Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Globe Grabs Gauntlet For Protesters

Oh, I'm sooooo happy!

"The Boston Globe was a media sponsor of the event. The Globe’s publisher, Christopher M. Mayer, said the newspaper’s hope is to create dialogue about issues of importance....   

Is that what all the endless agenda-pushing lies are for?

Of course, if the Globe had been doing its job from the start and not representing for elite wealth the country would not be in such shape.

--more--"   

Talk about self-serving slop, 'eh?

The insults don't stop there

"Occupy Boston seeks court help to stay put; Hearing set on order to block their ouster" by Brian MacQuarrie and Martine Powers  |  Globe Staff, November 16, 2011

Concerned about crackdowns on similar protests in New York, Oakland, and elsewhere, Occupy Boston protesters filed a civil lawsuit yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court that seeks to block any move to oust them from their downtown encampment.

“There is great fear among the protesters that there could be a police action in the middle of the night, as occurred in New York,’’ around 1 a.m. yesterday, said Howard Cooper, a Boston lawyer who represents the protesters. 

I'm expecting one any night now.  

Boston police said they have no immediate plans to move against the protesters in Dewey Square, but law enforcement officials confirmed that all officers are to undergo training in crowd control and dispersal.  

Meaning THEY ARE GETTING READY TO DO IT!

Police are being retrained in the use of plastic handcuffs; how to handle protesters who are lying down; and how to move them with multiple officers instead of dragging them away, said several law enforcement officials.

The officials, who said the preparations do not signal an imminent move on the camp, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about the training to reporters.

A hearing on Occupy Boston’s request for the temporary restraining order has been scheduled for 10 a.m. today. The request, filed on behalf of Occupy Boston and four individual protesters, seeks “to protect from unlawful interference certain core rights to freedom of speech, freedom to petition the government, and freedom of association and assembly.’’

Last night, about 400 protesters marched to the State House, where they listened to speakers who assailed the crackdown in New York and urged demonstrators not to be intimidated by police. Later, they marched through Faneuil Hall Marketplace, where they chanted, “We are the 99 percent,’’ under the rotunda, to the surprise of tourists and families eating dinner. 

The implication being those rotten protesters disturbed your dinner.

Occupy Boston protesters said in court documents that they fear a police crackdown at any time, which is why they are seeking the court’s protection. They have been encamped in Dewey Square since Sept. 30.

“Every night I wake up in fear, often multiple times, because I fear a second series of arrests,’’ Jennie Seidewand, a plaintiff from Boston, said in an affidavit. Seidewand, a 2009 college graduate who works for a summer education program, has been living in a tent at Dewey Square and witnessed the arrest of 141 protesters on the morning of Oct. 11.

“Given what is happening nationally, with municipalities shutting the protests down, it seemed important to seek the intervention of a court before the same thing happened in Boston,’’ Cooper said.

I've kind of given up on the courts as a protector of the people. Proof is in the rulings.

Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said police are not preparing to shut the camp, but will continue to monitor Dewey Square every day. The numbers fluctuate, but police have estimated that 200 protesters are at the site during the day and 100 at night.

“We’re not New York,’’ Joyce said. “We have always maintained that public safety is our number one priority.’’

One police official said that members of specialized units who are trained to deal with violent crowds have been told by supervisors to begin carrying their riot gear. The equipment includes knee pads, helmets, batons, and gas masks.

“You have to be prepared,’’ a police official said. “We do the same thing with the Celtics, the Bruins, and the Patriots.’’   

You see where this is going.

Related: The Night the Celtics Won the Championship


Also notice how the police brutality against protesters has been completely minimized by the mouthpiece paper?

The Occupy movement, however, has shown that protesters across the country sometimes do not disperse as easily as sports fans, with some eager to egg on police officers to embarrass authorities, the official said.   

Isn't that a bit like blaming a rape victim for the crime? At least the protesters are not all a bunch of drunks spilling out of bars.

Of course, we all recognize that the people that do such things are agent provocateurs sent in by police to discredit the movement. AmeriKan law enforcement has been doing it for a long time ('60s protesters know and remember). 

Officers are being made aware that cameras could be fixed on them and that they are not allowed to stop anyone from filming them, another official said.... 

Yeah, don't get caught on camera so that the world can see the video on the web.

Undercover officers have been assigned to the square following reports of drug dealing, for which police have made at least one arrest....  

Oh, UNDERCOVER OFFICERS INFILTRATING the PROTESTS as they allow drug dealers in?  Anything to JUSTIFY a CRACKDOWN and DISPERSAL!

Several protesters said they expect the camp to be closed by police at some time, perhaps when winter causes many demonstrators to move on. One police official said commanders are hoping that harsh weather will disperse the camp.  

They survived the freak snowstorm, sorry.

Protesters in Boston drew a distinction between Dewey Square and New York, where police cleared Zuccotti Park.

“We’re not as hard-core,’’ said Buford Drake, 42, who described himself as homeless. “We’re more peaceful. We’re not disrupting commerce.’’  

Yeah, the police have been sending homeless into the camps, too. Good way to introduce drugs and alcoholism.   

And I think that la$t bit i$ the mo$t important thing -- if you know what I mean.

*****************************

Andrew Wright, 47, said he has been living at Occupy Boston for six weeks.  

He's no kid.

Dewey Square is much more organized than the Wall Street protests, he said, with clear aisles, designated food and medical tents, and regular trash pickup.

Mostly, he said, police have left the camp to itself. “I’m more worried about the weather than the police,’’ Wright said.  

As they should have; however, that is about to end. I'd be more worried about the cops now. 

On Oct. 11, 141 protesters were arrested in Boston, mostly on trespassing charges, in a swift raid by about 200 police. The arrests occurred after protesters had moved to part of the Greenway and refused to leave.  

Related: Globe Blesses Boston Protests

Menino, who has expressed sympathy for the movement’s call for greater economic parity, said at the time that “civil disobedience will not be tolerated.’’  

How many times can I say say it? Government servants are not your friend!

--more--"

I'm glad the Globe is looking out for the movement:

"N.Y. Occupy crackdown came without warning; Camp cleared after 2 weeks of failed talks" by David M. Halbfinger and Michael Barbaro  |  New York Yimes, November 16, 2011 


They can't even get that right, 'eh?

NEW YORK - The message was clear: Occupy Wall Street’s two-month encampment was coming to a sudden end.  

They hope.

The eviction early yesterday morning, which ended with the arrests of 140 bleary-eyed protesters who had not heeded the orders to clear out, capped two intense weeks in which Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his aides tried but failed to negotiate with members of Occupy Wall Street. They concluded that the protesters were unwilling to negotiate and unable to address their encampment’s growing problems on their own.  

Acting just like the banks they serve.  

And if you think I'm buying that slanted, distorted, obfuscating version shoveled forth by the NY Yimes (sic) you got another thing coming. That's not the image I'm receiving from the blogs and other news sources.

The predawn operation, led personally by police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, followed a series of crackdowns by exasperated mayors across the country; many of them had initially tolerated the movement, which criticized the nation’s economic inequality, but then wearied as the encampments became increasingly disruptive.  

To who?

Last night, after a judge agreed that officials could ban tents and tarps, several hundred protesters without sleeping gear returned to the park, began to meet, and prepared for an uncertain future....

Bloomberg’s order to clear out the encampment prompted criticism and praise. Some neighbors and business owners, glimpsing park pavement for the first time in weeks, seemed relieved, while a raft of liberal politicians, labor leaders, and civil libertarians denounced the move as an unjustified infringement on free speech.  

And wait until you read this next load of bovine excrement:

For the mayor, a champion of the First Amendment who made a fortune on Wall Street and defends its virtues, the decision was even more onerous: Just a month ago, he said that the city would clear the park for cleaning, but backed down after a chorus of political protest and an influx of new demonstrators.  

Meaning his masters said end this.

On Monday, the city took extraordinary steps to keep its plan secret and preserve the element of surprise, leaving members of the mayor’s staff, local politicians, and even police commanders in the dark.

Is it just me, or is this nation LOOKING MORE and MORE like a DICTATORSHIP?!

This time, there would be no warning.

The administration had tried to avoid such a confrontation with behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
 
I'm speechless at the level of slop the New York Yimes will shovel, folks.

After weeks of fruitlessly trying to talk to the protesters through intermediaries, Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson, the mayor’s top political aide, said he was thrilled when he received a call in mid-October from Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein of Central Synagogue in Midtown Manhattan. The rabbi, who is the chairman of the Partnership of Faith, an interreligious group of senior city clerics, had been approached by members of the demonstration’s “comfort working group’’ for help getting the city’s permission to set up tents and portable toilets. 

So the AUTHORITIES are WAITING AROUND for a CALL from the RABBI to TALK to PROTESTERS!!? 

Un-frikkin'-believable! 

All the people that could have acted as intermediaries and emissaries and the authorities are waiting on the rabbi set it up?

Wolfson agreed to a meeting immediately, but it took two weeks to arrange one with the demonstrators, the rabbi said.

On Oct. 31, Wolfson sat down in a carpeted conference room owned by Trinity Church across a table from five members of the protest, an imam and the rabbi looking on. 

Why is RELIGION being DRAGGED INTO THIS!?  

This is starting to REALLY STINK of CONTROLLED-OPPOSITION CONTACT -- if it ever happened at all!

Wolfson hoped to work through the Bloomberg administration’s problems with what it saw as an increasingly lawless and unmanageable campground in the pulsing heart of the financial district.

And they get CLEARED THREE DAYS before they were going to MARCH on WALL STREET!

What TIMING!

The protesters only wanted to discuss the need for toilets and tents. Wolfson told them their requests for permits had been denied, and the negotiations were over before they had begun.

“The city was interested in engaging in a dialogue,’’ Wolfson said. “It was made clear that that was not something that Occupy Wall Street was willing to do.’’

I guess rapping someone on the skull and destroying their belongings is a form of communication, 'eh?

******************************

The Bloomberg administration’s concerns mounted quickly after the failed meeting, fueled by increasing disorder within the park.

Two days after the church meeting, a man was charged with sexually abusing an 18-year-old woman at Zuccotti Park, and Bloomberg’s tone began to shift....  

They move right in there, but no one says a word at Penn State.   

And honestly, I am SUSPICIOUS of any of these charges being aimed at protests.  

CUI BONO?

--more--"

"Confrontations escalate between police, Occupy protesters" November 14, 2011|Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. - In a tense escalation of the Occupy Portland protest, police in riot gear yesterday surrounded demonstrators in a downtown park after hundreds of people defied the mayor’s order to leave by midnight.

By early afternoon, officers had mostly surrounded the camp where the protesters were holding a meeting to discuss their next moves in response to the eviction order.

Some officers used nightsticks to push people away from the encampment and loudspeakers to warn that anyone who resisted risked arrest and “may also be subject to chemical agents and impact weapons.’’ Demonstrators chanted: “We are a peaceful protest.’’  

You see, SOME PROTESTS are GOOD -- like the AGENDA-PUSHING, CIA-SUPPORTED COUPSTERS in SYRIA -- and others not.  

How DARE AmeriKa CRITICIZE ANYONE?!

Police could be seen carrying at least one protester away from the park. Another man was taken away on a stretcher; he was alert and talking to paramedics, and raised a peace sign to fellow protesters, who responded with cheers....

Mayor Sam Adams had ordered the camp shut down Saturday at midnight, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment’s attraction of drug users and thieves.

Also yesterday for the third time in three days, officials in Oakland, Calif., warned protesters that they do not have the right to camp in the plaza in front of City Hall and face immediate arrest. Police did not respond to requests for comment on whether officers were preparing to forcibly clear the camp.

The eviction notices come as officials across the country urged an end to similar gatherings in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire. Demands for Oakland protesters to pack up increased after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the encampment.

On the fringes of the movement, making it that much more suspicious.

In Salt Lake City, police arrested 19 people Saturday when protesters refused to leave a park a day after a man was found dead in his tent at the encampment.  

No foul play expected, but the impression left by the AmeriKan media is that the protesters killed him.

--more--"

"32 arrested in raid on Occupy Oakland camp; Health, safety cited as protest is dismantled" by Terry Collins Associated Press / November 15, 2011 

Police wearing riot gear and armed with tear gas cleared out Oakland’s anti-Wall Street encampment early Monday, the latest law enforcement crackdown amid complaints around the country of health and safety hazards at protest camps. The raid at the Occupy Oakland camp, one of the largest and most active sites in the movement, came a day after police in Portland, Ore., arrested more than 50 people while shutting down its camp amid complaints of drug use and sanitation issues.

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--nomore--"

They dropped the gauntlet again.

And why am I not surprised that I have a total rewrite on my hands (sigh)?

"Occupy: Police clear OR park, CA action possible" November 14, 2011|Terry Collins and Jonathan J. Cooper, Associated Press

Police drove hundreds of anti-Wall Street demonstrators from weeks-old encampments in Portland and arrested more than 50 of them, as hundreds of officers in Oakland, Calif., gathered before dawn Monday for what looked to be a similar crackdown.

Tension in Oakland has been building since Sunday night when police issued a fourth cease and desist order telling demonstrators they couldn’t camp in the plaza. The order said the protesters faced immediate arrest.

Helmet-wearing officers from Oakland and several other San Francisco Bay area cities encircled the encampment at about 4:30 a.m. PST. Some held long sticks while others clutched white zip-ties.
 
Portland police moved in shortly before noon Sunday and forced protesters into the street after dozens remained in the camp in defiance city officials. Mayor Sam Adams had ordered that the camp shut down Saturday at midnight, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment’s attraction of drug users and thieves.
 
More than 50 protesters were arrested in the police action, but officers did not use tear gas, rubber bullets or other so-called non-lethal weapons, police said.
 
After the police raid, the number of demonstrators swelled throughout the afternoon. By early evening, dozens of officers brandishing nightsticks stood shoulder-to-shoulder to hold the protesters back. Authorities retreated and protesters broke the standoff by marching through the streets.
 
Demonstrators regrouped several blocks away, where they broke into small groups to discuss their future. The Oregonian reported that numbers began to thin out by mid-evening.
 
Warnings from Oakland authorities were similar to those issued before officers raided the encampment on Oct. 25 with tear gas and bean bag projectiles. More than 80 people were arrested.
 
A day later, Mayor Jean Quan allowed protesters to reclaim the disbanded site after facing criticism for her handling of the city’s response, as protesters highlighted that an Iraq War veteran had suffered a serious head injury during the police raid. 
 
Actually, TWO HAVE, but who is quibbling?  
 
On Sunday, friends confirmed that the veteran, Scott Olsen, has been released from the hospital. Olsen, who suffered a skull fracture, became a rallying point for protesters nationwide.
 
Dottie Guy of Iraq Veterans Against the War said Sunday Olsen was released last week. He can now read and write, but still has trouble talking, she added.  
 
I notice that Gabby Giffords is getting a lot more attention than is he. Not really a surprise all things considered.  
 
The camp has grown substantially since the Oct. 25 raid, although city officials said on Sunday the number of tents has dropped by about 30 to 150 since Nov. 8.
 
Officials across the country have been urging an end to similar gatherings in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire.
 
Demands for Oakland protesters to pack up increased after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the encampment site.
 
Protesters had said that there was no connection between the shooting and the camp. But police Sunday night identified the slain man as 25-year-old Kayode Ola Foster of Oakland, saying his family confirmed he had been staying at the plaza.
 
Police officer Johnna Watson said witnesses have told police that one of two suspects in the shooting had also been a frequent resident at the plaza. The suspects are being sought and their names haven’t been released.  
 
???????  
 
SMELLS like AGENT PROVOCATEURS to ME!! 
 
Investigators suspect that the shooting resulted from a fight between two groups of men.
 
In the hours after the midnight Saturday eviction deadline in Portland, the anti-Wall Street protesters and their supporters had flooded the park area. At one point, the crowd swelled to thousands. As dawn arrived, riot police had retreated and most of the crowds had gone home, but protesters who have been at the two parks since Oct. 6 were still there, prompting one organizer to declare the night a victory for the movement.
 
“We stood up to state power,’’ Jim Oliver told The Associated Press.
 
It didn’t last. Police moved in later. An officer on a loudspeaker warned that anyone who resisted risked arrest and “may also be subject to chemical agents and impact weapons.’’ Demonstrators chanted “we are a peaceful protest.’’
 
“We were talking about what we were going to do and then they just started hitting people. Seems like a waste of resources to me,’’ protester Mike Swain, 27, told the AP.  
 
Not only a waste of resources, but a crime. 
 
One man was taken away on a stretcher; he was alert and talking to paramedics, and raised a peace sign to fellow protesters, who responded with cheers.
 
Choya Adkison, 30, said police moved in after giving demonstrators a false sense of calm. They thought they had time to rest, relax and regroup, she said
 
City officials erected temporary chain-link fences with barbed wire at the top around three adjacent downtown parks, choking off access for demonstrators as parks officials cleaned up.  
 
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? 
 
Protesters PENNED INTO a CONCENTRATION CAMP!!! 
 
Police Chief Mike Reese told KGW-TV it was his plan to take the parks in a peaceful manner and that’s what happened.
 
“Our officers have performed exceptionally well,’’ he said.
 
Mayor Sam Adams Sunday defended his order to clear the park, saying it is his job to enforce the law and keep the peace. “This is not a game,’’ Adams said.
 
Officials said that one officer suffered minor injuries. Police had prepared for a possible clash, warning that dozens of anarchists may be planning a confrontation with authorities.  
 
Ah, the LEAD AGENT PROVOCATEURS!!
 
In other cities over the weekend:
 
— In Salt Lake City, police arrested 19 people Saturday when protesters refused to leave a park a day after a man as found dead inside his tent at the encampment.
 
— In Albany, N.Y., police arrested 24 Occupy Albany protesters after they defied an 11 p.m. curfew in a state-owned park.
 
— In Denver, authorities arrested four people as they forced protesters to leave a downtown encampment.
 
— In San Francisco, police said two demonstrators attacked two police officers in separate incidents during a march, leaving them with minor injuries. The assailants couldn’t be located.
 
Yeah, the POOR ENFORCERS, 'er, police are being attacked and the cops once again can't get their men?
 
PFFFFFFT!
 
After their performances the last few months f*** their pensions, f*** their health plans, and f*** their collective bargaining rights.  I'm not going to defend them and their unions here anymore.
 
--more--"

Related: Waiting Out the Wall Street Protests

Won't have to wait much longer (smack, smack).