Oh, for fucks sake..Occupy Dallas' own lawyer scolds them in public

[rainbow4321]

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/11/15/city-will-not-evict-occupy-dallas-protesters-tuesday/

The issue is the group’s poor behavior. Even the group’s attorney, Jonathan Winocour, seemed furstrated with it.

“Stop smoking marijuana on public property. Stop drinking on public property. Stop fornicating with minors on public property,” he yelled during a general assembly meeting Tuesday.

Because the city has shown such a willingness to work with the group, Winocour advised them to “stop partying and start protesting.”

“The opportunity is yours to waste,” he told the group
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Now having shared that let me add the following. From what I have seen, this is NOT being done by the majority of the group.

I've been down there on and off..not occupying 24/7 but going to their different events, marchs, vigils, etc...

My latest visit had me a little concerned. The atmosphere seems to have changed from earlier days. Kinda worried that the internal dynamics will do more harm than any external force.

The group that stays down there 24/7 comes across as a little more leary when non-24/7 people show up for anything besides a march. I went tonight to see what was happening because, frankly, the flow of info from their FB, twitter, and website has been hit or miss (they are in the process of deciding who should have admin rights to those accounts, concern that there are too many non-24/7 people running the sites so vital messages are diluted or not shared). One admin got his feelings hurt over some camp dynamics and tried to tell the group "it's my way or I am outta here, taking the site domain and all my computer equipment with me". Stories were spreading thru the camp that there was a handful of people having off site meetings making decisions about the camp's future while excluding the majority of the camp. Some talked about going and crashing that meeting but cooler heads prevailed.

Going down there is awkard at times. Instead of people casually talking to you, you get approached and asked "hey can I have a cigarette" and they are gone, poof...don't wanna talk or find out what made you come out there, etc...soon as the item goes from my hand to theirs, they are gone, going on down the sidewalk to visit/talk to other 24/7ers--same scenario happened to me at least 5 times tonight....If you are at a march, it's different, more cohesive, but go to visit the camp to see first hand what the hell is going on and the above is what happened.


I cannot even imagine the pressure that they are all under being down there for 40+ days...hell, I get to come home to a warm meal/bed/shower whenever I want, they are down there fighting the elements day in/out.

And now this fight with the city that has ended badly in the court doesnt help.

But reading how their own lawyer berated them in public today about some behaviors really worries me that they are doing more harm to the movement here than the city has done in the last 40 days. It is almost as if the city is sitting back waiting for the camp to implode on it's own....and that may just happen sooner rather then later.

I'm gonna miss the movement if it does go away here in Dallas, I hope they get things worked out quickly but the overall mood has me bummed.

[msongs]

1. must be a ton of boring down time in these places, like mostly down time nt

[MedleyMisty]

2. That's why I haven't gone to my local Occupy

It hasn't been raided and there's been very few arrests, and I went to their website and saw dramaz on their forums. Also, there's not very much Twitter chatter about it and definitely not anything as radical or intellectual as the Oakland Twitter chatter. Believe me, if I lived in Oakland I'd be there whenever I could.

That's why the raids are so stupid. Look at the Occupy camps that have been raided. They get shit done, and they have thousands of people. It seems the ones that don't get raided fall into the internal dynamics that you mention. Seeing state violence up close and personal radicalizes people and gives them a sense of purpose and cohesion and brings more people to their cause. I can see how camping out for so long without much antagonistic response from authorities could wear thin and get boring and people would get irritable and dramatic and the people in the community who weren't already with the protest would probably start to feel annoyed.

I wasn't serious about it, but I did joke about going to our mayor's Facebook page under cover and acting like a conservative and urging him to raid our Occupy.

[Luminous Animal]

3. Well, Dallas is chocked full of assholes so what did you expect?

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I said it before

if they left them alome, they'd fall apart on their own, for the reasons you just cited.

If they get raided (when more likely) that wil change the place.

As to my local occupy some same dynamics and yes they got raided.

[OnyxCollie]

5. First rule of protesting.

Only break one law at a time.

[Number23]

6. "The opportunity is yours to waste”