By: Nina Kay Carroll

At approximately 12:01 am, in near-freezing temperatures and gusting winds, the Dallas, Texas City Police Department reluctantly carried out their orders to sweep and disband the Occupy Dallas encampment. Officers in full riot gear, S.W.A.T. teams, officers on horseback, hundreds of police officers and flood lights marked the scene as an officer on a loud speaker pleaded with protesters to leave the camp peacefully. Protesters were told if they left peacefully, they would be allowed back in after the raid to retrieve their belongings. Protesters stood their ground waving American flags and shouting messages of love and support to the officers who were preparing to arrest them.

“We have a voice. You have a choice” could be heard loudly and clearly from the atoll where I stood videoing the scene. Roughly twenty meters away stood approximately 15 officers on horseback very quietly in the dark. If not for the lone white horse, I would never have noticed them. The megaphone squawked again instructing a reporter from Dallas Morning News named Roy he would be arrested if he remained in the camp. I did not see Roy or anyone else make a move to leave. Protesters would obviously be standing their ground until the bitter end. Cries of “Document” were shouted to me along with warnings to leave if I did not want go get arrested. Once police entered the encampment, I was motioned to move back where I stood next to officers trying to soothe a woman’s fears concerning her belongings. She said, “Y’all told us if we left peacefully, our stuff wouldn’t be torn up but they are clearly tearing up my tent.”

I was unable to see much from my vantage point due to the bright flood lights pointed away  from the camp and toward the bystanders. The effect was to blind people from observing the raid and the arrests. While standing there observing officers walking calmly throughout the camp, removing tents, while receiving no opposition, a protester could be heard joking to officers, “Don’t touch my porn”. The officers I spoke with seemed befuddled as to why the raid was taking place. One officer, who wished to remain unidentified, stated they had only been told shortly before the raid and only had just enough time to mobilize. He was shocked that it was taking place due to the agreement reached by the City of Dallas and the protesters only hours before allowing protesters to stay until 14 December as long as rules were followed. It appears the city breached their agreement with protesters and perhaps never intended to uphold its end of the agreement.

The last thing I was able to see were officers removing tents while protesters stood still and chanted, “This is what democracy looks like”. Reports state between 10-20 protesters have been arrested, no violence was employed from either side, the camp is fully cleared out with officers standing guard throughout the rest of the night. Whether or not the protesters return to the camp remains to be seen. Whether or not the City of Dallas will honor the agreement to allow protesters  to camp until the previously promised date of 14 December is unlikely. The city cited “safety concerns” but the words ring hollow to protesters and supporters of the movement as being a lame excuse for city administrators to attempt to end a movement that now has an approval rating of more than five that of the current U.S. Congress and roughly ten points above the approval rating of President Barack Obama.

The protesters had been camped behind Dallas City Hall to protest what many of the nation see as rampant corporate greed and corrupt government complicity. The main focus of what began as the Occupy Wall Street movement was the bailout of failed U.S. banks which were saved by the tax dollars of mostly the American middle class already suffering financially in a rough economy. The lack of many of the banks to pay taxes after receiving the bailout and awarding their CEOs multi-million dollar bonuses while millions of Americans are unemployed and lost their homes in foreclosure ignited a protest movement that has now gone global. Exacerbating the rage of protesters and supporters of the movement is the realization that the economic crises could have been avoided by these same banks causing Americans to demand the investigation and the prosecution of Wall Street corruption.

The raids to clean the camps after many weeks of increasing frustration on the part of city administration and ever-growing swell of support for Occupy protesters began with the 1am sweep of New York’s Zucotti Park and spread to other cities within 48 hours to the mostly peaceful protest in Dallas. The raids have been accused of being coordinated attacks by mayors and politicians who appear to be confused as how to handle the unique situation. The Occupy protesters are fighting back legally with the help of attorneys who support the movement by challenging arrests, suing for false arrests, unnecessary and excessive force by police and for civil rights violations based on freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. City administrators across the U.S. have argued the encampments were unsanitary and provided havens for criminals. Recent suicides and a Dallas rape of a 14 year old girl were used as points of reference to back their arguments. However, no data has been produced to show the percentage of crime per camp in ratio to the population compared to crime rates among the general non-encampment population.

The recent police raids appear to be the greatest cause of violence in the camps such as the Occupy Oakland (California) raid which resulted in tear gas cannisters being thrown into the crowds and striking an Iraqi war veteran whom had recently returned from two tours of duty. Scott Olsen’s critical head injury enraged many to denounce Oakland mayor, Jean Quan’s decision to use excessive force to disband the camp. The mayor retracted her stance after the public relations nightmare after which many demanded her immediate resignation. Many city administrators are faced with their own PR debacles and appears to increase support of the movement.

Luckily,  the Occupy Dallas raid did not result in violence nor any reported injuries, as of yet. The compliance of the protesters and the lack of violence on the part of protesters and the Dallas Police Department will hopefully encourage the city administrators to open dialogue with the protesters again and uphold the city’s promise to protesters to remain peacefully and safely until a resolution can be reached or the Occupy movement can organize itself into producing a cohesive message with attainable goals. The groundswell of frustrations and anger of the group that is said to represent the 99% of the American population is proving itself to be an unyielding force reminiscent of the Civil Rights Era “sit-ins”, will clearly not be going away anytime soon. Violence on the part of police and persecution by city officials has proven only to serve as a motivator for increased support of the movement, bring in new recruits and embolden the masses to prepare for a full-scale, modern American revolution.