Tuesday was incredible. Some estimates had 10,000 people on Sproul. I don’t know how long it’s been since the last time that many people were on Sproul, but I know it hasn’t happened in a long time. The crowd absolutely dwarfed that which turned out the night Obama was elected (which was previously the biggest Sproul crowd I’d seen) and we were near the capacity of Sproul.

I will do a more in-depth writeup at some point, but I have limited time, and I think that this one is more important. I’m sure given how many people were out there will be many writeups of the day’s events. If anyone has any specific questions about the events of Tuesday or anything else I’ve been to, I would be more than happy to answer them.

Why occupy?

I’m frequently asked what the Occupy movement is about, or what we want. These questions are not easily answerable, and I’m not sure that it is actually possible to answer them. The movement really is decentralized - everyone is out for their own reasons, and I can’t speak for everyone else’s motivations.

The most universal thing I have seen among occupiers is a deep-rooted feeling that there is something dreadfully wrong in our country today. I share this feeling, and I know that many of you do too, even those of you who currently are ambivalent about the Occupy movement. In the last few weeks I’ve seen literally hundreds of people from many different backgrounds sitting down in the public square to discuss what they think is going wrong right now and what they think can be done to begin resolving it.

I do not believe that a lack of focus or goals is a problem for the movement at this point, or a valid reason to not support the movement right now. I’m always hesitant to just quote someone else, but I do think that Robert Reich brought this point home really well on Tuesday - “Every social movement in the last half-century or more, it started with moral outrage…and the actual lessons, the specific demands for specific changes, came later.”

Occupy is a very, very young movement. Occupy Wall Street began less than two months ago. The movement has just begun - we’re gaining astounding momentum. This is the beginning of something, not the end - or even the middle. A few hundred students were attacked by the UCPD on Sproul last week - and yesterday 10,000 people came out. I do not believe that it would be possible for any movement this young without top down direction to have an explicit set of goals - and I do not believe that a movement with top down direction can resolve the set of problems that need to be resolved in the world right now.

Well, why do you occupy?

Many of the issues brought up by in the public discussion around Occupy are issues that I agree are important, but they’ve been issues I’ve been concerned with for a long time and that concern has never previously motivated me to take to the streets.

So why am I doing so now?

Before October 25th, I had not gone to any Occupy-related events and was unsure how I felt about the movement or if I wanted to be a part of it in any way. On the morning of the 25th, Occupy Oakland’s camp in Frank Ogawa Plaza was violently attacked by a coalition of eighteen law enforcement agencies. Tear gas, batons, and stun grenades were used against nonviolent and nonresistant protesters.

I heard (and read) about this that day, and didn’t really believe it. I could not understand how the events as described could have possibly happened in the United States, let alone the bay area. I believe the stories from that morning entirely in retrospect, but at the time it seemed unbelievable. I decided that I wanted to go to future events, and had started considering what I wanted to bring to future events.

While I was trying to figure out what I wanted to bring to future events, I began to see news and twitter reports that the Oakland PD was teargassing protesters again. I decided that I wanted to attend future Occupy events, and started planning out what I should bring to minimize the chance of suffering severe harm if the police used teargas again (and to increase the chance I could help out other people.)

While I was trying to figure out what to bring to future events, I also got in touch with a friend who was present, who said that they were in fact being teargassed despite the protest being peaceful. Reading about something in the news (or in social media) is very different from having it described to you by someone you know and trust. It’s much easier to assume that something is inaccurate or being left out of a story when it’s coming from someone you don’t know rather than someone you trust.

I began to get angry - almost unbelievably angry, angrier than I had ever been. I didn’t know what I should or could do, but felt that I had to do something. I don’t mean this in the sense I normally would - I don’t mean I had some abstract desire to find a way to address the issues, I mean that I literally don’t know if I could have stayed home that night.

I ended up throwing some stuff in my bag and pretty much running half the way to Oakland before remembering that the buses were still going. It turned out that the descriptions I had read in the media and on twitter were more or less accurate: a peaceful protest in downtown Oakland was being brutally attacked with tear gas, flashbangs, and rubber bullets by police officers from at least eighteen different agencies. The actions of the police that night were unjustifiable by any standard, and I am still shocked by them.

My friends and I both came out of that night without experiencing permanent harm. This is not true of everyone who was present. Scott Olsen, an ex-marine, was shot in the head with a tear gas canister, fracturing his skull. He spent weeks in the ICU, and although he is now out, he is still unable to speak easily and will probably suffer permanent disability. I didn’t see Scott Olsen that night - or at least, I’m not aware if I did - but I saw some of the other people from the group (VAWA) he was with. One of the most lasting memories of the night for me was a Navy veteran in uniform standing calmly with a flag just a few feet from the barricades. Although I didn’t see it (because I was running from the gas) he continued to stand his ground after the gas was fired - you can see a video of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7LGatIq70c

Oakland was the first time in my life that I found myself on the wrong side of a police line, but it hasn’t been the last. In the last month it has happened more than I had ever imagined, and I’m sure that it will happen again in the near future.

Last week, I saw around 220-250 police officers in full riot gear unapologetically beat the everliving shit out of completely peaceful students on Sproul Plaza, the historic center of the free speech movement. They weren’t even trying to pretend something dangerous was happening: they were very explicit that they were doing what they were doing simply because of tents. There is a video of one of the day time incidents available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_f06VQOkI4. It was substantially less brutal than the night time attack, but no good videos of the night are available as far as I know. I was at the Sproul protest and it was small enough that I could see everything that was going on. Most of you know who I am: I will stand with every ounce of integrity and credibility I have and say that there was no hidden off-video justification for this police attack. It is not missing context to make it understandable. I saw in person the full context to these attacks and it makes them more horrifying, not less.

The police response I have consistently seen to Occupy protests has been one of the most disgusting things I have seen in my life, but the flip side is very comforting - Occupy is growing. In the face of this brutal and unjustified violence, more and more people are coming out to support us. People are being injured and soon I would imagine people would be killed, but for every person injured and sidelined five step forward.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. You and I both know this. You and I have both known this for a long time. Occupy is the first populist movement fighting against these problems in many, many decades. I honestly believe that the current movement is the best chance we have had to create meaningful change in at least forty years. We have the support of the people and we’re growing, even in the face of outrageous violence. The time to strike is now.

I hate to draw on the emotion captured by previous movements, but Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young summed up why I go to Occupy events:

What if you knew her

And found her dead on the ground

How can you run when you know?

I don’t know how to run anymore.

Please, stand with me.