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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What If They Sent in Social Services to Help Occupations Instead of Riot Cops to Bust Heads?

Cities are cutting back on vitally needed social services, while at the same time, buying expensive military gear for their police departments.

Occupations across the country have struggled to feed and shelter the least fortunate among us, and then faced often violent police crackdowns at great taxpayer expense. Pause for a moment and imagine what might result if mayors sent in social workers to help people rather than riot police to bust some heads?
In a society that tends to avert its gaze from the homeless, the hungry, the addicted and the mentally ill, the Occupy movement's compassion has become an albatross around its neck. “We don't exclude the people at the margins,” one protester at Occupy Oakland told me. “We invite them in and feed them.”

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