The aim of #OCCUPYWALLSTREET is to draw protesters to New York's financial district in a non-violent protest to spark a mass movement against corporate dominance. While the corporate media ignores the protest, Reader Supported News will continue to report on the latest developments.
A demonstrator holds a sign during an Occupy Wall Street protest in lower Manhattan. The protests moved into their third week on Monday. (photo: Reuters)
Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Together, Occupy D.C., Occupy Oakland, Occupy Chicago, Occupy Boston, Occupy San Francisco , Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Live Streams
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17 November - 22 November
This page is an archive. Future OWS updates will go on the new page.
22 November 11
his past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:
22 November 11
To recap for those who haven't seen it: police in paramilitary gear line up in front of a group of Occupy protesters peacefully assembled on a quad pathway. Completely unprovoked, police decide to douse the whole group of sitting protesters with pepper spray. There is crying and chaos and panic, but the wheezing protesters sit resolutely in place and refuse to move despite the assault.
Finally, in what to me is the most amazing part, the protesters gather together and move forward shouting "Shame On You! Shame On You!"
22 November 11
Los Angeles officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters a package of incentives that includes downtown office space and farmland in an attempt to persuade them to abandon their camp outside of City Hall, according to several demonstrators who have been in negotiations with the city.
The details of the proposal were revealed Monday during the demonstration's nightly general assembly meeting by Jim Lafferty, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who has been advocating on behalf of the protest since it began seven weeks ago. Lafferty said city officials have offered protesters a $1-a-year lease on a 10,000-square-foot office space near City Hall. He said officials also promised land elsewhere for protesters who wish to farm, as well as additional housing for the contingent of homeless people who joined the camp.
12 November 11
Over the past several years, the American government has encouraged, tutored, and funded nonviolent destabilization efforts and color revolutions from Burma and the countries around the former Soviet Union to Venezuela, Iran, and Egypt. Most of the local activists involved had righteous grievances and deserved international solidarity.
But, American and allied European interventions pursued their own interests and agendas, whether to extend control over oil, gas, and other natural resources, secure oil and gas pipelines, expand NATO into Eastern Europe, or privatize local economies.
22 November 11
It would have been easy for students at UC Davis to riot after watching their classmates being assaulted with pepper spray. Instead, they remained nonviolent. That simple act gave them the moral high ground. And that's how social change movements grow.
Rewind a couple of weeks.
Occupy Oakland was in a similar situation. Police had violently cracked down on their encampment. Iraq War veteran Scott Olson almost died.
22 November 11
Tonight, Fox News hosts Bill O'Reilly and Megyn Kelly got to talking about a UC Davis police officer's appalling use of pepper spray on nonviolent protesters over the weekend. Guess what direction the conversation took! If you guessed "needlessly deferential to authority and dismissive to the suffering of protesters," you guessed correctly!
22 November 11
A pregnant woman who was pepper sprayed during the Occupy Seattle protests in the US claims she had a miscarriage five days later as a result of injuries allegedly inflicted by the police.
Jennifer Fox, 19, claims that she was also struck in the stomach twice - once by a police officer's foot and once by an officer's bicycle - as police moved in to disperse marchers on 15 November.
22 November 11
Occupy Boston finds itself in an odd position - it's actually protected from eviction by a judge, but some participants aren't selling out by signing on to the authority of a system they are protesting.
On Nov. 15, the same day that the NYPD raided and evicted Occupy Wall Street, the National Lawyers Guild and Massachusetts ACLU went to court to get an order preventing Boston police from evicting Occupy Boston from its space at Dewey Square, underneath Boston's iconic Federal Reserve building.
22 November 11
Los Angeles officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters a package of incentives that includes downtown office space and farmland in an attempt to persuade them to abandon their camp outside of City Hall, according to several demonstrators who have been in negotiations with the city.
21 November 11
Occupy CUNY and allied protestors who gathered Monday at Baruch College to express opposition to CUNY tuition hikes, unfair labor practices, and privatization were met with an increasingly familiar response: violent suppression of their basic right to dissent. Protestors were barred from attending a so-called "public" meeting of the school's trustees and ordered to disperse. CUNY security and NYPD moved in with nightsticks drawn, turning a nonviolent protest into a chaotic melee.
21 November 11
Media organizations are speaking out against police handling of journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street protests. They say New York City police blocked journalists from seeing when authorities cleared out the Occupy camp in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park last week. They also say New York Police Department officers used force and arrested some journalists as they were trying to do their jobs.
The media organizations and journalist groups on Monday sent a letter to chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne seeking a meeting. Browne says he's "happy" to work together to "iron out" misunderstandings.
21 November 11
LOS ANGELES — It has become something of an annual tradition on California college campuses, in what is perhaps the most prestigious state university system in the country: the state makes large cuts in public universities, they in turn raise tuition, and students respond with angry protests.
But this year, propelled in part by the fervor of the Occupy Wall Street movement and in part by the state of the economy and California’s mountainous budget woes, the battle is sharpening. Indeed, the Occupy movement — on campuses, at least — is transforming itself into a student-led crusade against increases in tuition.
20 November 11
11/22/11 - 8:25:am:pdt
An RSN Reader reports: The police are doing something at the occupy camp. They won’t let pedestrians into the area, presumably to stop photos being taken. If anyone gets this, I have contacted some local new stations. I hope there is someone observing the situation.
22 November 11
Police have cleared more than half the tents from the Occupy Santa Rosa encampment around city hall that some protesters say had morphed into a homeless camp.
KTVU-TV reports that officers on Tuesday morning evicted campers from 26 tents that did not have permits.
20 November 11
Occupy Santa Rosa will picket Santa Rosa's downtown mall on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that's traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year.
It's part of Occupy's anti-corporate message, members said Sunday. The “Buy Nothing Day” demonstration will be followed by a community festival at City Hall with music, crafts and a free gift exchange.
The encampment continued to shrink Sunday as some Occupiers folded their tents after a night of cold rain and police checks. Still, more than 30 tents remained and diehards vowed to stay until at least Nov. 30, when city permits expire.
21 November 11
As the lead Republican negotiator during the manufactured debt crisis, Eric Cantor had the podium all summer long. He walked out of the early debt talks, insisting on a cuts-only solution. The House Majority Leader readily dismissed sensible proposals like ending billions in wasteful tax giveaways for corporations and the super-rich.
Cantor's callousness is legendary - he even withheld FEMA assistance to his own and other hurricane-ravaged districts until disaster-relief spending was offset by cuts.
20 November 11
In response to coordinated attacks on the occupations and attacks on workers across the nation:
Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12th.
The 1% has disrupted the lives of longshoremen and port truckers and the workers who create their wealth, just as coordinated nationwide police attacks have turned our cities into battlegrounds in an effort to disrupt our Occupy movement.
20 November 11
The University of California, Davis, said on Sunday that two police officers had been placed on administrative leave after using pepper spray on seated protesters in a widely recorded encounter on Friday afternoon.
Reflecting widespread anger over the police behavior, the university chancellor, Linda P.B. Katehi, said Sunday that she would insist that the investigation be completed in 30 days. A day earlier, she had said it would take 90 days.
21 November 11
The City of Toronto can move in and dismantle the five-week-old Occupy Toronto camp in St. James Park, a judge ruled Monday morning.
In a written ruling, Justice David Brown rejected Occupy's request for an injunction on the basis that the makeshift tent village is a protected form of protest under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
20 November 11
Gerri Field stood with hundreds of protesters in front of Tiffany's in Walnut Creek this week, railing against economic injustice at the top of her lungs and drawing approving honks from passing cars with her sign, "Heal America, Tax Wall Street."
For two sunny midday hours, the crowd did its best to "occupy" the busiest intersection in town, Mount Diablo Boulevard and North Main Street, singing "This Land Is Your Land" and denouncing corporate greed and the ultrarich 1 percent.
20 November 11
An eighty-four-year-old woman is looking straight into a camera. Her eyes are wide, her mouth is agape, and she is drenched in a filmy white fluid: it flattens her white billowing hair, it glazes her flushed cheeks, it runs off her chin onto her scarf.
This is Dorli Rainey, minutes after being doused with pepper spray by police at an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday.
Joshua Trujillo shot the picture for seattlepi.com. Trujillo also took pictures of the police doing the dousing - hosing the protesters down with what look like fire extinguishers full of the noxious, blinding, stinging pepper spray.
20 November 11
22-year-old UC Davis student W. (name withheld by request) was one of the students pepper-sprayed at point-blank range Friday by Lt. John Pike while seated on the ground, arms linked and silent.
W. tells Boing Boing that Pike sprayed them at close range with military-grade pepper spray, in a punitive manner. Pike knew the students by name from Thursday night when they "occupied" a campus plaza. The students offered Pike food and coffee and chatted with him and other officers while setting up tents. On Friday, UC Davis chancellor Linda Katehi told students they had to remove their #OWS tents for unspecified "health and safety" reasons.
"Move or we're going to shoot you," Pike is reported to have yelled at one student right before delivering pepper spray. Then, turning to his fellow officers and brandishing the can in the air, "Don't worry, I'm going to spray these kids down."
20 November 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSm9yLUqlfY
20 November 11
Today, Occupy K St./DC liberated the empty, city-owned Franklin School. The school was closed several years ago and initially reopened as a homeless shelter. Despite widespread public opposition, the city government later closed the shelter. Next -- in blatant disregard of social safety net programs that are necessary for the very survival of the people who are most directly impacted by economic injustice -- announced plans to turn the building either into luxury condos or a hotel for the 1% lobbyists on K St.
Police -- including the Metropolitan Police and federal Protective Services -- responded with full force. A massive police presence blocked all of 13th St and declared the area a "crime scene." Police then moved into the building and arrested all inside, carrying out people cuffed at the arms and legs. Some protesters banged on the police vans from inside and outside, while others tried to block the vehicles altogether. Police declared they would charge all those inside with unlawful entry, and threatened others with felony charges if they interfered.
20 November 11
On September 16, Mayor Bloomberg did his weekly radio show with John Gambling. The Friday - morning chats are usually fairly sedate. But this time, when Gambling asked Bloomberg about a historic rise in the national poverty rate, the mayor made headlines.
"You have a lot of kids graduating college who can't find jobs," he said. "That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kinds of riots here."
20 November 11
Around 8 am a few dozen OPD officers in riot gear raided the Occupy Oakland camp that they set up Saturday night in the Uptown neighborhood at 19th Street and Telegraph Avenue, next to the Fox Theater in Oakland Sunday, November 20, 2010.
20 November 11
A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program "Up w/ Chris Hayes."
The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC's clients, the American Bankers Association.
12 November 11
Cited for "trespassing" after altercation, protestors forcibly removed by police from The People's Plaza during evening, November 19, 2011.
20 November 11
Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on 12/12.
19 November 11
In response to the crackdown on Occupy Wall Street and the pepper-spraying of an 89-year-old woman in Seattle I wrote, "Fanning the Flames of the Revolution." Quite simply, I argued that each violent crackdown by the police against non-violent protesters does little more than "fan the flames" of Occupy protests and, in many cases, adds fuel to the fire of the Occupy movement.
It happened again on Friday afternoon.
This time the scene of the crime was the University of California, Davis. Police once again sprayed fuel on the fire in the form of pepper spray, and lots of it. The target?
18 November 11
A confrontation between police and Occupy protesters at UC Davis ended Friday afternoon with the arrest of 10 students after police officers used pepper spray to force protesters from an encampment in the campus quad, according to protest supporters and a campus spokeswoman.
19 November 11
Law enforcement officials defended the tactics used Friday to dismantle an encampment set up by "Occupy Wall Street" sympathizers on the UC Davis quad, a raid that drew accusations of excessive force from students after sitting protesters were subjected to pepper spray at point-blank range.
19 November 11
I propose that this Black Friday, Americans should link arms with our family and friends and Occupy the malls of America. Instead of driving ourselves ever deeper into debt with those credit cards, we should protest the corporate policies of outsourcing that have made it so unusual to see American-made products for sale in American stores.
19 November 11
Believe it or not, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's para-military crackdown on Zuccotti Park earlier this week only energized the movement, as yesterday's massive day of action proved. Now there's tons of dramatic footage, public outrage, and a new sense of momentum for the 99%.
19 November 11
About 75 protesters gathered at IU's Sample Gates on November 17 for a solidarity march on the two-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. A mix of students and local residents, the demonstrators condemned corporate influence and the social ills it perpetuates.
As they marched down Kirkwood to the Monroe County Courthouse, the protesters chanted, "The people, united, we will never be defeated" and sang, "Everybody pays their tax, everyone but Goldman Sachs!"
19 November 11
The Washington-based Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called for authorities to guarantee and protect the practice of journalism at public demonstrations.
The office alleged in a statement that at least three journalists have been assaulted since October by police officers, and two others by participants, in demonstrations in Nashville, Tennessee, and Oakland, California.
19 November 11
One of the enduring questions about Occupy Wall Street has been this: Can the energy unleashed by the movement be leveraged behind a concrete political agenda and push for change that will constitute a meaningful challenge to the inequality and excessive Wall Street influence highlighted by the protests?
A coalition of labor and progressive groups is about to unveil its answer to that question. Get ready for "Occupy Congress."
The coalition - which includes unions like SEIU and CWA and groups like the Center for Community Change - is currently working on a plan to bus thousands of protesters from across the country to Washington, where they will congregate around the Capitol from December 5-9, SEIU president Mary Kay Henry tells me in an interview."
18 November 11
Yesterday, the New York Police Department deployed a strange new weapon against the tens of thousands of demonstrators who converged downtown for the largest protest in Occupy Wall Street's two month history: the LRAD sound cannon. NYPD officers reportedly blasted Occupy protesters with rays from the LRAD cannon while they sang the American national anthem near Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park (photos here), establishing an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that lasted throughout the evening.
Designed and manufactured by the San Diego-based LRAD Corporation, which was formerly known as the American Technology Corporation, the Long Range Acoustic Device sound weapon is the latest innovation in crowd suppression technology. It is portable and powerful, capable of transmitting a focused ray of 140 decibels of sound at a crowd of people, generating painful cranial vibrations so profound ear plugs become useless. According to LRAD promotional material, the sonic weapon "provides military personnel with a powerful, penetrating warning tone that can be followed by clear voice broadcasts in host nation languages to warn and shape the behavior of potential threats."
18 November 11
According to live blogging by the Guardian, candle-bearing protesters are currently flooding the bridge. Earlier, Ryan Devereaux reported arrests: The NYPD is moving in to arrest 99 protesters who have chosen to seat themselves in the street at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstrators-which include prominent New York City council members and senior union leaders-are wearing white t-shirts that read 99%, chanting "We are the 99%!"Since the police have turned nasty and winter is coming it might be worth considering adding some indoor activities. Like going to public town hall meetings – the kind that the Tea Party got so much press for misbehaving at.
This is not to suggest an imitation of the Tea Party tactics even though hurling witty bumper sticker slogans can be effective. Remember “death panels?” But getting beyond firing up ignorant hostility takes much more. The trick is to confront the political leadership with the real questions they’d rather avoid. It may also be a good idea to keep the confrontation focused on facts and avoid ideological conflict. Getting to the facts is hard enough without trying to bring the other guys to some kind of spiritual epiphany.
18 November 11
The day was January 17th, 1991.
Today 200-plus people were arrested before 1:00 p.m. in New York City for participating in peaceful, non-violent protests related to Occupy Wall Street, which has seen perhaps its most trying turn of events in the past week. Among those arrested was retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis (pictured above), who said, "All the cops are just workers for the one percent, and they don't even realize they're being exploited."
Ray Lewis, who retired in 2004, has a lot of interesting things to say, and I want you to hear as much of it as possible.
“They complained about the park being dirty," he said over the OWS Livefeed last night. "Here they are worrying about dirty parks when people are starving to death, where people are freezing, where people are sleeping in subways and they're concerned about a dirty park. That's obnoxious, it's arrogant, it's ignorant, it's disgusting."
17 November 11
The day was January 17th, 1991.
Had a quick piece of news I wanted to call attention to, in light of the recent developments at Zuccotti Park. For all of those who say the protesters have it wrong, and don't really have a cause worth causing public unrest over, consider this story, sent to me by a friend on the Hill.
Last week, a federal judge in Mississippi sentenced a mother of two named Anita McLemore to three years in federal prison for lying on a government application in order to obtain food stamps.
Apparently in this country you become ineligible to eat if you have a record of criminal drug offenses. States have the option of opting out of that federal ban, but Mississippi is not one of those states. Since McLemore had four drug convictions in her past, she was ineligible to receive food stamps, so she lied about her past in order to feed her two children.
18 November 11
New York City showed its billionaire mayor and the rest of the 1 percent that the fight is far from over, just two days after the violent crackdown on Liberty Plaza in the middle of the night Tuesday.
From a 7 a.m. march on Wall Street itself to subway speak-outs around the city, from student walk-outs at universities like CUNY and Columbia to a giant, permitted rally in Foley Square that had a reported 30,000-plus attendees to a march across the Brooklyn Bridge with projections on the Verizon building declaring, "We are Winning" and "Occupy Earth," - the 99 percent showed up around the city to stand in solidarity with the evicted occupiers and express their support for a growing, expanding, living movement.
17 November 11
Click here to read the interview with creator of Occupy Wall Street "bat-signal" projections during Brooklyn Bridge #N17 march.
17 November 11
According to live blogging by the Guardian, candle-bearing protesters are currently flooding the bridge. Earlier, Ryan Devereaux reported arrests: The NYPD is moving in to arrest 99 protesters who have chosen to seat themselves in the street at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstrators-which include prominent New York City council members and senior union leaders-are wearing white t-shirts that read 99%, chanting "We are the 99%!"
17 November 11
Los Angeles police began arresting dozens of Occupy Los Angeles protesters who refused to leave Bank of America Plaza in in the financial district Thursday afternoon in the second major protest of the day. Police ordered the protesters to disperse at 4:10 p.m., a request that was greeted with chants of "Shame on you."
The protesters began taking over the plaza about 1 p.m. after a march from City Hall. They set up tents on a grassy area and locked arms, where they faced down police. But the property owner informed the LAPD that it was closing the park, which is private property, and requested that anybody who remained be arrested for trespassing. READ MORE
Note: The property owner who did not allow the protesters to stay is Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zuccotti Park (liberty Plaza).
18 November 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSm9yLUqlfY
17 November 11
The day was January 17th, 1991.
In the pantheon of billionaires without shame, Michael Bloomberg, the Wall Street banker-turned-business-press-lord-turned-mayor, is now secure at the top. What is so offensive is that someone who abetted Wall Street greed, and benefited as much as anyone from it, has no compunction about ruthlessly repressing those who dare exercise their constitutional “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” that he helped to create.
You would think that a former partner at the investment bank Solomon Brothers, which originated mortgage-backed securities, a man who then partnered with Merrill Lynch in the high-speed computerized trading that has led to so much financial manipulation, would have some sense of his own culpability. Or at least that someone whose Wall Street career left him with a net worth of $19.5 billion would grasp the deep irony of his being the instrument for smashing Occupy Wall Street, the internationally acknowledged symbol of opposition to corporate avarice.
17 November 11
The day was January 17th, 1991.
They came from all over, tens of thousands of demonstrators from around the world, protesting the economic and moral pitfalls of globalization. Our mission as members of the Seattle Police Department? To safeguard people and property—in that order. Things went well the first day. We were praised for our friendliness and restraint—though some politicians were apoplectic at our refusal to make mass arrests for the actions of a few.
Then came day two. Early in the morning, large contingents of demonstrators began to converge at a key downtown intersection. They sat down and refused to budge. Their numbers grew. A labor march would soon add additional thousands to the mix.
“We have to clear the intersection,” said the field commander. “We have to clear the intersection,” the operations commander agreed, from his bunker in the Public Safety Building. Standing alone on the edge of the crowd, I, the chief of police, said to myself, “We have to clear the intersection.”
17 November 11
A CBS aerial shot showed thousands of protesters and Union members massed at Foley Square. The assembled protesters are now marching to the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge where NYPD is prepared to meet the marchers. SEE the current CBS aerial livestream here.
17 November 11
The day was January 17th, 1991.
About 500 of us marched out of Lafayette Park, peacefully taking to the streets of Washington, DC without a "permit" to do so. By the time we got back to the White House our numbers had swelled to over 2,000. The reason for our "un-permitted" march? The start of the first Gulf War. We'd gathered in front of the White House and began marching down Pennsylvania Avenue, but were met by a row of mounted police. They ordered us to disperse and clear the street. When we refused, police drove us out of the street with their swinging batons.
Fast forward to August of 2001.
17 November 11
17 November 11
The CNN report offers as the cause of the unexpected market decline concern over European markets, making little mention of the throngs of protesters and police massed in the streets outside the New York Stock Exchange.
17 November 11
The Guardian UK is reporting injuries at Zuccotti Park to protesters and at least one minor injury to a police officer.
"2.13:pm:est: The scene at Zuccotti Park appears to have turned ugly. After earlier allowing protesters to re-enter the square, police have attempted to retake the plaza. There were violent scenes, a number of arrests, and there are reports that protesters and a police officer were injured. Ben Moran, a producer with Al Jazeera English, said police took away an Occupy Wall Street protester, his head covered in blood. The New York Daily News said a police officer was injured. Police on the scene suggested he was stabbed in the hand by a protester wielding glass."
17 November 11
Thousands of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators took to the streets around the U.S. on Thursday to mark two months since the movement's birth and signal they aren't ready to quit, despite the breakup of many of their encampments by police.
At least 175 people were arrested in New York, many for blocking streets near the New York Stock Exchange. One man was taken into custody for throwing liquid, possibly vinegar, into the faces of several police officers, authorities said. Police in Los Angeles arrested 23 people.
Demonstrations were also planned or under way in such cities as Washington, St. Louis, Las Vegas and Portland, Ore.
17 November 11
Prosecutors on Wednesday dumped 31 cases involving protesters arrested for violating city curfew law in the Occupy Sacramento demonstrations, but left nine on the books to handle people such as Cathy Grahnert, who was taken into custody on multiple occasions.
Grahnert, 57, recently laid off from a legal clinic that served low-income clients, said it was her revulsion over home foreclosures that drew her to Cesar Chavez Plaza as part of the national protest against income disparities and other issues.
17 November 11
Police surrounded the 40 or so campers at 3:30 a.m. in front of Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley's main administration building, and gave them 10 minutes to grab their gear and go. All but two did.
Alex Kim, 24, an English major, was arrested after he stood in front of police officers and flashed peace signs with both hands.
"We're coming back," said Kim, who confronted officers with his cat on his shoulder. Other protesters took the cat as Kim was being led away.
17 November 11
Protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement seized a Bank of America branch in the city's financial district Wednesday, a demonstration that forced jittery customers and employees to flee and ended in nearly 100 arrests.
It took about 40 police officers in riot gear nearly four hours to clear the bank, but no one was injured. Police said many of those arrested were UC Santa Cruz students who were protesting fee increases and budget cuts.
Police removed the protesters methodically, placing them in plastic handcuffs, citing them for misdemeanor trespassing and sending them off in police wagons for further processing."
17 November 11
Thousands marched on Wall Street this morning, blockading all entry points to the New York Stock Exchange. 'People's mics' have been breaking out at barricades, with participants sharing stories of struggling in an unfair economy.
"I paid taxes and took care of my responsibility, and I'm struggling," said participant, Leah Lackner, 27, who had taken the day off work as a mental health counselor to join the protest. Her sign read: "I played by the rules."
57-year-old bond trader Gene Williams joked that he was “one of the bad guys” and said supportively, “The fact of the matter is, there is a schism between the rich and the poor and it's getting wider."
16 November 11
First, as promised, a special comment on the events of Monday night at Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park:
For the entirety of the life of our nation, democracy has been protected -- not merely by the strenuous efforts of those of us who cherish it, but mostly, and most profoundly, by the limitless stupidity of those who would ration it, keep it for themselves and themselves alone, or destroy it.
The protests that ended the war in Vietnam reached critical mass only in 1970, when Governor James Rhodes of Ohio pounded on a desk at a news conference and called the student protesters at Kent State University un-American. They were not un-American, they were unarmed. And the next day, four were shot and killed by the National Guard and 10 days later, two more were killed at Jackson State.
17 November 11
Supporters of the Occupy movement are gearing up for a national day of protest and direct action across America, taking in dozens of events from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles.
Thursday has been declared a day of "solidarity" with the Occupy Wall Street activists in New York after their camp in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park was raided and dismantled by police. But it is also aimed at highlighting several of the movement's broader aims in terms of income inequality and a desperate need for job creation in America's floundering economy.
The Occupy movement, which began two months ago with the occupation of Zuccotti Park, has since spread to scores of cities and towns across the country, with varying success. It has often rejuvenated left-leaning political activists but also brought down a heavy police response, frequently at the behest of city mayors.
17 November 11
From Oakland, California to New York City, the police, ordered by politicians, have smashed through Occupy encampments. Noted for their rigorous non-violence and orderly arrangements - tents with medical assistance, legal aid, libraries, media relations and sanitation controls - the Occupy protestors are being shoved out of their public places all over the country.
The Mayor of Oakland admitted to the BBC in an interview that mayors, police and other security officials have been in contact with each other regarding how to deal with the removal of the protestors, including an 18 mayor conference call she participated in recently.
The police power is always the first response to a mobilized citizen action that refuses to go away. Even a protest against corporate greed and governmental complicity shattering the economy and millions of livelihoods, which has widespread support by the American people, faces police intervention.
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