So anything OWS does is right and everything police do is wrong

[Lawlbringer]

13. The Police

have always been easy to paint as villains when they do stuff that isn't popular. But when stuff goes down, the cops are always who people call for first.

I don't agree with a lot of stuff that was done by the NYPD during the tense beginnings of the OWS movement. However, I know people there on BOTH sides. So, I've heard different stories non step. Nobody wants to admit wrongdoing, whether they're Police or Protesters, but I actually have heard some from the people there in the trenches. So, yes, it's somewhere in the middle.

There are some Police Officers who were there to flaunt their power and abuse authority (that's universal, if you're a douche before you go into the academy, there's no reason why you won't be when you come out), but there were also protesters there who were willing to sacrifice others to gain attention. A Protester friend of mine said that she had heard a shout of "Let's stab them!" from behind her at a human barricade facing down the Cops, and then a huge shove from behind her surging a group forward as if charging the Police, who responded in kind. I also know of NYPD who used any flimsy excuse to arrest and use excessive force (Not just for the disgusting Tony Balogna, but he's the poster child for it.)

There are two sides to every story, but it's easy to villify the Police and Romanticize the OWS movement. Whether you agree or not, it's important to realize that they're all just individual people who do the right thing or stir the shit (so to speak) rather than generalize. There are good people there who are really doing the right thing and opposers of either side sadly seem to be too hesitant to see that.