"Pepper-spray use called ‘chilling’; College head says police action to be investigated" by Associated Press, November 20, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO - The chancellor of the University of California at Davis said yesterday that the school was launching an investigation after “chilling’’ video images surfaced online showing an officer using pepper spray on several protesters as they sit passively with their arms interlocked.
See: Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
Police mace peaceful California students at an OWS protest
Occupy Maced: Police pepper spray unarmed youth, tear tents down
“The use of the pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this,’’ Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a message posted on the school’s website.
Katehi said she is forming a task force of faculty, students, and staff to review the events surrounding the Friday protest in support of Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and the police response.
In the video, posted on YouTube and widely circulated online, the officer displays a bottle before spraying its contents on the seated protesters in a sweeping motion while walking back and forth. Most of the protesters have their heads down, but at least one is sprayed in the face.
Some members of a crowd gathered at the scene scream and cry out. The crowd then chants, “Shame on you’’ as the protesters on the ground are led away. The officers retreat minutes later with helmets on and batons drawn.
It’s not clear from the video what agency the officer who used the pepper spray represents. Officers from UC Davis and other UC campuses as well as the city of Davis responded to the protest, according to Annette Spicuzza, UC Davis police chief. Davis is about 80 miles north of San Francisco.
Spicuzza told the Sacramento Bee that police used the pepper spray after they were surrounded. Protesters were warned repeatedly beforehand that force would be used if they didn’t move, she said.
“There was no way out of that circle,’’ Spicuzza said. “They were cutting the officers off from their support. It’s a very volatile situation.’’
Well, well, well, if true the police now know what it feels like after what they did to protests during the last decade, particularly at the political party conventions.
The tents went up on Thursday, and protesters were apparently warned Friday that they violated university policies.
Katehi said she is also asking for a review of the university’s policies on encampments to see if they allow students enough flexibility to express themselves.
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"Hundreds arrested in Occupy demonstrations; 2-month mark brings marches across nation Big NYC turnout despite crackdown" November 18, 2011|By Karen Matthews, Associated Press
NEW YORK - Occupy Wall Street protesters clogged streets and tied up traffic around the nation yesterday to mark two months since the movement’s birth and to signal they are not ready to quit, despite the breakup of many of their encampments by police. Hundreds of people were arrested, most of them in New York.
The demonstrations - which took place in cities including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Boston, Washington, and Portland, Ore. - were peaceful for the most part. Most of the arrests were for blocking streets, and the traffic disruptions were brief.
Chanting “All day, all week, shut down Wall Street,’’ more than 1,000 protesters gathered near the New York Stock Exchange and sat down in several intersections. Helmeted police officers broke up some of the gatherings, and operations at the stock market were not disrupted.
As darkness fell, a coalition of unions and progressive groups joined Occupy demonstrators in staging rallies at landmark bridges in several US cities to protest joblessness.
In New York, a crowd of several thousand people, led by banner-carrying members of the Service Employees International Union, jammed Manhattan’s Foley Square and then marched peacefully across the Brooklyn Bridge on a pedestrian promenade.
As they walked, a powerful light projected the slogan “We are the 99 percent’’ - a reference to the Americans who are not super-rich - on the side of a nearby skyscraper. Police officers dressed in windbreakers, rather than riot gear, arrested at least two dozen people who walked out onto the bridges’ roadway but otherwise let the marchers pass without incident.
The protests came two days after police raided and demolished the encampment at lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park that had served as headquarters of the Occupy movement and as demonstrators and union allies tried to regain their momentum.
“This is a critical moment for the movement given what happened the other night,’’ said demonstrator Paul Knick, a software engineer from Montclair, N.J. “It seems like there’s a concerted effort to stop the movement, and I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen.’’
At least 200 people were arrested in New York. Some were bloodied during the arrests. One man was taken into custody for throwing liquid, possibly vinegar, into the faces of several police officers, authorities said. Many demonstrators were carrying vinegar as an antidote for pepper spray....
In Los Angeles, about 500 sympathizers marched downtown between the Bank of America tower and Wells Fargo Plaza, chanting, “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!’’ More than two dozen people were arrested.
Police arrested 21 demonstrators in Las Vegas, and 20 were led away in plastic handcuffs in Portland, Ore., for sitting down on a bridge.
Related:
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At least a dozen were arrested in St. Louis in the evening after they sat down cross-legged and locked arms in an attempt to block a bridge over the Mississippi River. More were handcuffed for blocking bridges in Philadelphia and Minneapolis.
Several of the demonstrations coincided with an event planned months earlier by a coalition of unions and liberal groups, including Moveon.org and the SEIU, in which out-of-work people walked over bridges in several cities to protest high unemployment.
I moved on from Moveon when they moved on from the wars.
The street demonstrations also marked two months since the Occupy movement sprang to life in New York on Sept. 17. They were planned well before police raided a number of encampments over the past few days but were seen by some activists as a way to demonstrate their resolve in the wake of the crackdown.
Yesterday’s demonstrations around Wall Street brought taxis and delivery trucks to a halt, but police were largely effective at keeping the protests confined to just a few blocks. Officers allowed Wall Street workers through the barricades, but only after checking their IDs....
Looks like fascism to me.
The demonstration that drew thousands of people to Foley Square in the evening was a rarity in the Occupy movement: Union organizers obtained a permit from the city, and speakers were allowed to use a sound system.
Among the demonstrators arrested in New York was a retired Philadelphia police captain, Ray Lewis, who was taken into custody in his dress uniform. Others included actor and director Andre Gregory, who hoped the movement would lead to national action on economic injustice.
“It’s a possible beginning of something positive,’’ he said.
The confrontations followed early-morning arrests in other cities. In Dallas, police evicted dozens of protesters near City Hall, citing health and safety reasons. Eighteen protesters were arrested. Two demonstrators were arrested and about 20 tents removed at the University of California, Berkeley.
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And back in Boston?
"Greenway asks city to oust protesters; Wants Occupy Boston out of Dewey Square" by Travis Andersen | Globe Staff, November 18, 2011
The board of the nonprofit organization that manages Dewey Square Park has formally asked the city to remove the Occupy Boston demonstrators from the area, citing public safety concerns and other issues....
That's why the police have been training and wearing riot gear (even though they haven't decided anything yet, blah, blah).
Meanwhile, during a march near the camp yesterday, demonstrators said they were ready for the winter weather and had no plans to leave....
May God watch over them.
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Related: Wall Street Protests Winding Down
How about overseas?
"Occupy London eviction effort resumed" November 16, 2011|Associated Press
LONDON - Authorities in London said yesterday that they were resuming legal action to evict a protest camp outside St. Paul’s Cathedral after talks with the demonstrators stalled.
More than 200 tents have been pitched outside the iconic church for a month in a protest inspired by New York’s Occupy Wall Street.
The cathedral and a local authority - the City of London Corporation - suspended legal action to remove the camp two weeks ago, and offered the protesters a deal to allow them to stay until the new year if they then agreed to leave.
The protesters said they have not agreed to the deal, and the corporation said yesterday that it would restart legal action.
The move is not connected to the clearing by police overnight of the Occupy Wall Street site in New York’s Zuccotti Park....
The corporation said legal action “is likely to take weeks’’ and no enforcement action would be taken in the meantime....
Brits are better than we are?
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Time to say a prayer:
"Priest backing women’s ordination detained" October 18, 2011|Associated Press
VATICAN CITY - A US Catholic priest who supports ordination for women was detained briefly by police yesterday after marching to the Vatican to press the Holy See to lift its ban on female priests.
The Rev. Roy Bourgeois and about a dozen supporters had marched down the main boulevard leading to the Vatican holding a banner “Ordain Catholic Women’’ and chanting outside St. Peter’s Square “What do we want? Women priests! When do we want them? Now!’’
Police prevented the group from entering the piazza and told them to take down their banners since they didn’t have a protest permit....
Bourgeois and members of the Women’s Ordination Conference and other groups that support female priests had come to Rome to deliver a petition signed by some 15,000 people backing the priest. Bourgeois, who is based in Georgia, is facing dismissal from his Maryknoll order for his support of women’s ordination.
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2008 ordered Bourgeois to recant his support for female priests or risk excommunication after he delivered the homily at the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska. Church teaching holds that the priesthood is reserved for men.
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Honestly, they can't be any worse than the pooper-pumping perverts running things all these years.
