Occupy — more detail
onday, January 30, 2012
Occupy — Too much stuff being ignored on corporate media — full update
- Occupy Wall Street Camps in Los Angeles, Philadelphia Dismantled in Massive Police Raids
- Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper on Paramilitary Policing From WTO to Occupy Wall Street
- Police Crackdowns on Occupy Protests from Oakland to New York Herald the “New Military Urbanism”
- Occupy Oakland Encampment Raided for Second Time: Live Eyewitness Report
- National Park Service Threatens to Evict Occupy D.C. Encampments at Two Parks Near White House
Rush Transcript
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- Occupy Oakland
- See all of Democracy Now!’s reports on the Occupy Wall Street Movement
- Follow news from the Occupy movement on the Democracy Now! Twitter list
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Oakland, California, where police have arrested more than 400 Occupy Oakland protesters as well as a number of journalists. One of the largest mass arrests since the Occupy protests began took place on Saturday and early Sunday when people attempted to convert a vacant building into a community center. On Saturday, after the crowd reportedly refused to follow police orders to disperse from the vacant Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, witnesses say police used tear gas, bean bag projectiles and flash grenades. Several hours later, police said some of the protesters broke into City Hall. However, demonstrators claimed they found the door to City Hall already ajar.
The Associated Press quoted Oakland Mayor Jean Quan as saying people who broke into City Hall burned a flag they found inside, broke an electrical box, and damaged art displays. Mayor Quan, later directly addressing Occupy Oakland and its supporters.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the Occupy Oakland Media Committee group issued its statement, saying police officers had violated their department’s code of conduct for dealing with protesters, calling the mass arrests “illegal.”
For more, we go now to a video report from Oakland filed by John Hamilton.
AMY GOODMAN: And you are watching and listening to Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, as we turn now to Berkeley, California, to Maria Lewis. She’s a participant in the Occupy Oakland movement, an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, where she is broadcasting to us from.
Maria, explain what happened this weekend and what happened to you.
MARIA LEWIS: Hi. Yeah. So, this weekend, despite the brutal police repression that the people of Oakland faced, I think was a really beautiful weekend. What we saw was thousands of people taking to the streets to reclaim what this economic and political system in this country has systematically denied us, which is the right to basic food, basic shelter, basic medical care, the things that the Oakland Commune, Occupy Oakland, used to provide in its encampment and has been unable to since that encampment was brutally repressed by the Oakland police. There were thousands of people in the street who fought to reclaim a building, a vacant building, and one of the hundreds of vacant buildings in the city, and to open that space up for people as a social center, as a place where we can get basic—our basic needs met and meet them ourselves. And while we weren’t able to secure that building this weekend, I was really amazed at the spirit and the voracity of the Oakland residents who were fighting in the street this weekend.
I think one of the other things we saw this weekend was a brutal police repression that was really revealing about the priorities of the city. So, tear gas, flashbang grenades, rubber bullets, beanbag guns were all used against Oakland residents who were attempting to retake an abandoned building. All of this was used to protect abandoned private property, and I think that that’s really revealing about the city’s priorities, that it’s really more interested in protecting abandoned private property than it is in human beings.
AMY GOODMAN: Maria Lewis, what about some of the reports that said that the protesters were violent?
MARIA LEWIS: Absolutely. There was a lot of anger this weekend, and I think that the anger that the protesters showed in the streets this weekend and the fighting back that did take place was reflective of a larger anger in Oakland that is boiling over at the betrayal of the system. I think that people, day by day, are realizing, as the economy gets worse and worse, as unemployment gets worse and worse, as homelessness gets worse and worse, that the economic system, that capitalism in Oakland, is failing us. And people are really angry about that, and they’re beginning to fight back. And I think that that’s a really inspiring thing.
AMY GOODMAN: Maria, you were not personally arrested, but you have—I mean, this weekend, we saw one of the largest mass arrests in the last year. Seven hundred people were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge at the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York. Talk about your own choices in not being arrested, also being a student and your involvement with this movement, and how the arrests were conducted.
MARIA LEWIS: Yeah. So, what happened—there were several arrests that happened during the day, when we attempted to occupy the Kaiser center, but the majority of the arrests happened later that evening when we attempted to march to a backup location and to occupy a backup location. The police kettled the protesters twice. The first time we were kettled at 19th and Telegraph, we were surrounded on all sides and given no option to disperse and then tear-gassed while in the kettle. And it was only really through the scrappiness and resourcefulness of the protesters that we were able to escape that kettle by tearing down a fence and escaping. The protest was then kettled about 20 minutes later at another intersection. Some people were able to escape over a fence, and a few people were able to escape through the YMCA, which opened its doors to us once they realized what was going on. But many people did not escape, and I’ve heard estimates of up to 400 people arrested.
AMY GOODMAN: Oakland City Council Member Ignacio De La Fuente accused the Occupy movement of engaging in domestic terror.
AMY GOODMAN: Maria Lewis, your response?
MARIA LEWIS: Yeah. I think that that was—the idea that reclaiming vacant abandoned buildings is terrorism is very retelling of the city’s priorities and of what the city—what the Oakland Police Department serves and protects. They are more interested in protecting abandoned private property than they are the people. And the idea that opening up a social center is terrorism is very telling of the narrative of the police state.
- UC Davis Student Describes Pepper Spray Attack on Occupy Campus Protesters
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Rush Transcript
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- Occupy D.C.
- See all of Democracy Now!’s reports on the Occupy Wall Street Movement
- Follow news from the Occupy movement on the Democracy Now! Twitter list
AMY GOODMAN: There is also news that the Occupy protests in Washington, D.C., are about to be raided. The National Park Service has said it will begin enforcing a ban today on Occupy protesters camping overnight in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, two parks near the White House where people have been living since October. We’re joined on the phone, as well, from McPherson Square by Justin Jacoby Smith, a member of the Occupy D.C. media team.
Justin, what’s happening right now?
JUSTIN JACOBY SMITH: Hi, Amy.
Well, at the moment, we are very slowly moving a number of our tents and other items into the center of the park. And the reason we’re doing that is to make sure that the people that are at the center of our movement, the people that have been disenfranchised by the 1 percent and their greed and their purges of our democracy—we are going to do our best to make sure that they’re protected from what is effectively a criminalization of poverty and a criminalization of homelessness. By choosing to evict the people who have no place else to sleep, they’re effectively criminalizing those among us who are disenfranchised. And that’s something that we’ll stand against.
AMY GOODMAN: Occupy D.C. has been one of the few places that’s in two separate squares, that have not been raided by the police, have not been ended. What has been your strategy, and what exactly will be your strategy now?
JUSTIN JACOBY SMITH: Well, we have had the benefit thus far of being on federal parkland, which means that rather than having to deal with the particular Metropolitan Police Department, we are under the jurisdiction of the federal Park Police, who essentially understand that our First Amendment rights, generally speaking, trump the demands of someone like Darrell Issa, who really works hard to—who has worked hard to politicize our ongoing encampment in a way that reflects well on him, of course, the richest member of Congress, as opposed to the fact that we’re out here struggling against exactly everything that he represents. And so, thankfully, on federal parkland, we have the benefit of having a cooperative and understanding and First Amendment-supporting police force, for the most part, despite occasional stubbles and occasional moments of struggle.
AMY GOODMAN: Justin Jacoby Smith, I want to thank you very much for being with us, member of the Occupy D.C. media team. And I also want to thank Maria Lewis, participant in Occupy Oakland, an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Of course, we’ll continue to follow the Occupy movement in Berkeley and Oakland, in D.C. and all over the country. But when we come back, we’re going to Syria. Stay with us.
Sunday, January…
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Occupy — Too much stuff being ignored on corporate media
Occupy the EGT
Occupy stands firm – solidarity with Longview continues!
Occupy stands firm – solidarity with Longview continues!
Don’t stop mobilizing until the workers declare victory!
Railroad Workers condemn use of military to escort scab grain
US Labor Against the War condemn use of U.S. military in Longview
Occupy responds to ILWU & EGT tentative agreement for Longview
Family Farm Defenders solidarity with ILWU
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Call to action from Portland
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Occupation of Itochu in SF to Stop Union Busting Against ILWU At Port Of Longview
Labor solidarity supporters of ILWU Local 21 in Longview, Washington occupied the offices of Itochu in San Francisco. Itochu is part of a union busting partnership to break the ILWU coast wide contract. They have arrested and attacked ILWU members and their families in Washington and plan to open a Wal-Mart type operation at the grain elevator at the port
http://youtu.be/W4NiyTaNQhM
Oakland protest against the US Coast Guard
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KBOO FM: Longshore Battle Looms in Longview
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KBOO FM: Occupy Portland’s solidarity with the ILWU
- Read moreabout KBOO FM: Occupy Portland’s solidarity with the ILWU
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Solidarity with Local 21
- Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
- Carpenters’ Local 156
- Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central Labor Council
- Family Farm Defenders
- Laborers’ Local 483 (Portland, OR)
- Masters, Mates & Pilots
- Painters, IUPAT DC #5
- Railroad Workers United
- San Francisco Labor Council
- South Central Federation of Labor (WI)
- UA Local 393
- UE Local 150
- US Labor Against the War
WC Port Shut Down
occupytheport
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Participating Occupations for D12
- Occupy 805
- Occupy Albuquerque
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- Occupy Astoria
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- Occupy Hilo
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- Occupy Humboldt
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- Occupy Long Beach
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- Occupy Longview
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- Occupy Minneapolis
- Occupy Oakland
- Occupy Olympia
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- Occupy Portland
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- Occupy San Antonio
- Occupy San Diego
- Occupy San Francisco
- Occupy San Luis Obispo
- Occupy Santa Barbara
- Occupy Seattle
- Occupy Tacoma
- Occupy Thousand Oaks
- Occupy Vancouver, BC
- Occupy Waimea
- Occupy Wall Street
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