When Violent Mike Attacks...

So there I was at OccupyLA, trying to save the world as usual or at least save the hippies from the police and themselves or vice versa. The second week into my mid-October 3-week-straight stay there the comically tragic circus was in full tilt. Most notably, at the General Assembly the evening prior to this incident, there had been a huge argument and breakdown of standard operating protocol when the facilitation committee had decided they suddenly wanted to use the "peoples' mic" to conduct the General Assembly, completely ignoring and forgoing the PA system and livestream camera the media team had setup. The reasons you will hear for this are random, flimsy, questionable, and scattered, but nonetheless, the facilitation committee had decided they were going to do things that way without asking or telling anyone beforehand, so when it came time for the GA, basically all hell broke loose with people questioning why they would want to use the peoples' mic and stand in the dark when there was a perfectly lit stage, PA system, and media broadcast setup there specifically to be used for the GA.

Nevada thinks it was a conspiracy to derail the movement since voting for "90% majority" verus "complete consensus" approval was on the agenda for that evening's GA, I don't know, so I digress.

This absurdity and confusion lead to an hour or so of well-documented chaos as elements within the crowd revolted against the facilitation committee responsible for sending the PA back into the dark ages out of "solidarity," but it even made a wikileaks press release, so I'm fairly sure that whole preceding incident is well-covered if anyone wants to check it out. I was on the media committee's side, questioning the logic and motives of the members of the facilitation committee responsible for deciding not to use the existing microphone system and set, but all I did was wander about the crowd with my camera recording the whole event in the dark, and ask those facilitation committee members responsible what they hell they were thinking and who gave them the authority to do what they did. No biggie.

Eventually the whole fiasco got resolved and they went back to using the microphone so everyone could hear that evening, but not without the entire scene descending into pandemonium for at least an hour first. Prior to that evening I hadn't even known there was a facilitation committee or that anyone was specifically responsible for the GA and its format, so as I was watching the seemingly insane storyline unfold it was all news to me that people "behind the scenes" were responsible for what I was witnessing, and the next day I planned to get to the bottom of what was going on and specifically who was responsible for making these sorts of decisions if not the entire campsite.

The next day I got up and went wandering about the campsite as usual, and as I randomly ran into the various people who were seemingly part of the facilitation committee from the previous evening, I went up to them one-by-one to talk about what was going on and smooth out everything to make sure there were no hard feelings, as obviously this was a procedural argument, nothing personal. Everything went well and all the people cool, mostly resulting in brief conversations of explanation and then just laughing about the insanity of the previous night's breakdown in structure. Well...except for Mike.

Mike, that one black dude seen hitting my phone out of my hand in the above video. Yeah, we need to have a talk about him. I had only spoken to him once before, on the second or third day I was there, with my typical "So what brings you to OccupyLA?" opening question. He was one of those types that doesn't like to share his story or reveal much (the complete opposite of me), but in that brief conversation he said that he had previously been a substitute teacher or something like that. Something that would obviously never lead me to expect such an insane behavioral reaction from him as my phone caught a fraction of before being violently knocked from my hand by him.

Some context to the above video. I had been out walking that morning gathering random footage of everything for Truman's (the puppet tiger) show, holding Truman in my right hand as always and holding my camera in my left hand making him appear to be speaking about everything that was going on in the camera's field of vision in the background. I had just returned from across the street after noticing there were like 100 police vehicle surrounding the block where the LAPD station also happened to be. I found that spectacle curious when I saw it, so I grabbed the puppet tiger and my camera and went across the street to check it out and comment on it up close and personal as Truman also talked about all his ideas for plans to save the "hippies" and "stormtroppers" from each other and history from all of it. When I came back into the OccupyLA camp I was standing on the hill there recording footage of Truman talking in front of City Hall for my show when up walks Mike (who I now refer to as Violent Mike, for obvious reasons)...

When I saw Mike walk up I said "Hey Mike, about last night, no hard feelings." as he was apparently one of the facilitation committee members running that "peoples' mic" version of the GA that had caused all the drama with the camp. He said "Naw man I don't even want to talk to you." which I found f5cked up but amusing b/c I hadn't even done anything nor even directly interacted with him the previous evening (remember everyone else involved was totally cool and we talked and laughed about the GA protocol debacle, he was just one of the "cast" moderating that evening), so since my cameraphone was already in my left hand and the puppet tiger was in my right hand, I just pushed record on the camera to record the conversation as the puppet tiger attempted to get to the bottom of why Mike has such serious issues about things that he really shouldn't...only to have Mike instantly get physical and violent out of nowhere as can be seen in the video.

That was messed up. The moment he swung on me my phone was knocked out of my hand, and in complete shock and disbelief I immediately threw my hands up and just looked up at both security cameras on the corners of City Hall only hoping they were getting all this, because obviously behaving physically violently like that towards anything/anyone much less me simply trying to have a peaceful conversation is so far out of line and out of bounds I can't even begin to comprehend it. After I picked up my phone (luckily still functioning...which is good...because it's my lifeline and I can't afford to replace it at the moment) and everyone had come in to protect and surround us, Mike continued to make threats of physical violence like "I'll shove that camera up your ass." causing me to turn the camera on and record the tail end of one of the times he said that, which is what you see at the end of the clip.

And that is what you see above. Now, here's the kicker --- that isn't even the big deal. The big deal is when Mike once again violently swung on me and sucker-punched me in the face a day or two later, when I wasn't even recording him nor speaking to him nor even aware or concerned he was in my vicinity as I was taking a picture of my other friend Alex wearing a Stroh's shirt (which I found cute enough to find Facebook picture worthy). Unfortunately for me (fortunately for Mike) that incident didn't get recorded by me, b/c like I said, I wasn't there trying to record Mike or it, so my phone was in regular camera mode, not videocamera, and I only got the picture of Alex wearing the Stroh's shirt which is what I was interested in in the first place. (If you're curious, you can see it here: http://hasanyoneseenmytail.blogspot.com/2011/11/alexs-clever-fashion-sense.html)

To elaborate on that incident, there I was walking about the camp minding my own business doing my own thing as usual, when in passing I saw another guy I had met in an amusing context named Alex wearing a t-shirt that said "Stroh's." I got the cleverness of the joke (Alex the dog from the Stroh's commercials? Google it or listen to Funky Cold Medina by Tone Loc I guess), and being someone who records and shares interesting highlights and lowlights of my life for my friends and my future grandkids to see on Facebook and what not, I figured that joke was cute enough that I'd take a picture and upload it to Facebook as other people would get the joke Alex was making and enjoy his humor as well. Little did I realize in walking up to ask Alex if it was cool if I took a picture of him that "Violent Mike" was standing next to him having a conversation with some other dude I didn't know, when I did, I figured it wasn't a big deal as Mike was of no concern to me, so I just went about asking Alex and then taking the picture as planned.

As soon as I did, Mike noticed me and started talking sh5t in a very belittling and provocative way, saying things like "Oh, yeah, you just go around taking pictures of people and stuff." to which I replied "Yeah, I go around taking pictures of people and stuff. That's why I'm here." Alex had told me it was cool to take his picture, and he told Mike that directly, but Mike was looking for a fight and went back into his threatening physical violence mode saying "I'll shove that camera up your ass." (he's not very original either I guess), to which I just said "Dude, whatever." as I wasn't even there to talk to him nor deal with him in the first place. Apparently in Mike's world this is license to swing on someone the same way he swung on my cameraphone in this video, except in this case it was my face that he randomly blindsided with his fist.

Upon realizing he had knocked the sunglasses off my face and my beyond precious Droid once again out of my hand, and not being the type to take that kind of sh5t (even this atypically lean 160 lb version of myself), I immediately went for his neck to try and suffocate him into a passive state without causing any serious harm. I fell to my knees on the paving stones in the scuffle (ouch) and ultimately had him in a headlock as he kept punching me with his free hand by the time a group of strangers swarmed to break it up, but the experience of the insanity of his behavior has left me with very mixed feelings about the incident and OccupyLA in relation to it.

I managed to emerge relatively unscathed except for my pair of sunglasses which he broke when he blindsided my face with his fist. Apparently he left a knick in the center of my forehead, possibly caused by one of his nails, possibly caused by my sunglasses getting smashed on their way to flying off my face. Friends in the crowd suggested I have the medic look at it, so I did. She put some alcohol on it and I passed on the bandaid. Although I didn't feel it at first because of the adrenaline, my kneecaps were bruised causing it to hurt like hell to walk once the swelling kicked in, but other than that, luckily he didn't do any permanent physical harm to me. My phone did get one hell of a rash on the corner where it apparently impacted the ground before the battery and cover flew off, but apparently that Droid is as tough as I am b/c in whatever miracle that happened, it survived both attacks by Mike and rebooted without issue the moment the battery was reattached.

No thanks to Mike.

There is where I may have a problem with this moving forward. Mike's behavior as a human being was so far out of line, twice, that I no longer feel comfortable at the OccupyLA camp with him there. He could have easily caused much more harm than he did, and psychologically, principle-wise, he has. He has not apologized, much less offered to pay for my sunglasses or the harm he tried to do to my Droid. The insane fact that he feels it's OK to physically assault someone because they are taking pictures in a free and open public space of protest full of signs people have made specifically to be seen and have pictures taken of them is what bothers me most. As far as what the OccupyLA movement stands for and having a zero tolerance policy towards violence, I sincerely think Mike's behavior needs to be taken under particularly close scrutiny regarding this incident in that light. I've been quiet and passive about it thus far and "just let it go", but I'm not sure that's the right thing to do, because if he'll behave that way towards me, who else will he behave that way towards? What if they aren't so tough and lucky? Physical violence is not acceptable. His style of blindsiding assault and multiple threats of physical violence is especially odious.

Truth be told, I'm not sure how to feel about this series of incidents, which is why I bothered to take the time to write-out what happened when I stumbled across the footage. I'm OK, except for my pair of cheap $10-15 sunglasses, but principle and circumstance-wise, I'm not so sure. Mike has made the entire OccupyLA experience and brand extremely awkward if not undeservingly uncomfortable for me, and in contemplating my return visits I'm undecided on how to address this issue, which is why I decided to openly share what happened and ask for advice on the matter. Please, your suggestions are welcomed, especially from anyone directly involved with Occupy since people who behave like that are a threat anyone with a camera they don't like and the brand of the movement as a whole. I saw a news lady completely freak out because some guy simply pushed the camera away (see 1:40), if someone behaved towards her as Mike behaved towards me, they'd probably be in jail right now).

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

:)

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