#Occupy #Black #Friday #violence #2011
The Occupy Movement started an occupy retail movement to boycott publicly traded retailers and to have people not use their credit cards on Black Friday.
There was also rumors that the Denver chapter would be turning over carts full of products during the Black Friday sales at big box retailers causing as much disruption and attention as they could. The only evidence I saw of protesters down south was someone screaming out a window in a Kohl's parking lot at 3.30 in the morning telling everyone to go home and driving erratically and aggressively around the parking lot.
I don't agree with some of the Occupy tactics. I actually do think Black Friday has become a pretty extreme example of materialism and we could all take a breath and a look at ourselves when we are in the Black Friday throes of bargain seeking. It isn't just the big Black Friday headlines but in every store you will see conflict and argument and raised tempers. It is such a contrast to me to see that sort of thing going down when I've not 6 hours earlier been sitting at a table filled with bounty and surrounded by people I love. Speaking to each other about what things we have to be thankful for and focusing on our blessings and not our challenges.
But while I think we could tone it down, not go into debt for it, at the end of the day it should be people's choice how they spend their money. And they are helping the economy by spending. That's why I also put my money behind my belief that we are all part of a symbiotic equation that is currently unbalanced but represented by the flow of cash within the economy. I'd like to see more balance in the equation, I'd like to see the money flow thread it's way to people most in need, but I don't think destroying the current system by stagnating or slowing the economy, promoting a bank run, or causing violence and conflict is the best approach to generating the changes we need to see.
If America was a human body then I see the income inequality, the profits above all else mentality in some elements of the corporate world, and the corruption and manipulation of Government and laws to promote protectionism and anti competitive behavior as a cancer affecting an otherwise healthy body. It will grow if left unchecked and it will eventually bring things so far out of whack that it will kill the patient.
When the patient is sick with cancer you don't kill the patient to cure the cancer which is the impression I am getting on their strategy lately from the Occupy movement. They seem to believe the system is so far gone that only total collapse will get us from where we are at to where we need to be.
I disagree. I think we have a ton of tools at our disposal to facilitate the changes we need to make. I think the changes start with each and every individual out there. I think the Occupy movement has done an awesome job of raising awareness and attention to some of the issues. What we need now are action plans and solutions to those issues. We need cooperation between those with wealth and those without, between corporates and individuals, between the Government and the Public. Basically we need to get off our arses as a Nation and pull together to make some significant changes.
But I don't think it is fair to take the protests to the bank tellers in branches no matter how angry we might all be at the inept management and out of control risk taking that got us here in the first place. I don't think it is fair to take the protests to retail clerks and store workers who's only crime is that they work for a company that the Occupy movement has declared a villain. Every publicly traded retailer is not evil and out to take advantage of the 99%. Most of them are acutely aware they need the 99% to survive. Also not fair to put retail staff under extreme pressure situations on the day of the year that already has a huge amount of pressure for them. I think some of the proposed tactics sounded like they would inflame an already volatile situation. Luckily the violence, bad as it was, hasn't degenerated into a full scale route in any of the stores Black Friday events. Although Black Friday seems to continue onto Saturday in many locations so I guess we aren't out of the woods yet.
Some violence sadly did occur.
Here on Black Friday there was a shooting in a Walmart parking lot
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45434817/#.TtCJrGMr2nC
There were also Black Friday incidents in the form of a pepper spraying incident and riots within stores plus an overzealous arrest that injured a man allegedly trying to free his hands to pick up his grandson but mistaken as attempting to shoplist. You can read more about the violence here.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/26/us-usa-retail-violence-idUSTRE7AO15H20111126
Stay safe if you continue to shop over Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
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