Last week, for the sake of public safety and as a means to quell further expansion of riots throughout the UK, British Prime Minister David Cameron was considering the blocking of Twitter and Facebook to prevent rioters from organizing for further activity.
Last week in the San Francisco Bay Area, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), the Bay Area’s regional subway system, blocked cell phone and Twitter feed to prevent massive public demonstrations at San Francisco’s principle downtown stations over the shooting of a homeless man early July by BART police. This shooting comes on the heels of the shooting of Oscar Grant two years ago, also by BART police, causing riots and looting across the San Francisco Bay in Oakland, where Grant was shot.
With a uniquely 21st century twist, all this Uranus-Pluto square activity had the music of the 1960s ringing through my head for breakfast. These days specifically, the lyrics from the Buffalo Springfield song seem to jump out of my memory and blaze right across the bandwidth of the Internet. Stop now. What’s that sound? Everybody look what’s goin’ down.
In this day and age of Wikileaks and a pro-revolutionary band of hackers called Anonymous, the protection of freedom of speech as well as the public’s safety is the challenge for both sides of the governmental monolith. Being experienced in what government can do with you and your communication device should give anyone pause. In the Sixties phones were wiretapped, disrupting communication. They still are being tapped. Infiltration of a revolutionary group and co-opting of its members was common practice by the FBI and CIA. And today, because of my little lime-green Samsung cellphone, Big Brother knows exactly where I am on earth. What is the definition of public safety in this day and age? What are we to be made safe from? And should our Constitutional right to assemble be suspended for our safety’s sake?
Today, with the digital environment more fluid and vast, the flow of information is not a trickle through electrical wires, its a tsunami over 3G, 4G and wi-fi. And its not just the FBI, or the CIA. It’s government everywhere. We keep talking about the ramifications of the digital age here at Planet Waves for good reason. It’s the challenge of the era. Technology allowing unprecedented access on an individual and global scale is nothing new to government. Individuals having access to that same technology is. Because of digital technology’s power, and its intrusiveness, the ramifications of its use and its censorship is the new moral and ethical litmus test for both the individual and the government, especially the government. Keeping up with the political and moral implications of the use of these Brave New Toys during these days of domestic terrorism, unrest and revolution affects everyone from Cairo to London and my own backyard.
Here in San Francisco the Friday before the Full Moon weekend, BART shut down everyone’s cellphones within sight of a BART station. Friday was purportedly the day of a massive demonstration against BART’s police brutality. The shutdown was so offensive that last Sunday Anonymous hacked MyBart.com — a ride scheduling website — closing it down. Adding irony to the drama, the highly anticipated Friday protest never happened.
Then, on Monday Aug. 15, demonstrators appeared at Civic Center BART dressed in Guy Fawkes masks chanting “can you hear me now?” into cellphones. Some wore bloody shirts carrying signs that read, “How can I call 9-11 while BART police are shooting people?” BART police arrested them and shut down four of its primary downtown San Francisco stations instead of shutting off cellphone service, creating havoc for three hours during the rush, and gridlock on the roads. They must have gotten the memo that you don’t disrupt one’s communications for the sake of public safety.
The recent history of the shootings at BART has been a hot topic in the Bay Area since 2009, starting with the death of Oscar Grant. Grant was a young black man shot New Year’s night by BART police who mistakenly thought he was carrying a weapon. The shooting led to riots on the streets of Oakland. The subsequent trial of former BART policeman Johannes Mehserle, Grant’s killer, led to a reduced sentence, which instigated more protests and disruptions. The recent shooting of the homeless man who was brandishing a broken bottle and who BART police could not subdue physically, is bringing up memories of Oscar Grant again. There has been no healing in the community following Mehserle’s sentence — his trial was conducted in Los Angeles, 400 miles from the city where the crime happened, and factoring in his time served, Mehserle was freed in late June of this year, about a week before the shooting of the homeless man took place. In terms of passing a government’s ethical litmus test, BART appears, at the very least, as though it panicked and failed.
How are we individuals and the powers that be going to co-exist during times of civil unrest in this digital age? That’s as ripe a question in this the age of Arab Spring as anything else under the Sun, particularly while Pluto is in Capricorn. Open Rights Group, a UK-based organization dedicated to digital freedom, has been actively fighting against Cameron’s proposed Twitter-Facebook shutdown, and proposes an interesting list of ways for how the government should protect individual digital access rights even when and especially during times of duress. The list included a reminder that any type of digital shutdown, particularly in the “free” industrialized world, sets a bad example for more repressive regimes to use as a justification for their own repressive tactics.
Early this morning, I was alerted by an email from Eric, notifying us that Facebook has been selectively censoring the sharing of political information on their site. Though we do not know the cause yet, this is an alert to all of us Facebook users that it’s happening. These days of testing and proofing are just the beginning. For what it’s worth, it’s time to step up, stay alert. Battle lines are being drawn.
There’s something happenin’ here
what it is aint exactly clear
there’s a man with a gun over there
tellin me i got to beware
i think it’s time we stop, children
what’s that sound
everybody look what’s goin down
there’s battle lines being drawn
nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
young people speakin there minds
getting so much resistance from behind
it’s time we stop,
hey what’s that sound
everybody look what’s goin down
what a field day for the heat
a thousand people in the street
singin songs and carrying signs
mostly say hurray for our side
it’s time we stop,
hey what’s that sound
everybody look what’s goin down
paranoia strikes deep
into your life it will creep
it starts when your always afraid
step out of line the man come and take you away
you better stop
hey what’s that sound
everybody look what’s going down
baycyn:
I read that about anonymous yesterday as well, which is worrisome. I think using the net as a political organizing tool is a good thing. Using it as an intimidation tool is not. This is where we start drawing lines. Given that all this technology is so new, powerful and intrusive, where do the powerless go, and how do they manage what they’ve got in using this technology?
Looking at the larger picture, I had a conversation about the use of the net as political tool awhile back, focusing on wikileaks and the fate of Julian Assange, how are the justice systems of the US and the world looking at what’s going on? I think everyone in a democratic government is looking at the potential and impact of technology in global-political struggle with some level of apoplexy. The technology and its results are fluid legally, socially and politically. There may be new laws crafted governing the use of technology while practicing the right to assemble. I’m sure many students in Constitutional law are going to do Master’s thesis on it, if they haven’t already.
I know this portion of the conversation on this topic may lead to more discussion, and I welcome that. As mentioned — this is a pivotal ethical drama of this age. We have some great commentary here by you and gwind, particularly on the choice to re-focus our perception of events. Looking forward to other perceptions and comments on the topic.
Fe,
I agree with you that BART security (and other law enforcement & military organizations) need to take a good hard look at how they handle conflict. The “shoot-to-kill first, ask questions later” approach obviously does not address the real problems and simply escalates and prolongs the violence. It’s clear from the various incidents that the BART officers are woefully unprepared to deal with these situations.
While it’s not exactly the same, I’d say that Anonymous’ posting of hacked personal information (including the recent revelation that they posted the names and home addresses of BART officers) is an act of violence. It’s a threatening way to bring attention to what they don’t like. I don’t agree with that approach.
Oh, and I’m sorry to be the one to report to you and Brendan that Clown Alley on Columbus closed several years ago. I never ate there, but seeing the crazy colors of the place and the very name always made me smile.
Fe, I think the imbalance is within us. When we tend to that conflict, or the illusion of that conflict, then it simply doesn’t exist. We are now at the entrance of the abyss, scared to trust what we cannot see.
Protests, failing systems, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, whatever, are only props and opportunities.
I can only look at the props and opportunities, thank them for reminding me that I am out of balance, and then choose differently. Projection is in the eye of the beholder.
I hope that there will be a day to read/hear individual stories of how people stood still, watched the world and its stories unfold, and felt that chaos simply flow through them. The bullets and illusion of hatred will pass without damage. Like any dream, they will transform into another dream. In sharing those stories others being to awaken and dare to say, “This is not real.”
It is an evolution in thought and remembering. If we practice a little bit every day, we can develop these skills.
Carrie:
Good news. Let’s hope that is the case for the group who said they were censored.
gwind:
Appreciate your comments, and I’m glad you understand my point. The original cause of the tension triggering the demonstrations, and setting the precedent for BART’s strong-armed response these last few days is from BART police’s use of weaponry as a method of control. There has been no training in how to verbally communicate to quiet down a tense situation, and the question remains: were weapons used as a last resort or an instantaneous response?
We have a racially and economically diverse community in the Bay Area, some neighborhoods still suffer from neglect, and lack of employment is traditional. Our little BART tempest is a fraction of the situation in the UK, but conditions are similar. You can tell people they need to find a peaceful solution under those conditions, though many are beyond that point — they are never heard and many hope they never get seen again.
That is the injustice they seek to right, not only here but across the country. Martin Luther King IS right, and persistence in the face of misery the strongest challenge. What are we willing to do to right the imbalance?
Fe,
It has been almost a whole day and FB has left my politically charged post up. I think the whole “FB is censoring posts” thing may be part of a glitch FB had some days ago (the complaints were all dated around the same day) and also had to do with people who enter rapid posts with repeat terms so FB programming saw those as spam. Merc Rx maybe played a part in this? My post and a very political friend of mine’s posts are still up there and have been for days (and weeks). I also remember people complaining about FB having problems around that same time (people being knocked off their groups or friends being dropped off lists). So I don’t believe FB is censoring anything political at this time.
Fe –
I don’t think I would actually go eat at Clown Alley now – my not-so-boyish figure of now can’t take what my boyish figure of 31 years ago could. Calories, cholesterol, you name it, it’s a heart attack in a bag.
I’ve heard of the parrots yes indeed! I saw a flock of similar birds in Chicago two years ago, in the dead of winter (snow, -15). At the time I was house sitting for a friend, and she said that they were there all year round: escaped/released pets as well.
The Embarcadero was very useful if you were driving to the City, but ugly as sin. Even then though, you could tell the city needed it to be gone, to open up and re-join the bay as it used to be.
Have to go and get ready for work, bleah!
Fe, I am glad that you added this: “I don’t condone violence anywhere. And I know the point of today’s piece is about how tenuous a position both government and the individual are — a doubly precarious and new situation triggered by BART’s decisions — one of which may have broken the law. I repeat, I don’t condone the violence or disruption on either side — at the stations or online.”
This is the energy that I was speaking about in my first post. [violence]
If someone makes a statement that is unclear and it evokes an angry response, it only adds to the disruption rather than finding a solution. I know it is not the “popular” point of view, being quiet and focusing on what we do want rather than what we do not want, but I think it needs to be brought up as a reminder that we can choose differently.
In angry mobs individuals lose their individuality and attract more anger. How many times does humankind need to repeat that trait until we finally figure out it does not work? Talk about Abraham/Hicks theory. It does not matter what the subject or topic is or who is right or wrong, because it is only energy.
Being quiet and peaceful doesn’t make the news. People don’t blog about it. Where does change actually begin? I think it starts with a thought. A quiet little thought that becomes a choice.
Brendan:
Clown Alley was still there, last I looked. It’s been awhile. Don’t go there for a burger. Usually go to someplace in Gourmet Ghettolandia here in Berkeley.
The Sansome and Jackson Street vicinity is an interesting mix. Now that the Embarcadero has been revamped, and the Ferry Building redone, its definitely changed part of the landscape nearby your old building.
The Jackson Square Park is home to a rogue band of hundreds of parrots and cockatiels — descendants of escapees from previous owners. They noisily squawk in the palm trees, eating the palm dates, and generally are the natural entertainment of the blocks. On a summer day, when it’s sunny, you forget you’re in seriously contemplative San Francisco. Yet it still manages to be quiet in these places — hardly anyone there except at lunchtime and on weekends.
B-R, yes hang on to that shortwave radio! It can be tough to find English language news nowadays, but if all else fails it will be there. Radio is a large portion of my nerdishness, and shortwave is the majority of that!
But I would also like to stress that redundancy is not just hanging on to a radio, it can also be such things as keeping an up to date phone list, keep stamps on hand for good old snail mail (imagine trying to do a blog via mail?), whatever keeps you in touch with friends and like minded souls. Getting accurate and reliable information counts the most, regardless of how it arrives in front of you.
Fe – That was a classic building! I worked on the 8th floor (I think…) in the Coast Guard Headquarters up there. We had something like 3 or 4 floors in total. The HQ is now over on your side of the pond, on Government Island between Oakland and Alameda Island. I actually went to boot camp there in 1976, but that’s now long closed. The HQ offices are located in the “old” barracks buildings now (they weren’t so old when I was there – where has the time gone?).
Question: are the Clown Alley hamburger joints still around, or are they long-ago history? We would go over to one just a few blocks away on Columbus, often close to midnight or one. True SF characters in that place, at that time of night. Good, greasy, comfort food, but walking in in a uniform could cause a little panic – even though we wore blue, not black. We did 12 hour shifts (6 to 6) so you could get kinda hungry around the late, late hours. I always found dawn to be an interesting time downtown, especially on the weekends when few are about. Very quiet and introspective place that city.
Baycyn:
I don’t condone violence anywhere. And I know the point of today’s piece is about how tenuous a position both government and the individual are — a doubly precarious and new situation triggered by BART’s decisions — one of which may have broken the law. I repeat, I don’t condone the violence or disruption on either side — at the stations or online.
Many people had service disrupted–both cellphone and in transit. But it ‘s a whole new world out there. I won’t say whether the means justify the ends, because we’re not there yet. Where we are is that two people are dead. These people have been killed by a peacekeeping security force — transit police. There is something seriously wrong here, and it goes beyond transit inconvenience.
I add that I also gave rides home or close to for the people I work with who normally take BART. I sensed it would not have been a pleasant situation, whether it was contained or not. I was right.
I agree that BART management and security have a lot to answer for. It seems that they haven’t learned their lessons. And depending on exactly what they shut down in terms of cell service, they may have broken the law.
HOWEVER…
One of my coworkers here in San Francisco was caught in the midst of the protest a couple of weeks ago. She said she was frightened and intimidated by the protesters who held up trains by crowding the platforms & cars, and reportedly with at least one climbing on a car. She was delayed by over an hour. That was significant for her and her family. I imagine the delays were significant for others as well, not to mention the fear of being in a confined place (train car or underground station) with protesters chanting and effectively blocking access to/from the trains & some exits.
So the protests against BART basically held their riders “hostage”. And that’s okay? For many of BART’s destinations there is not another kind of public transportation option.
By the way, when the stations were closed down, that affected not only BART but SF’s Muni underground system as well. Collateral damage, I guess.
And as for Anonymous, what I don’t see mentioned here is that — according to media reports — they not only hacked the site but published names and addresses of users.
“We apologize to any citizen that has his information published, but you should go to BART and ask them why your information wasn’t secure with them,” the statement said.
I call BS on that. It’s one thing, IMO, to hack and expose the fact that the web site was not securing the data. More power to you! But it’s another to then *publish* that data. The ends do not justify the means.
Brendan:
I remember that Assessor’s Office quite well. And how truly beautiful, in a classic sense, that building was. That’s where my sister and I brought my mother for her citizenship application. She did it quite late — in the early 1990’s when word was spreading that being here, even on a legal alien status like she was, would put her in a precarious position. Anti-immigrant sentiment was starting to bubble and squeak those days.
It’s also where my great aunt would do intermediary work for Filipino veterans of the US Navy. Not sure what office she went to, but 630 Sansome rings that memory bell. (Also near the Little Fox Theater — home of the world premier of Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”) one of SF’s many memorable cultural contributions to the country.
Lots of sense, Brendan. Often you’re the only one I can understand when things get techie or deep political (like who is friends with whom). May transparency increase, and what did you call that alternative or back up communication? Oh, yes. Redundancy. I guess I need to hang on to my short wave receiver?
Thanks B-R! My nerd/geek brain needed a little exercise today…
Fe – In reading that SFGate article, it sounds like BART did indeed do the big no-no and shut down the cell carriers’ nodes, as it referenced the leases they hold to provide service within BART’s stations. Leased facility or not, the law does not allow BART to arbitrarily shut down cell service. The FCC will not be happy, but it will simply be a slap on the wrist for BART.
O/T: I haven’t ridden BART since ’82, but I used to go from Walnut Creek to the City (Embarcadero station no less) to work at the old Federal Assessor’s building at 630 Sansome. Geez, I even remember the address, how ingrained is that! I don’t remember ever seeing BART cops then, only the occasional city uniform on the way to work. Different times. Seeing a BART riot squad is another thing altogether, and disturbing at that.
What I was thinking about before I was rudely interrupted by laundry/lunch/thunderstorms was the establishment of parallel lines of communication, ones that can’t easily be shut down by anyone. Redundancy is the watchword when establishing communications, and the internet was designed to survive a nuclear war from the very beginning. If it experiences slowdowns or outages, it re-routes around those problems. For example, if an email from the west coast can’t make it to New York, the system looks for a clear route: it could go the opposite way if needed, all the way round via China, India, and Europe. That is why it is hard to shut down the internet, because it automagically tries work against whatever is shutting it down. Pure genius.
Okay, technical matters aside, I think you’re right about transparency in government. The more we see and hear our elected representatives, the more they seem absolutely silly. Okay, just the tea baggers and Repugnants, most Dems and others generally seem quite mature. We know what I mean. Unfortunately there are far too many TP’ers actually in office here in Arizona, but their warts are showing, and one of the biggest (state Sen. Russell Pearce) is now under recall, the first time that’s ever happened here. A nicer thing couldn’t happen to a meaner man. America’s worst sheriff, Joe Arpaio, is under increasing pressure: he’s now thought to have “mis-managed” perhaps as much as $150 million, not $100 million. He didn’t do it, he says, but if not him, who? An awful lot of people are waiting for the Feds to haul him off in handcuffs. Not so funny fact: Maricopa county, Joe’s turf, is the only county with an increasing crime rate in the state, yet he spends more than anybody on law enforcement. He’s taken money away from patrols and jails and put it into illegal worker raids almost exclusively, with no gain in public safety (or trust for that matter).
Transparency and communications will mark our future for sure. Using them wisely will be the hard part, and I think the reactionaries amongst us will seek to stop that trend somehow. Pandora’s box was opened a long time ago, and we certainly can’t close it now.
Oooookaaay, semi-random thoughts after a long hot day. Hopefully there’s some sense in there… 🙂
Dear Dear Fe, Your words and Len’s yesterday burn as firebrands. May they light our path.
Brendan, thanks for your take on the we-fi stuff.
stop, now, hey,
what’s that sound?
Look! everytbody, look!
What’s going down.
Couldn’t get it out of my head 40 years ago, and here we go again.
40 years ago this week I was a very young pregnant woman who read a very small article in the middle of the National section of a Chicago newspaper. I still remember the appearance of that tiny article. Almost half a million young people, my people, had come togehter for an entire weekend with no harm to anyone and a lot– A LoT — of music and fun. I looked up from reading it finally believing that life was worth living and that WE would make a difference. Hexagram 13 would build on itself, on ourselves. I threw the yarrow sticks for myslof also around that time. Mountain Behind Still Pool. (Don’tr remember the number.)
It seems that the lines that must be drawn are within, first. And then, the rest is obvious.
****
C,S,N.&Y
“It’s been a long time coming
Going to be a long time gone,
….apears to be along long time such a long long time befoire the dawn,
Turn, turn any corner, sooner or later your’ve got to hear what your neighbors and friends have to say–something’s going on around here …
surely you’ve got something to say..
Speak out, speak out against the madness, speak your mind if you can and you still dare,but don’t don’t try get yourself a job or elected or if you do you better cut your hair…and it appears to be a loooooooooooooooooong time before the dawn…
but you know the darkest hour is always just before the dawn and it appears to be a long…..”
***** and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young again ****
“I woke up one morning and I saw the dawn …
Rejoice rejoice we have no choice but to carry on…
Carry on, carry on, love is coming love is coming to us all…”
Working to keep the lines of communication open at all times for everyone will be key in the future to come.
Brendan:
Government transparency may also be key. This could be part of the revolution that’s needed these next few years under Uranus-Aries and their square to Pluto-Cap.
If this means government may look different than what you’ve experienced in the past, or has been the tradition, I say (a qualified) “hooray”.
Fe –
I’ve always liked Buffalo Springfield, and that song has always been a favorite.
Truer words have not been written for some time. Working to keep the lines of communication open at all times for everyone will be key in the future to come. The interesting thing is that if you shut the internet down, you’d shut down nearly all business in this country instantly. We are so geared to ‘always on’ digital communications that to not have it can seem intensely strange, and businesses unable to conduct their daily trade would be all the more so. Imagine no credit card payments, no inventory ordering, no phone for those using VOIP. I feel any blockage could not last long because of the long term consequences.
Short term, aye, there’s the rub. To subvert protected activities and speech, that is perfectly totalitarian, no matter who is doing it. What happened in SF was a certain zealotry that may not be duplicated (the zealots being BART public safety). What BART did was not necessarily illegal, but it certainly was ethically wrong.
Let me address a technical issue here: to work down in the tunnels, you need cellular nodes that serve as the access points to the networks outside. If these nodes are provided by BART (bought and paid for that is) as a service to their riders, then they can shut them down. If they are owned by the networks and BART did it anyway, then huh-unh, no, nyet, nichts: that’s a clear violation of Federal law. Simply shutting off the nodes (by the rightful owner) is not a violation at all, it is simply a lack of service and not covered by any contract or law.
Jamming is where a local transmitter overrides the cellular node signal and wipes it out. It is is 100% illegal in the US for anyone but law enforcement, and they need permission to do that, and only in extreme circumstances. BART would not qualify for that measure, but the FBI et al would.
Can the jamming law be changed? Yes, and in fact correctional systems across the country are arguing for it to change so that they can jam and locate contraband phones in prison. The problem is that they wipe out all calls, not just the ‘illegal’ ones. A sticky road to go down, once changed.
Facebook actually should go all the way and ban all politics and politicians. Twitter too. We would never hear from Sarah Palin again, thank goddess, and we could never have another Anthony Weiner… But, that would also mean that we wouldn’t be privy to the stupidities of the political mind, and that could be seen as a loss.
More thoughts abound, but not enough keyboard time right now.
Carrie:
What will be more interesting is to see how long your post stays up.
Thanks, Fe for helping clarify that.
I just posted an article that says FB banned them and it is still up on my FB.
:::skeptic mode on::::: Interesting…….
Carrie:
I’m working with eric right now to confirm the source of the email, but apparently this group, which is an anti-fracking organization in NY, has experienced censorship on Facebook when attempting to post letters and notices sent to the governor’s office.
More details coming when they arrive.
Fe,
I have posted (and/or shared) tons of politically charged content on Facebook (and still do even today) and it always shows up. I know that some people who rapid-fire post things get blocked because the programming sees that as spam but many of my friends routinely post leftie or political stuff every day (including today) and it always shows up. I don’t know why it has been reported that FB is censoring political content because as far as my FB friends and I can tell, that clearly just isn’t so.
Can anyone find the source of that information?
gwind:
Thanks for opportunity to clarify. First off, here’s the link to the SF Chronicle’s article on yesterday’s protest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/15/MNGT1KNJU1.DTL&tsp=1
There was no number of protestors given, but the strength of the law enforcement in the picture featured in the article is telling.
Furthermore, when BART suspended cellphone services, it may have been breaking the law. The FCC is now compelled to investigate.
The recent history of the shootings at BART has been a hot topic in the Bay Area since 2009. The death of Oscar Grant, a young black man who was shot by BART police who mistakenly thought he was carrying a weapon, led to riots on the streets of Oakland. The subsequent trial of former BART policeman Johannes Mehserle, Grant’s killer led to a reduced sentence, which is also sticking in people’s craw.
The shooting of the homeless man, who was brandishing a broken bottle and who BART police could not subdue physically, is bringing up memories of Oscar Grant again. There has been no healing in the community following Mehserle’s sentence — his trial was conducted in Los Angeles, 400 miles from the city where the crime happened.
It may not have mattered how many protestors were there yesterday. What matters is that BART not only over-reacted to the thought of a demonstration over how their police handled matters, they may have broken the law to try and prevent people from assembling, which is a violation of the Constitution. BART in all likelihood, was trying to keep their riders safe. In this day and age and during times when justice looks unevenly applied, BART walked into its own bear cave.
Fe, Can you clarify this for me: “On Monday Aug. 15, demonstrators appeared at Civic Center BART dressed in Guy Fawkes masks chanting “can you hear me now?” into cellphones. Some wore bloody shirts carrying signs that read ”How can I call 9-11 while BART police are shooting people?” BART police arrested them and shut down four of its primary downtown San Francisco stations instead of shutting off cellphone service, creating havoc for three hours during the rush, and gridlock on the roads. They must have gotten the memo that you don’t disrupt one’s communications for the sake of public safety.”
I guess not being there I am curious and would like to know the level of protest, what occurred, what did not occur, that led to people’s arrest. I think that is very important, at least to me, in helping me understand the energy, the momentum, the crowd and the police’s interactions. Sweeping statements can be misleading. Did someone simply walking down the street wearing a tshirt get arrested? What were the circumstances?
I do think we are at a crossroad and we all need to decide who we want to be in those moments that crisis or chaos appear imminent. There is a great Course in Miracles saying something like, “I will receive what I am giving now.”
Read more: http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/daily-astrology/for-what-its-worth/#ixzz1VDpSYrq7