Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Occupying My Time With the Boston Globe

Not all the time:

"Occupy Wall Street, Hijacked?

*******

It was discovered that there are suspected links to co-opting individuals scooping and directing information. Allegedly these individuals were admitting to accepting violent situations, and endorsing views different than that of prior Occupy organisers. It was unable to be determined if the alleged individuals associated with the hijack are in fact tied to it, due to the decline of commenting.

The most recent demonstration of the hijack and attempt to discredit the movement is May Day.

Anarchists utilised tactics of violence during the protests. In similar mark-up, it also sets a bad outlook toward anarchism. Violence was never part of the movement....

What Occupy will head toward is still up to question. But as it is now, the protest is recklessly falling apart due to smearing of its original agenda. Though some question the agenda in the first place....

--MORE--"  

Those that smear and question:  

"For all the extravagant claims made last year about Occupy Wall Street’s significance, is anyone surprised that the movement has fizzled?"

"World workers express anger, gloom on May Day; Protesters unite across Europe to decry job cuts" by Eric Pfanner  |  New York Times, May 02, 2012

PARIS - The annual May Day demonstrations took on special resonance across Europe on Tuesday as tens of thousands of protesters turned out amid rising anger over enforced austerity that many see not as a cure to the region’s fiscal troubles, but as a deterrent to economic growth and job creation.

In Spain, trade unions estimated that more than 1 million people had taken part in protests across 80 cities, with the largest gatherings in Madrid and Barcelona. While organizers said 100,000 protesters had shown up in Barcelona, the police offered a starkly lower estimate of 15,000. 

I stand corrected.  Sorry, Globe.

Spain has slipped into a recession for the second time in three years, joining 11 other European countries officially in recession. Labor unions have warned of mounting unrest if the center-right government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy pushes ahead with austerity measures to meet its budget-deficit targets while 5.6 million people - almost a quarter of Spain’s workforce - are unemployed.

“This is a May Day against the destruction of jobs and in favor of following other alternatives,’’ Candido Mendez, the leader of the UGT, one of Spain’s two main labor unions, said on Spanish television. The latest spending cuts, he warned, will amount to “the demolition of public services in our country.’’  

That's the intent, yeah.

Public outrage over the growing gap between rich and poor, and the struggle by average families to make ends meet, was also felt in Britain, France, Greece, and well beyond Europe into Asia. In Indonesia, the Philippines, and East Timor, demonstrators called for higher wages and better working conditions.

In London, members of the Occupy movement, who were evicted from a camp outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in February, released flying tents, lifted into the air by helium balloons, at the Liverpool Street railway station, while union leaders addressed a larger rally in Trafalgar Square.  

Related: Sunday Globe Special: Occupy Anniversary  

Also see: U.K. Elections and Economy

In Germany, which has economically outperformed its neighbors, Chancellor Angela Merkel continued to insist that a tough diet of austerity measures was necessary to restore European economic competitiveness and to save the euro.  

See: Sunday Globe Special: German Ghosts

Her citizens don't seem to agree with her. 

Yet a rising chorus of critics and government leaders, motivated by crushing economic realities and angry voters, has begun insisting that what is needed is growth, not more cuts. That was a message that May Day activists seemed to share regardless of nationality.

Even in Germany, where unemployment is at post-unification lows, hundreds of thousands of workers took to the streets. The German Federation of Trade Unions said more than 400,000 members had turned out for protests and marches. Michael Sommer, chief of the federation, criticized the austerity measures across Europe as dangerous and called for more growth.

In France and Greece, pending elections heightened the tensions of the day. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France rallied supporters for last-minute campaigning before the presidential runoff election, set for Sunday. He tried to turn the tables on the May Day protesters, calling his rally, which took place on one of three official weekday public holidays this month, a “celebration of work.’’

His Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, at a rally in the city of Nevers, denounced what he deemed Sarkozy’s effort to capitalize on fears over the economy.  

Related: Fallout of French Election

In Athens, where parliamentary elections are set for Sunday, a rally organized by Greece’s two main labor unions drew around 2,000 people, with 3,000 left-wing demonstrators staging their own rally. Both events were followed by scuffles between the police and stone-throwing youths.   

Yeah, yeah, we know the kids are part of some Gladio provocation.

Related: Greeks Can't Form Government

--more--"  

And back here in the land of the free and home of the brave:

"HEADING TO JAIL -- Police arrested a member of ACT UP, an AIDS activist group, at Wall Street and Broadway Wednesday in New York. Demonstrators from that group and others from Occupy Wall Street blocked traffic and held up signs that read, "Tax Wall St., End AIDS" outside the New York Stock Exchange, resulting in arrests  (Boston Globe April 26 2012)."

"PROTESTERS, POLICE CLASH IN NEW YORK -- A police officer lashed out at an Occupy Wall Street supporter Tuesday as a May Day demonstration heated up in New York City. Marchers flooded Fifth Avenue and blocked traffic before police pushed the crowd back onto the sidewalks. Organizers said the day's series of protests mark a spring revival (Boston Globe May 2 2012)."  

Related: Cleveland Crap

Had to cancel, huh?

About New York's finest:

"NYC is sued over police handling of protests" May 01, 2012|By Jennifer Peltz

NEW YORK - Four lawmakers sued the city Monday over its handling of the Occupy Wall Street protests, saying police conduct is so problematic that the force needs an outside monitor.

As the photo that I described from page A2 in my printed Globe.

The city and police violated demonstrators’ free speech rights, used excessive force, arrested protesters on dubious charges, and interfered with journalists’ and council members’ efforts to observe what was going on, the four City Council members and others say in the federal civil rights suit.  

That's only wrong when the "bad guys" do it.

“This unlawful conduct has been undertaken with the intention of obstructing, chilling, deterring, and retaliating against [the] plaintiffs for engaging in constitutionally protected protest activity,’’ said the suit, which was filed a day before Occupy and labor activists planned a large May Day march.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended police handling of the protests.

“This police department knows how to control crowds without excessive force. . . . They do allow you to protest, but they don’t let it get out of hand,’’ he said after some council members complained about what they called police brutality at a March Occupy demonstration.

He's actually turned into an embarrassment for the city.

While Occupy activists have gone to court before over particular episodes in the movement’s contentious history with the city, the new lawsuit is a nearly 150-page compendium of complaints, amplified by the council members’ participation. A local Democratic Party official, freelance journalists, and Occupy activists also are plaintiffs.  

Yeah, that's more than your stinky, unemployed, rabble-rousing Occupier, 'eh?

Their criticisms range from a police official’s use of pepper spray on penned-in protesters in September to the temporary removal of demonstrators from Manhattan’s Union Square in March.

Related: Sunday Globe Special: A Bridge Too Far

Also see: Globe Peppers You With Protests

Globe Grinds Pepper Spray Protest Story

Ah-choo!

The council members’ involvement in the Occupy suit helps dramatize its argument that police oversight is so ineffective it warrants a court-appointed monitor....  

I resent the idea that some official or authority offers it credibility, but when it comes from protesters it is not to be believed.

--more--" 

Just up the road:

"Occupy camp is cleared; 13 arrested" April 19, 2012

Police arrested 13 Occupy NewHaven demonstrators Wednesday as authorities forced the protesters to leave after the city won a court battle. A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the protesters do not have the right to stay on the city green. Many of them packed up their belongings within hours, but police said about 50 protesters still were in the area when they arrived to clear the camp (AP)."

Down the road:

"Protesters were at the JPMorgan annual meeting as well, including some who threw eggs at a poster with Dimon’s picture on it. ‘‘We wanted to let Jamie Dimon know how we feel about what big banks have done to our economy,’’ said Marilyn Lyday, a member of the protest group Occupy Orlando....

--more--"

Any victories out there?

"Mistrial declared in Occupy Maine trespassing case" Associated Press, April 27, 2012

AUGUSTA, Maine - A Superior Court jury delivered what a defense lawyer viewed as a victory for the Occupy movement Thursday when it deadlocked in a criminal trespass case stemming from a protest on the governor’s mansion property last fall.

The jury was released by Justice Nancy Mills after failing to agree on verdicts in the case against five members of Occupy Augusta.... 

I just love TAKING JUSTICE TO the PEOPLE!!!

The case follows a string of court defeats for the Occupy movement in Augusta, Portland, and other cities outside of the state, where judges have ruled that the protesters’ encampments could be broken up without violating the participants’ free-speech rights. Occupy members have protested what they view as economic disparities in America....  

And the Globe has made it clear that the rulers it mouths for do not view things that way. It's just business as usual and nothing wrong.

--more--" 

Also see: Dozens protest proposed Wal-Mart in Watertown

Why would anyone protest a Walmart? 


Mother’s Day peace walk recalls slain youths

No, they are not protesting the wars, it's inner-city violence that is the issue. I'm against that, too.  

The Original Anti-War Mother's Day

Yeah, somehow that meaning has been lost when it comes to by war-promoting AmeriKan media.


Happy Mother's Day


I'm sorry, Mom. 

Globe Gift: Occupy is History

An Occupy to Remember

Occupy is Old News 

Occupy's Last Sigh 

That's when I know it is time for bed.