New York, NY: At around 6 AM on November 15, 2011, attorneys associated with the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild working as the Liberty Park Legal Working Group obtained a temporary restraining order against the City of New York, various City agencies, and Brookfield properties directing that occupiers be allowed back on the premises with their belongings.
Earlier, at approximately 1 AM, the NYPD began massing around Zuccotti Park “aka Liberty Park.” In the following hours reports surfaced that the NYPD entered the park with police in riot gear backed up by numerous police vehicles, including a bulldozer, evicting occupiers. In the process they destroyed property and arrested dozens of occupiers and protestors including NYC Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez and District Leader Paul Newell.
In the coming hours, days and weeks the LPLWG will pursue all legal options to enable the occupiers to continue to exercise their first amendment rights to speech and assembly for speech. Attorney Yetta Kurland, one of the attorneys from the LPLWG, said, “This is a victory for everyone who believes in the First Amendment. We will continue to fight for everyone’s right to continue the occupation.” In response to the injunction, Daniel Alterman, also an attorney with the LPLWG, stated that, “This is a victory for all Americans, for the constitution and for the 99%.” Gideon Oliver, another attorney with the LPLWG reacted by saying, “The LPLWG has been fighting to ensure their right to free speech from day one of the occupation. The occupiers right to free speech is based in our most core legal principles and we will be here till the end to fight for those rights.”
PORTLAND, Oregon–After the mass arrests that took place here on Sunday there was a lot of worry among demonstratos that Occupy Portland would cease to exist, but the General Assembly on Monday night proved otherwise. With approximately 400 attendees and an additional 850 people watching a live stream on the Occupy Portland website, the gathering in Pioneer Courthouse Square demonstrated as one protester said that “you cannot attack peace with violence and expect us to dissipate.”
Justin James Bridges, aasaulted by police and arrested on Sunday, arrived from the hospital in a wheelchair to declare “the police are bold faced liars.” Another speaker rejected the claim that everyone who supports the Occupation is young and radical by saying that “among the 51 people arrested this weekend, the youngest was 16 and the oldest was 81.”
Ye come here, gather ’round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage
From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won’t withdraw
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight
They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none
So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest
We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You can’t divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can’t buy
Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We are the many
You are the few
Credits:
Directed & Edited by Kamuela Vance
Filmed by Tom Hackett & Kamuela Vance
Creative Consultant: Evan Tector
Thanks to ‘Olelo Community Television
All images Fair Use.
Our heartfelt gratitude to the Artists and Photographers.
What happens when a government builds a massive, unaccountable police apparatus to thwart infiltration by a foreign menace, only to see the society it’s supposed to protect take to the streets for entirely different reasons?
It looks as though we may be about to find out. The Occupy protests have been mostly peaceful, with a few fairly dramatic exceptions. But the sight of a huge police presence in riot gear is always startling, and tactics that have been honed in Europe (such as “kettling”) against anarchist actions have not been as common in the United States as elsewhere. More standard forms of crowd control, such as the aggressive use of pepper spray and “rubber” bullets have so far been the outer limits of the police use of force. But it is hardly the outer limits of the possibilities.
The US has actually been militarising much of its police agencies for the better part of three decades, mostly in the name of the drug war. But 9/11 put that programme on steroids.
Recall that six short weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the US congress passed the PATRIOT Act, a sweeping expansion of domestic and foreign intelligence-gathering capabilities. This legislation gave the government the ability to easily search all forms of communication, eased restrictions on foreign intelligence-gathering at home, gave itself greater power to monitor financial transactions and created entirely new categories of domestic terrorism to which the PATRIOT Act’s expanded powers to police could be applied.
After receiving an eviction notice, thousands pour into the city to defend Occupy Portland. Police in riot gear and electronic sound weapons stood by while the citizens of Portland peacefully resisted during the night. Here is part of that footage:
THIS VETERANS DAY THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT REMEMBERS OUR HEROES.
MEN LIKE SCOTT OLSEN WHO BRAVELY STOOD WITH THE CITIZENS OF OAKLAND.
OUR RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH IS PAID IN BLOOD BY PEOPLE LIKE HIM.
NEVER FORGET THOSE WHO SERVE TO PROTECT US.
AGAINST ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.
Scott Olsen is recovering from injuries received during an Occupy protest in Oakland, California. The head injuries are so severe that it has effected his ability to communicate. His family needs your help.
A 35-year-old military veteran has died at a hospital after shooting himself Thursday in an Occupy Wall Street encampment in Vermont’s largest city, a spokesman said.
The public was not believed to be at risk after the afternoon shooting at City Hall Park in Burlington, but the circumstances were still being investigated, said Burlington Police Deputy Chief Andi Higbee. Police would not confirm that the shooting was a suicide, but witnesses said the man shot himself.
The shooting followed the Wednesday night arrest of dozens of protesters at the University of California, Berkeley campus, and as officials in Portland, Oregon, said an encampment in their city will be shut early Sunday.
An elderly woman leaving a conservative dinner in Washington was knocked to the ground and injured by activists aligned with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in the latest sign of growing civil unrest in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
The incident happened when angry anti-capitalist protesters laid siege to a dinner held in honour of President Ronald Reagan by the Americans for Prosperity group, which is closely aligned with the anti-tax, small government Tea Party movement.
Hundreds of protesters affiliated with Occupy DC shut down streets on Friday night near the Washington convention centre, where Americans for Prosperity was holding its annual conference. That day, the conference was addressed by the leading republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Herman Cain.
Dolores Broderick, 78, had taken an 11-hour bus journey from Detroit to attend the Americans for Prosperity conference, according to a friend who emailed the Instapundit blog. Video footage showed her being helped by police as she lay dazed on the floor.
video:
OP COMMENTARY: in this video here at 40 seconds, the “victim” clearly describes a sausage effect, being blocked, but people STILL piling up behind her – she describes being ejected through an opening but at that moment does not say that it was an occupier PUSHING her from behind, she clearly was squeezed out by her own people still coming out the door.
further in the video she says something to the effect that she believes that they wanted ALL of them to fall down the stairs, thus implying that someone could have been pushing a group of people from the other side of the door?? Don’t believe the hype. later at 5 minutes, a male describes how he broke through the blockade and failed to notice stairs. OOPS!Later another male is interviewed with a clear anti-obamacare sticker – no rightwing bias here at all.
…..
further down the article NOT INCLUDED IN THE HEADLINE, reads:
In a separate incident during the same Occupy DC protest outside the Washington dinner, three activists – a lesbian couple and their teenage son – suffered minor injuries when they were hit by a silver Lexus that they were attempting to block.
Lt Christopher Micciche of the Washington DC police said that the driver, named as Shawn Valentine of Clinton, Maryland, was not charged because he was passing through a green traffic light when three pedestrians “either ran toward or jumped in front of the moving vehicle” and one jumped on the bonnet.
…..
Heidi Sippel said that she, her 13-year-old son and her wife Brandy Sippel, who is six months pregnant, were taking part in the demonstration when the silver Lexus sped toward them and then slowed down.
She claimed that the driver threw up his hands in apparent frustration and then drove forward, hitting them. “He just threw his hands up and hit the gas,” Mrs Sippel said of the driver. We weren’t trying to get in front of the cars. We would have very happily, given the opportunity, stepped out of the way and let him pass by.”
Mrs Sippel said that she, her wife and her son were cited by police for obstructing traffic and being in the road in contravention of a “do-not-walk” sign, both of which carry fines.
in the comments someone comes forth to provide further evidence:
If you look at different angles shot by different cameras you will see that one lady fell simply down the stairs on her own and that the second one got knocked/dragged down by a man (presumably her own husband) “rhino” charged the line of protestors dragging the lady down with him as he lost balance.
Video:
And for f*ck sake: please try to at least be non-biased. You’re a journalist writing for the Telegraph. Although you might disagree with these protests at least report on them accurately and don’t just take or republish something you found online by a conservative news outlet without fact checking it first
more video from Occupy DC, this time the Occupy victims:
a press release from OccupyDC.org
To the Media and Whoever it May Concern
We would like to thank the media for such wonderful coverage, but would like to set some things straight before any misunderstandings occur:
We do not have a spokesperson and we shall never have one. Only parties and organizations have a spokesperson; we are a people’s movement. Some, including NBC and Reuters, have mentioned that we have a spokesperson; this is a misstatement. All of us can serve as a spokesperson for the movement; none of us are the spokesperson.
We are not a party, and we will never be. Some news organizations have been trying to portray this movement as the “Democratic Tea Party equivalent”; this too is a misstatement. We are not a party, nor do we affiliate with any. This is a people’s movement.
We are not Stop the Machine and they are not Occupy DC. Stop the Machine got organized months ago as primarily an anti-war protest with a focus on greed and corporate domination. We greatly admire these goals, as well as the high levels of intelligence, ambition, and energy of everyone involved with Stop the Machine; our clarification of this matter should not be taken to indicate any kind of disapproval of what they are doing.
However, we do wish to clarify that Occupy DC is built on the examples set by Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Together movement. Our focus is on the economy, corporate corruption of our political system, and the negative effects of corporate personhood as it exists after decisions such as Citizens United and the repeal of Glass-Steagall.
While you will no doubt see many of the McPherson Square occupiers attend the rallies organized by the folks at Freedom Plaza and vice-versa, we would like to remind the media and the people that as a group we do not officially endorse any of their rallies, marches, demands, etc. unless it is stated on our website.
We believe strongly that solidarity is the key to the success of Occupy Together, and while we stand in solidarity with Stop the Machine, we urge the media and the global audience in general not to assume that Occupy DC endorses any actions of Stop the Machine unless we make an explicit announcement.
We would like to see the media take these things into account and report with these three points in mind to avoid any further confusion amongst your readerships. Thank you again for all of your coverage so far.
for further information contact OccupyDC.org at:
Email contact(at)occupydc(dot)org
Email media(at)occupydc(dot)org
Phone Media Only: 202-540-0155
NOTE TO PROTESTERS: DON’T BLOCKADE ON TOP OF STAIRS
- Occupy Protest Team
While filming a police line at Occupy Oakland after midnight on Nov. 3 following the Nov. 2 general strike, an officer opens fire and shoots me with a rubber bullet. I was standing well back. There was no violence or confrontations of any kind underway. At 0:31 seconds you can see a tall officer in the front raise his weapon and then fire. This is the full clip of the incident.
An Oakland man says a police officer shot him with a rubber bullet or beanbag while he was videotaping last week’s standoff between law enforcement and a small group that took over a building and lit fires after a day of peaceful anti-Wall Street protests.
Experts in police use of force who reviewed the footage Scott Campbell captured say it appears the volley was unprovoked and inappropriate, the Oakland Tribune reported Tuesday.
In the video posted on YouTube, Campbell, 30, is heard calling, “Is this OK?” to a line of riot gear-clad officers. He told the newspaper that he was asking if his distance from them was adequate because an officer had asked him to step back.
A firearm held by an officer then is seen going off, followed by Campbell’s yelps of pain. The Oakland Police Department, which also has been criticized for wounding an Iraq War veteran during an October 25 skirmish, did not respond to a request for comment.
University of South Carolina criminal justice professor Geoffrey Alpert said that unless something occurred off-camera to provoke the officer, the shooting was “one of the most outrageous uses of a firearm” he’d ever seen.
“Unless there’s a threat that you can’t see in the video, that just looks like absolute punishment, which is the worst type of excessive force,” Alpert said.
Campbell, who identifies himself as an anarchist, said he took video of the confrontation that occurred early November 3 because he wanted to document any instances of excessive force, but did not imagine that he would be a target.
Authorities have said they moved to arrest more than 100 people and used tear gas and beanbags after a small group of self-proclaimed anarchists entered a vacant building with bottles and flares and then lit fires in the street when officers tried to clear the building.
TOKYO, Oct 30, 2011 (IPS) – Inspired by the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in the United States, thousands of Japanese youth and workers, dissatisfied with growing unemployment and harsh working conditions in the world’s third largest economy, have taken to the streets to demand stable jobs and government reforms.
Two weeks ago, a demonstration in Tokyo, billed by organisers as the largest protest in recent years, drew a crowd nearly 5,000-strong.
Labourers and students from all across Japan converged on the capital with raised fists and chants of protest as rap bands played songs about the anxiety and hopelessness in which much of the country is mired.
The current official unemployment rate is five percent of the total population but among youth the number has risen to almost nine percent.
In fact, more than 45 percent of workers aged 15-24 hold irregular jobs and just 56 percent of new college graduates receive job offers, representing the worst situation for youth in the country since World War II.
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