Justice
The 'Occupy' Protests and the Burden of the City
As cities like Oakland and Atlanta crack down, remember the vital civic role city centers play
I woke up Wednesday morning to images of the Oakland Police Department violently repressing Occupy Oakland protestors with tear gas and flash grenades. Instinctively I rebel against that kind of treatment of non-violent demonstrators, and I have some not-so-fond recollections of receiving somewhat similar treatment over a decade ago in my student/protestor days. Still, as I’ve gotten older, wiser, and more interested in municipal government it’s become hard for me not to have some sympathy with big city police departments forced to grapple with mass protests.