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16 Feb 2012 23:41

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Politics: Occupy Wall Street files paperwork to become a Super PAC

  • Occupying from within the system: Today, OWS created a super PAC called the “The Occupy Wall Street Political Action Committee.” John Paul Thornton is the treasurer of the committee. “It’s going to be fairly democratic. We’ll take opinions on how much candidates need and in what areas,” Thornton said. The point of this super PAC is to raise money … to stop politicians from raising too much money. “I am out to get the bloated amounts of money out of politics but to do that, we need to support candidates looking to do that,” Thornton said. source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Jan 2012 10:58

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U.S.: Occupy Oakland protests: Arrests, tear gas, tough statements from officials

  • Whenever journalists are arrested/detained for reporting the news, everyone’s freedom is at risk.
  • KGO Radio reporter Kristin Hanes • Discussing her arrest late Saturday as the Occupy Oakland protests flared up. She and Gavin Aronson of Mother Jones were among the over 200 people placed into custody Saturday night, as the Oakland protests reached a new breaking point — including the burning of an American flag. Both mayor Jean Quan and the police were quick to pin negative attention on the protesters: “The Bay Area Occupy Movement has got to stop using Oakland as their playground,” Quan said in a statement. However, it’s important to keep in mind the nature of the police actions — including violence towards protesters and the use of tear gas grenades. An OpenSalon writer has a pretty informative first-person piece worth reading, which describes both the nature of the protesters (not as bad as reported) and why things flared up Saturday. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Jan 2012 10:12

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U.S.: Occupy Wall Street protesters move over to the unlikely-to-close Occupy DC

  • We’re here because we got pushed out of New York, but we’re also here because this is the heart of where all politics happen.
  • An Occupy Wall Street protester • Discussing why he made the move to one of D.C.’s two Occupy encampments. It appears the encampments stand a good chance of sticking around for a while longer, though — as the National Park Service considers the movement’s McPherson Square location a “24-hour vigil” and has applied the most liberal interpretation of the laws to the movement, and recently offered an extension of the permit for the Freedom Plaza encampment — which was initially supposed to end with the new year. So as a result, protesters who started hanging out at Zuccotti Park have started making their way to the encampments, which have recently passed the three-month mark. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Dec 2011 08:44

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U.S.: Occupy Wall Street shows up at “Law & Order: SVU” filming

  • There are certainly some folks who feel really offended by the attempt to kind of use this very real, very living movement, this economic justice movement that’s making real change for working families in this country, to use it in some kind of story line in this dramatic cop show. There are probably other folks among us who think it’s just a fun excuse to get together and share in public.
  • Occupy Wall Street press team member Ian Shan • Explaining why Occupy protesters raided the filming of a Zuccotti Park-themed “Law & Order: SVU” episode late last night. The actual Occupy protesters heard about the protest and decided to stage a “mockupy” protest at the event, which sounds like an amazing idea. And much like a real Occupy protest, police cleared out the scene around 1 a.m. last night. This sounds like the most amazing idea, ever — hopefully most did it with a sense of humor instead of malicious intent. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Dec 2011 10:53

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World: ICYMI: Australian police strip Occupy protester down to underwear

  • Was this necessary? Via Tumblr user eggznrice, who told us, “Please get on this as soon as you can! Craziness!” The Occupy Melbourne protester in this video, a young woman named Sarah, was wrapped in a “tent dress” when police chose to pull it off of her, using knives to cut it off. (The protesters were told that Tents were considered structures that would be removed, hence the interesting clothing choice.) Three other protesters complied with police in Monday’s incident; Sarah did not. In the end, she was wearing nothing but her underwear. The Victoria police’s Ethical Standards Department says it’s investigating an assault incident, and Occupy Melbourne is trying to encourage other Occupy movements to wear tents in solidarity. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Dec 2011 20:40

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U.S.: Occupy DC needed to build wooden structure to draw police scrutiny

  • A rare flash point, in wood form: Unlike most of the Occupy movements across the country, the Occupy DC movement has largely remained fairly quiet, in part because of the city’s protest-heavy history and in part because McPherson Square is managed by the National Park Service, not the city. So, as you might imagine, they would have to do something special to draw police scrutiny. Here it is, according to the movement’s Web site: “A prefabricated wooden structure that had been designed by professional architects and engineers to provide shelter, warmth and space for General Assemblies during the winter months.” If they wanted to draw police scrutiny, it worked. If they were trying to hold General Assemblies, not so much. The structure — and the National Park Police’s attempt to get it removed — has brought about some fairly interesting moments tonight. This is one of the most fascinating moments of the whole Occupy affair. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Nov 2011 10:51

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U.S.: Two major Occupy encampments close; protests mostly end peacefully

  • 200+ number of people arrested during the closing of the Occupy L.A. encampment early Wednesday
  • 52 number of people arrested at Occupy Philly when their camp closed at roughly the same time source
  • » However … In a major difference between the end of a number of other protests (most notably Occupy Oakland), police did not have to pull out pepper spray to end these protests. The LAPD was very careful with their strategy in this department. Despite the mayor calling for the closure of the camp early Monday, the police department held off two days, giving protesters time to leave on their own. That thinned out the numbers. As for those that remained, they had some minor scuffles with police at first, but those eventually faded, and protesters only got arrested after they didn’t immediately leave the park. Only a handful of major Occupy encampments remain at this point, most notably in DC and San Francisco. (EDIT: Updated Occupy Philly arrest count; the protesters left the encampment peacefully but were arrested for disturbances outside of the encampment.)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

23 Nov 2011 11:59

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U.S.: Los Angeles trying to figure out how to lure Occupy L.A. away

  • on table On Monday, the city of Los Angeles (which has officially supported the movement) offered protesters a bizarrely awesome deal to get rid of their presence on their lawn — for $1 a year, they’d get 10,000 feet of office space, housing and — just for kicks — farmland. Best. Deal. Ever. Right?
  • off table As political blowback grew against the deal, the city appears to have taken the deal off the table. But it’s not clear occupiers would’ve taken it; any decision made by the group needs 90 percent support, and some don’t want to leave the lawn. So negotiations continue between the city and the occupiers. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Nov 2011 14:35

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Politics: President Obama speaks to Occupy after jobs speech interruption

  • For a lot of the folks who have been in New York and all across the country in the Occupy movement, there is a profound sense of frustration about the fact that the essence of the American dream, which is if you work hard, if you stick to it that, you can make it, feels like that’s slipping away. And that’s not the way things are supposed to be. Not here. Not in America.
  • President Obama • Responding to an interruption by Occupy protesters during a jobs speech in New Hampshire. After protesters “human-mic’d” themselves into the President’s attention (“Mr. President, more than 4,000 peaceful protesters have been arrested…”), he gave the above response, which seems both significant and somewhat lacking. That the President would directly address the protesters and cast himself on their side, in a way, speaks to the now nearly unstoppable influence the Occupy movement is having on the public discourse. At the same time, though, what Obama chose to say was fairly customary “American dream” rhetoric that didn’t address their specifically stated concern over the arrests of their comrades. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Nov 2011 13:33

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U.S.: UC Davis Chancellor: “I take responsibility,” but I won’t resign

  • As Chancellor, I take responsibility for everything that happens on this campus. At the same time, our campus has policies, and–the only reasons we have those policies in place is to make sure the 32,000 students who are using our campus are safe.
  • UC Chancellor Linda Katehi • After refusing to resign due to the events at UC Davis last week, wherein UCPD Lt. John Pike pepper sprayed a line of seated, peaceful protesters. During the same KQED interview,  she also that she needs to “understand what went wrong…why things went so wrong,” which seems to be obfuscating the issue. Isn’t it clear what what wrong? Anyway, the UCPD police chief, along with Pike and another officer, have all been placed on “administrative leave;” 60,000 people have signed a petition calling for Katehi’s resignation. (Note: this interview wrapped up earlier the hour; we’ll let you know when a transcript is available.) source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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