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06 Oct 2011 01:17

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U.S.: Occupy Wall Street: The crowds get bigger, the police more violent?

  • Switching gears a little bit, tonight’s Occupy Wall Street rallies hit a new peak, in part thanks to fresh support from unions such as AFL-CIO, the United Federation of Teachers, the Communications Workers of America and District Council 37. (According to one estimate, the crowd hit 20,000, but an exact number couldn’t be narrowed down — either way, it was large.) But the new peak in attendance came with a price — police brutality, some of which hit journalists covering the march. “I don’t know what sparked it, but people started tossed about, and I did see people getting beaten with clubs, and I personally was pepper sprayed,” said Flux Rostrum, a journalist and videographer for Mobile Broadcast News. Above is a clip of one of the more violent scenes tonight — the way that they’re throwing around those batons is nothing short of frightening. In all, at least 28 people were arrested. (thanks usualchatter for the kick in the pants; this take on the evening’s events is also worth a read) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2011 21:25

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U.S.: NYC Bus drivers want no part of Occupy Wall Street arrests

  • There’s NYPD brass with guns on buses saying ‘Move the bus, this bus is now under the control of the NYPD. What room to protest is there? It’s not a transit supervisor you’re dealing with.
  • New York Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen • Discussing the way that the Brooklyn Bridge Occupy Wall Street arrests went down, particularly how the NYPD commandeered buses to arrest protesters en masse. The union is seeking injunctions (preliminary and permanent) against the NYPD to prevent them from doing this again. “The actions of the NYPD on Oct. 1, 2011, amounted to a seizure of the bus drivers,” the union’s lawyer, Arthur Schwartz, claimed in court. Will be curious to see how this goes. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Oct 2011 10:59

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World: Reports: Occupy Manchester draws big crowds, peaceful protests

  • 30,000 people marching in Manchester source
  • » A peaceful protest emphasized: Before Sunday’s protests (timed with a Conservative Party conference) began, organizers went out of their way to emphasize to police that the protests would not be anything like the violent riots in August, which started in London and eventually made their way to Manchester. “Organizers of the demo have made it clear that they want a peaceful protest.” said Assistant Chief Constable Ian Hopkins. “We have given some very strong messages that the police, the courts and the public won’t tolerate the sort of behavior we saw in August and we’re here today to make sure that anyone who does think they can step out of line will very quickly learn that they can’t.” Thus far, things have remained peaceful, with only one protester hurt (she fell).
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Oct 2011 20:38

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U.S.: NYPD: 400 arrested on Brooklyn Bridge during protests

  • Some complied and took the walkway without being arrested. Other locked arms and proceeded on the Brooklyn-bound vehicular roadway. The latter were arrested.
  • A NYPD police spokesman • Discussing the arrests of 400 protesters (EDIT: This number jumped significantly from an earlier version of this story — from 50 to 400) on the Brooklyn Bridge earlier today, during the Occupy Wall Street protests, which are starting to pick up some steam (along with union support). Witnesses say that police used orange netting to surround and control the movements of protesters, and those arrested were taken away on three separate buses. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Oct 2011 16:43

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U.S.: Labor unions slowly latching onto Occupy Wall Street

  • I think it’s a tactic and a valid tactic to call attention to a problem. Wall Street is out of control. We have three imbalances in this country—the imbalance between imports and exports, the imbalance between employer power and working power, and the imbalance between the real economy and the financial economy. We need to bring back balance to the financial economy, and calling attention to it and peacefully protesting is a very legitimate way of doing it.
  • AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka • Talking on C-SPAN Friday about mass protests in general and Occupy Wall Street in particular. Trumka’s endorsement of the protests shadows the growing support the movement is getting from such labor unions as the Transport Workers Union. If the movement grows among labor unions, that will help swell the growth of the movement significantly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Oct 2011 16:16

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U.S.: Why the anti-Bank of America “Take Back Boston” protests worked so well

  • Much credit to these protesters: In some ways, these protests were arguably more effective in one quick burst than the Occupy Wall Street protests have been in one long, slow-moving one. With a specific target (Bank of America) and a specific reason (their overly harsh handling of foreclosures) the result is a protest that plays well for the cameras and effectively encapsulates the point of what’s going on. People got arrested, but they did peacefully. It took a while to draw some reaction from Occupy Wall Street; Bank of America was forced to dismiss the protests as a PR stunt right away. But the fact they had to say anything at all is a big deal. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Sep 2011 10:13

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U.S.: NYT indirectly calls Occupy Wall Street protesters stupid

  • So even as the members of Occupy Wall Street seem unorganized and, at times, uninformed, their continued presence creates a vexing problem for the Police Department.
  • New York Times writer Joseph Goldstein • In an article about the NYPD’s seemingly poor handling of Occupy Wall Street. The article as a whole makes intelligent and understandable points (and goes in-depth about the use of pepper spray on Saturday), but this particular line really bothered us. This comes off as The New York Times ripping the dirty hippies for being dirty hippies, which is just an approach they should not take here. It’s condescending and shows a lack of respect for the protesters. What if they just dropped a line like that into an article about the Tea Party? It’d get savaged by the blogs! Instead of just interviewing your sources at the NYPD, Mr. Goldstein, why don’t you interview the protesters (who, we don’t know if you’ve noticed, have been clamoring for media attention), instead of discretely calling them idiots? You did it before, with this article. This piece feels like you’re writing an article about one side of the story. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

25 Sep 2011 23:37

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U.S.: Occupy Wall Street: How often does the NYPD pull out the pepper spray?

  • Not very often at all, according to the New York Times. In the weekend’s most unbelievable video, a number of young women were pepper sprayed after reacting towards another man’s arrest, seemingly arbitrarily. “A cop in a white shirt — I think he’s a superior officer — just comes along and does these quick little spritzes of pepper spray in my and these three other girls’ eyes,” said Chelsea Elliott, one of the four women sprayed. It’s not a common occurrence for the NYPD to use it. While it got used during a 2003 antiwar protest, it didn’t get used in a much-larger 2004 protest that accompanied the Republican National Convention. “We don’t use it indiscriminately like other cities do,” notes former deputy chief Thomas Graham. So why was it needed for this protest? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Sep 2011 22:45

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U.S.: Video: Slow-motion sights and scenes from Occupy Wall Street

  • Sent to us via Twitter user Eric Brown, this five minute clip from last night does a good job capturing the mood of the still-budding protests near Wall Street in New York City. “This is a group of passionate, concerned, and intelligent people,” Brown writes. “Their behavior in the park suggested a great appreciation of democracy, and a desire to cut through the clogged media and political channels to communicate a message they feel is incredibly important.” Brown notes a large police presence was there when he shot this last night, but both sides were peaceful. Great clip. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Sep 2011 22:33

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U.S.: “Occupy Wall Street” protesters see first true test tomorrow

  • The method of protest that we’re using, the purpose is to interrupt the flow of Wall Street.
  • Occupy Wall Street protester Joe Sharkey • Revealing that the group’s purpose is to make it difficult for workers to get around the protesters — a method that will see its first real test tomorrow, when an actual work day hits. While the protest has remained largely peaceful, things could start to get thorny in the next day. Starkey says tomorrow is a “crucial period” for the group of roughly 1,500 to 2,000 protesters. “We are going to ride and coordinate and communicate,” he said. “The process takes a long time.” The protests, put together by anti-consumerism magazine AdBusters, have been planned for a number of months. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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