I only stayed at the courthouse for a half-hour or so yesterday, so if anything happened near the end of the demonstration and counterdemonstration I have no firsthand knowledge of it. When I was there, though, the Occupiers easily outnumbered those who had come to protest the Occupation. The “Take Back Our Courthouse” folks seemed to have fallen far short of the 250 bodies they had predicted.

There were earnest and heartfelt people on both sides, and also quite a few kooks. One troubled Antioccupier was spitting his rage at any and all enemies within earshot. Some of his compatriots gave this fellow small verbal back-pats and consolation, exactly in the way that adults will encourage a developmentally disabled child: a laudable human impulse, gone wrong.

The more out-there Occupiers seemed drawn to the profane.

“You want to fuck me?” one Occupier calmly asked an Antioccupier. “Why do you want to fuck me?” His would-be partner just stared out into the street, holding up his misspelled sign.

“You can’t see the forest past your pecker!” a more excitable Occupier screamed at his foe. The guy chuckled and just said: “What?”

At one point, another of the more hyped-up Occupiers suddenly and loudly announced to all that one of the counter-demonstrators had just literally threatened him with murder. People turned their heads looked for about 20 seconds while the guy gave his declamatory speech, but no one took him seriously.  

Nonetheless, you could see what seemed to be real conversations happening here and there. That was nice.

Right before I left, Occupy Eureka’s Jack Nounnan handed me a flyer. He said — somewhat sharply, I thought — that it would be interesting to see what I make of it. 

What I made of it is that Jack himself seems tired of the outpatient-style behavior that people seem to associate with Occupy Eureka, and that he’s frustrated that more of the target audience isn’t listening to the message that Occupy is trying to get out. On the surface his blast blames the police for this, but hidden between the lines is a sort of apology, or at least a plea for understanding.

More generally, I’d observe that historic times and historic movements call for a freshening of language and imagery and tactics, yet the flyer itself is composed in that same old clangorous style that has deadened our senses this last decade and more.

But judge for yourself. The text of the flyer is below.

There is a total misunderstanding of what’s happening at the Eureka courthouse, while it is constantly inflamed and purposely misrepresented by police who have blamed those who are part of this protest for the conflicts that have arisen.

Their own cameras focused on us 24/7 for these past months prove who is attempting to keep the peace .. prove who is constantly cleaning up or running to intervene and stop those few who do not represent our purposes here, those being rude … yelling and even intimidating at times with those entering and leaving the building.

None of these conflicts are part of our work here … and police know quite well what’s going on.

This ‘Occupy’ movement is built on the principles of non violence, demonstrating for human rights and exposing this government for what it has become at the hands of corporate dominance. The tragedy of this is how anyone will allow any type of misunderstandings to undermine these purposes which are so vital and crucial for all people who have been victimized by the wealthy, victimized by those robbing us regularly and for generations.

It’s been getting far worse, for corporations are finding new ways of taking our hard earned monies and savings, throwing folks out of their homes, 40,000+ corporations escaping to other countries to avoid taxes and taking those millions of jobs with them, others refusing to pay their share of taxes at home … corporations running our lives through buying our government reps, stripping us of our very rights and ruining our environment to boot, to where it’s questionable if we can even survive. They have marginalized and undermined everything we hold dear, but too many of us are still not seeing how far this has gone.

We at the courthouse deal with the conflicts this government has ignored rather than seeing and lending a hand to fix. This includes those homeless and criminalized by local police for sleeping, a city that allows no sleeping anywhere! Our people are overwhelmed by those who themselves are victims and drinking heavily to escape … and those few who will not listen enough for us to altogether stop their outbursts in public. But we know of no time when they have physically injured anyone entering or leaving that building!

Local government also represents the 1%, here, because there is never enough funds to solve and serve our human needs, but there is always enough for the wealthy concerned and police enforcement of even illegal laws.

We protest at the courthouse … to expose these truths and find ways to change all this before it’s too late. All this needs greater public involvement and greater commitment to the truth. No matter what people have been told or wish to believe, we abhor these misunderstandings created and separating us from any part of our entire community.

— ‘Occupy’ Eureka