I’m sorry to be late to this item which broke this afternoon, but I’ve been off the grid all day, and hope readers seeing this now have or will take action to support OccupyWallStreet.
Bloomberg has decided to crack down on OccupyWallStreet, and the ruse being used is that Zuccotti Park needs to be “cleaned” as in cleared. I was down at OWS on Tuesday and remarked that it was notably cleaner than most New York City streets.
The cleaning is device to force the removal of the belongings of people encamped there; they will not only not be permitted to bring their goods back, but even lying down on the ground or benches or putting a covering on the ground will be prohibited going forward.
This is a reversal of Bloomberg’s position as of two weeks ago:
The bottom line is – people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we’ll allow them to,” said Bloomberg as he prepared to march in the Columbus Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. “If they break the laws, then, we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do: enforce the laws.”
The protestors have broken no laws, and it is not at all clear that lying down in the park really is a violation of park rules. Brookfield Properties, a real estate investment trust, agreed to operate the space as a park in return for zoning variances.
Brookfield was clearly not too happy about the occupation as of September 28; if lying down in the park was a violation of their rules, it seems pretty likely they would have taken action sooner. One has to wonder whether the park amended its rules for the purpose of evicting OWS. If so, I can’t see how this is kosher; this is retrading a deal Brookfield entered into years ago. If you change the terms of an agreement (which this effectively did), you’d expect Brookfield to have to pay the city in exchange for restricting use of the plaza or offer some other consideration. Given that Bloomberg’s long standing significant other Diana Taylor is on the board of Brookfield Properties, this is all a little too cozy.
The clearing is set to begin 7:00 AM on Friday. You can:
1. Go to Zuccotti Park at 6:00 AM. Dress nicely and bring a camera
2. Call 311 if you are in New York or 212 NEW YORK to complain. Long hold times (I waited 14 minutes) but they will take a statement in full. You can log you calls at Credo
3. Sign the MoveOn petition which will be delivered to Bloomberg
4. (hat tip Sarah K) Call Brookfield Properties CEO Ric Clark at 212-417-7000 to object to his violating the rights to free speech and of assembly of American citizens.
If Ric is not available, you should call Melissa Coley, VP of Investor Relations at 212-417-7215 or email her at Melissa.coley@brookfield.com.
See the OWS notice here.
Lambert Strether reports that petitioners supporting OWS let their desires be known to Bloomberg at dinner at Cipriani’s, forcing the mayor to exit via a back door.
Update 12:15 AM: The New York Times posted a copy of a letter from Brookfield alleging the the protestors, among other things, violated the law (drug use, lewdness, blocking walkways). But most are based on complaints from workers in the area; how many are trumped up charges by people who don’t like what OWS stands for?
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Who sets the rules for public parks? Can Bloomberg/the city of New York do that?
Zucotti Park is actually owned by Brookfield Properties. By a happy coincidence, Bloomberg’s girlfriend, Diana Taylor, sits on Brookfield’s Board. But I’m sure she’s not the source of Bloomberg’s new-found fetish for cleanliness, so evidently absent in his dealings with real filth, the banksters. Move along, people, move along. There’s no story here.
When are they going to start cleaning Wall Street? It has been about three hundred years since the last cleaning.
Don’t expect the protestors to take this lying down. Maybe they should be occupying City Hall park, or whatever they call that thing across from the Woolworth Building.
Keith Olberman’s report on the situation last night included an interview with one of the OWS’s lawyers. Here’s a video – the interview with the lawyer, Gideon Oliver, starts at 5:30 into video clip, but the initial report is interesting, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bHMXUVdpofw
Oliver says that he believes it could be possible to get an injunction to keep the police from clearing the park, but that the occupiers have preferred a non-confrontational approach of negotiation and willingness to work with the board to meet their concerns:
“We think that it’s in everybody’s best interest to deescalate what could be a confrontational situation tomorrow, based on the posture that the city and Brookfield are taking” (@7:30).
There has been no response to any of their letters to Brookfield, to the mayor’s office, and so on.
Oliver makes another good point:
“…what business does the NYC Police Department and its municipal police force have enforcing rules that Brookfield has essentially on an ad hoc basis made up? You know, if I said there’s a “No shoes in my apartment” rule, and if somebody came in with shoes in my apartment, and I called the police and say “You have to arrest the because they’re violating my ‘no shoes’ rule,” um, obviously they wouldn’t do that. So it’s unclear why the Police Commissioner is even considering doing that here.” (@7:51).
Maybe Brookfield is paying for the cops in one of those “public-private partnership” deals?
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/on-wall-streets-private-police-in-nypd-uniforms.html
It’s great to see that OWS is getting what seems to be quality legal advice.
Great lawyers? William Kunstler’s wife and one daughter are on the law team for OWS. Yes, that William Kunstler(RIP)! So you know OWS will be well represented.
I don’t know about Kunsler’s wife, but I would not expect much in the way of representation from any of my wives.
bloomberg is making a mistake getting on the wrong side of this
Mayor 1% was always on the wrong side of this, optimader—before it was a pixel in the eye of its conceivers. Bloomberg was behind the Gestapo response in NYC in 2004 at the Repugnacant Convention. He cleared out Bloombergville in NYC earlier this year on the same pretext he’s resorting to now, that the protestors are ‘unsanitary,’ and that ‘the proper authorities need to cleanse’ the site. It is a foregone conclusion that it was Bloomberg’s call to a) assault the marchers in Washington Square at in the first week of the Occupation, and b) entrap and then manhandle an entire marching group the following weekend, arresting and citing hundreds. Ray Kelly is far too much of an ‘operator’ to get out in front of Michael Bloomberg on actions of that kind that would draw national attention and probable lawsuits against the NYPD; it would have been Bloomberg’s call on how to proceed. He must feel that he’s being made a bit of a fool of by now in that he can’t get this rabble out from in front of the camera, which is perhaps he’s being a bit more forward in putting his own face on ‘this is for public order’ pronouncements now.
Mayor 1% wants just doesn’t like that the 99% in our society don’t like his agenda, his friends, his governance, or his tax status. He means to show that he’s ‘smarter and stronger’ than any anarcho-proselytizers against the rotten social ethics of the debt-corp 1%. I think he’s going to get a surprise. Michael Bloomberg is about to become the face of the well-mannered thugs who have stolen our society. His political career very probably will not survive a confrontation with honorable citizen activists since he, Mayor 1%, is lined up on the _wrong_ side inherently. Our country doesn’t need him, and he’s going to learn that he’s a very dispensable man, his wallet and all its zeros notwithstanding.
He can easily go down as the Ahmadinejad of NY and the US.
Bloomberg is just another scuzzy billionaire protecting his buddies. I guess he thinks this ruse is pretty clever. What a dumbass.
Song for Mayor Mike, heh heh.
Friends;
If some ‘rowdy elements’ (tongue-in-cheek here,) can force the mayor of a major metropolis to flee out the back door of a public eating place, then he has already lost the war. For those of you enamoured of Ghandi Ji, it’s like his strategy to deny the ‘authorities’ the moral high ground. Any mayor who fears his or her own public, and is seen to do so, has lost legitimacy. Bloomberg has forfeited his political future.
Shame about the third party bid, though. What a putz.
So armbrit, every public appearance by Mayor 1% should draw mass protest going forward if he assaults the Occupation. Front _and_ back doors from now on. I and many others will laugh at him as he’s compelled to flee each appearance by helicopter, or worse to tear gas and baton his constituents. That should be his fate if he so chooses it. It’s a free choice, better than what most of the rest of us in the 99% have . . . .
Mr Kline;
Indeed sir, you have got into the spirit of the thing.
After all, can any of us old timers imagine the fondly remembered Mayor John Lindsay, or even, to be fair, Rudy Guiliani, cutting and running from controversy or confrontation? Bloomberg proves once again that businessmen and women, as a rule, do not make good politicians. Nor are states, or cities, businesses.
I’m going to enjoy this, even if seen from afar. Good luck and stay safe.
This reminds me of the Emma Goldman quote: “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” Apparently the same can be said of dissent. It will only be tolerated if it is guaranteed to be ineffective.
Or effective for their goals:
See Tea Party where no one was arrested despite in some cases apparently carrying around guns.
Live coverage from the Daily News this evening, which has been all over this story, unlike Pinch Sulzberger’s Izvestia, Quelle surprise…
I wonder if it is any coincidence that Saturday the 15th is Indignants Day globally? Do you think that just maybe the 1% really, really wants to shut down Occupy Wall Street to send a message, since it is now the global focal point? Time to call them on their BS.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/13/indignant-protests-to-sweep-across-world/
What’s the message, that poor people should just go kill themselves ? All these so-called ‘evictions’ sprouting up just means some feathers are getting ruffled, and it’s getting expensive in dollars and political cost to continue fighting this. They want it shut down.
Hopefully this sends a message that the 1% are embarassed at the notoriety and the protests are having an effect. Perhaps regroup, go home for a day, and start flash-mobbing different locations or something. We know the police can’t show up in numbers that quickly everywhere, and they need numbers to combat a protest. Make sure the press get to the flash locations sooner than the police do. Haha, this is fun.
So is the headline for tomorrow going to be: Billionaire mayor wages war against 99%? Sounds like an object lesson for everything that is wrong with this country.
Zucotti Park/ Liberty Park is privately owned. Why would the mayor, a public official, be speaking for the owners?
Here is a link to the letter from OWS counsel to Brookfield Properties, saying removal would require a prior court order (but without much basis for this assertion):
http://t.co/MfPE0T8E
MOVEON.ORG REP REPORTED ON MSNBC THAT BLOOMBERG’S GIRL FRIEND IS ASSOCIATED WITH PROPERTY OWNERS OF PARK AND THAT SHE IS INFLUENCING THE EVICTION STANCE OF THE MAYOR.
So Paul, Yves was all over that last week (earlier?), but give the mainstream media enough time and the story will catch up to them.
I had the good fortune to be able to shoulder butt him walking back to my table in a very nice italian resturant in Vail four years ago.
Now normally I wouldnt do that to a person of smaller stature but he was departing from the dining room more or less three abreast in a chevron w/ two lumox guido bodygaurds in tow in a fairly small place -walking out to his blacked out Chevy Suburban that was sitting out front idling THE WHOLE TIME he was dining (yes he is a dick. Like he is some friken Potentate that might have to be wisked away if a chicken vesuvio bone got stuck in his throat?
In anycase the two lumoxes gave me that irritated wtf look like now they would have to listen to him bitch at them in the SUV all the wayback to the condo…
What most amused me was the image of him, he was carrying a styrofoam to-go clamshell container I guess w/ a little something for his jackal at home. His presentation was a doppelganger of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons
Good story. I lol’d.
Aw, come on. That’s hardly fair to Mr. Burns.
OK valiant warriors for Liberty. Are we ready for “Boss” Bloomberg to cry out; “Release the hounds!”
Am I making it all up in my pointy little head, or do the Mayor and the Prez both come off as Authoritarian leaning Narcissists?
“a very nice Italian restaurant in Vail four years ago”…
Was that Campo De Fiori?
Skippy…now if only someone had blown chunks on him out side, between car and front door, insta-freeze Baw aaaaaa!
skippy, actually I believe the name was LeTour.Very nice place. My birthday dinner, thats why it sticks in my mind.
Yeah some spicy shrimp scampy, wine martinis and beer, fresh to altitude and 10F can be the perfect combination for projectile paint stripper on an idling Suburban w/ cold stinky exhaust…
and he does hunch over like Mr. Burns, clutching his foam clamshell w/ both hands that look like squirrel paws that just grabbed an apple core-if you know what I mean..
Riverdaughter has a live blog too. The Guardian’s AdamGabbat has live tweets from the ground.
Comments at firedoglake say the AFL/CIO has alerted members to be at the park at midnight in case they start the eviction early.
A propos the AFL-CIO, Riverdaughter says the tactic is to flood the park with so many people they can’t all be arrested (Non Violent Method of Protest and Persuasion 175, “Overloading of facilities.” Could work. I’m having a hard time picturing the police moving a lot of buses to the jails during Manhattan’s rush hour.
They could do like Pinochet did in Chile and put them in that big baseball park. That was sanctioned by a U.S. President too. This will be a defining moment for Obama. What he does or does not do will show us how the rest of his administration will play out.
I hope not, but this could be Obamas’ “Superdome Moment.” I’ve spoken to a couple of people who were there, and they describe sometning straight out of a J.G.Ballard novel. Hopefully, no matter how it ends up, this experience will ‘radicalize’ a lot of ‘ordinary Americans.’
Keep the faith.
I’ve thought about that. Soccer stadiums in Chile, football and baseball stadiums here. (Damn, now I know why all those Goldman Sachs ads for them.) Still, tactically, for today, I think a Manhattan rush hour would have brought the Chilean army to it’s knees…
Mr Strether;
You have started a curious train of thought in my consciousness. I would be very suspicious if: a) the NYSE were to suspend trading tomorrow, or b) the major trading houses encouraged their people to telecommute tomorrow, or c) a lot of traders just happened to take the day off tomorrow. Could “Boss” Bloomberg shut down trading tomorrow in the interests of ‘law and order?’
Alright everybody! Link arms and sing! “We will, we will not, we will not be moved!”
Mz Caitlin;
Like they did in Boston, right?
Flash-and-dash has been proposed at the OWS website; flash mini-mobs around Lower Manhattan through the morning which dissolve when the put upon Blues arrive, only to aggregate a few blocks away. Think about this all going out on livestream and live broadcast on a busy Friday . . . .
Horizontal scaling. All about that.
whomever does the PR for the NYCPD must be developing an eye twitch. I think the paramilitary costumes go a long way to setting a very assymetrically negatve image for them even if they just stand still. they all need to lighten it up w/ Hello Kitty pink truncheons.
Truly the superior strategy of the OWS crowd is to use their interconnectivity online and be fluid. Dissolve away to location next while the thugs have to figure it out, regroup, pile into their bread vans and snarl traffic even more than it normally is.
The nonviolent passive aggresive analog to 5th generation warfare vs mechanized infantry.
In contrast, uptown, citizens of mostly similar demographics are camped out in front of the Apple store–is it #OccupyApple? No, it’s #IWantMyIphone. Oh well.
Dear New York,
You need to elect a mayor from the boroughs, preferably not a billionaire. Or a multi millionaire. You may want to look for someone who was once in a union, even if for only summer jobs and went on to lead a normal life that did not include striving to be a billionaire. I hope you catch my drift and punish this guy so he has to go back to work informing the world about how bad the capital markets are as the ongoing global crisis continues. I am sure he will not be bitter when you evict him from office, he will get many accolades and face time with Charlie Rose. We are all holding our breaths.
I can only hope for the best for my fellow Americans and illegal aliens and legal aliens, demonstrating against the corruption of the Wall St banks. I am glad that people are coming out to shield you and hope you are safe. My best suggestion is to put on plastic glasses that say 2012, reek of booze and keep asking when the ball is gonna drop. The cops will be confused and think they are on New Years Eve with Dick Clark duty. Trust me, and sweeten the deal with lots of sugary donuts. It helps to grease the palms.
If you do get thrown out, we have plenty of new places opening not far away, now in scenic Bucks County, not too far from New Hope, it is Occupy Doylestown. You will feel very much at home there, they have great bistros, bakeries and middle aged boho coffee shops. And uppity middle class protesters that could use a drumming circle.
I wish you safety, and never, never give up. You can fail, you can lose, but giving up is the only unforgivable offense. Retreat in an orderly manner if necessary, but regroup, come back and build on what your courageous action has provided for the rest of the nation.
I LOVE YOU ALL
‘Occupy Doylestown,’ I’m loving it. Time will tell if the Zones of Occupation go multi-bourough too, but that would be great. There are more folks in Queens or the Bronx than most large cities in this country . . . .
Last I checked, Philly was not a Borough of New York. Just saying. Hands off Doylestown!
It’s too late for Doylestown, an Iron Curtain of commie pinkos has descended upon this once American enclave of prosperity and privilege. I fear for Starbucks!
http://www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/doylestown/protesters-occupy-doylestown/article_9e1c3fff-ce47-56cc-8f86-c3b7ab47f93f.html
“we’ll allow them to”
It’s not a right for you to bequeath us, you Nazi, Bloomberg.
So purple, you have extracted _the_ key phrase in this entire current affray, and THE key word, “allow.” To me, that is what the present power move is really all about. Authorities ‘allow,’ but the occupiers haven’t asked anyone’s permission. They don’t grant the precedence of authority because those in authority have succumbed to a corrupt system. That is the crux of the ‘threat’ posed by the Occupiers, they’ve stopped cooperating with what they are ‘allowed’ to do by Serious Authorities. “We, the 1%” ‘allow’ mere proles of the 99% to do some things, but not very many of them, while the 1% do what they please and bill the rest. It’s an oligarchy morphing into a self-designated aristocracy . . . but some have ceased to cooperate with that. Steam is starting to come out of large net worth ears . . . .
Lech Walesa’s coming??! O. M. G.
Updated: Walesa plans to visit #OWS (?)
Not clear whether Walesa is coming, or just sending a letter…
Well I wish he’d come right now. And bring Bishop Tutu with him.
According to the Warsaw Business Journal, Lech Walesa is planning to come, though no date has been set.
English version (for those who don’t happen to speak Polish):
http://www.theworldpress.com/press/worldpress/polandpress/wars.htm
Proszę przyjść teraz!
Bardzo ciekawe!
Especially interesting as protesting (or even questioning) the current economic orthodoxy is just Not The Done Thing in Poland these days.
Great link!
I would beware the Haymarket.
Maybe. Got to do this now, though, before the drones get miniaturized and then privatized. Eh?
I’m dubious that local police departments have had time yet to implement false flag actions on the Occupiers. That was what Haymarket was, and has become a standard part of the tricky bag for those doing anti-globalization securacracy. It’s a tough go at this point with the Occupiers have been fairly well covered on film and livestream, and are systematically nonviolent and nonconfrontational. Sudden bombzapoppin would look so wildly out of place as to be instantly suspicious.
There are powers of the weak. The Occupiers look just like ordinary people, mostly young, because that is exactly what they are. Cops wading into groups of young people and waling away have already played very, very badly to a popular audience in this.
As the Occupations proceed, particularly if we get to running street confrontations in one city or another, there will surely be a more consistent effort to frame the Occupiers as time goes on. But that will also be harder to do if and as their credibility increases via their durability. What I’m saying is that this is _not_ an easy movement to false flag. There’s no central organization, and most of the literally 1,000 occupations have been exceedingly well mannered and earnest. Smearing them just plays false. Painting them as ‘unrealistic’ is likely to be the narrative that will be tried to potentailly worst effect, but that can be undercut come the time with, at length, substantive agenda points, perhaps more to stuff the narrative than to immediately initiate a political process on that agenda, there’s much community building to be done yet/first in my view. . . . All this is about as easy as snowboarding on an avalanche, but hey you don’t get bored.
“Cops wading into groups of young people and waling away have already played very, very badly to a popular audience in this.”
Wait ’till we see them whaling away at the old people who are starting to show up. Granny bashing plays pretty badly, too.
P.S. Here’s my question: Constitution doesn’t apply to private property, right? So why don’t they occupy public spaces? WWTFFD? What would the Founding Fathers do? The First Amendment is pretty clear:
#OWS is clearly peaceable assembly as well as petitioning the government for redress of grievances. I mean, I see it. It’s about as raw and first-degree constitutional as it gets.
I’m not a lawyer, but it sounds like the park is currently being operated as public space, i.e. a public park, irregardless of ownership. That was part of the agreement. Somebody can correct me if I’m wrong. Therefore the same rules that apply to other parks would apply to Zuccotti park. Unless it is illegal to lay down in other parks, NYC can’t enforce not allowing people to lay down in Zuccotti park, unless it is explicitly written into the agreement as a variance.
That being said, if they are forced to move, is there a more obnoxious park they could relocate to? I’m not familiar with NYC, but perhaps something on 5th Ave or Central Park, right near where all the rich people live? I’m pretty sure the 1% would rather have the protestors where they work than where they live. Make it one of those, “be careful what you ask for” type things.
I’m not a lawyer either, but I don’t think a ‘public space’ is necessarily the same as a ‘park’.
A building lobby is a ‘public space’, isn’t it? And you wouldn’t be allowed to lay down in that space for long.
No, I don’t believe a building lobby is (necessarily, though might be) a public space. Buildings remain under private control and can designate who may enter and use their lobbies, e.g. customers or employees only, pass security clearance, etc. Even public buildings I suspect have to follow some sort of generic regulations, though perhaps can be modified (ahead of time) on an individual basis as needed. In any case, it is rare that rules/regulations/laws can be imposed and enforced retroactively. I spoze it’s possible however that charges could be brought for use of tents or sleeping bags under some broad umbrella however, e.g. disturbing local tenants’ ability to conduct business, or some such horses**t.
I wish I lived in NYC, my town seems so boring now. I would be down there in a heartbeat, and even offer a place to stay for as many protestors as I had room for, if needed.
Wouldn’t it matter WHY you were doing it? I mean what good is the First Amendment if it doesn’t apply any real place? If you ever wanted to personify We the People, #OWS is it, in person.
Well I hope they pick their spots with inspiration. I remember learning how Arlington was Robert E. Lee’s home and then the Union started burying Civil War dead there. That’ll do it. But I don’t know what could be better now than occupying Wall Street itself. God bless em.
No, it’s more complicated than that. There was a story we linked to earlier, that the reason OWS was able to stay was the ambiguous status of privately owned public parks. If Zuccotti Park had been a regular park like Central Park, the city would have been able to remove them long ago.
Brookfield no doubt got some legal advice before writing that letter. That does not mean it would survive a challenge before a judge. I suspect this is a matter that has never been litigated before.
Well, gee shucks….
The First Amendment doesn’t apply in Central Park? This isn’t vagrancy or a permitted concert, this is citizenship.
I doubt sleeping in a park can be argued to be free speech.
Put a dollar sign on the pillow. Sure it can. Ask Roberts, Thomas, Scalia, Alito and Sleazy, I think I’m counting someone twice.
(Though actually I was thinking of assembly and petition; no time limit.)
Personally, I’ve avoided poncy cafes ever since I saw Battle of Algiers.
Looks like #OccupyDenver may be facing eviction as well — but nothing yet:
http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23OccupyDenver
Yves posted: The New York Times posted a copy of a letter from Brookfield alleging the the protestors, among other things, violated the law (drug use, lewdness, blocking walkways).
With the large numbers of police they have had around, how can anybody allege laws have been broken without implicating the police for failure to do their jobs and enforce the law? They certainly have sufficient numbers of cops that, at minimum, controlling drug use (public intoxication) and lewdness should be a piece of cake, if not being able to keep walkways open.
So is everybody en masse being arrested on some one person’s drug charge? This is nuts. Peaceably assembling is not a crime, it’s a constitutional act of citizenship. If there’s a drug crime, arrest that person and get on with the republic.
Not even a drug charge, some random passerby saying drugs were being used. So this is heresay unless Brookfield can produce the people making the claim.
This is typical – paint the protestors as drug users or of lewd acts and in the end outside agitators. Yhis is right out of the playbook of the 1%ers. This is a very common tactic of the FBI, ATF and often time law enforcement in general. This was a very common tactic at least since the 50’s if not before. Some paint a person or goup of people as different from us and then demonize them. Once demonized these people can be treated accordingly.
In any crowd someone somewhere is using drugs (and this is more probable in NYC whether legal or not) and someone somewhere is engaged in lewd acts (kissing and holding hands is considered lewd in some of our finest Southern universities.
Please grow up America or at least NYC.
Just came back from Zuccotti Park. OWS has several plans in place tonight. For one thing they have done a lot of cleaning in the park today and moving of much of the supplies and valuables to a storage space.
Several residents of the park are working with lawyers to get an injunction on the evacuation. Since it is now believed that the police will move in around 4AM, under cover of dark, the injunction seems like a long shot.
Brookfield said that they would be cleaning the park in thirds, so OWS hopes to cede one third of the park at a time while always holding onto two thirds. Volunteers who are willing to be arrested will link up to form human lines at the divisions points between the thirds. Watching the lines practice sitting down in non-violent non-compliance was so reminiscent of sit-ins in the sixties. If the image of the dress rehearsal was that profound, I can only imagine how images of the police carrying off sitting protesters will impact boomers.
There are media vans sprinkled all around the park as well as the gyro carts that trail in their wake. Hopefully the MSM will fall all over each other trying to get this story out first and most memorably. Even if Bloomberg wins this battle, reminding the boomer generation about what it once cared so passionately will likely lose him the war.
thank you for the fabulous update!
“we have too many regulations stopping democracy and not enough regulations stopping wallstreet from misbehaving”
— joe stiglitz (said during a solidarity visit to ows)
They act on “a letter from Brookfield alleging the the protestors, among other things, violated the law”?
Gosh; why didn’t someone think of sending a letter alleging violation of the law on the part of banks and other financial organisations?
If anybody wants to help out OccupyMusicians with a quick WP theme:
http://twitter.com/#!/direct_messages/create/juddgreenstein
Doesn’t it seem that the real agenda is to portray OWS as anti-property rights? Then to use that to marginalize OWS as composed of anti-capitalist, anarchist trouble-makers?
OWS can not be marginalized. There are some very smart people in the movement many of whom are likely to be familiar with “velvet revolution” (From Dictatorship to Democracy) which was used successfully to break up the former Soviet Union, in Burma and more recently in Iran and presently in the Arab countries. It can be downloaded at http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations/org/FDTD.pdf. As the government and oligarchs use force to clamp down on OWS, OWS is likely to adapt a home grown “velvet revolution.” Read the Monkey Master chapter.
All masses everywhere will be removed. By machine gun where necessary. What planet do you live on? Armagedon is for the poor, and the kingdom of heaven is the rich. Idealism dies first.
Breaking News:
Cleanup of Occupy Wall St. protest encampment postponed
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/14/ap/business/main20120377.shtml?tag=re1.latest
WOW!!!
Even the morning dudes on CNBC acknowledged that this is a victory for the protesters. Ha!
Cheers!
3:43 AM – Today
Zuccotti Park Owner “Postponing” Cleanup, Crisis Appears Averted
New York City Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway released a statement announcing that Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zuccotti Park, was “postponing” its planned 7 AM cleanup of the space. Holloway’s full statement, sent to the press at 6:18 AM, is below. It looks like mass arrests will be avoided this morning.
I am in 100% support of the Occupy groups, but believe they’d create a helluva lot more support if they’d clean up the park themselves, and keep it clean, and bring in port-a-johns.
They did clean it up yesterday themselves. And it has been kept clean.
The city is the one refusing them port-a-johns.
This is a terrific beginning. All credit goes to the young people organizing and demonstrating under the banner of Occupy Wall Street, and We are the 99%.
All credit goes to them for putting themselves, their lives, their careers and their liberty on the line while demonstrating the loss of rights for all of us to free speech and freedom of assembly -an issue every American and every person on earth can support.
Next on the agenda -the end of corporate owned media. Corporations out of control can never be agents of the people for speaking to authority -the authorities we pay for, choose and hire.
From Occupy Writers.com here
10/14/2011: We urge New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to respect Occupy Wall Street’s First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly.
correct link Occupy Writers.com
Its a mystery to me why that link isn’t working. If you’ll just type in occupywriters.com -no problem. -an inspiring long list of writers for free speech and the right to free assembly.
With those rights, defying authority by sleeping on the ground and gathering in huge numbers for media attention wouldn’t be necessary.
Oh yeah, these folks really represent the 99%: Coast Guard member spit on near Occupy Boston tents
Read more: http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/occupy-boston-protesters-spit-on-coast-guard-member-20111013#ixzz1alCiEhaC
Gee! That kind of on-the-spot reporting is so typical for US press.
Thanks a bunch.
Soul Kitchen
20 minutes ago, at 8:30 am, I visited Liberation Square / Zucotti park just to tell whoever was dug in and waiting in the square, whoever would listen, How beautiful they are.
Coming down Broadway the park was thick with 100s and 100s of people but was encircled by barricades, police, police vans and officers in groups of 8 or 10 on the sidewalk and the streets. There appeared to be no access at all and the police directed pedestrians to the east side of Broadway.
“F*ck this!” I said to myself. “I want to exercise my right as a citizen to get inside the park and see if the restaurant is open and give them some money.”
So down the alley on the south side I went, past a gauntlet of TV trucks and cameras and flood lights and a string of police.
the west side of the park was wide open and not a policeman or policewoman in sight. I laughed at myself for my little melodrama, believing I’d have to charge the park as a one man army, in my work suit and tie and carrying my laptop. In fact, all I had to do was walk in gently and without the slightest obstruction.
I made it to the middle looking for somebody at an information booth just so I could shake their hand say say Thank You. But then I came upon a fantastic sight that astonished me. The restaurant was open and serving breakfast! Holy Cow! So I walked over smiling and said to the folks serving the food “You guys are beautiful. Thank you! Thank you! for being here.” I said I was down last night and wanted to write a restaurant review but the cafe was closed. and they laughed and somebody eating said it was a 5-star place. And I said “I’d give it 10, just for being here.”
They were serving eggs and bagels and toast, but I’d already eaten one breakfast and said no thanks but you’re beautiful. then I headed to the information booth at the middle of the park and a young man was there alone and I said Thank You to him to and put two $10 bills in the donation box.
“What are you guys going to do now?” I asked. He didn’t know for sure, but said he’d heard a rumor riot police were on the way, although he said it might just be a rumor. That did make me a little jumpy, I’ll confess. So I did my usual thing and just smiled at him and said “Man you guys are awesome. Thank you for doing what you’re doing.”
Mayor Bloomberg, yes I know you have to be the mayor of all New Yorkers and you can’t tolerate lawless anarchy. But the lawless anarchy is in the buildings around the park (some anyway) and not in the park. What’s in the park is the spirit of America, the beauty of enlightenment, the peace of the transcendant soul, the sons and daughters of Gnosis, the light of life. And what is in the buildings (some anyway) is the stench of mechanized death and corruption.
Well, I had to leave to go to work. Feeling gulity and feeling a loss of soul with every step I took away from the barricades and the disciples of the Holy Gnosis holding out against the darkness enveloping them.
Good Bless Occupy Wall Street
Matthew 10:16-20
Terrific reporting craazyman. Hope you’ll keep us posted. I won’t go down there again. It feels like about time TPTB will be activating their saboteurs.
(I feel like Madame Lafarge here, fingers busy on my computer watching the birds feed as I type).
The police like to come screaming, Beating the war drums -lights and sirens blazing down Broadway -attracting as much attention and alarm as possible. It worked on me.
As I was leaving the site of OWS demonstrations last Friday, walking north on Broadway to the subway, I heard their racket blocks away coming downtown and then saw the caravan of paddy wagons pass, so turned back to the square figuring the police were coming for something goin’ on back there on the site of Zuccotti Park. NO. Nothing but the cops making a racket.
The police, the white shirts, blue shirts, suits, all grouped, spread out and regrouped, did a some observing and pedestrian traffic control and then, uniformed police en masse brought up the rear of the demonstrators’ march from the park to Police Plaza -all peaceful -chanting on the way up and prepared for the Brooklyn Bridge entrapment the next day.
I remember watching the Wall Street anti-Vietnam war demonstration in 1970 when I took a rare lunch break where there was a counter demonstration of angry hard hats filmed wending their way through the crowd of ‘hippy’ demonstrators.
Not a cop in the crowd in sight. (Correct me if I’m wrong -I don’t remember seeing any cops nearby or interfering in any way).
And in March of 1970, there were 300 bomb scares in the city; one on the 8th floor of 120 Broadway where I worked. Timed to go off in the middle of the night where guaranteed no one was working. Unlike today, I might add, where workers are slaves being pushed 12 hours a day and traveling.
The only ones I remember being killed were a couple of SDS nutters who famously blew themselves up in a townhouse where they lived and tried to make bombs.
So, all of this police presence is noise; war drums to control the people -all people. The people in their offices given instructions by their bosses; blah blah blah
Thanks Yves for the info and the petition information. We signed. We also visited the park last night and dropped off some donations of toiletries, etc…
Here is an e-mail of another’s visit to OWS which I wanted to share. Especially the pictures.
Subject: Re: MCAN-talk #OccupyWallStreet
I am back from almost 3 hours at tent city. There are actually 3 units for
pedaling. Attached is a picture of those plus cobbled circuitry.
To the right are UPSes that store. I have also included a picture of their
insistence on the language of the Constitution, in response to the police
raid. They are making the electrical system all work, although their
primary source of power is still an electrical feed from the Parks
department, and it could be very much better. Bikes not Bombs came by when
I was there, and they were fired up about helping out.
My visitor role started to morph into a role of nucleation point for a group
to address making it possible for at least part of the tent city to go
through the winter. Seems to me there are several issues. One is training.
There is an eagle scout who wants to train people about winter camping.
There is me, who wants to train our entire society about living at
dramatically lower temperatures during the winter. (My wife and I life at
about 50, plus or minus.) There is also the issue of lightweight,
temporary-type shelter that is warm enough so people do not suffer too much,
while the building inspector does not intervene. The Lakota tipi had not
only an outer shell, but also an inner liner. They would stuff leaves
between for insulation. We could use tarps with something light and a good
R-value in between. I have a bamboo grove with probably 1000 20-foot bamboo
plants that could provide structural framing. Maybe some of you have some
ideas. Architects who know in detail how to work with the building codes
are particularly valuable.
As I see it, if this can be done right, it can serve as an example for the
entire world. The protesters are aware that the entire world is watching,
and they are interested in setting an example.
John Carlton-Foss, S.M., Ph.D.
Strategic Energy Systems Inc.
Box 263, Wayland, MA 01778
80 Church Street, Woods Hole MA 02543
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
__._,_.___
Attachment(s) from Sydney Blackwell
2 of 2 Photo(s)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HarvardEnergy/attachments/folder/1910105401/item/289824088/view
P.S. I’m not sure how to send this directly to Ms Smith