A Riot Breaks Out in Occupy Wall Street General Assembly

On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, a riot broke out in the general assembly. Nan Terrie, who has been trying to dissolve the Occupy Wall Street Spokes Council for months, had presented a proposal to the GA to dissolve Spokes. The proposal was tabled. Ms. Terrie does not have support from the OWS community, for reasons covered in my previous article titled Anti Rape Activist Nan Terrie Banned From Spokes Council. She was there at the General Assembly with her friends from Occupy Newark. As the GA was still considering a proposal to reduce the number of general assemblies, her friends had asked to be placed on stack. Apparently they didn't think it was a good idea to have less general assemblies.  They were apparently upset at Ms. Terrie's proposal being rejected by the OWS community. They decided to intervene on Nan's behalf and make statements. The facilitator informed them that stack was closed. The friends insisted they had the right to be on stack. The facilitator refused to put them on stack. Nan's crew grew angry, and loudly disrupted the meeting making accusations of oppression and marginalization. The team proposing reduce the number of GA's tabled the proposal and left.  Meanwhile, supporters of the GA argued with Nan's crew.  The situation escalated into violence. After things simmered down, the GA made a statement condemning the violence of the act, and Nan Terrie herself. Sage and one other member of the GA pointed out that they came from abusive backgrounds and that they held no interest in being in abusive environments or seeing abuse. A woman of color in the General Assembly said that people of color cannot use racism and marginalization to get away with the acts of violence, or to oppress and bully others. After hearing statements from Occupiers, Nan's crew seemed to calm down and they returned to their bus on the way to Newark.