Social Activism ... USA
Occupy Wall Street

September 30, Russell Simmons – One “Occupy Wall Street” Person the Cops Won’t Pepper Spray

COMMENTARY
The web has a huge amount of material from all sorts of people expressing disgust about the prevailing social and economic condition of America ... and of the World. The sad thing is that, though the dysfunction of the socio-economic system for the 99% is obvious to anyone with half a brain, it is not 'unlawful' and therefore there is nothing that anyone can do about it.

When something is obviously wrong ... as in unethical ... as in immoral ... then it is wrong to do nothing about it. The Occupy Movement is now on rtrack to 'do something about it' and those that have been engaged in a comfortable looting of the US and Global economy had better change their ways and figure out how they are going to 'pay back' in a meaningful way.

The corporate organization has the ability to be incredibly efficient and productive. The corporate organization can be ruthlessly efficient and do amazing things with quite modest resources. The challenge is to take advantage of this incredible capacity to and put it to work doing things that will benefit not only corporate investors and executives, but also the broader society. This is not a question of one OR the other ... the only best way forward is to do both.

TrueValueMetrics (TVM) is a system so that responds to the idea that 'you manage what you measure' and in TVM it is money profit AND valueadd that gets measured. To be honest, experience with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and many initiatives to encourage corporate organizations to report using triple bottom line principles have been unsatisfactory, and easy to understand. The 'value' business model is alien to most corporate organizations, usually they don't understand it, and they are quite happy with the status quo for reporting. Accordingly the way TVM looks at value is from the perspective of the place (community) rather than the organization. In this situation, organizations become subsidiary to the community, rather than being the on top with the community picking up the socio-economic crumbs that are dropped, if any!
Peter Burgess

Russell Simmons – One “Occupy Wall Street” Person the Cops Won’t Pepper Spray

I confess, he could be as compelling a target as the young female protestors they penned in with orange netting traps and sprayed with mace and pepper spray this past weekend. But, this guy’s a little – nay, a waaaay big – different.

So, if one is NOT a Media Mogul, what exactly is it about the 1,000’s of protestors…and many more thousands to come…that invokes official wrath?

OccupyWallStreet is a people-powered movement for democracy that began in NYC on September 17 with an encampment in the financial district and which declared its purpose to be non-violent. Or, as close as they could get to that goal, given the physical force and intimidation that soon emanated from the ranks of blue and white.

Mr. Policeman – What is it that invokes this anger and overreach?

Is it their vow is to end the monied corruption of this country? Is it because the protest area you established for them wasn’t suitable to that purpose, or that free assembly really does mean free – not corralled – assembly?

Is it because the demonstrators hold teach-ins, engage tourists in discussion and debate (which you aggressively discourage), and wave about such America-damaging statements as “Revoke Corporate Personhood” or “Democracy Not Corporatization?”

Is it that your own, excessive use of force and intimidation was caught on video and transmitted around the world – much as had been done on Tahrir Square and the Spanish acampadas or the uprising of the Chilean students? That this shame is now public, and not private – even though the mainstream media somehow has been reluctant to show up to create this indelible record?

Is it that Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement that demands police leaders to actually jail offenders in their rank for the unprovoked spraying or tackling of protestors. Which, in reality, is essentially no different their request for jail time for the Wall Street crooks who plundered America?

Is it that there is an ongoing mass outpouring of prepared food donations the protestors receive daily to feed their numbers – that local pizzerias are given scores of food orders charged to credit cards daily from people all over the country, and the world?

Is it that this is not an isolated instance, but that these people stand in solidarity with Madrid, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Madison, Toronto, London, Athens, Sydney, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Milan, Amsterdam, Algiers, Tel Aviv, Portland, Chicago and Palestine? That soon they will stand with Phoenix, Montreal, Cleveland, Atlanta, Kansas City, Dallas, Orlando and Miami – some figures placing this number as high as 130 locales?

Is it that high-profile figures, such as Russel Simmons, Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Radiohead et al, are showing up to support and further advertise this cause?

Whatever it is that is causing you to forget your Credo “ To Serve And Protect,” I join all like-minded fellow Americans in asking YOU to stop protecting Wall Street from The People, and start protecting The People from Wall Street.