Ousted from their Los Angeles tent city, Occupy L.A. protesters on Friday registered their opposition to a more pervasive type of eviction, disrupting an auction of foreclosed homes.
The group of about 30 demonstrators set up a tent as a prop in front of Los Angeles county offices in Norwalk,…
Supporters of Occupy Denver filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday accusing city officials of violating protesters’ free-speech rights.
The suit contends the city has selectively enforced various municipal ordinances against the protest as a way to shut down the movement.
“The Denver Police Department has … begun to use various municipal ordinances in order to harass the protesters and their supporters in ways which violate the First Amendment rights of the plaintiffs in this matter,” the lawsuit states.
Denver City Attorney Doug Friednash, in an e-mailed statement, denied the allegations.
UC Davis Pepper Spray Officer Also a Racist Homophobe
Pike, one of the officers who sprayed the students, is a retired Marine sergeant who has been honored for his police work on campus, but he also figured in a discrimination lawsuit against the university.He has twice been honored by the university for exceptional police work, including a 2006 incident in which he tackled a scissor-wielding hospital patient who was threatening fellow officers. Afterward, he said he decided against using pepper spray because it might harm his colleagues or other hospital patients. (funny huh?)
But an alleged anti-gay slur by Pike also figured in a racial and sexual discrimination lawsuit a former police officer filed against the department, which ended in a $240,000 settlement in 2008. Officer Calvin Chang’s 2003 discrimination complaint against the university’s police chief and the UC Board of Regents alleged he was systematically marginalized as the result of anti-gay and racist attitudes on the force, and he specifically claimed Pike described him using a profane anti-gay epithet.
Tuesday, state lawmakers announced they would hold a hearing on the pepper-spraying incident. Assembly Speaker John Perez sent a letter to the University of California Board of Regents chairwoman Sherry Lansing and UC President Mark Yudof asking for a system-wide investigation.
He also appointed the university’s general counsel and the UC Berkeley law school dean to examine police protocols and policies at all 10 UC campuses, including discussions with students, faculty and staff.
(Source)
An elderly woman, a pregnant woman and a priest were among those who were pepper-sprayed during a protest in support of the Occupy movement on Tuesday.
The demonstrators taking part in the Occupy Seattle movement marched from their current camp at Seattle Central Community College to Westlake Park late Tuesday afternoon.
While en route, they came across police officers at several points. At the intersection of Fifth and Pine, the crowd was met by a line of several dozen police officers on bicycles who blocked the way.
“I don’t think they have a sense of what it means when tax dollars are spent in this way,” a spokeswoman for the Oakland, Calif., city government, Karen Boyd, told The Daily. “Oakland is very much a city that has been devastated by the economic downturn. We don’t have an extra $2.5 million to spend.”
Oakland police estimate that overtime eventually will top $3 million, and Boyd said this may lead to cuts in senior services and libraries. Last year, Oakland laid off 500 city workers, including 80 police officers, to close a $58 million deficit.
This argument is upsetting to me for a couple reasons. One, there was no need for the sort of police presence that was on hand for Occupy protests around the country. Two, (and this is the important note in my opinion) this isn’t $13 million dollars down the drain, it’s $13 million that is going to the middle class essentially, which in turn is good for the economy. Now if we compare this to the $700 billion dollar bailout ( which is equal to 53,846 times what Occupy has cost in police overtime ) which went to millionaires and billionaires, interest free, we can gain a little bit of perspective on this.
It’s this sort of crooked bullshit that has people in the streets to begin with.
Oakland deployed 700 - 1000 officers for the unnecessary 3 day crackdown of Occupy Oakland costing the city $1 million - $5 million in tax payers money.
Last month the city of Oakland shut down two public schools to save $2 million. I guess evicting us to silence our message is a bigger priority than our kids education.
Public Opinion and the Occupy Movement
The Occupy Wall Street protests continue to spread around the country, highlighting grievances some Americans have about banks, income inequality and a sense that the poor and middle class have been disenfranchised. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that almost half of the public thinks the sentiments at the root of the movement generally reflect the views of most Americans. What are your thoughts about the movement? Do you agree with the protesters’ methods? Please note you must be logged in to post a comment.Oh hey, look at that.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan let slip in an interview with the BBC that she had been on a conference call with the mayors of 18 cities about how to deal with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Likewise, A Homeland Security official let it slip in a phone interview that the FBI and the Department of…
The saga of the OWS library books continues…
There are only about 25 boxes of books; many of the books are destroyed. Laptops here but destroyed. Can’t find tent or shelves….Many books destroyed. Most equipment -and structures missing… most of library is missing (ALL of the reference section btw), damaged or destroyed.
— Mandy Henk, one of OWS People’s Library’s volunteer librarians, on what she found when she arrived at the 57th St. Garage to reclaim the books and electronics confiscated.
The mayor’s office tweeted a photo yesterday in response to outcry over reports that the books had been destroyed, saying they were safe and sound. According the Maddow Blog, their pants are kind of on fire. The librarians, who went with a full list of what had been taken, were told to come back later to see if anything turned up from the garbage.
Adding salt to the wounds of the new lost generation:
According to analysis by the Pew Research Center released Monday, younger Americans have been left behind as the oldest generation has seen wealth surge since the mid-1980s.
While it’s typical for older generations to hold more wealth than younger ones who’ve had less time to save, the gap between the two age groups has widened rapidly.
In 1984, households headed by people age 65 and older were worth just 10 times the median net worth of households headed bypeople 35 and younger.
But now that gap has widened to 47-to-one, marking the largest wealth gap ever recorded between the two age groups.
