A while ago, when I taught in Los Angles, teachers went on strike, and I, as the building representative at my school, became a strike captain.
As the date of the strike approached, I passed on all the information I was given by Union leaders and legal staff members at strike captain meetings, and among it was what we could and could not do to keep everything legal.
Not blocking campus entrances and exits, making sure we kept moving so that we were a picket line and not an unauthorized assembly, keeping our language clean and avoiding name calling, and at no time approaching the scabs who either were non-striking teachers or substitutes hired to cover classes were the easiest things those on strike had to keep in mind.
The more nebulous instructions were to avoid doing anything that could be considered illegal or could place other strikers in danger. Strikers were advised to check out any “good ideas” of things to do with strike captains. No one was to be a lone wolf.
For a number of days there were no incidents city-wide that violated any instructions, nor were there any at my campus until one teacher, who was usually self controlled, bent over one afternoon as scabs were leaving the campus, picked up a piece of loose concrete, and threw it at a picket line crosser’s car. The “rock” bounced off the hood of the moving car and hit a student who was standing on the opposite side of the car from the teacher. Although the student was not harmed, the action was witnessed by many, and a parent called the police whose station was one block away.
I removed the teacher from the area to a house across the street where a Teamster had seen the whole incident and thought his house could serve as a holding area until the police arrived to both protect the teacher in the event there was a reaction, and to show we did not tolerate anyone doing something like that and staying on the line.
At my insistence, the union took no action to get the teacher out of the jail until the next day to teach him the proverbial lesson and give a strong example to the other picketers to follow established procedure. When he was released he was to go straight home and not report to the school until the strike was settled, and Unions legal counsel handled any results of his actions.
In all of Los Angeles and with about 30,000 teachers on picket lines, this was the only negative event, but it made the news and painted all of us as thugs who had no hesitation taking actions that negatively affected students.
When Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown faced off for the senate seat in Massachusetts, an organized group of Warren supporters met in Barnstable to stand in the rear of the crowd assembled for a Scott Brown appearance on the town green, and quietly hold Warren signs without interfering with the proceedings, but to be seen.
At our assembly place we were given instructions on how to deport ourselves. We were to stand still, hold signs, say nothing, and avoid any confrontation.
However, after a few minutes of doing as instructed, one person began yelling and interrupting Scott Brown’s speech. She was obviously uninformed on issues, and, as the only one saying anything was taken to be the leader of the group. Things got ugly between her and the Brown supporters at the rear of the crowd, and many of us looked for, and found, convenient moments to slink away.
The main component which is referred as the essential one is Sildenafil citrate. buy cheap cialis These are chewable medication that men tadalafil overnight http://secretworldchronicle.com/2019/09/ep-9-39-interlude-giants-in-the-ocean/ can simply chew and swallow. This attribute of http://secretworldchronicle.com/tag/corbie/ canada cialis from is being effective for noticeable duration. Kamagra medicine http://secretworldchronicle.com/2018/01/ viagra from usa acts duly as erection enhancer and anti-ED (Erectile Dysfunction) solution. In these and other similar moments during rallies and civil actions I have attended, I am aware that no matter how carefully planned something may be, and no matter how clearly dos and don’ts are spelled out and followed, there are always those in the heat of the moment who act stupidly and independently which brings shame on and a false impression of the majority.
Whether they act without thinking, or use the correct actions of the majority as a cover for their own agenda, there have been many events over the past year when those who follow instructions and the true agenda of the organizers get overshadowed by the rogue actions of those who falsely become the face of the rest.
Quite often these rogues act against the police, and deaths have occurred. But these were neither the intentions of the organizers, or a sanctioned act. It is an act of an individual who hides behind the rest so as to have the opportunity to act, leaving the rest to get mislabeled and earn distrust.
I don’t like those people.
Most Americans are horrified when police officers are targeted by individuals who are the rogue elements of a movement, but what of those groups whose actions are based on doing harm to law enforcement, who intend to do harm and make that known?
A year and a half ago when the Bureau of Land Management went after Cliven Bundy for fees due for grazing his cattle on public land, the Oath Keepers, a right wing militia group, showed up to offer support, and part of that support was to aim their rifles and assault weapons at law enforcement, obviously prepared to shoot if they did something of which the Oath Keepers did not approve.
It wasn’t that a few people broke from the group’s plan to take their own actions. These were the group’s actions.
Now, Stewart Rhodes, the founder of Oath Keepers, has announced that he is sending armed Oath Keepers to Kentucky to keep U.S. Marshals from arresting Kim Davis, if Judge Bunning orders her back to jail if she does not comply with court orders.
Obviously the most effective way to do this is by using their rifles.
This will be the second time this organization will be aiming its guns at law enforcement officers. It is not the case of someone using the group’s peaceful action as cover. It is a group planning to do it.
As Rhodes states:
“As far as we’re concerned, this is not over, and this judge needs to be put on notice that his behavior is not going to be accepted and we’ll be there to stop it and intercede ourselves if we have to. If the sheriff, who should be interceding, is not going to do his job and the governor is not going to do the governor’s job of interceding, then we’ll do it.”
It is rather frightening that people are quick to pass judgment on those who have protested what many consider to be unnecessary police shootings because of actions perpetrated by individuals who hide behind an organized action, but seem unfazed by a group that on two occasions, one in the past and one being organized, plans to aim guns at law enforcement.