Thread: Occupy Wall Street Protests

....but it's acceptable, they have rights and they're mad.

Oakland prepares to be Occupy movement epicenter
By LISA LEFF - Associated Press | AP – 4 hrs ago

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Oakland prepared Wednesday to again become the epicenter of Occupy Wall Street movement as local organizers aided by labor unions and advocacy groups finalized plans for a broad-based call to action that was expected to include marches, pickets outside banks, school shutdowns and an attempt to close the nation's fifth-busiest port.

Occupy Oakland participants, elected officials and business leaders expressed optimism that the widely anticipated "general strike" would be a peaceful and even unifying event for a city that last week became a rallying point after police used tear gas to clear an encampment outside City Hall and then clashed with protesters in the street.

"We are expecting the marches and demonstrations to remain peaceful, and the police department's and the city's role is to facilitate that process," city spokesman Karen Boyd said. "We have done that many times in the past. We've seen many, many instances of peaceful protests, peaceful expressions."

Along with protesting financial institutions that many within the broader Occupy Wall Street movement blame for high unemployment and the foreclosure crisis, supporters of the Oakland events are convening around grievances such as local school closures, waning union benefits and cuts to social services.

Demonstrators in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia said they planned to hold solidarity actions Wednesday.

The day's events in Oakland are expected to begin at 9 a.m., when the first of three rallies scheduled by strike organizers is supposed to kick off downtown. The activities are expected to culminate with a march to the Port of Oakland, where local protesters said the goal would be to stop work there in time for the 7 p.m. evening shift.

In between, other demonstrators, some affiliated with established community groups, said they planned to target banks that do not close for the day, convene a dancing flash mob, sponsor music and street parties, march with elderly residents and people with disabilities to the California state office building, hold youth teach-ins and takeover foreclosed homes and vacant city buildings.

Because of the activities' free-flowing and therefore unpredictable nature, city leaders said they had no idea how many people would take part or how much a disruption they could pose to residents' and workers' daily routines. Boyd said the government "will be open for business as usual" and was encouraging businesses to do the same.

But the president of the police officers' union said he was worried officers were being scapegoated by Mayor Jean Quan and "set to fail" if Wednesday's actions got unruly. "We're going to be seen as the establishment, and it's not fair to the police, it's not fair to anyone," Oakland Police Officer's Association President Sgt. Dom Arotzarena told The Associated Press.

On Oct. 25, police acting at the request of the city's administrator, who reports to the mayor, were asked to clear the protesters' camp site during an early morning raid. A confrontation with marchers protesting the raid followed that night, and an Iraq War veteran suffered a fractured skull and brain injury when officers moved in with tear gas, flash grenades and bean bag projectiles.

Quan allowed protesters to reclaim the plaza outside City Hall the next day. At least six dozen tents and a kitchen buzzing with donated food have been erected on the spot since then, while the crackdown has galvanized anti-Wall Street events elsewhere and made politicians in other cities think again about interfering with their local encampments.

Occupy LA, a month-long 475-tent encampment around Los Angeles City Hall, is planning a 5:30 p.m. march and rally through downtown LA's financial district to express solidarity with the Oakland general strike and to protest police brutality.

"It was obvious to the entire world that the acts perpetrated against Oakland occupation were acts of police brutality," said Julia Wallace, spokeswoman for the Committee to End Police Brutality at Occupy LA.

In San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a resolution calling on Mayor Ed Lee to allow the Occupy Wall Street protestors to remain in a tent city near the historic ferry terminal, an area frequented by commuters and tourists.

"We need to have a government that is truly accountable to the 99 percent, so I wholeheartedly support the movement," said Supervisor John Avalos, who drafted the nonbinding resolution that also calls on city police to avoid clashes with the protesters.

Quan said in a statement Tuesday that she was working with interim Police Chief Howard Jordan to ensure that the protesters issues remain "front and center" on Wednesday.

"The pro-99 percent activists — whose cause I support — will have the freedom to get their message across without the conflict that marred last week's events," Quan said.

Unions representing city government workers, Oakland's public school teachers, community college instructors, and University of California, Berkeley teaching assistants all have endorsed the daylong work stoppage and encouraged their members to participate.

"It's sort of a realization that a lot of people are having that we've all been fighting our own issues, but really, it's all related, it's all the same issue," Oakland Education Association Secretary Steve Neat said.

The Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce released an open letter to the mayor Tuesday in which President Joseph Haraburda expressed concern for "the mothers and children, and even grandmothers, who plan to come to Oakland to conduct their regular business" and for business owners who "must face a day of uncertainty" if they do not close for the strike. "We want to be clear, should Wednesday's planned protests go awry, someone will need to be held accountable," Haraburda said.

http://news.yahoo.com/oakland-prepar...3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

comments

How will closing schools affect Wall Street business?

...

You couldn't pay people to come to downtown Oakland and now everyone is dying to camp there. I find it hilarious. Don't strike. Stay and shop and spend some money in my broke city. Stop using up city resources without generating any revenue.

...

they need to be marching on Washington protesting to end lobbyists . and sweeping congressional reform.. and asking why is this country being held hostage by the people we hire to look after our intrests

...

True oblamahcrats at their finest. Shutting down legitimate small business, keeping people from getting to work, demanding more government handouts and amnesty from immigration laws, student loans and criminal activity. The democRATic party's umbrella encompasses radicals, anarchists and socialists of all stripes. Take the country back!!!

...

Recent press reports indicate that White House advisers and some Obama campaign officials are now concerned about the negative political impact that Barack Obama's embrace of the Occupy Wall Street mobs will have on his re-election campaign.

In a report from the political journal, Politico (headlined: "Obama sympathy: problematic?" succinctly concluded with the following sentence: "You have a perfect storm brewing here."

That perfect storm has come about as the American people reject the behavior of the "Occupy" mobs, and are rightfully linking the protest mobs to Barack Obama's candidacy. And that has Obama's campaign advisers panicked, because Barack Obama is being held accountable for siding with mobs that were pushing radical socialist policies of wealth redistribution and that were becoming increasingly violent and hostile towards police officers.

...

Since when does shutting down businesses and infrastructure equal "freedom of speech?"

...

Did you know that Canada has outlawed all large campaign contributions? Both corporate and individual. There is your solution. Simple. Easy

...

OWS from New York may want to move to Oakland because it is a whole lot warmer and one thing they have shown is that they cannot stand much discomfit. It's a shame that they all could not serve a tour in Korea, Viet Nam or the Middle East to see what discomfort and doing something for your country really is.

...

Here's a partial list of those supporting OWS.

Local supporters:
Communist Party USA
The American Nazi Party
Revolutionary Communist Party
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Party for Socialism and Liberation
Marxist Student Union
Black Panthers (Original)
Nation of Islam’s, Louis Farrakhan
Council on American-Islamic Relations
9/11Truth.org

Politicians:
President Barack Obama
Vice President Joe Biden
Nancy Pelosi

International Leaders and Governments:
Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei
PressTV (Iranian government outlet)
Hugo Chavez
Revolutionary Guards of Iran
The Govt. of North Korea
Communist Party of China
Hezbollah

And the lame-stream media doesn't say a word.

Crowds attempt to shut down Oakland
By Pueng Vongs, Y! SF Editor | Local san francisco – 10 hrs ago

Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Oakland Wednesday to join in a general strike against the city. Protesters from the Occupy Oakland movement aimed to shut down the city's businesses in response to economic inequality and to the violent crackdown on protesters who had set up camp nearby. The all day protests and marches were mostly peaceful. There were some reports of break-off groups smashing windows at banks and the Whole Foods in Oakland.

In the evening, participants boarded buses and converged on the Port of Oakland to block entrances. Many port workers left early ahead of the crowd's arrival. ILWU representatives said they do not sanction a strike.

An official told Reuters maritime operations at the Oakland port, which handles some $39 billion a year in imports and exports, had been "effectively shut down" by the thousands of marchers that gathered there.

Normally bustling on a weekday, downtown Oakland seemed more quiet than usual, with only scattered businesses open. The frenetic scene at 14th and Broadway, the hub of the Occupy Oakland movement, was a mix of causes, tents, public services, spiritual practices, and food suppliers, including a tortilla maker with "Day of the Dead Occupy Oakland Nov. 2" printed on its product.

Activist and author Angela Davis galvanized the crowd in her talk, saying, "The eyes of the world are on our city. There are now Occupy movements in Asia and South America and Europe. The 99 percent are rising all over the planet."

"B" from the Occupy Los Angeles movement came to support the Oakland group equipped with a gas mask. "I'm prepared for what already has happened," he says. He added their L.A. group has a "great relationship with police." "They ask us how can we help you?"

Robert Dees, a U.S. Army medic from Oakland, came to help out first aid needs. "I've been having my own issues with disability payments." He felt great sympathy for Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran seriously injured in the violent police sweep. "He was just standing there with a bible in one hand and a flag in the other."

Protesters marched to bank branches on 12th Street and Broadway. The branches were already closed before they arrived. A report from the The Daily Californian says hundreds of students marched down Telegraph Ave. to join the protests. Oakland is letting city workers use vacation or other paid time to take part in the general strike. About 5 percent of city workers took the day off Wednesday, according to City Administrator Deanna Santana in an AP report. About 360 Oakland teachers didn't show up for work, or roughly 18 percent of the district's 2,000 teachers, said Oakland Unified School District spokesman Troy Flint to the AP.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/san-fran...174638851.html


Oakland mayor slammed over handling of Occupy
By MARCUS WOHLSEN and TERRY COLLINS - Associated Press | AP – 14 hrs ago

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Oakland police union on Tuesday slammed the city's mayor for her stance on the city's Occupy Wall Street protests, further testing the embattled leader's administration a day before demonstrators planned a general strike.

The Oakland Police Officer's Association sent a letter to Mayor Jean Quan questioning why the city plans to beef up its police presence at strike-related events while giving other city workers leeway to participate. "Is it the City's intention to have City employees on both sides of a skirmish line?" the letter said.

City offices are to remain open Wednesday. Quan's office urged businesses not to close. Protesters are planning several large gatherings in downtown Oakland throughout the day, culminating with a march to the Port of Oakland in early evening. Protesters say they are heading to the port — one of the country's largest — to block "the flow of capital."

In a memo Friday, City Administrator Deanna Santana said workers can use vacation or other paid time off to participate in the strike.

Quan said in a statement Tuesday that she hoped Wednesday's strike would be peaceful and that she was working with interim Police Chief Howard Jordan to ensure that the protesters issues are "front and center." "The pro-99 percent activists — whose cause I support — will have the freedom to get their message across without the conflict that marred last week's events," Quan said. "Although getting the balance right is never an easy task, in Oakland we are committed to honoring free speech and protecting public safety."

Police are upset that they were asked to clear the protesters' encampment a week ago, only to have the mayor let the camp resume a day later. The raid last Tuesday, along with the tear gas-clouded standoff with marchers that night and other law enforcement actions related to the protest, cost Oakland $1 million, said Sgt. Dom Arotzarena, president of the Oakland police union.

Arotzarena said that the officers, who also view themselves as part of the "99%," are now confused about Quan's stance heading into Wednesday's strike. "What was last Tuesday all about? The mayor is painting us as the bad guys in all of this," he told The Associated Press. "We get one order one day and then she flip-flops the next day. We're going to be seen as the establishment, and it's not fair to the police, it's not fair to anyone. "We're set to fail on this."

The mayor, in office for less than a year, has struggled to formulate a coherent response to the Occupy encampment that has sat for three weeks on the plaza in front of Oakland City Hall. It was interrupted by the raid.

A self-described civil rights activist with roots in the San Francisco Bay area's progressive movements stretching back to UC Berkeley's protest scene in the 1960s, Quan has said she and the city support the demonstrators. But after a little more than a week into the protest, the city asked demonstrators to break up the encampment, claiming sanitation and safety problems had reached unacceptable levels. Protesters ignored an official eviction notice. Police then broke up the camp.

Since then, Quan has acquiesced to the camp's return, although the city is still officially requesting that protesters leave between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Protesters heckled and booed Quan when she tried to make a statement to the group last week, sending her retreating into City Hall.

Police presence around the protesters has diminished since the initial crackdown last week, which included the use of tear gas and beanbag rounds. Prominent liberals have since called for her resignation. As indicated by Tuesday's letter, her support among police officers has diminished even more than it had following the resignation of popular former Chief Anthony Batts in early October. "It was sort of remarkable that she was able to alienate both sides," said University of San Francisco political scientist Corey Cook of Quan's relationship with protesters and police. "She has no friends at this point."

http://news.yahoo.com/oakland-mayor-...XBhZ2U-;_ylv=3

Live from Occupy Oakland: Window smashing, vandalism, and more;
charter buses to port, Teamsters in the house; port shut down...
by Michelle Malkin on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 5:22pm

I’m starting a fresh thread on tonight’s Occupy Oakland “strike.” (Previous post and background here.http://michellemalkin.com/occupy-oak...-riley-is-back )

They’ve welcomed the Black Panthers and Communist revolutionary thug Angela Davis, and are currently marching to the Port of Oakland.

Various sympathizers and observers are tweeting live. Mother Jones reports that the Oakland Whole Foods store — after being falsely accused of threatening to punish workers who walked out on the job today — has been vandalized.

One person on scene writes: “Straight into window breaking and street furniture smashing at whole foods. #generalstrike #occupyoaklandwindow breaking and street furniture smashing at whole foods.”



Whole Foods is defending itself online. To no avail.

A big mob dressed in black is roaming around the streets. They’ve sprayed graffiti on the walls of businesses.

Wells Fargo windows have also been reportedly smashed.



Chase Bank vandalized. Maybe the city enablers will use federal stimulus money to clean it up. Overheard on livestream: Occupier sneers: “They can afford new windows.”



East Bay Express reports that approximately 75 shoppers were barricaded inside the Whole Foods as protesters threw rocks and smashed the windows. Livestream here. http://www.emergencystream.com/video...rancisco5.html

I’ll keep you posted as they head to the port.

****

Teamsters are in the house, of course…




Charter buses taking protesters to the Port of Oakland now. One occupier says there about a dozen buses on site. It looks like they are getting police escort…overhead shot via ABC7:


At 732pm Eastern/432pm Pacific, an ILWU rep just consulted with occupiers at the Port of Oakland on which trucks to blockade. Broadcast here.

Union leaders are coordinating with occupiers to form a picket line that will allow them to turn around and stay in the port while abiding by their contract.

At 824pm Easter/532pm Pacific, the Port Authority has reportedly said that the port is shut down. Protesters have turned back vehicles and are climbing on top of trucks:

Brilliant: Protesters are preventing a trucker dad from picking up his son.


9:19pm Eastern/6:19pm Pacific: Classic. Occupier complains of thirst, complains that businesses are closed, finds food truck, buys cold soda, then proceeds to reprimand other workers for not staying home for the strike.

Priceless.

https://www.michelle-malkin/live-fro...50341190280677

More ugly Occupy Oakland pictures that won’t make MSM front pages.
http://michellemalkin.com/2011/11/03...m-front-pages/

These people are crazy.....

See how the MSM covers the same story ...

Police confront Oakland protesters with tear gas
By Dan Levine and Noel Randewich | Reuters – 55 mins ago

OAKLAND, Calif (Reuters) - Police in riot gear clashed with protesters in Oakland on Thursday, firing tear gas to disperse demonstrators lingering in the streets after a day of mostly peaceful rallies against economic inequality and police brutality.

The confrontation, which erupted after midnight, appeared aimed at preventing the protesters from expanding their foothold in the streets around a public plaza that has become a hub for demonstrations in the largely working-class city on the eastern banks of San Francisco Bay.

More than 200 officers, some ferried downtown aboard buses, lined up shoulder to shoulder and donned gas masks, then declared the crowd to be an "unlawful assembly" and fired volleys of tear gas as protesters turned and ran.

A few activists paused to pick up canisters and hurl them back at officers as they fled, while others threw rocks. One barricade was set ablaze after the police first advanced. "This was peaceful until you came!" some protesters shouted at police. Police later charged toward protesters with batons and more tear gas to push them farther into center of the square, where activists have reassembled a make-shift encampment forcibly dismantled by authorities last week.

The latest unrest in Oakland, which shot to the forefront of nationwide anti-Wall Street protests after a former Marine was badly injured in last week's clashes, followed a day of rallies that drew some 5,000 activists at their peak and shuttered the busy Port of Oakland but failed to grind the city to a halt.

At least one protester was carried away with an injury to his leg. Another who had been arrested, his hands bound behind him, lay on the ground with blood streaming down his face. Police estimated around 60 protesters had been arrested. Dozens of them were lined up seated along a street curb in plastic wrist restraints as they waited to be taken away.

One of them, Adam Konner, 29, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, said he heard a police announcement ordering "campers to move back to your tents," before police advanced again. "I was trying to figure what they were saying. I was trying to figure out if I could go back into the plaza," he told Reuters. He said he was suddenly confronted by police who knocked him to the ground and placed him under arrest.

The anti-Wall Street activists, protesting a financial system they believe benefits mainly corporations and the wealthy, had set out on Wednesday to disrupt commerce with a focus on banks and other symbols of corporate America.

PORT CLOSED

But a police force that had largely kept its distance during the day ended up in a tense stand-off as most of the protesters had retreated to Frank Ogawa Plaza, the large outdoor square next to City Hall that has been the fulcrum of the so-called Occupy Oakland movement. One officer at the scene, who declined to be named, told Reuters police had no plans to clear the encampment for the moment.

On Wednesday evening, an official said maritime operations at the Oakland port, which handles about $39 billion a year in imports and exports, had been "effectively shut down."

Protesters, who streamed across a freeway overpass to gather in front of the port gates, had stood atop tractor-trailers stopped in the middle of the street. Others climbed onto scaffolding over railroad tracks as a band played a version of the Led Zeppelin song "Whole Lotta Love," using amplifiers powered by stationary bike generators. "Maritime area operations will resume when it is safe and secure to do so," the port said in a statement. A port spokesman said officials hoped to reopen the facility on Thursday morning.

The atmosphere at the protests turned tense well before police moved in when a protester was apparently struck by a car in downtown Oakland. Acting Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan later said the pedestrian was taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Small groups were later seen in local TV images running through the streets, trying to start small fires or climbing on top of moving television news vans. At one point, several people appeared to force open the driver's-side door of a news van, but after a few tense moments the door closed again and the van drove away safely.

Windows were smashed at several Oakland banks and a Whole Foods market, with pictures of the damage posted on Twitter. Jordan blamed the vandalism and unruliness on a small group he identified as anarchists. The demonstrations centered at Frank Ogawa Plaza, scene of a tug-of-war last week between police who cleared an Occupy Oakland encampment there and protesters who sought to return, and ultimately succeeded in doing so.

Protesters, prior to marching on the port, had also blocked the downtown intersection of 14th street and Broadway, where ex-Marine Scott Olsen was wounded during a clash with police on the night of October 25. It was the wounding of Olsen, a former Marine turned peace activist who suffered a serious head injury during protests last week, that seemed to galvanize protesters and broadened their complaints to include police brutality.

He remains in an Oakland hospital in fair condition. Protest organizers say Olsen, 24, was struck by a tear gas canister fired by police. Jordan opened an investigation into the incident but has not said how he believes Olsen was hurt.

http://news.yahoo.com/protesters-mar...004716496.html


comments

I'm surprised the media isn't making a bigger deal out of the rioting that occurred earlier in the day. I was at Occupy Oakland and followed the march and there were several hundred anarchists at the front of the line which took out almost every bank in the downtown area. I've never seen a black bloc that big. They hit Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America (which got hit hard) along with Whole Foods and several others. A lot of damage was done.

...

This should be taking place in Washington where the power is brokered and a vote makes a difference.

I just read another article that claimed the Occupy people had "won a victory" peacefully and police had said there was no grief in Oakland. Now I read this one, I know the media makes a living lying, but which one do we believe?

...

I do not understand how these protesters think impedeing business helps their cause? Smashing business and starting fires is going to help in what way? The port is closed and business are unable to operate, that helps the middle class how? Everyone is dissatisfied with the way the government is functioning, but the way to change things is not smashing windows and stopping small business from orperating, the answer is to convince reliable, honest men and women to run for office, vote them in and replace the idiots in office now.
Elect men/women that we feel more confident are more in touch with the middle class.

...

These people are protesting in cities that have nothing to do with making the laws of this country. But you will not go there and do this because you know you will be shut down. Go to Washington D.C. and just see if the red carpet is rolled out for you. If you are really out for change you have to go to the root of the problem in the tree or otherwise you are just swinging in the tree like monkeys to the tunes of the organ.

...

I guess these people make the Democrats proud. Where are all the libs who were so afraid of the angry Tea Party people?

...

Why were the protesters not arrested for shutting down the port? They have no right to interfere with the rights of other Americans, Businesses, People that were expecting to leave for cruises, truck drivers..etc...That is ridiculous, its one thing to protest and try and make a point, it is another to interfere with other Americans who have the same (Seeing protesters like bringing this up) CONSTITUTIONAL rights as everyone else. They should have been removed from the port, by force if needed. Looks like the port owners and police decided to be PC here to avoid bad publicity. Heres hoping they are not as nice to these idiots next time.

...

If by 1% you mean the workers who lost a days pay because of you then well thanks for nothing OWS

...

The government's job is not to make life fair for everyone, it is to provide justice. Equality is not to take property from one and give it to another. It is to provide everyone a chance to reach their potential. It is to treat everyone equally in the eyes of the law. It is to give an opportunity to improve your position in life if you work hard to achieve your goals. If you make the right choices, you increase the odds of becoming the person you want to be. Knocking someone down will not make you successful. Overcoming hardship is what makes success that much sweeter.

...

Fact Check-The Feds began pressuring banks to lower lending standards in the mid 90's to create "social justice" in mortgages. Well, the banks started doing that and (suprise) when these toxic loans failed the housing bubble popped.Freddie and Fannie absorbed billions of these bad loans while backed with taxpayer money. Barney Frank, Maxine Waters and Chris Dodd were responsible for oversight of Freddie and Fannie. Nuff-said.

...

Police in riot gear have never had to clash with Tea Partiers...just saying...

NYC arrest records: Many Occupy Wall Street protesters live in luxury
The Daily Caller – Wed, Nov 2, 2011

Many “Occupy Wall Street” protesters arrested in New York City “occupy” more luxurious homes than their “99 percent” rhetoric might suggest, a Daily Caller investigation has found.

For each of the 984 Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested in New York City between September 18 and October 15, police collected and filed an information sheet recording the arrestee’s name, age, sex, criminal charge, home address and — in most cases — race. The Daily Caller has obtained all of this information from a source in the New York City government.

Among addresses for which information is available, single-family homes listed on those police intake forms have a median value of $305,000 — a far higher number than the $185,400 median value of owner-occupied housing units in the United States. Some of the homes where “Occupy” arrestees reside, viewed through Google Maps and the Multiple Listing Service real estate database, are the definition of opulence.

Using county assessors and online resources such as Zillow.com, TheDC estimated property values and rents for 87 percent of the homes and 59 percent of the apartments listed in the arrest records. Even in the nation’s currently depressed housing market, at least 95 of the protesters’ residences are worth approximately $500,000 or more.

The median monthly rent for those living in apartments whose information is readily available is $1,850. Of the 984 protesters arrested, at least 797 are white. The median age of “Occupy” protesters taken into custody is 27 years.

Ten demonstrators were arrested more than once. Most of the arrests, it should be noted, were for nonviolent offenses. The arrest intake documents show that arrestees came to New York from all over the country but particularly from the Northeast.

Criminal charges ranged from “loitering while wearing a mask” and “failure to move along” to “violent behavior” and other more serious charges such as “assault 2 [second-degree assault] caus[ing] physical injury to police [or] firemen.” There was also one charge of “sex abuse 3 [third-degree].” Hundreds were arrested on October 1 for obstructing traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge.

While it would not be fair to conclude that the arrested protesters are fully representative of a movement that is not completely understood, this information forms the most complete snapshot yet of the demonstrations’ more militant participants. It also reinforces the persistent critique of protesters as entitled, upper-class agitators with few legitimate grievances.

London’s Daily Mail newspaper, for example, recently highlighted signs of wealth among the throngs in Zuccotti Park. “Sleeping beside the hardcore activists are increasing numbers of wealthy students turning up to make the most of the party atmosphere, drugs and free food,” reporters Paul Bentley and Micela McLucas wrote in October. “While they dress down to blend in, the youngsters’ privileged backgrounds are revealed by glimpses of expensive gadgetry or the absent minded mention of their private schools during heated political debates.”

“I think that it’s accurate to say that our supporters come from all backgrounds,” Patrick Bruner, the operator of OccupyWallStreet.org, a website dedicated to help organize and spread information about the protests, told TheDC when asked about participants from wealthier backgrounds. “That said, a (non-random) survey on our site revealed that our visitors literally are the 99% in regards to economic realities.”

The national median home value of $185,400 reflects U.S. Census statistics from the years 2005 through 2009, the last year data were available. TheDC was able to estimate home values and apartment rents for 659 of the 972 residences. Thirteen were in university dormitories; six were post office boxes; four were addresses in foreign countries. Many addresses proved to be nonexistent, and a few were not provided to police.

TheDC has elected not to publish personally identifying information.

http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-arrest-rec...045625415.html

comments

Average age 27...do they OWN those houses or are they still living with mom & dad?

...

I like this statement: the arrested protesters are fully representative of a movement that is not completely understood.

...

But wait...last week the media was saying all the protestors were lazy, shiftless layabouts. This week they are all wealthy? Seems the corporate media is getting itself tied in knots looking for anything to hang on these people!

...
The government's job is not to make life fair for everyone, it is to provide justice. Equality is not to take property from one and give it to another. It is to provide everyone a chance to reach their potential. It is to treat everyone equally in the eyes of the law. It is to give an opportunity to improve your position in life if you work hard to achieve your goals. If you make the right choices, you increase the odds of becoming the person you want to be. Knocking someone down will not make you successful. Overcoming hardship is what makes success that much sweeter.

In conjunction with Occupy Oakland’s “general strike,” Occupy Seattle marched downtown to protest Chase Bank and Wall Street Chase exec Jamie Dimon.

A CNN reporter tweeted:

[/b]“Like a scene out of the French revolution: #occupyseattle protesting outside Sheraton where biz leaders can be seen eating dinner.”[/b]

...


Occupy Seattle protesters arrested, pepper sprayed
Posted by Jennifer Sullivan on November 2, 2011 at 1:33 PM

Officers struggle with a protester outside Chase Bank. (Photo by Jennifer Sullivan / The Seattle Times)

UPDATE 4 p.m.

Five protesters who had been inside Chase bank were arrested and taken outside to a police paddy wagon. Other protesters began pounding on the vehicle and chanting, “Let them go!” Some people began lying down in front of the van.

Police have used pepper spray on protesters and have closed off East Thomas Street and Broadway. Protesters are handing gas masks to each other and pounding on police cars.

A few scuffles have been seen between officers and protesters, but Seattle police Sgt Sean Whitcomb said he did not know if additional protesters had been arrested outside the bank.

A line of officers has formed about 10 feet from a circle of about 150 protesters in the middle of Broadway and East Harrison. They’re locking arms and chanting, “We are the 99 percent.”

About 4 p.m., they left and began marching toward Westlake Park for the evening protest against Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

UPDATE: 2:30 p.m.

About 200 protesters marched about a half mile down the center of Broadway to a Chase bank branch on the corner of East Thomas Street.

One person read a statement outside, that said in part: “The world does not have to be this way! We are out to change the whole planet starting right here.”

They asked police to arrest Chase bank’s CEO “for crimes against the people.”

Seattle police blocked the bank entrance to keep protesters outside, but five had gone down ahead of the march and were inside the bank, lying on their backs, linked together, waiting to be arrested. The bank is now closed.

Earlier post:

About 100 people gathered at Seattle Central Community College this afternoon as part of the Occupy Seattle movement to speak out against banks and to share their views about the economy and the situation in Oakland.

One man pleaded with the crowd to dump their banks and switch to credit unions, as he said he recently did. When he tried to burn his old U.S. Bank card it didn’t work. He asked the crowd for scissors but nobody had a pair, so he tore it with his hands as the crowd chanted: “Occupy Seattle. Occupy Chase bank!”

One woman told the crowd they need to “demand our money” back from Chase. Another speaker said they don’t need money, because “it’s only paper.”

The protest group is planning two marches today, including one at 6 p.m. from Westlake Park to the Sheraton hotel, where JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will be speaking at a business dinner.

http://today.seattletimes.com/2011/1...ase-ceo-visit/


Erin Brown covered some of the police-bashing by Occupiers on scene in Seattle throughout the day. http://twitter.com/#!/erin_brown

comments

This is going to contine to ramp up until someone is killed or badly hurt. I just pray that it isn’t the police who are blamed, but that these bozos do it to each other. This was so predictable! Will Obama continue to say they are just citizens speaking their minds? What did he say about the Tea Party? I’m not sure it was quite as charitable.

At least the media has stopped comparing these anarchists to the Tea Party!! They can’t get away with that any more!

..

The 1968 riots propelled Nixon to victory and the Dems said nothing about the rioters. This time they are cheering them on.

DWS and BHO should take a look at the smelly stuff on their shoes Oh my, just what did you step in?

Kitchen Volunteer's Sex Assault Arrest Shocks Zuccotti Park
By Adam Martin | The Atlantic Wire – 16 hrs ago

The Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park has had to deal with its share of undesirable behavior, from uncooperative drummers to a drug-related arrest, but Wednesday saw the most serious criminal allegations yet, as a volunteer in the encampment's kitchen has been arrested for sexual assault and rape. The 26-year-old volunteer, a Crown Heights man named Tonye Iketubosin, was known in the kitchen as Tonye Parks, one cooking colleague told Gothamist. "He was a genuinely nice guy...he came to get sh*t done," kitchen volunteer Beau Sibbing told the news blog. But after two different women reported he had raped one and groped another, his fellow volunteers told him to leave.

After word had spread of the alleged assaults, Iketubosin was told not to come to kitchen meetings and to stay away from the park, "but he kept coming." Sibbing said that around 9 p.m. last night "a whole bunch of people came and made him leave the park. Then the NYPD picked him up. I wasn't sure if it was for his own safety or if he was being arrested."

Before his arrest, Iketubosin denied he assaulted either of his 18-year-old accusers, Sibbing said. He "was adamant that it wasn't him." One woman told police she had gotten into an argument with her tent-mate at 6 a.m. Saturday, and had met Iketubosin when she left. "He offered to let her sleep in his tent, saying he had to go work in the park’s makeshift kitchen," The Wall Street Journal reported. "The alleged victim took Iketubosin up on his offer and went to sleep. But she said she soon awoke to find Iketubosin removing her pants, the [unnamed law enforcement] official said. She told police she asked him to stop, but he didn’t comply. Then he raped her, the official said." The other woman says Iketubosin helped her set up her tent on the evening of Oct. 24, then snuck in early the next morning and groped her until she pushed him away.

http://news.yahoo.com/kitchen-volunt...215348689.html

comments

""After word had spread of the alleged assaults, Iketubosin was told not to come to kitchen meetings and to stay away from the park, "but he kept coming.... ""

Gee maybe you should have called the cops no?

...

That's how OWS deals with violent felonies against women? Asking the perps to leave?

...

Imagine if a girl got raped at a tea party event? It would be the number one story of the year!

...

Remember the Dems want to own this movement. Nancy Pelosi said so.....

...

So, the OWS people knew enough to tell him to leave but none of them thought to report him to police? Why didn't they hold him for the cops to come to arrest him?

...

Unfortunately, the people to blame are the Mayor and the Police Dept for allowing these idiots to stay there. Rudy Guiliani would never have tolerated something like this.

...

This story makes it sound like it was the first and only rape charge against OWS. In Dallas the victim was a 14 year old girl. Notice that the sorce Yahoo linked to is a small-time blog. Why isn't this covered in the NYT, LA Times, Washington Post, ect...?

...

Didn't see this at the Tea Party Rallies. But the Occupy protests are attracting all kinds of troublemakers, and criminals. The police is going to have to take this seriously. Don't let them camp, they can leave and return in the mornings to continue their protests.

...

the bottom line is that these people aided and abedded this rapist. They counciled the victim to only report it to their security team, saying they would see that the rapist recieved mental health services. They provided NO medical care to the victim, and discouraged police involvement. IF anyone did that in their homes, they would be charged criminally. If the health services they provide is get out of here ( leaving them free to assault someone else) I wonder how many have not been reported.