Occupy L.A. Now Allowed to Camp on City Hall Lawn: Why Are Politicians Sucking Up to Protesters?

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Occupying LaLa Land

--where theillusion meets the road

What happens when abunch of mostly white 20-somethings and a union dude hook up inmovietown to get solid with a New York protest? You get OccupyLA.

This is anoccupation by permission. Really. A couple hundred people campedout on the lawn of Los Angeles's City Hall after they got thepermission of the Los Angeles police. It took the union dude about24 hours to do it. In the better areas of LA, this counts asoccupying something. In the rest of town, you actually have to claimsome space in the name of the people and defy LAPD. But not for us. This is a LaLa Land occupation: an illusion wrapped up in a metaphor. A light image where something material and real is supposed to be.

No, not thatLAPD. Not the guys who swarmed MacArthur Park a few years ago on MayDay in full SWAT gear (we know SWAT, it started here) to drive outthe picnicking families. They knocked over some journalists on theirway to shoot beanbags at the kids. Not the same LAPD that routinelyconfiscates cars from people who don't have documentation in a towingfees/overtime scam that the victims have no power to defy. Not theLAPD that beat Rodney King and got away with it. Thismovie-version LAPD gave the LA occupiers permission to pitch ourtents on the lawn.

Of course, thewhole Occupy thing across the country is a metaphor that onlysometimes touches reality, like in New York on the Brooklyn Bridge ornow, as I write this, in Boston. Nowhere in the U.S. is this reallike in, say, Tunisia or Bahrain. But the whole, entire message, thedemands the media are demanding, are in the title: Occupy. We willtake the discursive space back. Make this whole, screwed up systemabout natural people, not the Supreme Court created Frankensteinmonster super people called corporations. Corporations eat peoplefor lunch. Corporations also eat justice, and education, andfutures—people's futures, not the Wall Street kind—for snacks.

But in L.A., themetaphor reaches a whole other level of disconnect. How this came tobe is as mysterious as the job of an key grip. From the earliestclusters of a couple hundred people imitating New York's GeneralAssembly in the nighttime glow of Pershing Square, there was never anunscripted choice. People wanted to sleep in the Square. Peoplewanted to occupy the Los Angeles Financial District (yes, we haveone). But the self-determined leaders of this leaderless movement(the people who set the agenda before the others arrived and had theanswers as soon as the questions were asked) brushed offalternatives: for reasons that were never made clear, it had to beCity Hall.

It bothered a fewpeople that City Hall is, well, not really the focus of the Occupymovement. It bothered a few more people that City Hall is rightacross the street from LAPD headquarters. Massive reflecting windowsin Parker Center frame a full-sized image of City Hall, and our localcops can lob tear gas on the campers without leaving home. LosAngeles City Hall is, no doubt, one of the most secure buildings inthe world. Very few people at OccupyLA seem much concerned withprivacy, though. They make us move our gear from one side of CityHall to another every few day. And LAPD can turn on the sprinklersystem whenever they want a giggle.

Tomorrow we'll goto City Council and ask them to bless the occupation. That makes ussomething more like house guests, but whatever. In the surreality ofour making, we're clear about our affiliations and allies: nopolitical parties, no advocacy groups, no unions. The only organizedgroup we'll ally with is Los Angeles City Council.

LACity Hall lawn is occupied by people who've been screwed by thesystem. For the most part we are young adults, under thirty, overtwenty. We grew up with Reagan's philosophy of trickle, thetwentieth-century permutation of noblesse oblige, the delusion thatthe wealthy will take care of the rest of us. We're waiting for ourtrickle down jobs while they were shipped overseas. Once we getthose, we'll trickle back into houses. We got our tricklingeducation and discovered we can't compete. We depended on the legalsystem for a trickle of justice and got state-sanctioned executionsof untried citizens and innocents. We trusted our money to trickledown bailouts that stalled with bankers' bonuses. We're holding ourbreath for a trickle health care from the insurance companies. Wewage trickling wars for no apparent reason, in what we've beenpromised is a world of endless, trickling wars. If we wait(/survive)long enough somebody will figure out how to save a trickle of ahabitable environment.

So here on the setin LA, we are camped on the City Hall lawn, and the scriptwriterstell us that if we're nice to the police, they'll be nice to us. When this started, we knew there would be affinity groups andsplinter groups, variations on the theme, but we are, well, the 99%. What we weren't told was that a people's Committee on PoliceBrutality would be summarily shut down in the GA and their personalcontact information spread around on a flyer and on the web. Nobodymentioned that the guy who spoke out against the police would be runoff. He isn't part of the 1%, but for sure he's not part of the 99%,as we're told to call ourselves. He's not anywhere, really, notanyone.

Race isn't in ourscript either. Not Black or Brown or Native American or white orAsian. We're all equal, and pay no attention to the inequalitieswe've lived through. We're the 99%. Not the bottom 40% or the middle55% or the nearly-the-1% remainder. You had bad experiences with thecops, or your family did, or your school did, or your neighborhooddid? Shhh... If we're not nice to the police...

We are nonviolent. There's talk about signing some sort of nonviolent pledge (with thesuggestion it would please the police). Nonviolence here meansavoiding violence at all costs, to challenge nothing, to concede toeverything. No confrontation, we will run from physical force withall our soul force. Expect no daisies in gun barrels here. No,there's no plan if the cops swarm. That wouldn't be nice. A planfor bail? Not cool. Definitely not. Civil disobedience training? So not happening here.

Our Livestream chatis censored, people are banned, if the mod decides we aren't “nice”enough. The star of this streaming self-referential fantasy withinour pomo illusion is some guy who'll happily tell you what awonderful communicator he is, a skill he learned in the Marines orthe Eagle Scouts, one or the other.

Being pleasant is arule for the high point of our day, the General Assembly, with arotation of facilitators. Not leaders, just, well, the people whodecide what will be decided. They say they're the ones who've beenaround from the beginning, or the ones who spent the most nights, orthe ones who do things. But it doesn't matter much: if you're not acommittee chair, you can talk in the last fifteen minutes before thecops make us move the tents onto the sidewalk. The rest of the timewe're twinkling to decisions that are reported out of committees, orplaying follow the leader and making pyramids over our heads whenit's time to shut someone down. Wanna stop the whole operation? Bring half a dozen friends and cross your arms in front of your faceto block whatever's being decided. If they can't convince you, youwin. Honest.

We have an absoluterule against drugs and alcohol. Our self-appointed security team,more concerned with protecting us from each other than from anyoutside threat, will bust you. You can trust security to stop youfrom getting too loud during a march, too.

We're told all thisis real democracy, and if you're sitting comfortably watching thescreen, it looks for all the world like it is. The grand illusion isnearly perfect.

But ifyou look close enough, its the props that don't quite work. How didthe finance committee get a business checking account? How are theyhanding out not just blankets, but tents to everyone who asks? Wheredid the matching notebooks in the media tent come from, or the mediatent, or the fully equipped medical tent? How, in just a week, isthis occupation feeding everyone, not just occupiers, but everyonewho comes by? One answer snuck out today: LAPD is sending insupplies, including food and sunscreen to protect the Occupiers fromthe California sun. Some people are refusing to eat the food. Nolie.

The storyline isthat this is a horizontal structure, without leaders, left to us thepeople to control. To create the story, we are controlled, our set,who our characters are, what we do and what we say. We are freeagents only within the script. We have busted out of livesdetermined by corporations, of corporations, and for corporations,and escaped into a made-for-TV illusion of freedom. Such is thestart of the new world, the post-corporate people's democracy. Howdid that happen?

Ask Mayor Bloombergin New York, who just decided the OccupyWallStreet protesters couldcamp in the park until they get tired and go home.

i think you put it best last week:"The occupation of the Bank of America lobby was the finale to a march that started at California Plaza and is ending -- as we speak -- with a retreat to the L.A. City Hall encampment, where they'll surely be welcomed with open arms by City Councilmembers, who've asked them to stay for "as long as they need.""

And the simple answer: City Hall isn't the Wall Street of Los Angeles.LA politicians can be as accommodating as they want to the protestors because they aren't protesting anything the politicians have to be concerned about. When they do, they'll be arrested.

A more pressing question is whether or not Occupy LA is willing to occupy wall street's presence in Los Angeles, including most things the CRA do or that loan we got from wall street that LA gave to developers and private education who very obviously don't give a shit about the communities and people of our city. Where's Occupy LA Live? Where's Occupy the Financial Distrcit? Hell, where's Occupy the Broad Museum Under Construction Across the Street?

At last night's General Assembly, a proposal to officially endorse a union picket line in Beverly Hills this Friday was finally rammed through by the actions committee after 3 consecutive days of denial by the General Assembly. Committee members stood up en masse on the steps crowding the mic as speakers voiced opinion for and against. Several people voiced concerns over union co-opting and support of entities that contribute to either of the two corrupt political parties dominating American politics. One person wishing to speak was forcibly removed by "security" and several others were out-shouted and their blocks ignored after several deliberations.

The chief argument against from blockers being that OccupyLA was never meant to endorse groups but that groups were to come to the occupation grounds to endorse and march with OccupyLA. There was a feeling and unease in the air after the GA adjourned that Democratic Party forces were at work and it caused anger amongst people who strongly identified themselves as pro-worker yet reject the current system entirely.

Simone, Thanks so much for the mention. A media quote relating to my efforts has never made me happier! It's like BEDBUGS!!! A MILLIONS ZD's SWARMING CITY HALL!!!

Plus, THIS quote of your says it all, in case anyone reading was confused: "The councilmembers themselves are completely tied up in "corporate greed." Yes, I said they're being sweet. But they're also being hypocrites." (You must have a lot of City Council experience!) - ZD

Its clear from this article let alone the title that you don't understand the origin, operation or intent of Occupy Wall Street in general and Occupy LA specifically.

Organizers of OLA coordinated the occupation with the council and lapd before it started. So they weren't caught off guard. They knew why the protesters we there and will vote on a measure of solidarity with the occupation on the 28th.

This is how it should go. There is no need for violence and division. Local state federal government isn't the "enemy." the occupiers aren't terrorisrs. They are citizens who have a grievance and a constitutionally guaranteed right to assemble to air those greivances. They are your friends and neighbors. Our law enforcement and governance is part of the 99% as well.

OLA is a beacon of positive progress to other occupations where there has been much violence. Instead of investigating what OLA has done right, you insinuate cconspiracy theories.

Can it not be possible that members of government legitamitely support the movement? Is it not possible that they too think corporate greed is killing our democracy? Is it not possible they have enough heart and morality to give someone food when they are hungry and a poncho when they are wet?

I know politicians aren't usually portrayed in a positive light, but when they are standing with their citizens and helping to secure and promote their rights, they should be lauded for their serivice. After all they are doing job and serving their community.

Lets not trivialize this so much.LA is more solidly democrat when it comes to elected officials. Unions in LA make the rules. When SEIU got involved it was a clear to the elected officials they had to play nice.Also, look at who is pandering to them... those running for re-election or those running for a new post. The Occupy WS started off as grass roots and was hijacked once the unions and moveon types got involved. The LA protests are all functioning because of unions and liberal activist groups. It's as plain as day that his movement is NOT a revolution.