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Oakland and Atlanta have exploded in the last 24 hours, after riot police decided to clear up Occupy protest camps in both cities.

In Oakland, riot police decided to raid the camps of peaceful Occupy protesters who set up camp in front of City Hall. The smoke from the relentless tear gas and rounds of rubber bullets are all that’s left after the street battle, in which police arrested over 85 protesters.

In Atlanta’s Woodruff Park, which is their Occupy camp site, at least 50 people were locked up, after police gave warnings to vacate the park. Organizers told all the demonstrators to remain peaceful if any arrests came.

That Civil Rights spirit of the sixties came through, as many in the Atlanta park came together, locked arms and sang “We Shall Overcome.”

The peaceful non-violent protest ended, when police entered the park leading each demonstrator out one-by-one to waiting buses. Many were dragged out while others left on foot, handcuffed with plastic ties. One of the arrested was none other than Atlanta’s State Sen. Vincent Fort, who was detained after coming to the park in support of the protesters.

Oakland and Atlanta are two cities steeped in political activism and have a legacy of demonstrating peaceful civil-disobedience.

Oakland has had a long history of standing up for human rights, from The Black Panthers of the 1960s, to the shooting death of Oscar Grant. The community has always fought on the side of good when bad things happen.

When Oscar Grant was shot in the back of the head by an East Oakland police officer in 2009, after the officer claimed he mistakenly reached for his stun gun, protesters took to the streets of Downtown Oakland to rally against police brutality, racial injustice and the use of excessive force by officers.

That same fighting spirit was on display last night, as Occupy Oakland protesters tried to defend themselves against the trigger happy Bay Area police.

In Atlanta, it wasn’t as violent or chaotic, but it did mirror the Civil Rights sit-ins of the 1960s. The Occupy Atlanta demonstrators were told to remain peaceful if the police came to run them out and that’s exactly what they did: they resisted the urge to fight back. Just like the Greensboro sit-ins of the 1960s as Blacks fought for the right to occupy “Whites Only” establishments, the people were peaceful, but they would not budge.

The non-violent strategy of civil disobedience is a practice that has been used during the Occupying of America. Each protest from around the nation aims not to engage in violence, but to inform the masses that corporate greed and using money as an influence in politics were not the founding principles of this country.

It’s time to holster the rubber bullets and subdue the tear gas. This is about peace.

-S.G.