The marchers clustered at the base of the statue of Rizzo extending his right arm. Depending on one's point of view, Rizzo is either making a warm, paternal gesture or he's giving a limp parody of the Nazi salute.
During a 45 minute discussion under the statue, a marcher pointed to the occupation tents across the street at City Hall and said angrily, "We're only there because the police let us stay there." Of course, he was right. While the Philadelphia Police Department and its Civil Affairs Unit have so far been respectful, it's ultimately the decision of the mayor and his police commissioner whether they remain, a decision based on public pressure coming from two polarized political directions. There's also the desire to avoid a public relations nightmare like the one that occurred in Oakland.
Dancing With the Mayor and the Police
After the police assault, Oakland Mayor Jean Quon -- a former civil rights activist -- publicly apologized for the police action. Over 1000 people, then, re-entered Frank H. Ogawa Plaza and are camped there now. There seems to be a rift between the mayor and her police leadership, with the mayor trying to make up for the assault while the police sulk and agonize.
"I think we're in trouble. We've been placating these people so long that they don't take us seriously," one Oakland officer told The Bay Citizen newspaper. "If you run this red light 10 times and I'm sitting there and on the 11th time I give you a ticket, you're going to say, you've been watching me this whole time and today you've decided to do something about it?"
This Oakland cop doesn't seem to get it that one of the most glaring realities in America is the selective enforcement of the many laws on the books. And it's cops who have the power to exercize much of that discretion. In fact, one can argue much of the financial debacle and the endless wars infuriating so many Americans (especially those in the various Occupations) is about selectively not enforcing the Constitution and other laws against the top tier of American citizenry.
Like Oakland, Philadelphia has allowed the occupation to settle in. At the same time, it's a city with a history of notoriously brutal and/or un-constitutional police action. First there's the brutality of the Rizzo years; then, following the 2000 Republican convention, the City of Philadelphia paid out millions in lawsuit fines for Constitutional abuses such as pre-emptive mass arrests based on suspicion or bogus "intelligence" and just snatching people off the street for no justifiable reason.
Since then, the department's Civil Affairs Unit has worked gracefully and respectfully with antiwar demonstrations and vigils, which, of course, have shriveled significantly since the huge February 15, 2003 demonstration. A prominent Civil Affairs officer told me that Philly cops have a policy to never use gas -- although they have it as an absolute last resort. He said, however, that's not the case in other cities, where it is a first option. The Oakland war-zone approach suggests that he's right. A Philadelphia police spokesman told the press recently that they have no plans to forcibly remove the Occupy Philadelphia encampment.
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