"NYC police move Occupy protesters" by Samantha Gross | Associated Press, March 18, 2012
NEW YORK - Police by the dozens swept through a Manhattan park Saturday night, moving out Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who were celebrating their six-month anniversary. New York police announced Zuccotti Park closed for the evening before moving through the excited and sometimes agitated protesters, who chanted and beat drums as they went.
A spokesperson for Occupy Wall Street estimated that dozens of protesters were arrested. Supporters of Occupy Wall Street had celebrated the movement’s anniversary Saturday, marching down the street they say symbolizes the culture of greed in the US financial system.
I heard from a reliable source who follows such things closely that the cops did some beating about; I'm glad the newspaper cleared that up for me.
Some protesters had praised the Goldman Sachs employee who days ago gave the firm a public drubbing, echoing the movement’s indictment of a financial system demonstrators say is fueled by greed.
Also see: Resigning executive’s words could haunt Wall Street
Don't vampires and ghosts get along quite well?
The global protests against corporate excess and economic inequality are generally thought to have begun Sept. 17 when tents sprang up in Zuccotti Park, a small granite plaza that demonstrators held for two months. The movement has lost steam in recent months, with media attention and donations dropping off as Occupy encampments across the country were dismantled, some by force.
On March 7, the finance accounting group in New York reported that just about $119,000 remained in Occupy’s bank account - the equivalent of about two weeks’ worth of expenses.
The Occupy movement has influenced the national dialogue about economic equality, with the word “occupy’’ itself becoming part of the public lexicon. In his third State of the Union address, President Obama issued a populist call for income equality that echoed the movement’s message. The organizers also claimed to have influenced state legislation aimed at closing the gap in economic equality.
The AmeriKan media loves you! They really love you, Occupy!
With the barricades that once blocked them from Wall Street removed, hundreds of protesters streamed down the sidewalk Saturday and massed outside the Federal Hall National Memorial. There, steps from the New York Stock Exchange and standing at the feet of a statue of George Washington, they danced and chanted, “We are unstoppable.’’
Police said arrests had been made, but no count was immediately available.
Later, the crowd returned to the plaza, which had been the protest movement’s home until it was cleared of tents by police officers in November.
Nationally, several achievements have been connected to the Occupy movement, and organizers say they expect activity to pick up in the near future. They are hoping donations will start to flow in as protests begin anew this spring, including a global day of “economic disruption’’ on May 1.
And an EARLY SPRING IT IS!
In Albany last year, Occupy protesters targeted Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo across the street from the Capitol for months and demonstrated just outside his office.
In a surprise, Cuomo reversed his position on a state millionaire tax in December to avoid further cuts to schools and health care. Part of the $2 billion in revenue went to a modest but rare income tax cut of $200 to $400 for most middle-class families. Cuomo referred to the millionaire tax as the biggest tax cut for the middle class in decades.
Democratic lawmakers attributed Cuomo’s move in part to the Occupy protesters.
The protesters had dubbed the Cuomo “Gov. 1 Percent’’ for his refusal since the 2010 campaign to agree to a millionaire tax, and because his major campaign financial support comes from corporate executives.
In Rhode Island, Occupy Providence pushed for - and won - a temporary day center to serve the homeless during the winter. Protesters made the center’s opening a condition of their departure from a public park downtown, where they had camped against the city’s wishes for more than three months.
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"2 officers hurt in California Occupy clash" Associated Press, February 28, 2012
SACRAMENTO - At least two law enforcement officers were injured yesterday during a clash with members of the Occupy movement who were at the state Capitol to protest a rally by a prowhite group.
The clash erupted in the afternoon as California Highway Patrol and Sacramento city police officers were escorting about 35 members of the South Africa Project to a parking garage following their protest outside the Capitol building.
If those guys aren't agent provocateurs.... anybody tell 'em South Africa is across the Atlantic?
I'm sorry, readers, but I laugh when I see the white supremacist, racist canard deployed now because it is my firm belief that in the 21st century those groups are kept alive by government. Government needs enemies, both foreign and domestic.
For my part, I'm tired of patsy plots and provocateurs, and feel I can smell them a mile away -- and I firmly believe you can, too, readers.
About 50 members of Occupy Oakland began throwing cans and bottles at the South Africa group and at the officers.
Oh, the undercover police PROVOCATEURS are on BOTH SIDES!
Cui bono when violence is employed, dear demonstrator? Next time someone suggest violence at a protest start hollering asshole, asshole, asshole, asshole, and let everyone around you know who they are then watch 'em run towards the cops!
A city police officer was injured when a member of the Occupy group jumped on him, and a California Highway Patrol officer was struck by an object.
Both officers were taken from the scene by ambulance.
At least two Occupy members were arrested after more officers arrived.
Probably were handled pretty roughly, but you were still thinking about the poor, injured policemen, right?
Ever notice the only time cops are given a hard time in the paper is when they wish to collectively bargain?
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And across the Atlantic it's the same old s*** in the free West:
"Police dismantle Occupy London site; Protest inspired by movement in the US" by Alan Cowell | New York Times, February 29, 2012
LONDON — Moving after midnight Monday as much of the city slumbered, bailiffs supported by police officers dismantled a tent encampment outside St. Paul’s Cathedral here early yesterday, ending a four-month protest that divided the Church of England and resonated among Britons opposed to what was seen as runaway capitalist greed.
Inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park in New York, the camp was started late last year amid a deep economic slowdown, with jobs being lost and social services being cut even as Britain’s investment bankers sought large bonuses....
Canon Giles Fraser, a top cathedral official, resigned, arguing that the church’s mission to seek social justice should make it the protesters’ natural ally.
“Riot police clearing the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral was a terrible sight,’’ Fraser said yesterday. “This is a sad day for the church.’’
Bless you.
But others said the overriding concern had to be clearing the camp so that St. Paul’s, which draws thousands of worshipers every week, could continue to operate.
The great domed cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in the late 17th century to replace an earlier edifice that burned during the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was completed in its present form in the early 18th century.
In essence, the debate reflected a longstanding historical dilemma since the Church of England is the country’s “established’’ church with the monarch as its titular head. Should it therefore emulate biblical actions, like those of Jesus in overturning the money lenders’ tables in the temple, or should it conform with the prevailing social and political order?
Yeah, WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?!!!!
In the end the dispute was resolved by lawyers rather than theologians. Protesters lost a legal battle for the right to stay in place last week and many began to take down their tents then. The land on which the protesters camped is owned by the City of London Corp., which argued in court that the presence of the demonstrators interfered with passersby and worshipers and violated zoning laws.
The protesters took their demand for a stay to the Court of Appeal, which rejected their case last week.
Many British banks reduced bonuses to their staff by about 40 percent this year amid a public outcry and after reporting a drop in income for last year.
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Also see: Students decry high cost of college
Student protests reprimand for wearing T-shirt
Protesters refuse city order to leave green
Maybe there was another article or two in the Glob this last month, and I profusely apologize for missing them.
Next Day Update: The Wall Street Spring
And that is from the Globe's resident lefty.
