation, no matter how much equipment and related supplies, tents, etc., they donate to this movement.
And the response? She’s pressured to shut up about it.
This IS a cover-up and it’s happened time and again in the Occupy movement; people are pressured by the group to keep their mouths shut.
At one point in the email exchange she says:
I want to make it very clear, I will continue to speak up, to speak out on this issue. I AM NOT AFRAID TO DO SO! I am not afraid to be called a sell-out, Uncle Thomasina, other nasty names, etc. Been there, done that. I will organize with others to crank up the needed social pressure for this young man to stay away, go get help and do all the things he supposedly agreed to do, but has chosen not to do
Yet Tommy Christopher wants to pretend there’s no cover-up because he didn’t hear anyone say the words “Hey, let’s COVER THIS UP!” That’s not the way social pressure works and Tommy knows it. Social pressure works in more insidious and subtle ways, such as by telling people “Hey, we’re just saying if you don’t WANT to tell the police you were assaulted, that’s okay, too.”
The anti-rape group RAINN advises:
We hope you will decide to report your attack to the police. While there’s no way to change what happened to you, you can seek justice while helping to stop it from happening to someone else.
Reporting to the police is the key to preventing sexual assault: every time we lock up a rapist, we’re preventing him or her from committing another attack. It’s the most effective tool that exists to prevent future rapes. In the end, though, whether or not to report is your decision to make.
RAINN also points out – correctly – that no victim should be pressured to report her crime to the police, but that was not Occupy’s point in any way. Occupy did not tell people “Reporting to the police is the key to preventing sexual assault” because Occupy is philosophically at odds with the police. They opposed police as a “security apparatus”. They want to make the police the enemy and portray the police as racist, sexist tools of the 1%.
But hey, no pressure there, right, Tommy?
Take note, Tommy and Keith: the problem here IS the process put forward by Occupy. This IS a problem for the Occupy movement because of their ideas; dumb ideas that you idolize. Stop burying your heads in the sand about it. Your ideological boot-licking has victims.
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