I guess it is a stupid way to get your idea across... and it does tend to alienate people.

[JDPriestly]

233. I think that at least one of them was there to disrupt OWS.

Burning flags is not consistent with OWS's activities in general. That's not the sort of thing they are likely to do. They want new economic solutions, but they aren't anti-US-government in the traditional, 1960s sense.

OWS decides what actions it will take by consensus in the general assemblies.

This was either a group not really associated with the general assembly of the OWS in Oakland or a break-away group. Either way, I suspect there was an agitator loyal to some other group nudging this small group of people in a direction that is not related to the mostly economic focus of OWS. The agitator could have been associated with the government or any sort of other group. I was not in Oakland, but I seriously doubt that this action was decided by the general assembly in Oakland.

Oakland is a strange case because of the unresolved conflicts between the police and a lot of citizens in Oakland.