Video- US uses excessive force to end non-violent movement

A political activist says the US government is seeking to end the Occupy Wall Street movements by inciting violence and using excessive force upon the peaceful protesters.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Aram Nathan Sohigian from the Occupy San Francisco movement to further discuss the issue.

The following is a transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Give us a little update with Occupy San Francisco. And what have you seen with Occupy San Francisco that would have been your impact?

Sohigian: First of all, thanks very much for having me and for broadcasting this information around the world. With Occupy San Francisco, I actually haven’t been able to be down there for the last couple of days, unfortunately.

Yet, the Mayor Ed Lee has basically said that they are going to take it down. But there is a union group of about 500 people that are coming out to defend them. People are really starting to change things. They’ve opened up the Bocce ball court which was a major sort of problem with people actually playing Bocce ball again. They’ve moved tents so it’s much more open.

There’s really no reason for them to be raided at this point because they’re trying to do everything the mayor has asked for, and to be as peaceful as possible. It is an entirely non-violent movement and this will take time. It will make a movement, and it is making a change at this point.

Press TV: We had a guest earlier on the show and one of the questions I asked her was about the increase in violence that is occurring. Where do you see the violence escalating with the Occupy movements continuing at this point in the US?

Sohigian: Great question. I think that right now the government – and you’re looking at a lot of them being democratic mayors so it sort of shows, again, that the government – democratic or republican, doesn’t make a difference at this point.

They’re coming down. They’re using teargas. They’re using batons. They’re using anything they can like pepper spray – like they did with that 84 year old lady who was pepper sprayed in Seattle two or three days ago to shut down this movement, because they are starting to realize how much it is affecting life. And it is changing government.

In two months, it’s unbelievable how quickly it’s changed government, actually, and is going to continue. So, the government is getting very scared. The people in power, the elite are getting very worried that we are actually going to start getting more people, the real “99 percent”, to pay attention.

That is happening. And as that is happening more, there will be more violence. We are a non-violent movement so we won’t be a part of that, but the government seems to want to force that hand because they try to make us become violent so that they can use it against us. But we won’t. We refuse to.