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    Breitbart Smears Occupy Baltimore

    By Donal on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 11:02am | Politics

    A lot of strangers are thrust together at the Occupy camps, and I had read that a woman complained about being hit on by three different men on her first visit to the Occupy Baltimore (OB) site. So it isn't a surprise that OB would take steps to deal with the problem of sexual harassment. But yesterday's Baltimore Sun carries this article, 'Occupy' memo could discourage victims from reporting assaults:

    Efforts by the Occupy Baltimore protest group to evolve into a self-contained, self-governing community have erupted into controversy with the distribution of a pamphlet that victim advocates and health workers fear discourages victims of sexual assaults from contacting police.

    The pamphlet says that members of the protest group who believe they are victims or who suspect sexual abuse "are encouraged to immediately report the incident to the Security Committee," which will investigate and "supply the abuser with counseling resources."

    The directive also says, in part, "Though we do not encourage the involvement of the police in our community, the survivor has every right, and the support of Occupy Baltimore, to report the abuse to the appropriate authorities."

    In Building safer spaces in the midst of occupations, Kate at Occupy Baltimore calls bullshit:

    You all been reading the news today? Watching Twitter? Following the #occupybaltimore hash-tag? Then you've seen the controversy around an article posted on Andrew Breitbart's "Big Government" that's little more than a rabid right-wing smear campaign attempting to de-legitimate #OB's policies around sexual assault.

    I'm a woman, and I'm someone who has worked alongside countless survivors of sexual abuse and assault. So please believe me, and let me be very clear about something: no one at #OB has ever suggested that women, men, or gender-non-conforming persons of any sort should feel uncomfortable going to the authority of their choosing to report sexual abuse, assault, or harassment. Period.

    The Sun only got around to mentioning Big Government as a source of the article in the thirteenth paragraph, but in the Crime Beat blog, Occupy Baltimore pamphlet on sexual assault causes alarm Peter Hermann defends their reporting:

    The pamphlet came to our attention from a blogger posting on Andrew Breitbart's big government web site. The memo's author told me she only wanted to make sure victims knew they had an alternative to calling police.

    Nevertheless, the Sun article leads with Big Government's sensationalist take on the memo, burying the group's clarification in the fourteenth paragraph. The Sun just erected a paywall, but why should I pay the Sun when I can read the same spin at Andrew Breitbart's site for free?

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    The Sun hasn't been worth reading for years. The new firewall will only result in even fewer readers.


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 11:31am

    Interesting. Dumbart tends to get on my nerves.

    He has no historical depth or philisophical gravitas so I become less enraged than when I read Buchanan or Newt.

    He is just a straight out liar; always has been and always will.

    O'Donnel just reamed him a new one lately and it was hilarious!

    Fox and its cohorts have been on this anti-semetic rant; which is also interesting with rush chiming in that the Jews make-up 1% of the population and everyone knows that the Jews are the bankers. hahahahaa

    This is to be expected. I mean the right will infiltrate 'the movement' and spin and twist and do anything they can to disrupt it.

    Stewart has been doing the best job of demonstrating the hypocrisy of all of this by simply publishing the videos of the fascists arguing for free speech and for the right of assembly--in 2009 of course.

    Again, thanks for the on the street report.


    by Richard Day on Thu, 10/20/2011 - 4:51pm

    The Sun allowed a protestor to, well, protest their article:

    Well, it’s finally happened.  Occupy Baltimore, the 100-person occupation fighting valiantly to stay above water, has made the national news. (In your face, D.C.) We're all over the blogosphere and the countrywide radar … for creating a sexual offense policy that doesn't recommend reporting assault to the police.

    The problem is, it's not true.  The policy in question was drafted by an ad hoc security committee during the beginning of our occupation in McKeldin Square, and that team has been almost entirely replaced in the weeks since. It was barely even discussed, and never ratified, by our General Assembly. In fact, it was basically forgotten until a right-wing blogger came around to dig through our trash, looking for a juicy weakness to exploit.  

    ... while this policy wasn't an official policy, it was still a problem. Just like the blasé dismissal of media critiques as "trolling," it's indicative of the larger dynamics at play in McKeldin Square.  Dominant, mostly male voices are calling constantly for an end to discussion of "gender-specific issues" in order to focus on the nebulous call for economic reform, which has defined the Occupy protests across the nation. Complaints of sexual harassment at the site are belittled as "personal problems," as though it's somehow possible to affect change as a divided and internally oppressive community.

    A week ago, this really upset me. I was ready to walk out of the General Assembly; I stormed to everyone who would listen that I hadn't come here to fight the same old fight against male privilege. But something -- habit? exhaustion? demented hope? -- convinced me to linger.  I drank herbal tea with my new friends, conspired for a better world, and realized that there's no way I'm going anywhere.

    Full blog here.

    From what I saw on Day 18, though, OB security still has a bugaboo about people calling the po-lice.


    by Donal on Tue, 10/25/2011 - 2:50pm

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