#OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign - September 17

[2012 Countdown]

Anonymous: Operation Cash Back - #OpCashBack


Uploaded by anonyops on Oct 17, 2011
Our Website: http://www.anonyops.com
Our Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/anonyops_
Our Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anonyops/ ... 3033?sk=wa​ll

Bank Transfer Day Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Nov.Fifth
Greetings, We are Anonymous.

Over the past month, we have witnessed the Occupy protests grow to unbelievable strengths. 82 countries and 1000 cities are currently joining in the Occupy movement. Occupy Wall Street is currently heading into its 30th day of protest and is showing little signs of stopping.

This November the 5th, we invite you to join us, for Bank Transfer day.

We invite you to remove all funds from your bank account and transfer them to a not-for-profit credit union.

Together, we will show banks a day they will never forget.

They will remember, the 5th of November.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.

===

Chris Hedges: "This one could take them all down." Hedges on OWS w/ OccupyTVNY


Uploaded by munderlarkst on Oct 17, 2011
Chris Hedges: "What happens is in all of these movements ... the foot soldiers of the elite -- the blue uniformed police, the mechanisms of control -- finally don't want to impede the movement and at that point the power elite is left defenseless ... the only thing I can say having been in the middle of similar movements is that this one is real, and this one could take them all down ... I can guarantee you that huge segments of those blue uniformed police sympathize with everything that you're doing." Hedges bring his 20 years of experience as a war correspondent having covered movements and revolutions throughout the the world to his discussion.

===


The NYC Citibank Arrests, According To the OWS Videographer
By KEN LAYNE
11:19 PM OCTOBER 17, 2011

A lot of people have watched the shocking video of people being locked into the LaGuardia Place Citibank branch while some thug undercover cop wrestled away a nice young lady in a business suit who was apparently arriving at her bank to close her checking account in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Meaghan Linick of Brooklyn is the #OWS activist who recorded the whole awful encounter on her Blackberry, and then put it online where it has already been seen a million times. Here’s Linick’s firsthand account of what happened, which she was kind enough to send to Wonkette.

By now, my cell phone video of two Citibank costumers being forcibly arrested outside the LaGuardia Place branch in New York City on October 15th 2011 has been seen by almost a million people.

As the person who unwittingly shot the video of the incident, I though it might be useful to respond to some of the media attention it has been getting.

A few friends and I attended a rally of college students, high school students, teachers, professors in Washington Square Park, which was connected to the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests in lower Manhattan – and now around the country and around the world.

After the rally, I went into a nearby coffee shop and when I returned to the park I heard that a few dozen people had decided to head over to the local Citibank branch to talk about their student debt and close their accounts. I thought one of my friends might be among them so I walked the few blocks to the bank.

As I arrived I saw Citi Bank security guards locking the doors to the bank.

Contrary to the City Bank PR statement, the cops were not yet on the scene when Citi Bank officials chose to lock the doors to the
branch–effectively kidnapping those inside.

Since I could see my friends were still inside the bank, I took out my blackberry and began recording through the window.

As I filmed an undercover, plain clothes police officer approached a women standing next to me outside the window. He accused her of having been inside the bank and said she had to come with him. As you can see on the video she repeats over and over, “I’m a customer,” and she holds up her Citibank check book. Though it’s not audible on the video, she also told him that she was just trying to close her account.

As my voice in the video will testify I was shocked and shaken by what happened next. The women, and the man standing next to her, were dragged inside the bank through a side door and arrested allow with 22 other people who were locked inside.

I watched in horror from the sidewalk as police dragged each person out one by one and loaded them into a line of paddy wagons. I could see that a few people were bleeding from their wrists where the police zip ties were cutting them.

I did not know the woman or man being arrested by the undercover cop in my video, but I desperately wanted to find them to give them the video to help with their court cases.

Today, I went down to Central Booking in Manhattan for the arraignments of the 24 people arrested. They were in jail for almost
30 hours. Most were charged with disorderly conduct, but a few have more serious charges–including trespassing and resisting arrest.

After waiting four hours in the courtroom they were finally released, along with my other friends. Their hands and wrists were cut up from the roughness of the police and zip ties. Everyone who was in jail was tired, hungry, and mentally and emotionally exhausted from spending the night in a cell–but no one was deterred from participating in the Occupy movement.

I asked my friends what had happened inside and they told me that they had all agreed they would leave the bank when asked. That no one had had any interest in being arrested that day. They all had thought, as citizens and as Citibank customers, they would be given a chance to leave the branch before action was taken against them. Sadly they were wrong.

I’m an underemployed recent college graduate with a degree in economics (of all things) and like many in my generation I have over
$50,000 in student loans. I’m currently working as a babysitter to try and pay the bills.

This is why I organize with Occupy Wall Street. Because I am part of the 99%–and if you’re reading this, there’s a 99% chance that you are too! The most beautiful thing about the Occupy Movement is that we can create, on a small scale, a version of the society in which we would like to live. A society with free education and health care–where democracy is participatory and real and our social relationships are founded on community, mutual aid, equality, respect, and solidarity.

If you believe that what is happening in this country is wrong, if you believe that as a society we can do better than this,
then find an Occupy event in your city or town! And remember to bring your cell phone or video camera – you might just need it!

– Meaghan Linick, Brooklyn NY

http://wonkette.com/454908/the-nyc-citi ... deographer

[Free]

Wordspeak2 wrote:

More importantly, I'm just wondering- how long are people going to stay out there? Cause here in the northeast it starts to get cold... pretty darn soon. It's already too chilly for my blood.
How do we move this energy inside? Have I missed some conversations about this?

Good question. Don't know the answer, but one of the things I find beautiful about the occupation is the thick network of New Yorkers that is supporting the occupiers by opening their homes to them for showers, meals and sleepovers when sleeping outside becomes too much. Breaking our isolation and creating the future instead of just talking about it.

There is a big difference from the '60's and '70's movements that were led mostly by white males, who coveted the leadership in order to preen and impress the women, who were still expected to serve and entertain. Okay, I was quite young, but the big rock concerts of that time felt extremely unsafe for a woman. In Zuccotti park some women walk around topless (a carryover from slutwalk?) and no one bothers them, not even with lots of leering.

I've only been to a few assemblies, but I've seen that they rotate the facilitators and that women and non-white men are moved to the head of the speaking stack. There is a strong deliberate attempt to avoid creating hierarchy and constant talk about banishing racism and sexism. Lots of women speak, now it's normal. For all the failings of the 2nd wave women's movement, some things have been won.

I participated in movements in the late '60's, '70's and '80's both in the US and in Europe and have never seen the things I've seen in these past weeks. The emphasis on real democracy, and everyone having a voice brings out the normally shy people, who often have the most amazing ideas. It's like a talking quilt or a politicized 12 step meeting, there's such beauty in the synthesis, and the consensus comes together with a blending of ideas, like in cooking. And it creates friendships and good feelings, because the process has been respectful and full of grace.

[Laodicean]

That Chris Hedges video clip is beautiful.

[Laodicean]

A little after 11:25PM, there was a big commotion on the south side of Zuccotti Park as someone mic checked that the NYPD was moving into to remove the “medical tent” (tents are a violation of the park’s rules.). Occupy Wall Street protesters immediately locked arms and vowed to protect it. Out of nowhere, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson swooped in and briefly spoke face to face with the NYPD as officers continued to amass on Cedar Street.

A demonstrator asked him to join the “human barricade” to which he immediately agreed. She took his hand and led him over to the tent, which he then proceeded to guard, locking arms with others who formed a circle around it.

After a few tense minutes, the police dispersed and the crowd cheered. The tent will not be removed tonight.

Pics at link: http://animalnewyork.com/2011/10/jesse- ... d-by-nypd/

[wordspeak2]

Wow, Jesse Jackson.

Free, that's all really good to hear. I've been a part of direct action-oriented social movements off and on over the past fifteen years, and I've seen that emphasis in facing internal patriarchy and racism, and I knew that it would be a good thing in the long run, even if sometimes you think we should really be *doing something,* instead of just talking about this shit all the time.
Now peeps are doing something- on the streets- and what's unique here is we have such vast public support. I hope that as winter hits it only strengthens, goes inside literally and figuratively, and becomes a permanent organization with a microphone, whatever balance of socialistic and anarchistic tendencies is found. I'm just trying to physically picture it, and I don't quite have a clear image. Regular assemblies, churches, conferences, some outside presence, building on campaigns like "cancel your big-bank account," etc... I guess.

And p.s.- people should be free to smoke pot discreetly if they're camping out for weeks on end. My goodness. You shouldn't have to suffer in un-stoned misery just to build a movement. Sex is ok, too. We are, you know, human beings.

[wordspeak2]

Lots and lots of popular economic teach-ins. And not just at colleges. Both intro and deeper-level teach-ins, the latter so that more folks can have Elizabeth Warren-level banking knowledge (I sure don't). That's why Warren has been a threat to the banking elite, because she knows their game.

[Sounder]

At the 2:50 on this clip Chris salutes OWS for talking about the how and then saying that 'the non-hierarchical structure is brilliant',
followed by "i didn't have a clue', and a humble, perhaps rueful smile. Chris is a sharp fellow.

Now my question is; given that we are all children of intellectual constructs and social conditioning forces whose main (unstated) task is to enforce and maintain a vertically oriented authority distribution system, What are the intellectual constructs required, that are readily graspable such that our dreams of non-hierarchical authority distribution can be actualized?

[elfismiles]

A Very Simple Venn Diagram of Where the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street Agree
By Alexis Madrigal / Oct 14 2011, 10:24 AM ET 188



Talk about cutting through the murk. Self-declared "liberal-leaning libertarian" blogger James Sinclair wrote an interesting post looking at where the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street protests meet. It's obviously simplified, which he admits, but still useful.

"The greatest threat to our economy is neither corporations nor the government. The greatest threat to our economy is both of them working together," Sinclair writes. "There are currently two sizable coalitions of angry citizens that are almost on the same page about that, and they're too busy insulting each other to notice."

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... ee/246687/

[elfismiles]

Older Americans Join in Street Protests
Joblessness, ruined retirement plans among the concerns of Occupy Wall Street movement
by: Carole Fleck | from: AARP Bulletin | October 7, 2011

Older workers and retirees are joining demonstrations in cities across the country to protest a downbeat economy, depleted nest egg accounts and a government they say has failed to punish those responsible for America's financial crisis.

See also: Occupy Wall Street movement slide show.


The Occupy Wall Street movement, started by college students and young adults, has spread from New York to Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities with demonstrations calling for change.


Granny Peace Brigade Wall Street demonstrators. — Photo by Nina Berman/NOOR

As members of older generations take part, the range of issues has grown. Many are citing a polarized Congress, corporate tax loopholes, growing wage disparity and a depressed jobs market for their angst.

Tammy Bick, 49, has been unable to find a job since her job as a medical secretary was eliminated last year. She trekked to New York from Hamden, Conn., about two hours away, to join the movement. Around her neck hung a sign reading: "My generation will never be able to retire."

Related
•Retirement planning amid market mayhem. Read
•Company bankruptcy and your pension. Read
•Companies delinquent paying taxes. Read

Many people share her concerns. In a poll released Thursday by a coalition called Americans for Secure Retirement, 88 percent of 800 registered voters said they were concerned over whether they will be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement.

Bick's grievances go further. She and other protesters say they want financial institutions to be held accountable for lending policies that protesters say brought on the housing crisis and forced millions into foreclosure.

"The country was threatened with the stock market crash," Bick told the AARP Bulletin. "We bailed out the banks and we allowed them to take bonuses for their executives. They're also allowed to avoid paying taxes … because Congress creates laws that allow banks these loopholes."

"The world is watching," Bick adds. "We're hoping to level the playing field for the rest of us."

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, whose unions have stepped up support for the movement in recent days, told The Nation that being in the streets is "sometimes the only recourse you have."

Bob Broadhurst, 54, a unionized electrical worker from Boston, has been camping out in New York for nine days to support the protest. He was one of some 700 people arrested last Saturday for alleged disorderly conduct as they marched across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Of his numerous concerns, Broadhurst was particularly vocal about the prospect of cuts to Social Security and Medicare. "FDR would be rolling in his grave if he knew that Social Security was on the table in this debt reduction talks fiasco," he says.

Also of interest: Obama's plan spares Social Security. >>


Carole Fleck is a senior editor at the AARP Bulletin.



http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/ad ... cerns.html

[elfismiles]

‘Bank Transfer Day’ Movement Goes Viral
Updated: Thursday, 13 Oct 2011, 9:42 AM CDT
Published : Thursday, 13 Oct 2011, 9:42 AM CDT
(EndPlay Staff Reports) - Call it Occupy Main Street.



Kristen Christian, a 27-year-old art gallery owner, is urging Americans to participate in Bank Transfer Day on Nov. 5 by dumping their corporate bank in favor of small, non-profit credit unions. Doing so, she claims, will send a message and show major financial groups that recently implemented fees under the Durbin Amendment will not be tolerated.

"I started this because I felt like many of you do. I was tired – tired of the fee increases, tired of not being able to access my money when I need to, tired of them using what little money I have to oppress my brothers and sisters. So I stood up." Christian said on the event's Facebook page .

Though the Facebook-driven campaign for Bank Transfer Day seems to follow suit with the Occupy Wall Street protests, the creator claims the two movements aren't related.

Christian set the deadline for protesters to make the banking switch by Nov. 5 to correlate with Guy Fawkes Day.

While Bank Transfer Day won't be celebrated with bonfires, the creator hopes "that those who associate the two with 'a failed terrorist attack' would be able to put a new meaning to the image and date – the day the 99 percent stood together in solidarity to end the financing of their own mistreatment and abuse by 1 percent."

So far, Bank Transfer Day has drawn a fair amount of attention. The event's Facebook page has collected nearly 5,000 likes, while over 30,000 people has clicked that they were attending the Bank Transfer Day event .

Industry publication the Credit Union Times has also been closely following the event. Mark Wolff, a spokesman for the Credit Union National Association, told the CU Times his organization "welcomes the idea of a viral Bank Transfer Day" and encourages consumers to look at credit unions.

Christian seems to be on the same page. "I just think people should make new choices," she told the CU Times.


http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpps/news/ba ... goes-viral

[N8wide]

The looks on the Pinkerton's faces were priceless.

Yeah, but...
"This is the US of A, why are you hurting people? If you wanna go kill and hurt people, go to Iraq".

Agreed, but he may have been speaking down to the cops' level too, in words and emotions they could understand as opposed to anti-war talking points. He could have meant by inference that these cops aren't even about to join the Marines and go to Iraq in the first place. And by turn, another inference could be that they were basically pussies and using the language he knew they would understand would force them to stay in the very psychological trap he understood them to be ensnared in the act of following orders for the criminal class.

All in all, for the first time in my life I'm not gonna use the term "hooah" in a condescending and sarcastic tone. But HOOAH Sgt. Thomas!

When I viewed this it wasn't WHAT he said, it was the raw emotion of some one that has seen hell. Excellent video.

[Bruce Dazzling]

Why Occupy Wall Street Is Bigger Than Left vs. Right
October 17, 9:46 AM ET
Matt Taibbi

I was surprised, amused and annoyed all at once when I found out yesterday that some moron-provocateur linked to notorious right-wing cybergoon Andrew Breitbart had infiltrated
a series of private e-mail lists – including one that I have been participating in – and was using them to run an exposé on the supposed behind-the-scenes marionetting of the OWS movement by the liberal media.

According to various web reports, what happened was that a private "cyber-security researcher" named Thomas Ryan somehow accessed a series of email threads between various individuals and dumped them all on BigGovernment.com, Breitbart's site. Gawker is also reporting that Ryan forwarded some of these emails to the FBI and the NYPD.

I have no idea whether those email exchanges are the same as the ones I was involved with. But what is clear is that some private email exchanges between myself and a number of other people – mostly financial journalists and activists who know each other from having covered the crisis from the same angle in the last three years, people like Barry Ritholz, Dylan Ratigan, former regulator William Black, Glenn Greenwald and myself – ended up being made public.

There is nothing terribly interesting in any of these exchanges. Most all of the things written were things all of us ended up saying publicly in our various media forums. In my case, what I wrote was almost an exact copy of my Rolling Stone article last week, suggesting a list of demands for the movement. I said I thought having demands was a good idea and listed a few things I thought demonstrators could focus on. Others disagreed, and there was a friendly back-and-forth.

So I was amazed to wake up this morning and find that various right-wing sites had used these exchanges to build a story about a conspiracy of left-wing journalists. "Busted. Emails Show Liberal Media & Far Left Cranks Conspired With #OWS Protesters to Craft Message," wrote one.

Breitbart's site, BigGovernment.com, went further, saying that the Occupy Washington D.C. movement is "working with well-known media members to craft its demands and messaging while these media members report on the movement."

The list, the site wrote, include:

...well known names such as MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan, Rolling Stone’s Matt Tiabbi [sic] who both are actively participating; involvement from other listers such as Bill Moyers and Glenn Greenwald plus well-known radicals like Noam Chomsky, remains unclear.

Aside from the appalling fact of these assholes stealing private emails and bragging about it in public, the whole story is completely absurd. None of the people on the list, as far as I know, are actually organizers of OWS -- I know I'm not one, anyway.

In fact, I was surprised by the entire characterization of this list as being some kind of official wing of OWS. I thought it was just a bunch of emails from friends of mine, talking about what advice we would give protesters, if any of them asked, which in my case anyway they definitely did not.

This whole episode to me underscores an unpleasant development for OWS. There is going to be a fusillade of attempts from many different corners to force these demonstrations into the liberal-conservative blue-red narrative.

This will be an effort to transform OWS from a populist and wholly non-partisan protest against bailouts, theft, insider trading, self-dealing, regulatory capture and the market-perverting effect of the Too-Big-To-Fail banks into something a little more familiar and less threatening, i.e. a captive "liberal" uprising that the right will use to whip up support and the Democrats will try to turn into electoral energy for 2012.

Tactically, what we'll see here will be a) people firmly on the traditional Democratic side claiming to speak for OWS, and b) people on the right-Republican side attempting to portray OWS as a puppet of well-known liberals and other Democratic interests.

On the Democratic side, we've already seen a lot of this behavior, particularly in the last week or so. Glenn Greenwald wrote about this a lot last week, talking about how Obama has already made it clear that he is "on the same side as the Wall Street protesters" and that the Democratic Party, through the DCCC (its House fundraising arm), has jumped into the fray by circulating a petition seeking 100,000 party supporters to affirm that “I stand with the Occupy Wall Street protests.”(I wonder how firmly the DCCC was standing with OWS sentiment back when it was pushing for the bailouts and the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act).

We've similarly heard about MoveOn.org jumping into the demonstrations and attempting, seemingly, to assume leadership roles in the movement.

All of this is the flip side of the coin that has people like Breitbart trying to frame OWS as a socialist uprising and a liberal media conspiracy. The aim here is to redraw the protests along familiar battle lines.

The Rush Limbaughs of the world are very comfortable with a narrative that has Noam Chomsky, MoveOn and Barack Obama on one side, and the Tea Party and Republican leaders on the other. The rest of the traditional media won't mind that narrative either, if it can get enough "facts" to back it up. They know how to do that story and most of our political media is based upon that Crossfire paradigm of left-vs-right commentary shows and NFL Today-style team-vs-team campaign reporting.

What nobody is comfortable with is a movement in which virtually the entire spectrum of middle class and poor Americans is on the same page, railing against incestuous political and financial corruption on Wall Street and in Washington. The reality is that Occupy Wall Street and the millions of middle Americans who make up the Tea Party are natural allies and should be on the same page about most of the key issues, and that's a story our media won't want to or know how to handle.

Take, for instance, the matter of the Too-Big-To-Fail banks, which people like me and Barry Ritholz have focused on as something that could be a key issue for OWS. These gigantic institutions have put millions of ordinary people out of their homes thanks to a massive fraud scheme for which they were not punished, owing to their enormous influence with government and their capture of the regulators.

This is an issue for the traditional "left" because it's a classic instance of overweening corporate power -- but it's an issue for the traditional "right" because these same institutions are also the biggest welfare bums of all time, de facto wards of the state who sucked trillions of dollars of public treasure from the pockets of patriotic taxpayers from coast to coast.

Both traditional constituencies want these companies off the public teat and back swimming on their own in the cruel seas of the free market, where they will inevitably be drowned in their corruption and greed, if they don't reform immediately. This is a major implicit complaint of the OWS protests and it should absolutely strike a nerve with Tea Partiers, many of whom were talking about some of the same things when they burst onto the scene a few years ago.

The banks know this. They know they have no "natural" constituency among voters, which is why they spend such fantastic amounts of energy courting the mainstream press and such huge sums lobbying politicians on both sides of the aisle.

The only way the Goldmans and Citis and Bank of Americas can survive is if they can suck up popular political support indirectly, either by latching onto such vague right-populist concepts as "limited government" and "free-market capitalism" (ironic, because none of them would survive ten minutes without the federal government's bailouts and other protections) or, alternatively, by presenting themselves as society's bulwark against communism, lefty extremism, Noam Chomsky, etc.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying one thing: beware of provocateurs on both sides of the aisle. This movement is going to attract many Breitbarts, of both the left and right variety. They're going to try to identify fake leaders, draw phony battle lines, and then herd everybody back into the same left-right cage matches of old. Whenever that happens, we just have to remember not to fall for the trap. When someone says this or that person speaks for OWS, don't believe it. This thing is bigger than one or two or a few people, and it isn't part of the same old story.

[seemslikeadream]

Wall Street’s criminals have not been indicted or sent to jail because they have effectively become the police.

Meet the “Lower Manhattan Security Initiative”
Wall Street Firms Spy on Protestors In Tax-Funded Center
by PAM MARTENS

A CounterPunch Exclusive

Wall Street’s audacity to corrupt knows no bounds and the cooptation of government by the 1 per cent knows no limits. How else to explain $150 million of taxpayer money going to equip a government facility in lower Manhattan where Wall Street firms, serially charged with corruption, get to sit alongside the New York Police Department and spy on law abiding citizens.

According to newly unearthed documents, the planning for this high tech facility on lower Broadway dates back six years. In correspondence from 2005 that rests quietly in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s archives, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly promised Edward Forst, a Goldman Sachs’ Executive Vice President at the time, that the NYPD “is committed to the development and implementation of a comprehensive security plan for Lower Manhattan…One component of the plan will be a centralized coordination center that will provide space for full-time, on site representation from Goldman Sachs and other stakeholders.”

At the time, Goldman Sachs was in the process of extracting concessions from New York City just short of the Mayor’s first born in exchange for constructing its new headquarters building at 200 West Street, adjacent to the World Financial Center and in the general area of where the new World Trade Center complex would be built. According to the 2005 documents, Goldman’s deal included $1.65 billion in Liberty Bonds, up to $160 million in sales tax abatements for construction materials and tenant furnishings, and the deal-breaker requirement that a security plan that gave it a seat at the NYPD’s Coordination Center would be in place by no later than December 31, 2009.

The surveillance plan became known as the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative and the facility was eventually dubbed the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center. It operates round-the-clock. Under the imprimatur of the largest police department in the United States, 2,000 private spy cameras owned by Wall Street firms, together with approximately 1,000 more owned by the NYPD, are relaying live video feeds of people on the streets in lower Manhattan to the center. Once at the center, they can be integrated for analysis. At least 700 cameras scour the midtown area and also relay their live feeds into the downtown center where low-wage NYPD, MTA and Port Authority crime stoppers sit alongside high-wage personnel from Wall Street firms that are currently under at least 51 Federal and state corruption probes for mortgage securitization fraud and other matters.

In addition to video analytics which can, for example, track a person based on the color of their hat or jacket, insiders say the NYPD either has or is working on face recognition software which could track individuals based on facial features. The center is also equipped with live feeds from license plate readers.

According to one person who has toured the center, there are three rows of computer workstations, with approximately two-thirds operated by non-NYPD personnel. The Chief-Leader, the weekly civil service newspaper, identified some of the outside entities that share the space: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, the Federal Reserve, the New York Stock Exchange. Others say most of the major Wall Street firms have an on-site representative. Two calls and an email to Paul Browne, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, seeking the names of the other Wall Street firms at the center were not returned. An email seeking the same information to City Council Member, Peter Vallone, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, was not returned.

In a press release dated October 4, 2009 announcing the expansion of the surveillance territory, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly had this to say:

“The Midtown Manhattan Security Initiative will add additional cameras and license plate readers installed at key locations between 30th and 60th Streets from river to river. It will also identify additional private organizations who will work alongside NYPD personnel in the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center, where corporate and other security representatives from Lower Manhattan have been co-located with police since June 2009. The Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center is the central hub for both initiatives, where all the collected data are analyzed.” [Italic emphasis added.]

The project has been funded by New York City taxpayers as well as all U.S. taxpayers through grants from the Federal Department of Homeland Security. On March 26, 2009, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) wrote a letter to Commissioner Kelly, noting that even though the system involves “massive expenditures of public money, there have been no public hearings about any aspect of the system…we reject the Department’s assertion of ‘plenary power’ over all matters touching on public safety…the Department is of course subject to the laws and Constitution of the United States and of the State of New York as well as to regulation by the New York City Council.”

The NYCLU also noted in its letter that it rejected the privacy guidelines for the surveillance operation that the NYPD had posted on its web site for public comment, since there had been no public hearings to formulate these guidelines. It noted further that “the guidelines do not limit police surveillance and databases to suspicious activity…there is no independent oversight or monitoring of compliance with the guidelines.”

According to Commissioner Kelly in public remarks, the privacy guidelines were written by Jessica Tisch, the Director of Counterterrorism Policy and Planning for the NYPD who has played a significant role in developing the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center. In 2006, Tisch was 25 years old and still working on her law degree and MBA at Harvard, according to a wedding announcement in the New York Times. Tisch is a friend to the Mayor’s daughter, Emma; her mother, Meryl, is a family friend to the Mayor.

Tisch is the granddaughter and one of the heirs to the now-deceased billionaire Laurence Tisch who built the Loews Corporation. Her father, James Tisch, is now the CEO of the Loews Corporation and was elected by Wall Street banks to sit on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York until 2013 representing the public’s interest. (Clearly, the 1 per cent think they know what’s best for the 99 per cent.)

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is the entity which doled out the bulk of the $16 trillion in bailout loans to the U.S. and foreign financial community. Members of Tisch’s family work for Wall Street firms or hedge funds which have prime broker relationships with them. A division of Loews Corporation has a banking relationship with Citigroup.

The Tisch family stands to directly benefit from the surveillance program. In June of this year, Continental Casualty Company, the primary unit of the giant CNA Financial which is owned by Loew’s Corp., signed a 19-year lease for 81,296 square feet at 125 Broad Street – an area under surveillance by the downtown surveillance center.

Loews Corporation also owns the Loew’s Regency Hotel on Park Avenue in midtown, an area which is also now under round-the-clock surveillance on the taxpayer’s dime.

Wall Street is infamous for perverting everything it touches: from the Nasdaq stock market, to stock research issued to the public, to auction rate securities, mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, credit default swaps with AIG, and mortgage securitizations. Had a public hearing been held on this massive surveillance sweep of Manhattan by potential felons, hopefully someone might have pondered what was to prevent Wall Street from tracking its employee whistleblowers heading off to the FBI offices or meeting with a reporter.

One puzzle has at least been solved. Wall Street’s criminals have not been indicted or sent to jail because they have effectively become the police.

[Bruce Dazzling]

Find a credit union:

USA

Canada

UK

[Laodicean]

Bank Of America Reports $6.2 Billion Profit

AP - Published: October 18, 2011

by Mark Memmott

Though the number is huge — $6.2 billion — this morning's third-quarter profit news from Bank of America is generating a lot of "yeah, but" analyses.

As in:

-- "It booked that profit largely on selling a bunch of assets and an accounting bonus to account for the declining value of its debt." (The Wall Street Journal)

-- "The quarter's results were skewed by one-time pretax gains including $4.5 billion in fair-value adjustments of structured liabilities, $3.6 billion from selling a stake in China Construction Bank Corp. and $1.7 billion tied to changes in value of the company's debt." (Bloomberg Businessweek)

-- "Stripping out a litany of exceptional items, from a $3.6 billion gain due to the CCB stake sale to a $4.5 billion boost from an accounting rule that allows banks to book a profit on the falling value of their own debt, BofA's businesses produced a loss." (The Financial Times)

The bank's recent announcement of plans to charge many customers $5 a month if they make purchases with their debit cards has not gone over well with some folks, including President Obama.

http://m.npr.org/story/141454183?url=/b ... =pulsenews