#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

[Jeff]

Unbelievable cowardice. On one side, anyway.

University of California, Davis:

During peacefully Occupy Movement, police came in to tear down tents and proceeded to arrest students who stood in their way. Once students peacefully demanded the release of the arrested, a police officer unnecessarily pepper sprays the students to open a path for the rest of the officers

[Jeff]

Who Smashed the Laptops from Occupy Wall Street? Inside the NYPD's Lost and Found

Posted by Motherboard on Friday, Nov 18, 2011

...

Worse, it was as if someone along the way purposefully destroyed all confiscated electronics, a strategic smashing of at least part of the digital record logged by full-on occupiers. “Dude, all the laptops are in a row," he tells us, baffled and raking his shock of brown hair. "They’ve all been smashed with bats.” When asked about the mangled property, LiPani admits that, inevitably, certain items could’ve been damaged in the shuffle: “I’m not surprised,” he says, to hear of damaged laptops. He adds that the DSNY is providing clearance forms to those occupiers concerned their property may’ve been mishandled or misplaced.

But Wilder wants footage – visual proof to show to whoever it is he hopes will step up, legally, to defend the FNF. Hell, we want footage. At some risk, admittedly, we hand him an iPhone. He heads back inside.

Resurfacing a few minutes later, he shows us these:



...

http://motherboard.tv/2011/11/18/who-sm ... -and-found

[2012 Countdown]

How fucked up is that? They just point blank sprayed the UC kids for sitting down. Crop sprayed them till the cans ran out. They must have run out of pepper spray as he kept shaking the 'famliy size' cans as if he were seeing if any contents were left. They then retreated. Bring more spray next time fellas. Get one of those exterminator backpack deals.

---


Occupy Portland: Woman in pepper spray photo describes experience
Posted on Friday, November 18, 2011 7:03PM
Liz Nichols, who was photographed by Randy L. Rasmussen of The Oregonian at the moment she was peppered sprayed during N17 protests, speaks about her experience.

Watch video
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/inde ... um=twitter

[American Dream]

Occupy and Anarchism's Gift of Democracy

November 19, 2011

By David Graeber
Source: The Guardian


As the history of past movements all make clear, nothing terrifies those running America more than the danger of true democracy breaking out. As we see in Chicago, Portland, Oakland, and right now in New York City, the immediate response to even a modest spark of democratically organised civil disobedience is a panicked combination of concessions and brutality. Our rulers, anyway, seem to labor under a lingering fear that if any significant number of Americans do find out what anarchism really is, they may well decide that rulers of any sort are unnecessary.

Almost every time I'm interviewed by a mainstream journalist about OWS, I get some variation of the same lecture:

"How are you going to get anywhere if you refuse to create a leadership structure or make a practical list of demands? And what's with all this anarchist nonsense – the consensus, the sparkly fingers… ? You're never going to be able to reach regular, mainstream Americans with this sort of thing!"

It is hard to imagine worse advice. After all, since 2007, just about every previous attempt to kick off a nationwide movement against Wall Street took exactly the course such people would have recommended – and failed miserably. It is only when a small group of anarchists in New York decided to adopt the opposite approach – refusing to recognise the legitimacy of the existing political authorities by making demands of them; refusing to accept the legitimacy of the existing legal order by occupying a public space without asking for permission, refusing to elect leaders that could then be bribed or co-opted; declaring, however non-violently, that the entire system was corrupt and they rejected it; being willing to stand firm against the state's inevitable violent response – that hundreds of thousands of Americans from Portland to Tuscaloosa began rallying in support, and a majority declared their sympathies.

This is not the first time a movement based on fundamentally anarchist principles – direct action, direct democracy, a rejection of existing political institutions and attempt to create alternative ones – has cropped up in the US. The civil rights movement (at least, its more radical branches), the anti-nuclear movement, the global justice movement … all took similar directions. Never, however, has one grown so startlingly quickly.

To understand why, we have to understand that there's always been an enormous gap between what those ruling America mean by "democracy", and what that word means to almost anyone else. According to the official version, of course, "democracy" is a system created by the founding fathers, based on checks and balances between president, Congress and judiciary. In fact, nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution does it say anything about the US being a "democracy". Most defined democracy as collective self-governance by popular assemblies, and as such, they were dead set against it, arguing it would be prejudicial against the interests of minorities (the particular minority that was had in mind here being the rich). They only came to redefine their own republic – modeled not on Athens, but on Rome – as a "democracy" because ordinary Americans seemed to like the word so much.

But what did, and what do, ordinary Americans mean by the word? A system where they get to weigh in on which politicians will run the government? This is what we're always told, but it seems implausible. After all, most Americans loathe politicians, and tend to be skeptical about the very idea of government. If they universally hold it out as a political ideal, it can only be because the American people still sees it, however vaguely, as self-governance – as what the founding fathers tended to denounce as either "democracy" or, as they sometimes also put it, "anarchy".

If nothing else, this would help explain the enthusiasm with which Americans have embraced a movement based on directly democratic principles, despite the uniformly contemptuous dismissal of America's media and political class. Most Americans are, politically, deeply conflicted. They tend to combine a deep reverence for freedom with a carefully inculcated, but nonetheless real identification with the army and police. Few are actual anarchists; few even know what "anarchism" means. It is not clear how many would ultimately wish to discard the state and capitalism entirely.

But one thing overwhelming numbers of Americans do feel is that something is terribly wrong with their country, that its key institutions are controlled by an arrogant elite, that radical change of some kind is long since overdue. They're right. It's hard to imagine a political system so systematically corrupt – one where bribery, on every level, has been made completely legal. The outrage is appropriate. The problem was, up until 17 September, the only side of the spectrum willing to propose radical solutions of any sort was the right. But Occupy Wall Street has changed that: democracy has broken out.




From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
URL: http://www.zcommunications.org/occupy-a ... id-graeber

[2012 Countdown]

The OccupyUSA Blog

10:05 We posted the now viral 8-minute of pepper spraying at UC-Davis last night (see below). Now here is much shorter one, from different angle, just as horrific.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/164712/oc ... nd-edition



---

Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
Posted on November 19, 2011 by crank
18 November 2011

Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

Linda P.B. Katehi,

I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to the University of California at Davis.

You are not.

I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:

1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today

2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality

3) to demand your immediate resignation
---
Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.

What happened next?

Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.

This is what happened. You are responsible for it.
---
I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.

Sincerely,

Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Program in Critical Theory
University of California at Davis

FULL-
http://bicyclebarricade.wordpress.com/2 ... -b-katehi/

[2012 Countdown]

Exclusive: Lobbying Firm's Memo Spells Out Plan to Undermine Occupy Wall Street (VIDEO)
Sat Nov 19, 2011 8:53 AM EST

A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program “Up w/ Chris Hayes.”

The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association.

CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.

According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, “This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street. … It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”

The memo also suggests that Democratic victories in 2012 should not be the ABA’s biggest concern. “… (T)he bigger concern,” the memo says, “should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street companies.”

Two of the memo’s authors, partners Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Geduldig joined CLGC before Boehner became speaker; Cranford joined CLGC this year after serving as the speaker’s assistant for policy. A third partner, Steve Clark, is reportedly “tight” with Boehner, according to a story by Roll Call that CLGC features on its website.

Jeff Sigmund, an ABA spokesperson, confirmed that the association got the memo. “Our Government Relations staff did receive the proposal – it was unsolicited and we chose not to act on it in any way,” he said in a statement to "Up."

CLGC did not return calls seeking comment.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined to comment on the memo. But he responded to its characterization of Republicans as defenders of Wall Street by saying, “My understanding is that President Obama is the single largest recipient of donations from Wall Street.”

On “Up” Saturday, Anita Dunn, Obama campaign adviser, responded by saying that the majority of the president’s re-election campaign is fueled by small donors. She rejected the suggestion that the president himself is too close to Wall Street, saying “If that’s the case, why were tough financial reforms passed over party line Republican opposition?”

The CLGC memo raises another issue that it says should be of concern to the financial industry -- that OWS might find common cause with the Tea Party. “Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protestors and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism,” the memo says. “…This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”

The memo outlines a 60-day plan to conduct surveys and research on OWS and its supporters so that Wall Street companies will be prepared to conduct a media campaign in response to OWS. Wall Street companies “likely will not be the best spokespeople for their own cause,” according to the memo. “A big challenge is to demonstrate that these companies still have political strength and that making them a political target will carry a severe political cost.”

Part of the plan CLGC proposes is to do “statewide surveys in at least eight states that are shaping up to be the most important of the 2012 cycle.”

Specific races listed in the memo are U.S. Senate races in Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Mexico and Nevada as well as the gubernatorial race in North Carolina.

The memo indicates that CLGC would research who has contributed financial backing to OWS, noting that, “Media reports have speculated about associations with George Soros and others.”

"It will be vital,” the memo says, “to understand who is funding it and what their backgrounds and motives are. If we can show that they have the same cynical motivation as a political opponent it will undermine their credibility in a profound way.”

--
http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/_ ... reet-video

[crikkett]

Unbelievable cowardice. On one side, anyway.

University of California, Davis:

During peacefully Occupy Movement, police came in to tear down tents and proceeded to arrest students who stood in their way. Once students peacefully demanded the release of the arrested, a police officer unnecessarily pepper sprays the students to open a path for the rest of the officers

I hope we learn the name of the man who sprayed those students.

[Jeff]

http://occuprint.org/

[Elvis]

I hope we learn the name of the man who sprayed those students.

Man? That was no man.

I'm so angry right now.

[Avalon]

I'm not as up on techniques of non-violent protest and direct action as I'd like to be, but it seemed to me that the UC Davis protesters were pretty disciplined in their responses to the sickening police violence. I thought it was important that they actively announced they were giving a few minutes of peace, and an out for the police to retreat.

Starhawk has many years of activism training behind her, and her blog has a lot of training resources for non-violent activists. Looking at some of the entries briefly, there is a lot of food for thought, and a lot more options for responses than one might immediately come up with in the heat of the moment.

http://www.starhawk.org/activism/trainer-resources/trainer-resources.html

[Bruce Dazzling]

[wha?]

crikkett wrote:
I hope we learn the name of the man who sprayed those students.

Lt. John Pike, of the UC Davis Police Department. You can email him here:

japikeiii@ucdavis.edu

btw, thanks to all those that are out there on the streets and to the people here at rigint. your passion and activism is inspiring. carry on.

[Project Willow]

http://occuprint.org/

Thank you.

[2012 Countdown]

crikkett wrote:
I hope we learn the name of the man who sprayed those students.

Lt. John Pike, of the UC Davis Police Department. You can email him here:

japikeiii@ucdavis.edu

btw, thanks to all those that are out there on the streets and to the people here at rigint. your passion and activism is inspiring. carry on.

John A. Pike
POLICE LIEUTENANT - MSP
UC Davis
JOB TITLE
2010: POLICE LIEUTENANT - MSP
2009: POLICE LIEUTENANT - MSP
2008: POLICE LIEUTENANT - MSP


2010 PAY
Base pay: $116,454.00, Overtime: $0.00, Other:$0.00
Total pay: $110,243.12


2009 PAY
Base pay: $110,727.00, Overtime: $0.00, Other:$0.00
Total pay: $107,792.20

2008 PAY
Base pay: N/A, Overtime: $0.00, Other:$0.00
Total pay: $105,000.00

http://www.sacbee.com/statepay/salary-d ... z1eB2fH4cm

====

http://boingboing.net/2011/11/18/police ... rrest.html

[Aurataur]

I attended the November 17 solidarity actions in Los Angeles. It was a tense scene. Approximately 400 police officers in riot gear, armed with tear gas launchers and other "less-lethal" devices, descended on the demonstrators at multiple times throughout the day. It was the first time during any of the actions in Los Angeles that I was worried about police violence. To the credit of the LAPD, they showed a significant amount of restraint, even though I believe the operation was meant to be a show of force. If it had been New York, Oakland, or Seattle I am sure that the scene would have descended into chaos.

We "took" the park at Bank of America Plaza (owned by Brookfield) while a phalanx of police officers surrounded the entrance to the bank, batons at the ready. A long line of us linked arms and surrounded the plot of grass where Occupiers erected around twenty tents. I left the action at 3:30 to go home (I hadn't slept in over 32 hours) and by 6:00 the new encampment had been broken up by the police. I believe there were over 70 arrests total throughout the day.

I took a lot of pictures but the SD card reader on my laptop is now non-operational. I will upload them as soon as I am able.