Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Together, Occupy D.C., Occupy Oakland, Occupy Chicago, Occupy Boston, Occupy San Francisco, Occupy Los Angeles
Use this address: ows@readersupportednews.org
Occupy Worldwide
26 October 11
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's Office: 510-238-3141
Oakland Chief of Police Christopher Bolton: 510-238-3131
Oakland Mayor's Web Contact Page
Occupy Oakland Website: occupyoakland.org
Occupy Oakland Facebook Page: Occupy Oakland
Iraq Veteran Shot in Head With Tear Gas Canister
26 October 11
IVAW Statement on Injuries Sustained by Marine Veteran Scott Olsen at the Siege of Occupy Oakland Encampment.
27 October 11
Late Tuesday night, Scott Olsen, a former Marine, two-time Iraq war veteran, and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, sustained a skull fracture after being shot in the head with a police projectile while peacefully participating in an Occupy Oakland march. The march began at a downtown library and headed towards City Hall in an effort to reclaim a site - recently cleared by police - that had previously served as an encampment for members of the 99% movement.
Scott joined the Marines in 2006, served two-tours in Iraq, and was discharged in 2010. Scott moved to California from Wisconsin and currently works as a systems network administrator in Daly, California.
Scott is one of an increasing number of war veterans who are participating in America's growing Occupy movement. Said Keith Shannon, who deployed with Scott to Iraq, "Scott was marching with the 99% because he felt corporations and banks had too much control over our government, and that they weren't being held accountable for their role in the economic downturn, which caused so many people to lose their jobs and their homes."
Scott is currently sedated at a local hospital awaiting examination by a neurosurgeon. Iraq Veterans Against the Wars sends their deepest condolences to Scott, his family, and his friends. IVAW also sends their thanks to the brave folks who risked bodily harm to provide care to Scott immediately following the incident.
Iraq Veterans Against the War is nonprofit 501(c)3 advocacy group of veterans and active-duty US military personnel who have served in the U.S. Military since September 11, 2001. IVAW currently has over 1,400 members in fifty states, as well as in Canada, Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed
27 October 11
t is class warfare. But it was begun not by the tear-gassed, rain-soaked protesters asserting their constitutionally guaranteed right of peaceful assembly but rather the financial overlords who control all of the major levers of power in what passes for our democracy. It is they who subverted the American ideal of a nation of stakeholders in control of their economic and political destiny.
Between 1979 and 2007, as the Congressional Budget Office reported this week, the average real income of the top 1 percent grew by an astounding 275 percent. And that is after payment of the taxes that the superrich and their Republican apologists find so onerous.
Those three decades of rampant upper-crust greed unleashed by the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s will be well marked by future historians recording the death of the American dream. In that decisive historical period the middle class began to evaporate and the nation's income gap increased to alarming proportions. "As a result of that uneven growth," the CBO explained, "the distribution of after-tax household income in the United States was substantially more unequal in 2007 than in 1979: The share of income accruing to higher-income households increased, whereas the share accruing to other households declined.... The share of after-tax household income for the 1 percent of the population with the highest income more than doubled...."READ MORE
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's About-Face
27 October 11
This is rather incredible. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan released a statement late last night saying she now supports the Occupy Oakland protesters and will minimize police presence for the time being. The statement comes less than 48 hours after local police used excessive force against protesters, including rubber bullets, stun grenades, sound cannons, and tear gas. One protester, an Iraq war veteran named Scott Olsen, was shot with a projectile at close range, fracturing his skull and landing him in critical condition. [Update: Olsen's condition has since been upgraded to fair.] READ MORE
New TV Ad Rips Jean Quan: "Stop the Police Brutality"
27 October 11
The national heat continues to pour in on Oakland Mayor Jean Quan for her administration's tear-gas-firing reaction to the Occupy Oakland demonstrations. First, Current TV's Keith Olbermann called on her to resign. Then Jon Stewart mocked her.
And throughout Friday, the liberal online hub MoveOn.org will begin airing a minute-long ad on ABC, NBC and CBS in the Bay Area ripping Oakland's use of tear gas Tuesday to disperse the Occupiers.
"Mayor Quan," the ad's narrator says over the image of a smoke-filled Frank Ogawa Plaza "is this your city? Is this how we treat free speech in the United States of America?" READ MORE
MoveOn.org will release an ad calling for an end to the police brutality at Occupy Oakland, and urging people to demand Mayor Quan take responsibility.
#OccupyOakland Plans Vigil for Marine Injured During Tuesday Protests
27 October 11
"Occupy Oakland" protest organizers are planning a vigil tonight for a Marine veteran who was critically injured during protests Tuesday.
Scott Olsen, who has served two tours in the Iraq War, remains at Highland Hospital for treatment of injuries sustained when law enforcement officers used tear gas, rubber bullets and smoke grenades in an attempt to disperse an assembly that formed near 14th Street and Broadway. (You can watch video - warning, there is profanity - from KTVU of the march and crowd dispersal here, which a friend of the Appeal describes as "essential." - EB)
The protests Tuesday night were in response to the police removal of the protesters' encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Olsen, 24, of Daly City, was hit in the head with a police projectile, according to the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. READ MORE
Occupy Oakland: Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail
27 October 11
As two activists who have called Oakland home, we are appalled at the events of our city in the last 36 hours. Last night the country joined us to watch in anguish as the Oakland Police Department, with back up from a dozen law enforcement agencies from around the region, used excessive levels of force against hundreds of mostly peaceful Occupy Oakland protesters. In a city with a long and painful record of police violence, it is especially disturbing to witness scenes of women, children, the elderly, and the disabled under assault by rubber bullets and tear gas.
This kind of crackdown is bad for our democracy, and it's bad for public safety. Mayors and police chiefs at Occupy sites across the country should take note: this is the wrong way to respond to the Occupy movement.
Oakland, one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the nation, is a true reflection of the 99%. For this reason, the Occupy movement stands directly for the people of Oakland - so many of whom have lost their homes, lost their jobs, and lost the services they rely on. Our city's unemployment rate is over 10%. People are angry. Let us not forget that this frustration and anger is real and justified. READ MORE
Cities Begin Cracking Down on 'Occupy' Protests
27 October 11
After weeks of cautiously accepting the teeming round-the-clock protests spawned by Occupy Wall Street, several cities have come to the end of their patience and others appear to be not far behind.
Here in Oakland, in a scene reminiscent of the antiwar protests of the 1960s, the police filled downtown streets with tear gas late Tuesday to stop throngs of protesters from re-entering a City Hall plaza that had been cleared of their encampment earlier in the day. And those protests, which resulted in more than 100 arrests and at least one life-threatening injury, appeared ready to ignite again on Wednesday night as supporters of the Occupy movement promised to retake the square. Early Wednesday evening, city officials were trying to defuse the situation, opening streets around City Hall, though the encampment site was still fenced off. READ MORE
Voters Back Wall Street Protesters, Millionaire's Tax
27 October 11
New York State voters agree 58 - 28 percent with the views of the Wall Street protesters, as 60 percent of voters understand the protesters' views "fairly well" or "very well," according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Voters also back the "Millionaire's Tax" more than 2-1, as even Republicans back the measure.
Agreement with the protesters is 74-12 percent among Democrats and 57-30 percent among independent voters, while Republicans disagree 53-32 percent, the independent Quinnipiac University poll finds.
A total of 63 percent of New York City voters understand the protesters "very well" or "fairly well" and agreement is 66-22 percent. Understanding is 58 percent among suburban voters, with agreement at 50-36 percent. Understanding is 56 percent among upstate voters with agreement at 54 - 30 percent.
By an overwhelming 82-13 percent, New York State voters say it's "OK that they are protesting." Republicans support the right to protest 71-22 percent, with strong agreement among all groups in all regions.READ MORE
Occupy San Francisco: Tense Standoff Between Police, Protesters
27 October 11
A tense standoff continued Thursday morning between San Francisco police and Occupy San Francisco protesters. Police have called on the protesters to leave Justin Herman Plaza, saying the camps pose a threat to public health.
Earlier, protesters and police faced off along the Embarcadero near the Ferry Building as officers clad in riot gear chased people who had gathered in the area.
But as of 4:30 a.m., police had not moved in to arrest protesters, according to the San Jose Mercury News, which described a festive scene with people dancing and chanting at the camp. READ MORE
Oakland Police and Mayor Face Fresh Protest Over Critical Wounding of Veteran
27 October 11
Protesters have returned to downtown Oakland, California, to demand the resignation of the city's mayor and an investigation to explain how an Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, was hit in the head by a tear gas canister at close range, leaving him critically injured.
About 2,000 people - half as many as Tuesday night - massed in front of City Hall on Wednesday, tearing down a steel barricade intended to keep them off the grass in Frank Ogawa Plaza. When the city closed down a nearby underground station, preventing dispersing protesters going home, they organised a spontaneous march through the centre of the city, chanting: "Whose streets? Our streets!"
Police had been under orders to let them have the run of the plaza until 10pm. Officers stood guard at junctions in patrol cars and motorbikes to deter people from jumping up on to an overhead freeway. The police were more low key than on Tuesday, when they manned barricades around the plaza and fired volley after volley of teargas that filled the surrounding streets and smoked out businesses. READ MORE
OWS Protesters in NYC Proclaim Solidarity With Demonstrators in Oakland, Atlanta
27 October 11
Protesters stormed through downtown Manhattan on Wednesday night to proclaim solidarity with fellow demonstrators who were forced out of encampments in Oakland, Calif., and Atlanta, Ga.
The drama unfolded when about 400 Occupy Wall Street protesters marched from Zuccotti Park to City Hall only to be met by a swarm of cops about 9 p.m. The crowd quickly rerouted and began walking up Broadway towards Union Square only to be met by a police barricade near Reade St.
As organizers tried in vain to call off the march, scores of demonstrators splintered off and broke through a wall of cops - some of them even swiping a roll of orange netting used to kettle the large crowd. "We wanted to go to City Hall to show solidarity with Oakland," said Katama Rose, 22. "We wanted to come out and talk about how that wasn't okay." READ MORE
Occupy Protesters Rally Around Wounded Veteran
27 October 11
Veering around police barricades, anti-Wall Street protesters held a late-night march through Oakland streets, a day after one of their number - an Iraq War veteran - was left in critical condition with a fractured skull following a clash with police.
The show of force in Oakland along with SWAT arrests in Atlanta have sent chills among some anti-Wall Street demonstrators, and protesters elsewhere rallied in support around the injured veteran, Scott Olsen.READ MORE
MARINES TO OAKLAND POLICE: 'You Did This to My Brother'
27 October 11
Marines around the world are outraged by the injuries inflicted by police on Scott Olsen at Tuesday's Occupy Oakland protests. Olsen is in a medically-induced coma after getting hit in the head by a police projectile.READ MORE
St Paul's Cathedral Canon Resigns
27 October 11
The canon chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, the Rev Dr Giles Fraser, has resigned in protest at plans to forcibly remove protesters from its steps, saying he could not support the possibility of "violence in the name of the church."
Speculation grew in the last 24 hours that Fraser, a leading leftwing voice in the Church of England, would resign because he could not sanction the use of police or bailiffs against the hundreds of activists who have set up camp in the grounds of the cathedral in the past fortnight.
Just after 9am on Thursday, Fraser tweeted: "It is with great regret and sadness that I have handed in my notice at St Paul's Cathedral." READ MORE
Protesters Rally Around Trading Tax
27 October 11
Known in Occupy movement parlance as the "Robin Hood tax," taxes on trades of stocks, bonds and derivatives are getting a fresh look on Capitol Hill and may draw thousands of protesters to Washington, D.C., next week. Helping lead the charge are an unlikely breed of tax activist: registered nurses.
At least 1,000 nurses are expected to rally in front of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's office on Nov. 3, on the eve of the G-20 finance ministers meeting in Cannes, France, where a European transaction tax will be on the agenda. That group is led by the AFL-CIO affiliate National Nurses United, which already organized two rallies in Manhattan and D.C. in June around the slogan: "Tax Wall Street and heal Main Street." The nurses are also helping organize protests in Europe. READ MORE
#OccupyWallStreet Protestors Can Now Occupy URLs
26 October 11
The Occupy Wall Street movement has been expansive, spreading from Lower Manhattan to the all over the world, and now its message can be vocalized on any website. According to Mashable, a program called Occupy the URL will turn an website into a protest, replete with images of Occupy Wall Street protesters popping-up. Users need only insert the URL of the website they want to occupy. READ MORE
Occupy Protests Around the World: Full List Visualised
27 October 11
The Occupy protests have spread from Wall Street to London to Bogota. See the full list - and help us add more. READ MORE
The Classroom at the End of the Occupation
A Report From the Sidelines of Oakland
26 October 11
The first tweet from the Occupy Oakland had gone out just a few minutes before three and we managed to make it to the plaza in about half an hour. When my wife Marcy and I arrived at Frank Ogawa Plaza, now redubbed, "Oscar Grant Plaza," the flimsy barricades, some consisting of milk crates, had already been installed in preparation for the police attack. The occupiers, most with bandanas or scarves covering their faces as some sort of protection or guard for anonymity, worked as if directed, though there was no one directing. It soon became clear that this was a problem. This was, in a sense, THE problem. After two weeks occupying the plaza, the "leadership" wasn't leading; the unity of cause wasn't a unity of action, and the occupation was now facing a very highly disciplined, well-armed, uniform and uniformed force, organized in a strict hierarchy to move as one body with a very specific objective. It was the Spanish Civil War in miniature and this pathetic last stand of anarchists against a professional military force would end similarly, a fact that was obvious beforehand, at least obvious to many, despite all the bravado of a group carrying black flags and hidden behind hoodies and scarves and the frankly ridiculous barricades, two-feet high in places. READ MORE
Oakland PD Fractures Skull of Marine Corps Vet Scott Olsen
26 October 11
Veterans For Peace member, Scott Olsen, a Marine Corps veteran twice deployed to Iraq, is in hospital now in stable but serious condition with a fractured skull, struck by a police projectile fired into a crowd in downtown Oakland, California in the early morning hours of today. Other people were injured in the assault and many were arrested after Oakland police in riot gear were ordered to evict people encamped in the ongoing "Occupy Oakland" movement. Olsen is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
VFP members are involved with dozens of these local "occupy movement" encampments and we support them fully. In Boston, for example, our members, wearing VFP shirts and carrying VFP flags, stood between a line of police and the encampment, urging police to "join the 99%" and not evict the protesters. In that case, several of our members were banged and bruised when the police decided instead to carry out their eviction orders.
In Oakland last night, a similar thing happened, according to VFP Chapter 69 member and Navy veteran, Joshua Sheperd, who said he went to downtown Oakland "to see if, as a VFP member, I could help still the anger ... to be between the police and the protesters ... it seemed unconscionable to me that the police use the cover of darkness like that to do what they were doing." Fortunately, he was not injured in the police assault that left Olsen with a fractured skull. READ MORE
FOCUS: Marc Ash | A Witness to the Violence in Oakland
26 October 11
If Gandhi was right, yesterday's Civil Resistance Action in Oakland, California, achieved all of its aims. By day's end a heavily-armed, fully-militarized police force was in control of Frank Ogawa Plaza, but Occupy Oakland was in control of the agenda.
Two major confrontations occurred between police and protesters in Oakland, both marked by non-violent restraint on the part of the protesters and a lack of restraint - each time leading to violence - by the police.
The day began with a fully-coordinated assault by riot police on Occupy Oakland's encampment in Frank Ogawa Plaza. The police have charged one protester with resisting arrest. What is not in dispute is that they used tear gas, beanbag shotgun rounds and rubber bullets. In all, 95 protesters were arrested, mostly charged with unlawful camping violations. READ MORE
Occupy Atlanta Protesters to Be Freed on Signature Bonds
26 October 11
A judge on Wednesday ruled that all 52 people arrested in the Occupy Atlanta protest could be released on signature bonds. Atlanta Municipal Judge Crystal Gaines set a March 9 arraignment hearing for the protesters, who were being returned to the Atlanta City Jail to be processed and released. Gaines said that any of the protesters who are homeless could provide an Occupy Atlanta address in signing their bonds. The protesters were arrested overnight when police cleared Woodruff Park after more than two weeks of protests. The hearings had been scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. but did not get under way until noon. READ MORE
'Occupy' Likely to be Word of the Year
26 October 11
"Occupy" is a strong contender for word of the year, says Ben Zimmer, who leads the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society, which selected "app" last year and "tweet" in 2009. Other possibilities for 2011 include "winning" (thanks, Charlie Sheen) and "downgrade" (courtesy of the US credit rating). Zimmer tells Brooke Gladstone that the word "occupy" has been around in English since the 14th century, but it was used to describe protests - by Italian factory workers - for the first time in 1920. READ MORE
Occupy Denver Says Some Protesters Suffer Hypothermia
26 October 11
As the first major snowstorm of the season hit Denver overnight, Occupy Denver protesters said several people suffering from hypothermia had to be removed from Lincoln Park. With rain falling Tuesday night and temperatures dropping into the 30s, a Denver police officer warned activists that they had to take down tents and other structures in the park because they were violating local ordinances, according to a YouTube video titled, "People will die in the cold," posted by activists. "All right, people are going to die tonight," a protester replied on the video. Another activist told the officer the tents "are not coming down." READ MORE
D.C. Douglas: 'Why #OccupyWallStreet? 4 Reasons.'
26 October 11
Actor, voiceover talent and non-political figure D.C. Douglas chimes in with his take on OWS-Occupy Wall Street.
Matt Taibbi | Wall Street Isn't Winning – It's Cheating
26 October 11
I was at an event on the Upper East Side last Friday night when I got to talking with a salesman in the media business. The subject turned to Zucotti Park and Occupy Wall Street, and he was chuckling about something he'd heard on the news.
"I hear [Occupy Wall Street] has a CFO" he said. "I think that's funny."
"Okay, I'll bite," I said. "Why is that funny?" READ MORE
Police Raid Occupy Atlanta
26 October 11
With helicopters hovering overhead, police moved into a downtown Atlanta park and arrested around 50 Occupy Wall Street protesters who had been encamped there for about two weeks early Wednesday.
Like in many other cities, protesters had been camping in Woodruff Park to rally against what they see as corporate greed and a wide range of other economic issues.
Before police moved in, protesters were warned a couple times around midnight to vacate the park or risk arrest. READ MORE
Who's Afraid of Elizabeth Warren?
25 October 11
Elizabeth Warren is running for office in the most high-profile race in the country not involving Barack Obama. It's a position that calls for some tact. So what does she think about the Occupy Wall Street protests that are roiling the country? "I created much of the intellectual foundation for what they do," she says. "I support what they do."
Warren's boast isn't bluster: As a professor of commercial law at Harvard and the force behind Obama's consumer-protection bureau, Warren has been one of the most articulate voices challenging the excesses of Wall Street. Still, she enjoys an outsize celebrity for an academic and bureaucrat: a favorite guest of Jon Stewart, Warren, 62, has become a hero to the left, a villain to the right, and a fascination for everyone in between. READ MORE
Moving to Re-Occupy
5:05:pm:pdt
The crowd assembled at the Oakland Library is about to march back down 14th Street to Frank Ogawa Plaza with the intent of re-occupying the barricaded former encampment.
Update 04 From Occupy Oakland
4:45:pm:pdt
A crowd of over 2,000 has rallied at the Oakland Library in opposition to the raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment and police brutality.
They are chanting, "This will not end here."
The police are here in force, but right now powerless to act.
"Meeting at the (Oakland) library is getting big."
4:07:pm:pdt
Mayors Across US Begin Arresting OWS Protesters
25 October 11
Hundreds of arrests have already taken place, most of them coming in September when protesters blocked the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Police cleared smaller camps in San Francisco, San Diego, and Cincinnati this weekend. Chicago police arrested 130 people as they cleared Grant Park on Sunday, though protesters say they would not be deterred. "We're not going anywhere," Occupy spokesman Joshua Kaunert told the Associated Press. READ MORE
Tahrir Square Protesters Send Message of Solidarity to OWS
25 October 11
Egyptian activists who helped topple former dictator Hosni Mubarak have lent their support to the growing Occupy movement in the United States and Europe, a further sign that links between global pro-change protests appear to be growing.
A message of solidarity issued by a collective of Cairo-based campaigners declared: "We are now in many ways involved in the same struggle," adding: "What most pundits call 'The Arab Spring' has its roots in the demonstrations, riots, strikes and occupations taking place all around the world." READ MORE
Occupy Oakland "Not Finished"
25 October 11
After this morning's temporary disembowelment of Occupy Oakland by the city of Oakland, the group sent out a strongly worded message in which they claim a) "it's not finished" and b) that they will regroup this afternoon to plan their next move. At the request of city officials, police moved in on Frank Ogawa Plaza - shortsightedly renamed Oscar Grant Plaza by a few unfocused activists - between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. today to clear out the area. READ MORE
Report From Oaklander Max Allstadt
25 October 11
Lots of rumors down there. I was in the Plaza when the cops showed up, watched the entire thing, got out of the way when it got ugly, got back in afterwards to get my bike because I know enough OPD officers to find one who'd let me in.
No sound cannon. People repeatedly mistook a speaker truck for an LRAD sound cannon.
I saw one tear gas grenade go off. There were a few shots from air rifles designed to fire non-lethal ammo. That's about all I saw of weapons use. The rest was just force of numbers. At least 10 police agencies were there. Cops outnumbered protesters. And they showed up very very fast and quietly before, fully mobilized in 5 minutes, made announcements for 10 minutes, took over the whole plaza in less than 15 minutes.
I was there from 3:30 to 6am. READ MORE
Police and Protesters Massing in Oakland After Overnight Raid
25 October 11
Oakland Police wearing full riot gear are out in large numbers in downtown Oakland, as protesters rousted early this morning mount an effort to retake the encampment they were forced to leave.
The scene is tense, and marks one of the largest confrontations between police and protesters since the Occupy demonstrations first began in New York on September 17th.
There are unconfirmed reports that Oakland Police used both tear gas and rubber bullets during the early morning raid. Credible first-hand reports and video of tear gas make almost certain that at least tear gas was used. Reports of use of rubber bullets by Oakland Police on demonstrators cannot yet be confirmed.
Police Raid on Occupy Oakland
25 October 11
OWS: Washington Still Doesn't Get It
25 October 11
I'll have more coming out about this in a few days, but there have been two disgusting developments in the realm of plutocratic intervention on behalf of Wall Street that everyone protesting should take note of.
The fact that both of the following things took place in the middle of the full fever of OWS, when everyone is supposedly trying to placate anti - banker sentiment and Obama and the DCCC are supposedly pledging support of the protesters, shows how completely bankrupt this system is and how necessary street-level protests have become. Popular uprising is probably the only move left to stop developments like the following:READ MORE
Immunity and Impunity in Elite America
25 October 11
As intense protests spawned by Occupy Wall Street continue to grow, it is worth asking: Why now? The answer is not obvious. After all, severe income and wealth inequality have long plagued the United States. In fact, it could reasonably be claimed that this form of inequality is part of the design of the American founding - indeed, an integral part of it.
Income inequality has worsened over the past several years and is at its highest level since the Great Depression. This is not, however, a new trend. Income inequality has been growing at rapid rates for three decades. As journalist Tim Noah described the process: READ MORE
Wall Street Protest Plans Global Rally Before G20
25 October 11
Canada-based Adbusters wants the Occupy Wall Street protest movement against economic inequality to take to the streets to call for a 1 percent tax on such deals ahead of a November 3-4 summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in France.
"Let's send them a clear message: We want you to slow down some of that $1.3 trillion easy money that's sloshing around the global casino each day -- enough cash to fund every social program and environmental initiative in the world," the activist group said on its website, www.adbusters.org. READ MORE
OWS Puts Spotlight on Police Stop-and-Frisk Tactics
24 October 11
Stop-and-frisk refers to a common practice within the NYPD where officers detain people on the street, and, in some instances, search them. The department, along with the mayor's office, both contend that the stops have contributed to a considerable decrease in violent crime in the city, particularly in low-income communities and communities of colour.
OWS Sympathizer Creates 'I'm Getting Arrested' App
22 October 11
An Occupy Wall Street sympathizer created a free app called "I'm Getting Arrested" that lets protesters send out text messages to friends and family when cops swoop in.
Jason Van Anden, a Brooklyn software developer, said he came up with the idea when a colleague told him his girlfriend was about to get busted at a demonstration.
"He said it would be great if you had an app so that she could quickly broadcast her situation," said Van Anden, 43, a Flatbush dad. READ MORE
Cops Arrest Occupy Oakland Protesters
25 October 11
Oakland police arrested dozens of people at a plaza outside City Hall and at a second, smaller camp nearby, two weeks after the protesters launched their efforts as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement against corporate greed and economic inequality.
At about 4:57 a.m., officers began making arrests and removing tents and makeshift shelters at the Occupy Oakland protest at Frank Ogawa Plaza near 14th Street and Broadway. By 5:05 a.m., the bulk of the arrests had been completed, and arrestees were led away in plastic handcuffs. READ MORE
Sgt Shamar Thomas on Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann
24 October 11
Where Do We Go From Here? Occupy Wall St.
19 October 11
Why Not Occupy Newsrooms?
24 October 11
Almost two weeks ago, USA Today put its finger on why the Occupy Wall Street protests continued to gain traction.
"The bonus system has gone beyond a means of rewarding talent and is now Wall Street"s primary business," the newspaper editorial stated, adding: "Institutions take huge gambles because the short-term returns are a rationale for their rich payouts. But even when the consequences of their risky behavior come back to haunt them, they still pay huge bonuses." READ MORE
Occupy the Food System!
24 October 11
In the past few weeks, the U.S. Food Movement has made its presence felt in Occupy Wall Street. Voices from food justice organizations across the country are connecting the dots between hunger, diet-related diseases and the unchecked power of Wall Street investors and corporations. See Tom Philppot's excellent article in Mother Jones.
This is very fertile ground.
On one hand, the Food Movement's practical alternatives to industrial food are rooted at the base of our economic system. Its activities are key to building the alternative, localized economies being called for by Occupy Wall Street. READ MORE
'Occupy' Now a Banned Search Term in China
24 October 11
A good rule of thumb for life is that if the Chinese government is against it, you're probably doing something right. The latest evidence to support this axiom is the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has spread from lower Manhattan to cities around the globe, including London, Auckland, Toronto, and Rome, among many others. Terrified by OWS' viral growth, the oppressive regime controlling China is taking measures to ensure the protests don't happen there. And it's starting with the internet. READ MORE
Vatican Calls for Central World Bank, Condemns "Idolatry of the Market"
24 October 11
The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a "global public authority" and a "central world bank" to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican's Justice and Peace department should please the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.
"Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority," was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. "The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence," it said.READ MORE
The 40 Funniest Signs From Occupy Wall Street
24 October 11
From poignant to outlandish, down to chuckle-causing and headline-making, OWS protesters' cardboard declarations have captured our attention. They're making their issues and demands known through written wit, and, like any truly clever statement, are succeeding in not only causing laughter, but also some serious thought. That's right: OWS has got jokes! Jokes that have opened up an important conversation, no less.READ MORE
St Pauls Protesters Vow to Stay On
24 October 11
Anti-capitalist protesters outside St Paul's Cathedral in London vowed on Monday to stay there as long as they can despite claims that the historic church is losing £16,000 a day from closing the building to tourists.
A second site has been established on Finsbury Square in the city's financial district, but activists at St Paul's refuse to abandon their high-profile location. READ MORE
Bill Maher To Republicans: Quit Calling Occupy Wall Street Protesters 'Hippies'
24 October 11
Quit Calling Occupy Wall Street Protesters 'Hippies'
The Class War Has Begun
24 October 11
During the death throes of Herbert Hoover's presidency in June 1932, desperate bands of men traveled to Washington and set up camp within view of the Capitol. The first contingent journeyed all the way from Portland, Oregon, but others soon converged from all over - alone, in groups, with families - until their main Hooverville on the Anacostia River's fetid mudflats swelled to a population as high as 20,000.
Occupy Wall Street Camps Staring Down Eviction
22 October 11
Under normal circumstances, Rupert Murdoch doesn't have much patience for the annual shareholders' meetings that are required by law of American public companies. He regards them as a farce, because they cannot change the outcome in a company where a voting majority is secure, and as an exercise in liberal corporate law designed to put him personally on the spot.
Still, his handlers, whose job is, in part, to protect him from himself, have long made him train for these meetings as though he's going into a presidential debate. Without rigorous practice, he is quite liable to not pay attention and appear quite bewildered, or pay too much attention and explode in fury, or worse, truthful exasperation. READ MORE
Police Brutality Charges Sweep Across the US
22 October 11
Officer Michael Daragjati had no idea that the FBI was listening to his phone calls. Otherwise he would probably not have described his arrest and detention of an innocent black New Yorker in the manner he did.
Daragjati boasted to a woman friend that, while on patrol in Staten Island, he had "fried another nigger". It was "no big deal", he added. The FBI, which had been investigating another matter, then tried to work out what had happened. READ MORE
The Obligation to Peacefully Disrupt
22 October 11
Mayor Bloomberg is planning Draconian new measures to crack down on what he calls the "disruption" caused by the protesters at Zuccotti Park, and he is citing neighbors' complaints about noise and mess. This set of talking points, and this strategy, is being geared up as well by administrations of municipalities around the nation in response to the endurance and growing influence of the Occupation protest sites. But the idea that any administration has the unmediated option of "striking a balance," in Bloomberg's words, that it likes, and closing down peaceful and lawful disruption of business as usual as it sees fit is a grave misunderstanding - or, more likely, deliberate misrepresentation - of our legal social contract as American citizens. READ MORE
Police Arrest 130 at Occupy Chicago
22 October 11
Anti-Wall Street demonstrators of the Occupy Chicago movement stood their ground in a downtown park in noisy but peaceful defiance of police orders to clear out, prompting 130 arrests early Sunday, authorities said.
Occupy Chicago spokesman Joshua Kaunert vowed after the arrests that protests would continue in the Midwest city. "We're not going anywhere. There are still plenty of us," Kaunert told The Associated Press after the arrests, which took police more than an hour to complete.
Elsewhere in the nation, police reported 11 arrests overnight in the Occupy Cincinnati protests. Police said those arrested had stayed in that city's Fountain Square after Sunday's 3 a.m. closing time and each was charged with criminal trespass. READ MORE
#OccupyMarines Preparing to Occupy America
22 October 11
United States Marine Corps. Sergeant Shamar Thomas in a spectacular moment defended the protesters of Occupy Wall Street while staring into the faces of thirty NYPD officers, and now countless other Marines have organized in an amazing show of solidarity.
Sgt. Thomas' gallant actions in standing up for American citizens being brutalized by the police were shown in a video which has gone viral with almost 2 million views. Marines have joined forces with #OccupyMarines in solidarity with the movement not just in New York, but nationwide:
"OccupyMARINES Are Currently Assessing The Current Situation To Ascertain What Is Currently Needed To Support OWS America. We Are Humbled At The Substantial Support OWS America Has Provided And Ask That Everyone Continue As You All Do While We Implement Organization Nationwide. As We All Know, 'Occupy' Groups Are Being Established Even Now And Would Like To See This Trend Continue."READ MORE
OWS Protesters Plan "Teach-In" After Police Arrest 35 on Friday
22 October 11
The Occupy Wall Street movement plans to march again today. Protesters will hold a teach-in at Washington Square Park this afternoon.
Many are also expected to gather in Union Square to participate in the 16th Annual Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, a national event.
Protesters are calling on the New York City Police Department to end its controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which civil activists say disproportionately targets men of color. In 2009, more than half-a-million people were stopped and frisked. READ MORE
Anonymous Hacks Police Websites and Data to Support OWS
21 October 11
Although they had a hand in starting the Occupy Wall Street protest, the hacktivist collective Anonymous has been pretty quiet since it started. No longer: Anonymous claims they just hacked a ton of police sites and leaked usernames and passwords.
The biggest target of today's hack was the International Association of Chiefs of Police, whose website is still down as of this writing. It's auspicious timing, as the IACP is holding its annual meeting in Chicago. READ MORE
Occupy London: Demo Forces St Paul's Cathedral to Close
21 October 11
The decision was taken with a "heavy heart" for health and safety reasons, said the Right Reverend Graeme Knowles.
Anti-capitalist demonstrators from Occupy London Stock Exchange have been in St Paul's Churchyard since Saturday. The group said they were "disappointed" by the closure but they planned to continue the protest.
Following a meeting of the protesters, one of the group, who gave her name as Lucy, said: "It was felt by everyone that we really wanted to stay and continue with the protest.
"This protest is massive, it affects everybody, everyone's watching at home right now.
"It's not just about a few people who have got some tents in St Paul's, it's not a stunt, it's not a spectacle."
Earlier a statement from Occupy London Stock Exchange said the camp had been reorganised in order to meet fire safety concerns. READ MORE
More Arrests Coming for Wall St. Protesters, Bloomberg Says
21 October 11
More arrests are coming for the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Mayor Bloomberg announced this morning that the city is going to take a hard line with demonstrators making camp in Lower Manhattan after going easy on the throngs for weeks.
"We will start enforcing that more," he said of rules requiring permits for marches and assemblies.
The mayor's comments came during his weekly appearance on John Gambling's show on WOR-AM.READ MORE
Latest Developments in the Global Occupy Protests
21 October 11
NEW YORK--Ninety-two-year-old folk music legend Pete Seeger marched with throngs of people in New York City's tony Upper West Side in support of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Seeger, accompanied by musician-grandson Tao Rodriguez Seeger, composer David Amram, and bluesman Guy Davis, shouted out a verse as the crowd of about 1,000 people sang and chanted. They marched peacefully over more than 30 blocks from Symphony Space, where the Seegers and other musicians performed, to Columbus Circle. Police watched from the sidelines. At the circle, Seeger and friends walked to the chant of "We are the 99 percent" and "We are unstoppable, another world is possible." Seeger stopped to bang a metal statue of an elephant with his cane - to cheers from the crowd. At the center of the circle, Seeger and Amram were joined by '60s folk singer Arlo Guthrie in a round of "We Shall Overcome," a protest anthem made popular by Seeger.
CALIFORNIA--Hundreds of protesters defiantly remained at their campsite outside Oakland's City Hall early Saturday, despite a city order to vacate. As the 10 p.m. time of the city's ultimatum passed Friday night, Occupy Oakland demonstrators showed no signs of departing as music blasted from the plaza. More protesters arrived with tents as midnight approached. READ MORE
Pete Seeger Joins Occupy Wall Street Late-Night March Down Broadway
21 October 11
Occupy Columbus Circle! Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie
21 October 11
Folk Legend Pete Seeger Supports "Occupy Wall Street" Protesters
21 October 11
"Occupy Wall Street" protesters received a jolt of support from American folk singer Pete Seeger during an Upper Manhattan march Friday night. "I am here right now in solidarity with Pete and the other singers and musicians," said one protester. "Pete Seeger is an absolute idol of mine, and I dreamed that he would come and support 'Occupy Wall Street,'" said another.
Many of the same people took to downtown streets earlier in the evening to protest Verizon. Company officials said the protest's targets are misguided. Several dozen Muslims took part in a three-hour prayer service earlier in the day before a Jewish group celebrated Simchat Torah. Demonstrators also reacted to President Barack Obama's announcement that the Iraq War would come to an end by the end of the year. News that U.S. troops will be returning home by the holidays generated a mix of excitement and skepticism in Zuccotti Park. READ MORE
Dozens Arrested at 28TH Precinct In Harlem to Stop "Stop & Frisk"
21 October 11
The NYPD's notorious program of STOP & FRISK was the target of hundreds of demonstrators who marched from the Harlem State Office Building to Harlem's 28th precinct this afternoon. At the station, Cornel West, author and Princeton professor, Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Rev. Stephen Phelps, interim senior minister of Riverside Church, and dozens of others were arrested in an act of non-violence civil disobedience. Among those arrested and protesting was a large contingent from downtown's Occupy Wall Street.
Taken up the words of Rev. Phelps of Riverside Church, as arrestees were carried to waiting police vans the crowd chanted, "Stop & Frisk don't stop the crime, Stop & Frisk IS the crime." READ MORE
Occupy Columbus Cirle
Protesters Plan March To Columbus Circle With Pete Segar, Family Sleepover
21 October 11
Iconic folk singer Pete Seeger and his grandson Tao will become the latest notable musicians to march in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters when they join up with the crowd tonight.
The march departs at 10:30 p.m. by Peter Jay Shape Theatre on Broadway and is expected to wrap up at midnight at Columbus Circle, where folk musicians are planning to stage a midnight occupation. READ MORE
Occupy Wall Street Day 34
21 October 11
FOCUS: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
21 October 11
It's no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation's income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous - 12 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades - and more - has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. While many of the old centers of inequality in Latin America, such as Brazil, have been striving in recent years, rather successfully, to improve the plight of the poor and reduce gaps in income, America has allowed inequality to grow.READ MORE
1 Marine vs. 30 Cops
16 October 11
A Long, Steep Drop for Americans' Standard of Living
20 October 11
Think life is not as good as it used to be, at least in terms of your wallet? You'd be right about that. The standard of living for Americans has fallen longer and more steeply over the past three years than at any time since the US government began recording it five decades ago.
Bottom line: The average individual now has $1,315 less in disposable income than he or she did three years ago at the onset of the Great Recession - even though the recession ended, technically speaking, in mid-2009. That means less money to spend at the spa or the movies, less for vacations, new carpeting for the house, or dinner at a restaurant.READ MORE
17 september - 02 October : 02 October - 06 October : 06 October - 10 October : 10 October - 12 October
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Live Occupy Wall Street Tweets
 26 October 2011 |
 26 October 2011 |
 26 October 2011 |
 27 October 2011 |
 25 October 2011 |
 25 October 2011 |
 25 October 2011 |
 27 October 2011 |
 26 October 2011 |
Thirty Years of Unleashed Greed
27 October 11
t is class warfare. But it was begun not by the tear-gassed, rain-soaked protesters asserting their constitutionally guaranteed right of peaceful assembly but rather the financial overlords who control all of the major levers of power in what passes for our democracy. It is they who subverted the American ideal of a nation of stakeholders in control of their economic and political destiny.Between 1979 and 2007, as the Congressional Budget Office reported this week, the average real income of the top 1 percent grew by an astounding 275 percent. And that is after payment of the taxes that the superrich and their Republican apologists find so onerous.
Those three decades of rampant upper-crust greed unleashed by the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s will be well marked by future historians recording the death of the American dream. In that decisive historical period the middle class began to evaporate and the nation's income gap increased to alarming proportions. "As a result of that uneven growth," the CBO explained, "the distribution of after-tax household income in the United States was substantially more unequal in 2007 than in 1979: The share of income accruing to higher-income households increased, whereas the share accruing to other households declined.... The share of after-tax household income for the 1 percent of the population with the highest income more than doubled...."
That was before the 2008 meltdown that ushered in the massive increase in unemployment and housing foreclosures that further eroded the standard of living of the vast majority of Americans while the superrich rewarded themselves with immense bonuses. To stress the role of the financial industry in this march to greater income inequality as the Occupy Wall Street movement has done is not a matter of ideology or rhetoric, but, as the CBO report details, a matter of discernible fact.
The CBO noted that in comparing top earners, "The [income] share of financial professionals almost doubled from 1979 to 2005" and that "employees in the financial and legal professions made up a larger share of the highest earners than people in those other groups."
No wonder, since it was the bankers and the lawyers serving them who managed to end the sensible government regulations that contained their greed. The undermining of those regulations began during the Reagan presidency, and so it is not surprising that, as the CBO reports, "the compensation differential between the financial sector and the rest of the economy appears inexplicably large from 1990 onward." Citing a major study on the subject, the CBO added, "The authors believe that deregulation and corporate finance activities linked to initial public offerings and credit risks are the primary causes of the higher compensation differential."
So much for the claim that excessive government regulation has discouraged business activity. The CBO report also denies the charge that taxes on the wealthy have placed an undue burden on the economy, documenting that federal revenue sources have become more regressive and that the tax burden on the wealthy has declined since 1979.
In the face of the evidence that class inequality had been rising sharply in the United States even before the banking-induced recession, it would seem that the Occupy Wall Street protests are a quite measured and even timid response to the crisis.
Actually, the rallying cry of that movement was originally enunciated not by the protesters in the streets, but by one of the nation's most respected economists. Last April, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz wrote an article in Vanity Fair titled "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%" that should be required reading for those well-paid pundits who question the logic and motives of the Wall Street protesters. "Americans have been watching protests [abroad] against repressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few," Stiglitz wrote. "Yet, in our democracy, 1% of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation's income - an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret."
Maybe justice will prevail despite the suffering that the 1 percent has inflicted on the foreclosed and the jobless. But to date those who have seized 40 percent of the nation's wealth still control the big guns in this war of classes.
"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything"
Nice blog, I will keep visiting this blog very often. หนังออนไลน์
ReplyDelete