mainstream news

February 8, 2012

SFGate: New Report Suggests Police Overstated Costs of Occupy Protest

San Francisco Gate
Feb. 8, 2012

“Phoenix, Arizona (PRWEB)

Police departments around the country have accused the Occupy Wall Street protests of costing American taxpayers millions of dollars in officer overtime, but a former city prosecutor is beginning to question the validity of those claims. After breaking down the costs of the Occupy Phoenix protest in a new article on his website, Phoenix criminal lawyer David A. Black has found $160,000 worth of unaccounted expenses in the Phoenix police department’s official estimate.

“Occupy Phoenix’s attendance dwindled from 1,000 to 50 in less than a day,” says Black, who is representing one of the arrested protesters pro bono. “The protesters caused no property damage, required no crowd control and the only crime anyone committed was staying in a park after hours. But the Phoenix police are claiming that they needed hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime to respond to it. That’s almost three times more per arrest than any other Occupy movement in the country. It just doesn’t make sense.”

According to the city police, the first three days of Occupy Phoenix necessitated $180,000 in overtime. After factoring in all the costs of the SWAT-led raid on the first night of the demonstration, Black figures that the estimate leaves $160,000 of overtime remaining. The police have yet to disclose what that money went toward, but if it were distributed among the 20 officers who supervised the protest, each would receive 133 hours - or $8,000 - in overtime compensation for 72 hours worth of police work. That’s an especially handsome bonus considering that only 40 people attended the second and third days of Occupy Phoenix.

David A. Black has been a staunch advocate of civil rights ever since he left the Maricopa County attorney’s office to become a defense attorney. A former city prosecutor, he has successfully represented hundreds of clients across Arizona in a variety of DUI and criminal cases. The Law Offices of David A. Black are located at 40 North Central Avenue, Suite 1400, Phoenix, AZ 85004 and can be reached at (480) 280-8028.

For more information, or to schedule an interview with David A. Black, please contact Mark Moran at (724) 991-2775 or email mark@contentfac.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/2/prweb9168446.htm ”

2:28pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW96bwG5bgpg

February 8, 2012

Guardian: Occupy Wall Street protester vows to fight subpoena over Twitter account

The Guardian
Karen McVeigh
Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters
Feb. 7, 2012

“ A writer and Occupy Wall Street activist whose tweets have become the subject of a subpoena by a New York prosecutor is seeking to quash the order in court.

A lawyer for Malcolm Harris, 23, who was arrested along with 700 protesters on the Brooklyn bridge last October, filed a motion on Monday against the subpoena, which demanded the release of all of his tweets over a three-month period.

Harris – a writer whose Twitter bio reads “Real stories, callous revolutionary fervor, trickery” – is known in the Occupy movement as the trickster behind false claim that Radiohead were going to hold a concert at Zuccotti Park in New York.

Martin Stolar, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild, said the use of a subpoena over a Twitter account was unprecedented, improper and an abuse of process.

“There is simply no justification for seeking such a broad swath of electronic data as part of prosecuting a minor charge related to one event on a discreet date,” Stolar said. “This is yet another example of the City of New York overstepping the boundaries of the law in order to chill the legitimate political expression of critics of government policies.”

Stolar said he was seeking to quash the subpoena on several grounds. He claims it did not comply with federal laws governing requests for information from electronic communication devices and had also failed to comply with procedures related to delivering a subpoena outside New York State.

The subpoena, issued to Twitter on January 26 by New York district attorney Cyrus Vance, demanded “any and all user information as well as any and all tweets posted for the period of 9/15/2011 – 12/31/2011”, associated with @destructuremal, Harris’s Twitter account.

Twitter has agreed not to comply with the subpoena until the outcome is decided, said Stolar, who added that he had not been told what the DA was looking for.

“My guess is they are looking for some form of incriminating statement,” he said. “Three and a half months of this guy’s tweets and personal records – and for what, to go fishing?”

Harris, who was charged with disorderly conduct, is one of hundreds of Occupy-related defendants whose cases are at various stages in the court system.

When he received a copy of the subpoena from Twitter, his response was to post it on Twitter.

“When you get an email from Twitter Legal, you assume it’s a phishing scam, trying to get your password,” Harris said. “It turned out that it is a phishing scam, but it’s from the prosecutors.”“

2:22pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW96bwG5ajTC

(Notes: 3)

Filed under: ows occupy wall st occupy wall street occupy wall street wall st protest movement twitter protester

February 8, 2012

NBC: Chicago College Offers Class on Occupy Wall Street

NBC Chicago
Feb. 5, 2012

“A Chicago college is offering a class on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Thirty-two undergraduate students are enrolled at Roosevelt University’s “Occupy Everywhere” class. It’s a three-credit political science course that looks at the movement that started last summer near New York City’s Wall Street and spread nationwide.

Students’ assignments include reading the movement’s newspaper and attending Occupy Chicago’s general assembly meetings held near Roosevelt’s downtown campus, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Leaders from the Chicago movement may present guest lectures.

Professor Jeff Edwards studies social movements. He said the Occupy movement has been unfolding before students and the class is a good opportunity for them. He said they are reading a range of analysis on the movement concerned with corporate greed and the division of wealth.

New York University announced in December that it also planned to offer two classes covering the Occupy Wall Street movement. The for-credit undergraduate class will be offered through the university’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.

Just as with Roosevelt University, the NYU class planned to bring in guest speakers from Occupy Wall Street.”

12:52pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW96bwG5fJfK

Filed under: ows occupy wall st wall street occupy wall st movement class protests education college

January 29, 2012

FOX: Police Arrest About 300 Occupy Oakland Protesters

FOX News
Associated Press
Jan. 29, 2012

“Oakland police said they arrested about 300 people Saturday as protesters spent a portion of the day trying to get into a vacant convention center, and later broke into City Hall and tried to occupy a YMCA.

Police spokesman Jeff Thomason said most of the arrests came around 8 p.m. local time, when police took many protesters into custody as they marched through the city’s downtown, with some entering a YMCA building.

At about the same time police were taking people into custody near the YMCA, about 100 police officers surrounded City Hall, while others swept the inside of the building looking for protesters who had broken into the building, then ran out of the building with American flags before officers arrived.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan during a news briefing late Saturday said protesters had forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke into an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children .

The nighttime arrests came after 19 people were taken into custody in Occupy Oakland protests hours earlier.

Police used tear gas and “flash” grenades on the group Saturday afternoon after some demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at them. Police said three officers were hurt, but they released no details.

Police said the group assembled at a downtown plaza Saturday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic.

The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and “destroying construction equipment” shortly before 3 p.m., police said.

Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.

Most of the arrests were made when protesters ignored orders to leave and assaulted officers, police said. By 4 p.m., the bulk of the crowd had left the convention center and headed back downtown.

The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and political hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

In a statement Friday, Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city would not be “bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity.”

Interim police Chief Howard Jordan also warned that officers would arrest those carrying out illegal actions.

Oakland officials said Friday that since the Occupy Oakland encampment was first established in late October, police have arrested about 300 people.

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.

Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Among the critics was Mayor Jean Quan, who said she wasn’t briefed on the department’s plans. Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included “serious concerns” about the department’s handling of the Occupy protests.”

10:12am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW96bwFZE7sm

(Notes: 3)

Filed under: OWS occupy wall street occupy wall st wall street wall st oakland occupy oakland occupy california police protests fox fox news movement arrests

January 29, 2012

CNN: Dozens Arrested as Oakland Police, Occupy Protesters Clash

CNN
Wire Staff
Jan. 29, 2012

“Occupy protesters broke into Oakland City Hall, damaging displays and burning an American flag, the culmination of protests Saturday that saw police and protesters trade allegations over who was responsible for clashes in the northern California city that ended with the arrest of more than 100 people.

Undeterred, the protesters — who remained on the street early Sunday morning — said they will forge ahead with a planned “Rise Up Festival” at an area park later in the day.

Protesters tossed metal pipes, bottles and burning flares at Oakland police, who responded with tear gas, smoke grenades and bean bag bullets.

The clashes started after demonstrators attempted to take over the long-vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center and turn it into a protest center.

Three police officers and one protester were wounded in the clashes, city and police officials said.

Occupy protesters disputed the report, saying more than a dozen of their group suffered burns and other injuries after being struck by police “flash bang” grenades, according to accounts posted on the group’s Twitter feed.

Oakland has been a flash point of the Occupy movement since October when police used tear gas to break up demonstrators who refused to leave downtown. One demonstrator, an Iraq war veteran, suffered a skull fracture after being hit with a police projectile, according to a veteran’s group. Police said they acted after the crowd threw paint and other objects at officers.

Occupy DC protesters demonstrate outside VIP dinner

Occupy Oakland is part of a larger movement that began last year in New York and quickly spread across the globe. While the protesters have highlighted a number of causes, the overarching theme remained the same: populist anger over an out-of-touch corporate, financial and political elite.

The protests are scheduled to continue Sunday with what the group was touting as a “Rise Up Festival” at Oscar Grant Plaza, where protesters have been camping out despite a city ordinance.

The latest tension between Occupy protesters and police began Saturday afternoon when about 250 people gathered in a park across from Oakland City Hall, where they announced plans to take over the convention center.

The protests turned violent when they were turned back by police in their attempt to break into the convention center. By nightfall, the group attempted to take over a YMCA and City Hall.

“It’s not a lawful protest by any means,” Deputy Police Chief Jeffrey Israel told reporters late Saturday. “They gathered with the intent to break the law.”

From the beginning, the group acknowledged on its website that the action — touted on its website as “Move-In Day” — to take over the convention center was illegal.

But the group said the move was necessary, in part because “since November, the city of Oakland and its police force have made it impossible for us to meet, to serve food and to provide a place for people to stay.”

Omar Yassim called the police response, which included additional officers from nearby counties, “despicable.”

“They are shooting rubber bullets at us. We have pictures of people whose clothes were burned by flash bangs,” Yassim said.

“What we were doing today was civil disobedience.”

But Mayor Jean Quan called the protesters at the center of Saturday’s violence a fringe group of the larger Occupy Oakland movement.

“It was really only about 250 people. But they are very violent,” she told reporters Saturday night.

She also disputed reports that police were heavy-handed in their response, saying the officers were measured.

“Frankly, the majority of the demonstrators who were clashing with police were not being peaceful,” Quan said. “Destruction of property, thing and charging (the police), it’s almost as if they are begging for attention. They are hoping the police make an error.”

Posts on Occupy Oakland’s Twitter feed claim that police met the protesters “with munitions and violence.” One read: “#OccupyOakland being teargassed smoked bombed & shot at w rubber bullets.”

Oakland police said they used only smoke and tear gas. They did so after warning protesters who had begun “destroying construction equipment and fencing” around the Kaiser center, according to a police statement late Saturday. Officers were “pelted” with bottles, metal pipes, rocks and burning flares, according to another police statement released earlier in the day.

By nightfall, Occupy protesters moved toward Oakland City Hall where police and city officials accused the group of breaking in and vandalizing the building.

Protesters denied breaking into City Hall.

“The doors were open,” Yassim said.

But City Administrator Deanna J. Santana said she was told it was a “forced entry” into the building.

Quan said trash cans were overturned, flags in the building were burned, a children’s recycled art exhibit was destroyed and a historic model of city hall was overturned.

Yassim said he was not aware of any damage inside the building.

The Oakland Police Department has been under heavy scrutiny since its response to Occupy protests last year.

Elsewhere, the Occupy movement in Washington protested outside the 99th annual Alfalfa Club dinner for high-level dignitaries, including President Barack Obama.

The Washington protest comes two days before the National Park Service is slated to end overnight camping at the Occupy DC sites.”

10:09am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW96bwFZDjtL

(Notes: 1)

Filed under: ows occupy wall street occupy wall street occupy oakland oakland california movement protests police clash arrests

January 16, 2012

MSNBC: Americans honor MLK with service — and more protests

MSNBC
Jan. 16, 2012

“Americans honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday with a traditional day of service as well as a new wave of protests by Occupy Wall Street to promote causes of economic justice.

Across the nation, hundreds of formal events were planned for the federal holiday to celebrate the slain leader’s birthday and legacy, from prayer services to parades to performances.

But it was the first time the annual King holiday has been held since the Occupy Wall Street movement reignited debate about social inequality and poverty. The protesters have targeted investment banks, noting the government bailed out Wall Street while many Americans still struggle with joblessness and housing foreclosures.

Not long before he was murdered in 1968, King was organizing a Poor People’s Campaign as the next phase in the civil rights movement.

“Occupy Wall Street continues Martin Luther King’s quest for economic justice through nonviolent action,” the protest movement said in a statement.

“Communities of color … have been hardest hit by predatory lending practices,” it said. “Occupy Wall Street is here to pick up where King left off. We are here to reclaim the dream.”

This year’s King holiday also comes as officials in more than a dozen states implement new laws requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls. Critics say the restriction violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — one of the key accomplishments of the movement King led.

In New York, Occupy Wall Street protesters were starting their march at an African Burial Ground, where hundreds of slaves were buried in the 17th and 18th centuries. The site was uncovered in 1991 during excavation for construction of a federal building and is now part of the National Park Service.

The march was headed to the Federal Reserve Bank where participants planned to rally for economic justice. The march then was headed to Madison Square Garden, where Cablevision workers were set to vote on whether to unionize this month.

Later, a demonstration dubbed Occupation for Jobs was planned in New York City’s Union Square.

Occupy the Dream, a coalition of African American church groups affiliated with Occupy Wall Street, called for a national day of action outside offices of the Federal Reserve in 16 cities, including Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis and San Francisco.”

3:20pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW96bwEtUmgT

(Notes: 95)

Filed under: mlk service protests protest ows occupy wall street occupy wall street america usa movement nonviolence

January 16, 2012

CNN: Cop watchers: Anonymous vs. police

CNN
Steve Turnham and Amber Lyon, CNN Investigative Unit
Photo: Amber Lyon/CNN
Jan. 13, 2012

““Expect us” is the favorite tag line for an endless stream of Web videos posted by the Internet collective known as Anonymous. It’s a promise and a threat. In 2011, galvanized by the national Occupy movement, Anonymous delivered.

“This is what happens when the people have had enough,” said “Troy,” a member of the collective who joined the street protests in New York. “This is what happens when greed goes unchecked. It’s the closest thing to a global revolution we’ve ever gotten.”

From the inception of Occupy Wall Street, Anonymous has had a powerful impact on the movement, promoting it tirelessly through social media in the early days; driving it forward with Internet campaigns, known as “ops,” targeting bankers and politicians; and ultimately acting as a savage and effective counterforce to what the group sees as a militarized police state.

“Hopefully, he’ll think twice before he pulls out his baton against somebody who’s holding a sign saying we just want peace,” said Troy, who spent weeks monitoring and videotaping New York Police Department officers during the height of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

The list of police officers and agencies targeted by Anonymous is long. From New York to Oakland, California, cops had their Web sites hacked; personal information, including the home addresses of specific police officers, was posted online; and officers who used pepper spray on Occupy protesters, including NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna and Lt. John Pike at the University of California-Davis, saw their entire life histories blasted out in Web videos and document dumps.

“I think [police] see it as a form of vigilantism,” said professor Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist who studies Anonymous at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. The collective, Coleman said, “is pushing the boundaries of the law, but I think some of their actions also reveal the ways that private security companies or police are also acting outside of the boundaries of the law.”

The online intimidation is intended both to punish errant police and serve as a warning to riot cops facing difficult decisions in the heat of often chaotic protests. Police are reluctant to speak publicly about the collective’s activities because Anonymous is so quick to target critics. But privately, they’re furious, especially when Anonymous posts the names of family members.

Occasionally, the battle between police and Anonymous erupts on Twitter. Last year, a Los Angeles homicide detective who goes by the name @LAMurderCop had his personal information dumped online, and he retaliated with a series of sarcastic tweets.

“Let it be known to all,” he wrote, “your mainly teenagers in your moms house. U have no skills.”

Anonymous is also the subject of several federal and state investigations, including one by the commonwealth of Massachusetts, which issued subpoenas to Twitter in an investigation of threats directed against Boston police after the department’s website was hacked.

Like police, members of Anonymous are also reluctant to speak publicly, both for their own security and because it runs counter to their deeply held belief that the positions held by the collective, expressed through the rolling democracy of the Internet, are far more important than the opinions of any individual anon, or person who participates in Anonymous activities.

“Troy” agreed to talk to CNN on camera provided we not reveal his real identity.

“There’s no specific group or one person that talks for us,” he says. “It’s more like a hive; an idea is brought up and … if the overwhelming majority of people agree with it, then we go with it.” Monitoring and exposing what they see as police misconduct is one of the ideas that caught fire.

In one Internet relay chat session, members of the collective who go by the online handle AnonymousIRC said police need to understand that the Internet is unpredictable and uncontrollable.

“We cannot control or limit what some individual anon may or may not do, neither is it in our interest,” they said. “If some cop finds it funny to mace innocent girls, Internet crowd will hate him. Which will include his family. Like it or not, it’s just what happens.”

This year is expected to bring more protests centered on high-profile gatherings, such as the NATO and G8 summits in Chicago in May and the political conventions in late summer. In the past, those kinds of events have been marked by sometimes violent clashes between protesters and police. This time, Anonymous will be watching.”

3:14pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW96bwEtTQGA

(Notes: 2)

Filed under: ows occupy wall street occupy wall street protest protesters anonymous police movement cops

January 16, 2012

NYTimes: Councilman Seeks to Donate Stipend to Occupy Wall Street

The NY Times
Kate Taylor
Photo: John Minchillo/AP
Jan. 11, 2012

“Several members of the New York City Council have embraced the cause of Occupy Wall Street, praising the movement, joining its marches and, in some cases, getting arrested alongside the demonstrators. Now one councilman wants to lavish something else on it: money.

Ydanis Rodriguez, a Democrat from northern Manhattan, wrote to the office of the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, on Tuesday, asking for permission to donate his most recent $5,000 leadership stipend to Occupy Wall Street. Mr. Rodriguez is the chairman of the Higher Education Committee.

“I believe that the Occupy movement is the best thing to have happened in our city for the last couple of decades,” Mr. Rodriguez said in an interview.

“The movement is the hope for the middle class and the working class,” he continued. “Especially at this moment when the mayor is getting ready to present his executive budget for the fiscal year, I believe that the Occupy movement can play an important role.”

The Council leadership stipends — known as “lulus,” because they are paid out “in lieu of expenses” — are given by the speaker to those holding a leadership position or a committee chairmanship. The system has been criticized as a means for the speaker to win members’ loyalty, and in recent years a number of council members have either refused their lulus or donated them to charity. Last year, for example, several council members donated their stipends to earthquake relief in Haiti.

Mr. Rodriguez has been one of the most outspoken supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement on the Council. He was arrested on the morning of Nov. 15 after he rushed downtown after hearing that protesters were being cleared out of Zuccotti Park. At a press conference the next day, where he appeared with bruises and a scrape above his eye, he said that a police officer had pushed him to the ground while he was being arrested.

Mr. Rodriguez said that he hoped the Occupy Wall Street movement would help convince Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to spare programs serving poor and middle-class New Yorkers as he develops the next city budget.

“They played an important role persuading Andrew Cuomo in maintaining a level of taxes where millionaires are going to be contributing a fair amount of money,” he said. “We hope that in this budget process the Occupy movement will be a voice for the working class.””

2:56pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW96bwEtPGPG

(Notes: 1)

Filed under: ows occupy wall street protest nyc new york council movement

January 16, 2012

NYTimes: Charges Dropped for Some Occupy Wall Street Protesters

The NY Times
AP
Jan. 9, 2012

“Prosecutors dropped charges on Monday against nearly two dozen people picked up in the first mass arrest of Occupy Wall Streetdemonstrators. About 50 other cases are headed to trial.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office asked a judge to dismiss 21 cases stemming from a Sept. 24 march to Union Square, during which some protesters marched in the street without a permit.

Prosecutors said they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the conduct in those cases was illegal. The people had faced charges of disorderly conduct.

The march came a week after the protest began at Zuccotti Park. The about 80 arrests helped draw attention to the movement after activists posted online a video that showed a police officer using pepper spray on a group, mostly women, whom officers had corralled behind orange netting near Union Square.

The authorities said the demonstrators blocked car and foot traffic, and rebuffed orders to disperse.

Many protesters say they followed police instructions.”

2:48pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW96bwEtNSZ2

(Notes: 2)

Filed under: ows occupy wall street charges protests protesters movement police

January 9, 2012

CNN: Linguists name 'occupy' as 2011's word of the year

CNN
Jan. 8, 2012

“The linguists have spoken and they have decided - “Occupy” is 2011’s word of the year.

Members of the American Dialect Society came out in record numbers to vote Friday night at the organization’s annual conference, held this year in Portland, Oregon.

“Occupy” won a runoff vote by a whopping majority, earning more votes than “FOMO” (an acronym for “Fear of Missing Out,” describing anxiety over being inundated by the information on social media) and “the 99%,” (those held to be at a financial or political disadvantage to the top moneymakers, the one-percenters).

Occupy joins previous year’s winners, “app,” “tweet,” and “bailout.”

“It’s a very old word, but over the course of just a few months it took on another life and moved in new and unexpected directions, thanks to a national and global movement,” Ben Zimmer, chair of the New Words Committee for the American Dialect Society, said in a statement.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began in September in Lower Manhattan, before spreading to communities around the country and the world as a call to action against unequal distribution of wealth and other issues.

Founded in 1889, the American Dialect Society is made up of “academics, linguists, anyone involved in the specialization of language,” according to Grant Barrett, the society’s vice president.

Barrett, who also co-hosts “A Way with Words,” a public radio program about language, said the annual conference provides an opportunity for linguistics professionals and graduate students to share information and research.

But Barrett says the word of the year vote, now in its 22nd year is, “light-hearted and whimsical.”

Nominations for the word of the year are submitted by society members in attendance at the annual conference, but can also be submitted by the community at large.”