A handful of good high precision grinding images I identified:
Dr. Jeff
Image by World T.E.A.M. Sports
Expedition doctor Jeff Evans cannot resist functioning his precision tweezers to clean some debris from Luis’ eye. World T.E.A.M. Sports’ October 2010 Soldiers to the Summit Expedition. Photo © Didrik Johnck 2010.
The Rebellion is About to be Crushed
Image by Viewminder
There had been hundreds of demonstrators occupying the corner of LaSalle and Jackson tonight on the sidewalk at the Bank of America Building.
Tension saturated the protest.
The City of Chicago’s had sufficient.
The police have been walking amongst the crowd.
The demonstrators have been told to move their things…
the meals cart…
indicators on the sidewalk…
the drums.
It was like a tiny game.
The cops would tell them to move it…
or preserve moving themselves…
and people would move the stuff around the corner.
Then the police would tell them to move it from there.
The officers had been stern about anybody crossing the curb into the street.
I got 1 of the cops alone and I told him…
‘I smell a crackdown.’
He looked me in the eyes and he only nodded his head up and down a couple of instances.
Although the protestors chant ‘whose streets’ and reply ‘our streets’…
the message is being conveyed quietly but efficiently.
These streets belong to the City of Chicago.
And the City is about to take them back.
Two items have been the physical center of the occupiers…
the meals cart exactly where folks could grab some thing to consume or drink… a bottle of water or a cup of coffee…
and the drums.
The drums utilized to sound loudly day and night.
They gave the complete movement a genuine pulse.
First the police apparently arrested a couple of men and women for playing them…
then they mentioned that they couldn’t be left on the sidewalk.
In their absence there is a nervous silence.
Whoever determined that the drums need to be taken out was genius.
I by no means gave so considerably believed to anything like the sound of a drum.
But observing the predicament tonight I realized that they gave the folks a specific power.
That energy is largely gone this evening.
And the warmth, sustinence and comraderie of the food cart has been taken away too.
A casual observer may not even notice the crackdown.
It is subtle and nicely believed out.
A longtime observer of the movement would see the influence instantly.
A sense of doom settled over the group even though the chanting and sign waving continued.
The drums had been gone.
Right here and there as folks gathered in clusters and conversations spilled out onto the sidewalk I could not aid but notice…
this is a time of crisis for The Occupation.
Although probably there was a certain wisdom in a ‘leaderless’ movement…
now there is no direction to turn to respond rapidly and strategically in a robust and unified manner.
The movement started as a proactive and spontaneous demonstration of the grievances and frustration of so several folks.
Now with no a leader to make fast and strategic decisions it can only respond in a weak and fragmented way to the crackdown by the City.
It has grow to be reactionary.
Right here and there folks are lobbying others to one course of action or one more…
Some say the group requirements to resist with greater intensity…
others want an out and out fight.
A single demonstrator in an ominous sign had a gas mask strapped to his side at the prepared.
Simply because the movement is openly democratic and all significant decisions are voted on publicly at the Basic Assembly meetings each night at ‘The Horse’ in the park…
the group is largely incapable of surprise.
The days of the occupation are numbered.
And I believe in the end they could be counted on one’s fingers.
The police have had much more than thirty days to plan a approach to rout the occupiers.
And when the police make their move the occupiers will be crushed with overwhelming force.
They will split up and they will be defeated in a matter of minutes.
A battle is not a time for democratic manuevering.
To win a battle a group should be cohesive, united and of 1 mind.
A victorious army is a product of many becoming a single.
With no a powerful and capable leader this will never ever take place.
These with a propensity for violence and mayhem will sieze the chance in the chaos and lash out in the moments before defeat is total and their actions will become the legacy of the group.
What an amazing factor to observe on the ground in the middle of it all.
I see it in the eyes and on the faces of the men and women who come to have their voices heard.
I see no imminent victory.
Really I’m shocked the city has demonstrated so much patience.
I suppose everyone believed that the weather would be the issue that ended it all.
I am certain the officials who are gonna have to give the orders hoped the exact same.
The greater ups are watching.
With the G8 and the Nato Summits coming up in May of 2012 there is a feeling that the City isn’t handling this too properly and that there is gonna be a prevalence of disorder and chaos then.
Get ready for the ‘dry run.’
The finish will come swiftly.
The protestors will be arrested and dispersed with precision.
Confident…
some windows will get broken.
Items will be thrown.
Yahoo’s will lash out and do stupid shit.
But it is gonna all be more than in a couple of minutes.
Occupiers…
it really is time to make a move.
And it really is gotta be a good 1.
How can you steer clear of a crushing defeat?
Regain your proactivity and get ahead of this.
It really is coming whether or not you happen to be prepared or not.
There will be no decisive victory.
How can you transition from this phase into the subsequent?
It’s not gonna take place by accident.
It really is time to feel.
It’s time to act.
The noose is tightening and you happen to be becoming surrounded.
Look at the thuggish behavior of the Illinois State Police final evening at the Thompson Center.
Nothing at all will be accomplished by holding your ground in front of an army that is overwhelming in physical strength and numbers and would possibly even relish the opportunity to ‘tune you up’ en masse.
In the face of all this… in the instant moment… without a dramatic and super-numeric show of help in the kind of thousands of reinforcements your epitaph has currently been written.
If tommorow more than 3 thousand show up and hyperlink arms and hearts and souls with the movement then everything I’ve mentioned is off the table… at least for some time.
Sources within the police division say that they could not deal with two thousand mass arrests.
Unless there are that a lot of prepared to call their bluff it is time to go to ‘Plan B.’
Given that there is no ‘Plan B’ someone’s gotta do some swift thinkin’.
If the authorities have been intelligent they’d give the group some victory in exchange for giving up the occupation at the present site.
But no one’s ever accused the authorities of being intelligent.
A bully will constantly respond to any threat to his dominance in a bullyish manner.
Occupiers… prepare to get your asses kicked.
Or…
tone it down…
back off a tiny…
regroup…
move into the ‘second phase.’
I have no thought what the ‘second phase’ is but it sounds logical.
I mean…
I am all for standing up for what is correct.
Given the correct circumstances I could be convinced to dig in and resist till the finish.
But would not it be greater to live to ‘fight’ one more day?
Gahd I hope I’m entirely wrong and I’ve entirely underestimated the courage, the fortitude, the ingenuity and the determination of the group.
Now is the time for deep thought.
If a battle can be won…
I say win it.
If a battle is particular to be disasterous…
I say keep away from it.
Although the group remains in its present type and enough strength…
what need to be regarded is what the legacy of these 5 weeks will be.
What victories have been won?
First the dissatisfaction of a large number of folks has been demonstrated… and their want for change has been heard far and wide.
Absolutely everyone can see about the globe that substantial numbers of us are not happy with the way that issues are going.
Second…
that the exact same men and women are willing to get off of their couches… move away from their televisions and take action to make our planet much better, far more just and level the financial ‘playing field.’
Third…
and it’s my opinion that the greatest of victories that this movement has succeeded at is driving the discussion of a nation for almost two months.
I believe the most incredible factor has been the sheer numbers of individuals who came to the occupation web site and talked to every other about what the planet need to appear like in the future.
This in itself is probably the greatest victory of all.
It means so significantly.
The way I see it there are two paths at this point…
imminent annihilation of the movement in a crushing defeat by the authorities…
or a strategic and proactive restructuring of the group and it is mission.
Personally… I dig the second path.
I’m not in the mood to be spittin’ up all the mucus in my lungs after suckin’ down a few too several breaths of tear gas even though a Chicago cop tunes me up with the business finish of his billyclub although he’s all dressed up like a hockey golie.
That shit would give me undesirable dreams for a while.
Lets hold our core sturdy… our base vast… our support intact and our occupiers free and wholesome and regroup for the winter.
The orginaization can be structured into more nearby cells below the umbrella of a central organization…
meetings can take location… a lot more supporters recruited… a higher organization achieved more than the coming months…
and in the spring or even right here and there in the meantime the movement can be known as on to pop up with tiny notice and demonstrate successfully for what it believes to be essential to our future as a group and a folks.
It really is time to go ‘guerilla.’
What started as a peaceful and non-violent movement should grow into a transition as a peaceful and nonviolent movement.
Let us stay true to our principles.
We have shown great commitment, restraint, cohesiveness and respect for the laws and customs of our society even as we criticized it and produced clear our wish for fantastic adjust.
We can make some thing of that.
One thing excellent.
If without considering we walk into a battle that can’t be won we will have squandered the help of so a lot of, the victories achieved and the tough work and sacrifice of thousands who believe that the future needs to be rethought and our globe changed for the betterment of all.
Or at least the 99%.
Let’s not let our buddies be brutalized on the street and have our brothers and sisters choking on the tear gas… our indicators and banners trampled by the riot police on horseback… and our complete movement summed up by that 1 video of a guy wearing a bandanna over his face as the tear gas flies and he throws a rock at the police.
We’ve worked too challenging and come too far for that.
We’re far better and we’re smarter and we’re a lot more grown up.
We have made our voices heard more than the final five weeks.
Let’s move into the future where we can attain one thing lasting and potent.
Let our legacy reflect the justice and equality and the greater society that we seek and the intelligence and comraderie which with we sought it.
With each other and powerful we can change the world with our motivation, determination, intelligence and patience.
Fragmented and crushed the last we will be seen or heard from is on the news on the day of our demise.
This is the moment that will figure out the future of our movement.
We require to be smart… stay powerful… stay united and make the most of this moment.
We stand for something fantastic.
We require to move forward with honor and strength and continue to challenge the status quo.
The moment is here.