Closure of Occupy Wall Street!

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http://www.occupywallst.org/article/emergency-call-action-prevent-forcible-closure-occ/

"EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION: Prevent the forcible closure of Occupy Wall Street!

Posted Oct. 13, 2011, 2:14 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Tell Bloomberg: Don't Foreclose the Occupation.
Join us at 6AM FRIDAY for non-violent eviction defense.

Please take a minute to read this, and please take action and spread the word far and wide.

Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum, with occupation actions now happening in cities across the world.

But last night Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD notified Occupy Wall Street participants about plans to “clean the park”—the site of the Wall Street protests—tomorrow starting at 7am. "Cleaning" was used as a pretext to shut down “Bloombergville” a few months back, and to shut down peaceful occupations elsewhere.

Bloomberg says that the park will be open for public usage following the cleaning, but with a notable caveat: Occupy Wall Street participants must follow the “rules”. These rules include, "no tarps or sleeping bags" and "no lying down."

So, seems likely that this is their attempt to shut down #OWS for good.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION:

1) Call 311 and tell Bloomberg to support our right to assemble and to not interfere with #OWS. If you are calling from outside NY use this number 212-NEW-YORK.

2) Come to #OWS on FRIDAY AT 6AM to defend the occupation from eviction.

Occupy Wall Street is committed to keeping the park clean and safe — we even have a Sanitation Working Group whose purpose this is. We are organizing major cleaning operations today and will do so regularly.

If Bloomberg truly cares about sanitation here he should support the installation of portopans and dumpsters. #OWS allies have been working to secure these things to support our efforts.

We know where the real dirt is: on Wall Street. Billionaire Bloomberg is beholden to bankers.

We won't allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic."

 

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http://www.civic.moveon.org/defend_ows/?id=31974-19497973-mWoopix&t=3

"Dear MoveOn member,
At 7 a.m. tomorrow, Mayor Bloomberg is evicting the Occupy Wall Street protesters from their occupation of Zuccotti Park, unless you can help.1

Zuccotti Park is the birthplace of the Occupy protests sweeping the nation and capturing the public's attention. It's where a community of committed Americans are standing up against Wall Street and the corporate capture of our democracy for the 99% of us trying to take back the American Dream.

But tomorrow at 7 a.m., under Mayor Bloomberg's orders, the NYPD is coming to Zuccotti Park to kick the 99% protesters out. It's being done under the guise of "cleaning" the park, but new rules will mean the end of the occupation.2

We have very little time to act. We need to gather a huge national petition as soon as possible, so we can deliver it to City Hall tonight and have it for the protesters in Zuccotti Park.

So act now. Sign the petition and tell Mayor Bloomberg: "Respect the protesters' First Amendment rights. Don't try to evict Occupy Wall Street."

Sign the petition.
http://www.civic.moveon.org/defend_ows/?id=31974-19497973-mWoopix&t=3

Zuccotti Park may be in New York, but the protesters are standing up against Wall Street and the damage they've done to millions of Americans everywhere. That's why it's an inspiration and nerve center for a growing occupation movement that's spreading to every corner of the country.

So it's not just this one protest that's at stake tomorrow morning, because if we allow the eviction to happen, other mayors across the country are sure to follow Bloomberg's lead.

What's at stake today is the very right we have as Americans to speak out when we've been wronged and peaceably assemble as a community to seek redress from the government.

Sign the petition, so that Mayor Bloomberg can hear from all of us across the country right away.

Employing a tactic that's been used to break up similar protest actions, Mayor Bloomberg is sending in the police under the guise of a "cleaning operation." But that's a PR farce, because protesters will only be allowed back in if they obey rules that include: no "lying down" and no use of "tarps or sleeping bags or other covering."3

Obviously, the 99% protesters can't continue to occupy Zuccotti Park if they have to stand for 24 hours a day, and as the nights grow colder and the rain pours down, they can't endure without sleeping bags, tarps, and the like. Make no mistake—this is an eviction, and we have less than 24 hours to stop it.

So sign the petition and tell Mayor Bloomberg: "Respect the protesters' First Amendment rights. Don't try to evict Occupy Wall Street." Then get the word out to everyone you know on your social networks.

Sign the petition.
http://www.civic.moveon.org/defend_ows/?id=31974-19497973-mWoopix&t=3

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Eli, Elena, Adam Q., and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Occupy Wall Street Responds to Bloomberg's Cleaning 'Eviction Notice,'" The New York Observer, October 13, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=265305&id=31974-19497973-mWoopix&t=6

2. Notice from Brookfield Real Estate distributed by NYPD, October 13, 2011
http://s3.moveon.org/pdfs/doc-10_13_11 9_39 am.pdf?id=31974-19497973-mWoopix&t=7

3. Ibid."

 

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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141258056

"Landlord Cracks Down On NY Demo As Protests Spread

by The Associated Press
text size A A A
NEW YORK October 13, 2011, 03:19 pm ET

NEW YORK (AP) — Protests against corporate greed and corruption are spreading across the United States into Canada and the United Kingdom, just as the New York demonstration that started the movement faces a crackdown by its unwilling landlord.

The owner of the private park where "Occupy Wall Street" protesters have been camped out for nearly a month in lower Manhattan gave notice Thursday that it will begin enforcing regulations that prohibit everything from lying down on benches to storing personal property on the ground.

The landlord, Brookfield Properties, handed out a notice to protesters saying they would be allowed back inside after a planned park cleanup on Friday morning if they abide by park regulations.

The notice said the the 12-hour, section-by-section cleaning is slated to begin 7 a.m. Friday (1100 GMT) and is part of daily upkeep, and that conditions have deteriorated in recent weeks because that upkeep was put on hold by the protesters.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the protesters Wednesday to offer assurances they would not be evicted. Bloomberg's girlfriend, Diana Taylor, is on Brookfield's board of directors, according to the property owner's website.

Protesters said they believe the effort is an attempt to end their encampment at Zuccotti Park, a three-quarter acre (one-third hectare) open square near the New York Stock Exchange, which triggered a movement against unequal distribution of wealth that has spread across the globe.

"They're going to use the cleanup to get us out of here!" said Justin Wedes, 25, a part-time public high school science teacher from Brooklyn. "It's a de facto eviction notice."

It's not clear whether the regulations are new or how they would be enforced.

The protesters have announced that they will hold a demonstration at 6 a.m. Friday (1000 GMT), an hour before they're supposed to leave the plaza. An influx of demonstrators could set up a showdown with police.

The owner's notice lists regulations including a prohibition of tents, tarps and sleeping bags on the ground, no lying on benches and no storage of personal property on the ground. Those rules could end protesters' ability to continue living, sleeping and preparing food in the park, as they have been since Sept. 17.

Brookfield did not respond to requests for comment Thursday, but two uniformed police officers at the park confirmed that they escorted representatives of the company as the notices were passed out to demonstrators.

Some protesters questioned the need to clean the park in the first place.

"This is the cleanest protest I've ever witnessed," said Emilio Montilla, 29, a laid-off teacher's assistant. "We take care of ourselves. We're self-sufficient."

The tree-lined space beside a tower commissioned by U.S. Steel was known as Liberty Plaza Park until 2005, when it was renovated and named for John E. Zuccotti, the U.S. chairman of Brookfield Properties.

Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said in a statement Wednesday that the protest has "created unsanitary conditions and considerable wear and tear on the park." He said Brookfield asked for police help to clear the park so it can be cleaned.

Holloway said the cleaning will be done in sections.

The protest has spawned sympathetic groups in other cities which each stage their own local rallies and demonstrations: Occupy Boston, Occupy Cincinnati, Occupy Houston, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Philadelphia, Occupy Providence, Occupy Salt Lake, and Occupy Seattle, among them.

More protests are planned in Toronto and Vancouver this weekend, and European activists also are also joining in. Organizers announced a protesters' "occupation" of the London Stock Exchange to begin there on Saturday.

The movement has also drawn reaction from world leaders, including President Barack Obama, former Polish President Lech Walesa and Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Walesa said Thursday that he supports the New York protest and is planning to either visit or write a letter to the protesters. He said the global economic crisis has made people aware that "we need to change the capitalist system" because we need "more justice, more people's interests, and less money for money's sake."

Khamenei said Wednesday that the wave of protests reflects a serious problem that will ultimately topple capitalism in America. He claimed the United States is in a full-blown crisis because its "corrupt foundation has been exposed to the American people."

Khamenei's remarks came a day after U.S. officials said the Obama administration plans to leverage charges that Iran plotted to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador into a new global campaign to isolate the Islamic republic.

In Portland, Oregon, where a camp with more than 300 tents and tarps has sprung up in two downtown parks, police arrested eight people before dawn Thursday for blocking a street.

In New York, police arrested four people Wednesday outside JP Morgan Chase offices where Wall Street protesters called in vain for a meeting with Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon.

Protesters accused the police of rough handling. An Associated Press photographer witnessed police officers heading into the crowd of demonstrators to make the arrests.

A lawyer for a woman pepper-sprayed during an action last month is demanding that the Manhattan district attorney prosecute an NYPD deputy inspector on an assault charge. Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the matter was being investigated by police internal affairs and the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik and Meghan Barr in New York, photographer Rick Bowmer in Portland, Oregon, and writers Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw."

 

[SPECTRE1]

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dGkQAuRqQ0A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is what they need to do to the 1 %

 

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[humble]

"Dear MoveOn member,
Tonight I went to Occupy Wall Street to deliver the signatures of more than 240,000 people—including you—who signed our emergency petition asking Mayor Bloomberg not to evict the Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park tomorrow.

We held a huge press conference at the park with dozens of news outlets, and then hundreds people marched up Broadway to City Hall to deliver the petition.

When they found out Mayor Bloomberg was busy dining with the 1% a few blocks away at the ultra-luxurious Cipriani, the march continued to the doors of the restaurant.

It was a strong show of nationwide solidarity, numerous local elected officials joined our march to oppose Bloomberg's decision, and MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell even featured the petition tonight. As of right now, however, Bloomberg's order to clear Zuccotti Park still stands and we won't know until tomorrow morning what he's going to do.

But regardless of Mayor Bloomberg's actions, the most important thing any of us can do is to make sure this movement keeps growing by supporting a local Occupy event in our town.

Here's a great map listing of tons of Occupy events all over the country that our friends at DailyKos put together:

www.occupywallstreetevents.com

As we wait to see what happens in New York tomorrow, I hope you'll find the event closest to you and go there to show your solidarity.

Thanks for all you do.

–Daniel, Tate, Peter, Elena, and the rest of the team"

 

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The PEOPLE UNITED will NEVER be defeated!

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/611665f0-f65e-11e0-86dc-00144feab49a.html#axzz1alWuwXzy

Wall St protest showdown averted

By Shannon Bond and Matt Kennard in New York

A showdown between police and protesters who are occupying Wall Street was averted on Friday morning after the owners of the park where protesters have been camped out for the last month postponed a move to clear them out.

Brookfield Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan, had told the demonstrators to leave the park by 7am Friday so the area could be cleaned. Brookfield had asked the New York Police Department to clear the park and the administration of Michael Bloomberg, New York mayor, had said protesters must leave temporarily.

Shortly before the 7am deadline, however, Occupy Wall Street organisers announced to the crowd that Brookfield said it had put off the cleaning operation.

A statement from Cas Holloway, New York deputy mayor, said: “Late last night, we received notice from the owners of Zuccotti Park – Brookfield Properties – that they are postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park, and for the time being withdrawing their request from earlier in the week for police assistance during their cleaning operation ... Brookfield believes they can work out an arrangement with the protesters that will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use and that the situation is respectful of residents and businesses downtown, and we will continue to monitor the situation.”

Occupy Wall Street participants had called Brookfield’s cleaning plans an “eviction” and urged their supporters to come to the park early Friday morning for a “nonviolent action”. The group also organised clean-up crews that worked on Thursday to sweep and mop the park ahead of the deadline.

“We demonstrated enormous power against the bullying of this movement and the victory is a very important one,” said Yotam Marom, who has been living in Zuccotti Park over the past month. “The fact they backed down is a clear sign that this movement is demonstrating a lot of power.”

On the move by the NYPD and Brookfield Properties to clear the protestors, Mr Moram added: “We got reports from a lot of places that this was a scam to get rid of us. It was a game of chicken to see if we would back down, and we demonstrated we’re not going anywhere, it’s only the beginning.”

Labour groups including the AFL-CIO, a federation of unions, and elected officials including Christine Quinn, city council speaker, had expressed support for the protest and called on the city and Brookfield to allow the demonstration to remain in the park.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has gained increasing attention as protests have spread to other US cities in recent days including Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta.

The protests are set to go international this weekend, with rallies planned on Saturday in cities including London, Toronto, Madrid, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Sydney.

In the US, unions, celebrities and some politicians have come out in support of the movement’s calls to regulate the financial sector, reduce economic inequality and end what they say is an overly close involvement between corporations and politics.

Last week, President Barack Obama said the protests “express the frustration” of ordinary Americans with the financial sector.

Some corporate executives have also said they understand protesters’ grievances. Laurence Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, said on Thursday that he was “very encouraged” by the protests and surprised they had not occurred sooner. He said that it would also be foolish to “turn our back on this protest movement.”

But the movement has drawn criticism as well. John Paulson, the hedge fund manager, said in a statement this week: “Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses, we should be supporting them and encouraging them to remain in New York City and continue to grow.”

Mr Paulson’s Manhattan home was one stop on a “millionaires march” organised earlier this week by community activists to call on the richest Americans to “pay their fair share”.

 

[humble]

The PEOPLE UNITED will NEVER be defeated!

http://occupywallst.org/

#OWS VICTORY: The people have prevailed, gear up for global day of action

Posted Oct. 14, 2011, 8:51 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

OCCUPY WALL STREET: PEOPLE POWER TRIUMPHS OVER WALL STREET’S BID TO END THE PROTESTS
MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND BROOKFIELD INC BACK DOWN ON EVICTION
WORLD PREPARES FOR DAY OF ACTION SATURDAY OCTOBER 15 IN 950+ CITIES IN 82 COUNTRIES

NEW YORK, NY -- Over 3,000 people gathered at Liberty Plaza in the pre-dawn hours this morning to defend the peaceful Occupation near Wall Street. The crowd cheered at the news that multinational real estate firm Brookfield Properties will postpone its so-called “cleanup” of the park and that Mayor Bloomberg has told the NYPD to stand down on orders to remove protesters. On the eve of the October 15 global day of action against Wall Street greed, this development has emboldened the movement and sent a clear message that the power of the people has prevailed against Wall Street.

“We are winning and Wall Street is afraid,” said Kira Moyer-Sims, a protester from Portland, Oregon. “This movement is gaining momentum and is too big to fail.”

“Brookfield Properties is the 1%. They have invested $24 billion in mortgage-backed securities, so as millions face foreclosure and eviction due to predatory lending and the burst of the housing bubble that Wall Street created, its not surprising they threatened to evict Occupy Wall Street,” said Patrick Burner, an organizer with Occupy Wall Street from the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn. “But Brookfield and Bloomberg have backed down and our movement is only growing as the 99% take to the streets world wide to call for economic justice.”

The early morning announcement from the Mayor’s office in New York came after 300,000+ Americans signed petitions to stop the eviction, and flooded the 311 phone network in solidarity with those in Liberty Square. At 6 AM this morning, 3,000+ New Yorkers, unions, students, and others joined the occupiers in the square to send a clear message to the 1% who want to silence this peaceful assembly of the 99%. Donations poured into the protesters from Italy, England, Mexico and many other countries by everyday people hoping to help the movement grow.

“For too long the 99% have been ignored as our economic system has collapsed. The banks got bailouts and we’ve been sold out, ” said Harrison Schultz, business analyst from Brooklyn . “Wall Street’s greed has corrupted our country and is killing our planet. But today we celebrate victory and vow to keep fighting for justice and change on Wall Street, and in over 100 cities in the US and over 950 cities globally.”

On October 15th, Occupy Wall Street will demonstrate in concert over 951 cities in 82 countries and counting as people around the globe protest in an international day of solidarity against the greed and corruption of the 1%.

Occupy Wall Street is a people powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #OWS is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations on the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse and caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement is inspired by uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, Greece, Italy and the UK, and aims to expose the widening gap between the richest 1% of of people who are writing the rules of the global economy and imposing an agenda of neoliberalism and economic inequality.

 

[QueEx]

OCCUPYWALLSTREET WINS! Bloomberg backs down, protestors stay in park

According to Slate, Occupy Wall Street Has Already Won. It says:

Occupy Wall Street has already won, perhaps not the victory most of its participants want, but a momentous victory nonetheless. It has already altered our political debate, changed the agenda, shifted the discussion in newspapers, on cable TV, and even around the water cooler. And that is wonderful.

Suddenly, the issues of equity, fairness, justice, income distribution, and accountability for the economic cataclysm–issues all but ignored for a generation—are front and center. We have moved beyond the one-dimensional conversation about how much and where to cut the deficit. Questions more central to the social fabric of our nation have returned to the heart of the political debate. By forcing this new discussion, OWS has made most of the other participants in our politics—who either didn’t want to have this conversation or weren’t able to make it happen—look pretty small.

Surely, you might say, other factors have contributed: A convergence of horrifying economic data has crystallized the public’s underlying anxiety. Data show that median family income declined by 6.7 percent over the past two years, the unemployment rate is stuck at 9.1 percent in the October report (16.5 percent if you look at the more meaningful U6 number), and 46.2 million Americans are living in poverty—the most in more than 50 years. Certainly, those data help make Occupy Wall Street’s case.

But until these protests, no political figure or movement had made Americans pay attention to these facts in a meaningful way. Indeed, over the long hot summer, as poverty rose and unemployment stagnated, the entire discussion was about cutting our deficit.

And then OWS showed up. They brought something that had been in short supply: passion—the necessary ingredient that powers citizen activism. The tempered, carefully modulated, and finely nuanced statements of Beltway politicians and policy wonks do not alter the debate.​

Other Movements Morfed:

Of course, the visceral emotions that accompany citizen activism generate not only an energy that can change politics but an incoherence that is easily mocked. OWS is not a Brookings Institution report with five carefully researched policy points and an appendix of data. It is a leaderless movement, and it can often be painfully simplistic in its economic critique, lacking in subtlety in its political strategies, and marred by fringe elements whose presence distracts and demeans. Yet, the point of OWS is not to be subtle, parsed, or nuanced. Its role is to drag politics to a different place, to provide the exuberance and energy upon which reform can take place.

The major social movements that have transformed our country since its founding all began as passionate grassroots activism that then radiated out. Only later do traditional politicians get involved. The history of the civil rights movement, women’s rights movement, labor movement, peace movement, environmental movement, gay rights movement, and, yes, even the Tea Party, follow this model. In every instance, visceral emotions about justice, right, and wrong ignited a movement. Precise demands and strategies followed later. So the critique of OWS as unformed and sometimes shallow may be correct, but it is also irrelevant.

Just as importantly, most of those who are so critical of OWS have failed to recognize inflection points in our politics. They fail to recognize that the public is responding to OWS because it is desperate for somebody to speak with the passion, and even anger, that has filled the public since the inequities and failures of our economy have become so apparent​

The Slate article goes on to ask a most important question: where it should go from here ???

Will the influence of OWS continue?

Will it continue to capture the imagination of the public?

Will it morph into a more concrete movement with sufficiently precise objectives that it can craft a strategy with real goals and strategies for attaining them?

These are impossible questions to answer right now.

Could it launch a citizen petition demanding that a Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, or Paul Volcker be brought into government as a counterweight to or replacement for the establishment voice of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner? Maybe. Could OWS demand meetings with top—government officials? Could it demand answers to tough questions—from the specific (explain the government’s conflicting statements about the AIG-Goldman bailout) to the more theoretical (why “moral hazard” is a reason to limit government aid only cited when the beneficiaries would be everyday citizens)?

There is much ground to cover before real reform, but as a voice challenging a self-satisfied, well-protected status quo, OWS is already powerful and successful
​

 

[humble]

Thanks for the article brother Que!

 

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CHANGE Begins With Collective ACTION!

 

[humble]

Taking It To The Streets: Sgt. Shamar Thomas - Countdown with Keith Olberman

 

[QueEx]

Re: Taking It To The Streets: Sgt. Shamar Thomas - Countdown with Keith Olberman


Tear gas and mayhem at Occupy Oakland:
help or hindrance to the cause?

Do confrontations and clashes with police – such
as those on the nightly news Tuesday that showed tear
gas drifting across Oakland, Calif. – egg on the Occupy
Wall Street movement or choke its momentum?

 

[humble]

http://occupywallst.org/

NYPD IS RAIDING LIBERTY SQUARE

Posted 50 minutes ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 1:20 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Eviction of Occupy Wall Street at Liberty Square Underway

Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park), home of Occupy Wall Street for the past two months and birthplace of the 99% movement that has spread across the country and around the world, is presently being evicted by a large police force.

EVERYONE should get to the park immediately for eviction defense! Subway stations and bridges are closed. Please either take a cab or use Canal St. subway station (which is currently open.)

Call 311 if you're in the NYC area.
NYPD 1st Precinct: 212.334.0611
NYPD Central Booking: 718.875.6303
NYPD Internal Affairs: 212.487.7350
City Hall: 212.788.3058

More information to follow.
Updates

* 2:07 a.m. Arrests at Broadway and Fulton
* 2:03 a.m. Massive Police Presence at Canal and Broadway
* 1:59 a.m. Reports that 4 and 5 Subway Stations at Wall Street only stations open.
* 1:43 a.m. Helicopters overhead.
* 1:38 a.m. Unconfirmed reports of snipers on rooftops.
* 1:34 a.m. CBS News Helicopter Livestream
* 1:27 a.m. Unconfirmed reports that police are planning to sweep everyone.
* 1:20 a.m. Subway stops are closed.
* 1:20 a.m. Brooklyn bridge is closed.
* 1:20 a.m. Occupiers chanting "This is what a police state looks like."
* 1:20 a.m. Police are in riot gear.
* 1:20 a.m. Police are bringing in bulldozers.

 

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/zuccotti-park-evacuation_n_1094164.html

Zuccotti Park Evacuation: NYPD Orders Occupy Wall Street Protesters To Temporarily Evacuate Park [LATEST UPDATES] he Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) -- Occupy Wall Street protesters have been ordered to leave Zuccotti Park, their longtime encampment in Lower Manhattan but they've been told they can return once it has been cleaned.

At about 1 a.m. Tuesday, police handed out notices from the park's owner, Brookfield Office Properties, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous. Protesters were told they could return, but without sleeping bags, tarps or tents.

Paul Browne, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, says most people began filing out of the park once they received the notices; one person was arrested for disorderly conduct. Brown says the park was not heavily populated Tuesday morning.

 

[humble]

# 3:08 a.m. heard on livestream: "they're bringing in the hoses."
# 3:05 a.m. NYPD cutting down trees in Liberty Square
# 2:55 a.m. NYC council-member Ydanis Rodríguez arrested and bleeding from head.
# 2:44 a.m. Defiant occupiers barricaded Liberty Square kitchen
# 2:44 a.m. NYPD destroys OWS Library. 5,000 donated books in dumpster.
# 2:42 a.m. Brooklyn Bridge confirmed closed
# 2:38 a.m. 400-500 marching north to Foley Square
# 2:32 a.m. All subways but R shut down
# 2:29 a.m. Press helicopters evicted from airspace. NYTimes reporter arrested.
# 2:22 a.m. Frontpage coverage from New York Times
# 2:15 a.m. Occupiers who have been dispersed are regrouping at Foley Square
# 2:10 a.m. Press barred from entering Liberty Square

 

[humble]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fdd2f1e0-0f5b-11e1-88cc-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1dnH5fbn6

Authorities move against Occupy protest

By Shannon Bond in New York and Tom Burgis in London

Authorities around the world began to move against the Occupy anti-capitalist protest group, after police in New York and California cleared camps in their cities.

Following overnight police action in New York, Oakland and Zurich, the City of London Corporation relaunched legal action against the protesters camped outside St Paul’s Cathedral, after previously giving the group until the new year to leave the site.

In New York, police in riot gear cleared the Occupy Wall Street camp from New York’s Zuccotti Park in the early hours of Tuesday morning, evicting members of a movement whose campaign against the international economic order has attracted worldwide support.

A police spokesman said most people had left peacefully but a small group had refused to leave and about 70 people had been arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Officers descended on the park at 1am local time (0600 GMT) after distributing fliers warning of the impending clearance. By 4.30am the raid was over and by 8am the protesters who had drifted to other locations began to regroup.

Shortly after 9am, a crowd of about 500 gathered at nearby Duarte Square, at the corner of Canal Street and Sixth Avenue, banging drums and carrying a large yellow tent-like structure reading “liberate occupy”. Around 11am, some protesters had returned to march around Zuccotti Park where police were blocking the entrance.

The earlier crowd at Duarte Square was told by organisers that the National Lawyers Guild had filed a temporary restraining order against the city, the police department, the fire department and Brookfield Properties, the owner of the Park. The court order was cited by New York City officials as the reason to not reopen Zuccotti.

Organisers said the court appearance was scheduled for 11.30am, and told the crowd: “Feel free to pack the courtroom.”

Brookfield Properties has been in consultation with the mayor’s office over how to clear the park, the mayor said.

In a statement, the property company said: “Conditions in Zuccotti Park had become dangerous, unhealthy and unsafe. In our view, these risks were unacceptable and it would have been irresponsible to not request that the city take action.”

Elizabeth, a protester who did not want to give her last name, waved a placard reading “Bloomberg: you can’t evict a movement.”

“I know the movement won’t end,” she said. “It’s spread across the country and the globe. look how many people are here. We’re fighting for social justice. Eviction isn’t going to stop that.”

According to the New York Times, chants of “Whose park? Our park!” started up as officers had moved in and began tearing down tents overnight. The protesters rallied in an area known as the kitchen, near the middle of the park, and built barricades with tables and pieces of scrap wood.

Adjacent Broadway was lined with police vans and dozens of police officers later in riot helmets were standing around the metal barricades. A police officer at the corner of Broadway and Liberty said the events overnight had gone smoothly.

The media were largely kept at least one block away from the park during the eviction, although some reporters who were in the park at the time gave regular updates via Twitter.

Michael Bloomberg, New York mayor, defended the eviction. “The first amendment protects [free] speech. It does not protect the right to use tents and sleeping bags to take over a public space,” he told reporters.

City Hall said the protesters would be welcome to return to the park once it was cleared but not to repitch their tents.

“This movement can’t be contained in one square block in lower Manhattan,” the organisers said in a statement on their website. “It is bigger than that. You can’t evict an idea whose time had come.”

On Monday a similar demonstration in Oakland, California, was raided by police and 30 people were arrested.

In London, a spokesman for the City of London Corporation, the local authority, said: “We paused legal action for two weeks for talks with those in the camp on how to shrink the extent of the tents and to set a departure date – but got nowhere.

“So, sadly, now they have rejected a reasonable offer to let them stay until the new year, it’s got to be the courts.”

The London camp by the steps of St Paul's Cathedral led to a showdown with the church which culminated in the resignation of a senior cleric who opposed proposals to remove them.

In Zurich, 31 protesters were briefly detained after peacefully resisting the clearance of the Swiss city’s Lindenhof square on Tuesday, which they have occupied for a month, police said.

The original Occupy Wall Street camp was set up by activists on September 17 as a protest against the global financial system. The movement swept across the US as well as sparking offshoot demonstrations in Sydney, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Toronto.

The Wall Street group previously said they planned to shut down New York’s financial district on Thursday by holding a street carnival to mark two months of their campaign.

Unions, celebrities and politicians have come out in support of the movement’s calls to regulate the financial sector, reduce economic inequality and end what they say is an overly close involvement between corporations and politics.

In a briefing on Monday to other protest organisers, Vancouver-based Adbusters said it was time for the movement to consider whether it should hunker down for the winter and “put our bodies on the line and resist [police] non-violently” or declare “victory” and “reclaim the streets for a weekend of triumphant hilarity and joyous revelry”.

 

[MASTERBAKER]

Re: Occunuts: OWS May Day Protesters Hate Workers as Much as an Honest Day's Work

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[QueEx]

Occupy movement turns 1 year old, its effect still hard to define

On the 12th day of Occupy Wall Street, protesters march through Lower
Manhattan around the time the closing bell rings at U.S. stock exchanges.
(Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times / September 29, 2011)


"A year will have passed since activists took over the park near the symbolic heart of American
capitalism, sparking a movement with offshoots in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere around
the world.

But the movement has yet to have a broad tangible effect, leaving some to wonder whether it will
fizzle.