I had an interesting conversation last week with a fellow protester at Occupy San Diego. We were standing in front of a dozen or so SDPD officers trying to come up with ways to discourage the police from brutalizing our oh-so-peaceful brothers and sisters.
At the time, I was holding a sign that read “Hey SDPD: When your grand kids ask who you supported during the revolution, which side do you want to tell them you were on?” The sign also included a link to Occupy Police, a website where police nationwide join the 99% in our revolution and spread the message to other officers.
We wondered how many police officers, the ones that had wrongly committed violence, would actually go home and tell their wife or kids what they had done. How many were actually proud of that fact and would want to tell their family and friends? Probably not many.
An idea came out of that conversation. A grand idea, in my humble opinion.
Every single person reading this has Googled themselves at some point, or least have had their names Googled by someone else. I know there are times when I have been bored and Googled my family, just to see what information would show up.
My grandparents served honorably in the military. I would be ashamed if I had Googled their names and found that they were accused of beating prisoners or were involved in other acts of that nature.
That is where I would like to step in. I want to create a database of videos that detail police brutality around the United States. I want to get proof of the officers’ involvement and tie their names to those videos. I want those videos to go viral and embed themselves within the unforgetting and unforgiving brain of the Internet.
Five years down the road, or ten, or fifty. Their names will be Googled for a number of reasons. Nobody wants to be tied to this brutality. Standing tall in their riot gear, guns at the ready, many police believe they can hide behind their badge anonymously.
I want the police to know that in this day and age, that cannot happen.
I will not let that happen.
The next time police officers are preparing to commit violent acts against peaceful protesters, I sure hope they think twice. Not to save themselves from the embarrassment, but to save their family and friends from it.
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I think is GENIUS! Make multiple copies overseas so there can be no back peddling later. This will also help the revolutionary tribunal convict criminals.
I am reminded to the last few government people left behind when the Berlin Wall came down, shredding documents in the Stasi basement. Ain’t gonna happen this time.
Conversely, being on the indelible record like this will likely make people on both sides of the revolution far more committed. Just a thought.
An absolutely brilliant use of the POWER of the internet! My best wis.hes
I think the police in canada should grab the data base of the gun registry that our gov’t is going to destroy & send it viral before all the data is destroyed. Our gov’t is voting to destroy it, whereas right now it is helpful to police in solving crimes & preparing themselves before going into situations. It is disgusting – but that is the payback for our country being stupid enough to elect a right-wing conservative government. And, police themselves, I believe are not allowed to speak out on these things. Just watched the videos of the police bashing unarmed students in the guts at Berkeley last night – it was very hard to watch since the students were peaceful. I honestly could see absolutely no reason why they were arresting people either.
Thanks for your replies. I have discussed this with quite a few people. A minority of them believe it seems rather radical, but I believe it is nothing more than holding someone accountable for their actions.
Please do proceed. ask others for help. this needs to be done. Personal responsibility is the next step in this movement – hold the violent cops accountable.