Topics: dawn raid ♦ riot gear ♦ robert reich

Former U.S. labor secretary and University of California professor Robert Reich said Tuesday that efforts to crack down on the ongoing "Occupy" protests around the country actually helped to strengthen the movement.

Police in riot gear evicted "Occupy Wall Street" protesters from their encampment at New York City's Zuccotti Park in a surprise pre-dawn raid Tuesday. Spin-off protests in numerous other cities have also recently faced police action. But the protesters inevitably return.

"Every movement that has occurred over the last 75 years of American history… when they are cracked down upon, when there is a violent effort to end them — and also especially when the members of the movement maintain a kind of peacefulness, non-violence, civil disobedience — that strengthens the movement," Reich said.

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below: