Are Federal Officials Pushing a Nationwide Crackdown on the Occupy Wall Street Movement?

Several news stories this week raised the possibility that local and federal law enforcement agencies had coordinated a series of crackdowns on Occupy Wall Street camps across the country. The tale set off a wave of dark speculation. Were cities under some sort of federal orders to evict their local occupiers? Had “the establishment” finally had enough? Was Barack Obama, conveniently out of the country during the raids, ultimately responsible for clearing out campers in New York , Oakland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland and several other municipalities over the past few days?

The narrative began to gel when Oakland Mayor Jean Quan casually mentioned to the BBC that she'd taken part in a conference call with officials from 18 other cities to discuss what to do with their respective occupiers. Then, the Examiner offered a story, based on an anonymous Justice Department source, about how federal agencies (Homeland Security and the FBI) had offered assistance to local police, including advice that officials justify the crackdowns by citing health and safety issues and avoid setting fixed deadlines that would allow occupiers to rally their supporters before cops moved in.

MoJo's Andy Kroll confirmed that the US Conference of Mayors had organized two conference calls between various city officials, and the Associated Press reported that the Police Executive Research Forum had organized two additional calls to discuss what tactics to employ in the raids.

On Tuesday, I got word that a source within Mayor Quan's office was willing to talk, off-the-record, about this "coordinated" effort to smash the movement. It turned out that the adviser had no firsthand knowledge of the conference call that Quan participated in. But he noted that this kind of information-sharing – swapping intelligence, tactics and strategies – is simply a routine part of modern law enforcement, especially in the post-9/11 era. “I don't really understand why this is a story,” he told me. “We have emails, we have phones, there are various list-servs that cops and city officials – and, yes, DHS – use to talk to each other about all sorts of problems that are common to our cities.” He added: “Why would anyone think we don't talk?” In other words: the story is much ado about nothing at all.

Of course, if federal authorities were ordering cities to crack down on their local occupations in a concerted effort to wipe out a movement that has spread like wildfire across the country, that would indeed be a huge, and hugely troubling story. In the United States, policing protests is a local matter, and law enforcement agencies must remain accountable for their actions to local officials. Local government's autonomy in this regard is an important principle.

But that's not what is being alleged. The Examiner article that got so many tongues wagging noted that “while local police agencies had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies, the ultimate decision on how each jurisdiction handles the Occupy protests ultimately rests with local law enforcement.” Andy Kroll reported that officials from several of the cities that have seen recent crackdowns denied that they'd participated in the calls. And occupations remain strong in other cities across the country. Ironically, the occupation that arguably maintains the best relationship with local officials is Occupy DC, and the Washington, DC government is directly overseen by Congress.

Which leaves us with advice being passed around among various agencies about how best to approach an eviction – or, as Jean Quan's staffer put it, “Why would anyone think we don't talk?”