Occupy

Occupy Protesters Lose Appeal On 2011 Arrests

February 14, 2015 Jack Bouboushian , www.courthousenews.com Educate! Law, Occupy

Siding with police, an Illinois appeals court ruled that Occupy Chicago protesters had no free assembly right to remain in a downtown park after curfew. Defendants attended a protest affiliated with Occupy Chicago in October 2011. They set up tents in Grant Park, a large 319 acre park near municipal and state government buildings, made speeches, and chanted that they would not leave the park. Throughout the day, the police told protesters that they would not be allowed to stay in the park after it closed at 11 p.m., and National Lawyers Guild attorneys also informed the protesters that the law did not permit them to remain. At approximately 1 a.m., the police asked each protester whether they wanted to leave the park or be arrested. The police then arrested 173 protesters who refused to leave, and charged them with violating the parks ordinance.

Assassination Plot Records Won’t Be Released

February 12, 2015 Dylan Baddour, www.chron.com Resist! Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, Houston, Occupy, police brutality

Details of a plot to kill Occupy Houston leaders won't be released after a federal court upheld the FBI's claim that the documents are legally exempted from the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI argued information was withheld, including 12 of 17 relevant pages, to protect the identity of confidential sources who were "members of organized violent groups," according to Courthouse News Service. A heavily-redacted FBI document first revealed a Houston plot "to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles."

Taiwan Charges 118 In Student-Led Occupy Protests

February 12, 2015 Ralph Jennings, www.voanews.com Resist! Law, Occupy, Police, Taiwan

Taiwanese prosecutors have charged 118 people suspected of trespassing and other crimes related to student-led occupy protests in Taipei last year. But the suspects may get off with light sentences as the government seeks better relations with Taiwanese youth. Hundreds of people broke into Taiwan’s parliament in March, occupying it for about three weeks to protest against ratification of a services trade pact with political rival China. As the protest spread into the thousands, with many of those involved disputing overall economic ties with China, one group broke into the cabinet’s guarded office complex until police forced them out in a series of overnight scuffles.

Seven Lessons From How Police Crushed Occupy

February 4, 2015 Curtis Bunn, www.atlantablackstar.com Strategize! FBI, Occupy, Police, Surveillance

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), via the Freedom of Information Act, obtained FBI documents revealing that the FBI considered the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began Sept. 17, 2011, a terrorist threat — even as they pointed out that the organizers called for peaceful protests and did “not condone the use of violence.” According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, “These documents show that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security treated protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity.” The perception of Occupy Wall Street as “terrorism” engineered extreme measures taken to undermine the group’s peaceful protests, including constant spying. FBI agents had OWS in their crosshairs as early as a month before the protesters took up camp at New York’s Zuccotti Park.

Hong Kong Democracy Movement Back, Turnout Down

February 2, 2015 Tony Cheung, Phila Siu, Ernest Kao and Samuel Chan, www.scmp.com Resist! China, Democracy, Hong Kong, Occupy

Turnout for the first major pro-democracy march of the post-Occupy era fell well short of expectations yesterday - but organisers rejected suggestions people were growing less determined about the fight for democracy. Rather it was a sign Hongkongers no longer had faith in "conventional ways" of protesting, Civil Human Rights Front convenor Daisy Chan Sin-ying said. She said more "alternative" forms of civil disobedience could emerge unless the government heeded public opinion on "genuine democracy". The front put turnout for the march from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to Central at 13,000. Independent academics put the turnout at 11,000 to 12,000, while police said 6,600 left the park, with a peak turnout of 8,800.

Occupy London Planning Democracy Day Protest In Parliament Sq.

January 26, 2015 Peter Carty, www.ibtimes.co.uk Resist! Democracy, London, Occupy

Occupy London are planning another demonstration this afternoon in Parliament Square, in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament. The demonstration will go ahead in defiance of a ban by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, on protests in the square. The protest takes place on Democracy Day, which this year coincides with the 750th anniversary of the world's first elected parliament. Following efforts by London Mayor Boris Johnson to bar protestors from the square, the civil rights campaigning organisation Liberty has filed a Judicial Review against the ban.

Occupy Oakland WIns $1.3 Million Settlement Against Oakland Police

January 17, 2015 Henry K. Lee, www.sfgate.com Resist! California, Law, Occupy

A federal magistrate tentatively approved a $1.3 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by Occupy Oakland protesters who said they were corralled by police outside the downtown YMCA before being unfairly arrested and held in jail for hours. In signing off on the deal last week, U.S. Magistrate Nathanael Cousins in San Francisco also granted preliminary class-action status, meaning the eight plaintiffs who sued the city of Oakland and Alameda County would share the money with roughly 400 people who allege they were unlawfully arrested on Jan. 28, 2012. City and county leaders have already approved the payout, the latest in a series of settlements of lawsuits alleging police wrongdoing during mass arrests, court records show. Plaintiffs in the case, however, need to sign off on it before it becomes final.

Letter From Occupy Prisoner Connor Stevents

January 9, 2015 Sue Udry, www.defendingdissent.org Organize! FBI, Occupy, Prison

The NYC Anarchist Black Cross has just posted a letter from Connor Stevens, an activist with Occupy Cleveland who was ensnared in an FBI-manufactured terrorism plot. An FBI informant spent months building a relationship with Connor Stevens, Brandon Baxter, Doug Wright and Joshua Stafford. These four young men joined Occupy to help build a better world, but they were manipulated by Shaquille Azir, a ruthless FBI informant, into planning a crime they never would have even considered on their own: "I very much appreciate the letters. Despite my slacking on keeping up with correspondence,these letters, whether from groups or individuals, help me to maintain my focus and sense of perception. It is all-too-easy to go through life with blinders on, cutting ourselves off from our greatest sources of strength and purpose."

Parliament Square Fence Crushes Protest Rights, Says Occupy Democracy

January 5, 2015 Mark Townsend, www.theguardian.com Resist! Democracy, Law, Occupy, Protest, United Kingdom (UK)

Boris Johnson has been accused of using Parliament Square as his “private back garden” in an attempt to crush the fledgling Occupy Democracy movement. Lawyers have written to London’s mayor threatening legal action after he sanctioned the construction of “unlawful” fences around the square, which campaigners claim are a deliberate attempt to stop them protesting peacefully. Parliament Square is considered to be one of the most important sites in the country for demonstrators and is maintained by Johnson’s Greater LondonAuthority (GLA). Protesters argue that the square was conceived as a place for public meetings, focusing particularly on issues that they believe are being ignored by MPs.

Breaking: Ferguson Protesters Occupy SLPD Headquarters

December 31, 2014 Staff, www.bayareaintifada.wordpress.com Resist! Ferguson, Occupy, police brutality, Racism

In response to this dispatch, we intend to evict injustice and blight, by occupying St. Louis Police headquarters on December 31st, 2014, at 11am. The decision to reclaim our police department is the result of willful neglect and violence on behalf of the department toward the community, which they are bound, by oath, to protect and serve. Violations include: Committing crimes against humanity, by ending the life of men, women, and children, and then labeling these executions as “justified” without regard for your humanity, and without thorough investigation. Hiring officers, who are unfit to wear a badge, like Randy Hayes, a known animal torturer, and Jason Flannery, who publicly declared he wanted to “shoot Muslims.” Both these men shot and killed two members of our community and have not been held accountable for these egregious actions, but rather have been protected behind a blue shield. Despite thousands marching in the streets; despite our community having to sue our own police department to stop the use of tear gas and rubber bullets; despite urgent demands for broad and substantive reforms, our cries have been ignored. For all these reasons, we intend to occupy St. Louis Police Headquarters as part of our New Year’s resolution to take back our Justice System, and in doing so reclaiming the promise of our future.

Court Backs Chicago Curfew Law Used To Arrest Occupy Protesters

December 25, 2014 ABC Chicago, www.abc7chicago.com Resist! Chicago, Law, Occupy

A state appeals court says a Chicago curfew law invoked to arrest Occupy protesters at the city's best known park in 2011 doesn't violate free speech rights, declaring the First Amendment "does not guarantee the right to employ every conceivable method of communication at all times and in all places." The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Appellate Court reverses a lower-court finding that the 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew at the 319-acre Grant Park violated protesters' constitutional rights. In its unanimous, 21-page opinion posted Tuesday afternoon, the appellate court said Chicago has legitimate interests in shutting down such parks overnight, including to dissuade criminal activity after dark and to give maintenance crews unencumbered access.

Is Shut It Down The New Occupy?

December 12, 2014 Kate Aronoff, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! Civil Disobedience, Ferguson, Occupy, police brutality, Social Change

As occupying public spaces was to the Occupy movement, “Shutting It Down” is to the new wave of protest around police brutality and systemic racism. “If We Don’t Get It, Shut It Down” has long been a favorite chant of the labor movement, but for the rapidly growing movement saying #BlackLivesMatter, it’s also become a tactical mandate. In the world of protests, “shutting it down” might seem self-evident. Disruption is the point: As Martin Luther King, Jr., famously wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”

Occupy Kenya: Protesters March For End To Violence

November 27, 2014 Tristan McConnell, www.mintpressnews.com Resist! Kenya, Occupy, Protests, Violence

Apathy and thuggery greeted an attempt to kickstart an Occupy movement in Kenya to protest against government inaction in the face of rising insecurity and terrorism. The march and sit-in dubbed #Tumechoka, meaning “We are tired” in Swahili, was called on Tuesday after the execution of 28 people on a bus in Mandera in the far northeast of the country over the weekend. That attack, claimed by Somalia’s Al Shabaab militants, left some Kenyans questioning their government’s capacity and willingness to prevent terrorism. “The government does not recognize that this is a religious battle,” said Stephen Omodia, a 39-year-old businessman, who clutched a red-painted wooden cross in his hands to symbolize the lives lost in terrorist attacks in recent years.

London Police & Occupy Activists Conflict Over Democracy Encampment

November 23, 2014 Resist! Democracy, London, Occupy

Occupy London activists defied police warnings and gathered in central London on Friday to set up camp outside parliament. Demonstrators converged on Parliament Square despite being told by Scotland Yard that they are banned from putting up tents or sleeping overnight by the landmark. About 100 demonstrators formed a blockade in the road around the square, unveiling banners reading “real democracy now” and chanting “the police should be helping us”. Long tailbacks formed along Whitehall as motorists sounded their horns, while scuffles broke out between protesters and police as the demonstration moved towards Downing Street. Author Donnachadh McCarthy, 55, said: “It’s outrageous that in Parliament Square free speech is being suppressed by Boris Johnson’s officers. If you don’t have free speech in front of parliament, you don’t have free speech.” After marching back down Whitehall toward the square, protesters were met by a police blockade and gathered near the Nelson Mandela statue, playing Free Nelson Mandela by The Special AKA. Nearby, around 80 activists gathered outside the supreme court.

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