Showdown at the Occupy Wall Street OK Corral

Oregon knows how to throw a police state eviction of Occupy Portland. Last night, as the bell struck the magic midnight hour, this is what Portland's Occupy Movement Protestors did, cheered and popped champagne!

 

 

We saw group dancing and bicyclists, creating a friendly circle around the protestors. Drumming sessions sprung up. Candles were lit in silent vigil. What a great reaction to a sea of police lining up in riot gear!

 

 

Local news ran live video throughout the night, clearly hoping to capture violence and mayhem in real time. Instead, reporters ended up bringing the Occupy Wall Street message to local and national main stream media. We saw signs to end corporate personhood, more signs demanding good jobs, other signs talking about corporate greed and finally, why the occupiers are even there. Guess what, going to elected officials does nothing. They only listen to their corporate puppet masters. Occupiers want something done, from jobs to income inequality to corrupt large corporations running the nation. They want economic justice and fairness.

Instead of violence, mayhem, the great Portland eviction story gave the protestors a national television platform for over 8 hours. The reaction to this great, dreaded moment, the strike of midnight when police would move in, was a pleasantly surprising, out of the box strategy. Partying like it's New Years Eve immediately dispelled the corporate media message claiming OWS is a bunch of drug-addled violent scum who needed to be swept away with fire hoses into the gutter with the rest of the trash.

 

 

The mass media coverage gave another surprise. Interviews with various people finally gave an explanation why OWS is leaderless. This is a bottom up movement. With modern technology, yes, a group can come to consensus and coalesce to an overall message. This movement is utilizing these technologies and strategies which enable a bottom up protest organizational structure. Amazing, a technology revolution has created a social revolution. Like cell phone video anyone?

On the other hand, other areas of the country are not so lucky. Below is a video of U.C. Berkeley students being assaulted with police batons during their protest:

 

 

Other cities are using outdated city ordinances to remove protestors.

For the third night in a row, protesters with “Occupy Fresno” were arrested for gathering in a public park, apparently in violation of a county ordinance that labeled them trespassers.

In some cities police are taking belongings, personal property of the protestors:

A New Jersey judge says police must return items confiscated from Wall Street protesters at a memorial across the street from the Statehouse in Trenton.

Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson also has rejected some rules the state tried to impose on the protesters.

Jacobson on Monday granted a temporary restraining order against the state, saying troopers couldn't confiscate signs or personal property.

In some areas of the country, the agenda to repress the movement is so clear, even posessing a tarp is enough to justify arrests.

Police in Houston on Tuesday night swarmed a small group of “Occupy” protesters and arrested them for possessing a tarp in a public park, according to area media.

In all, a total of 27 police officers responded to the scene in 19 squad cars, according to the protesters. Police had confronted the group around 11 p.m. about a tarp they were using to protect their equipment from the elements. It was not being used as a makeshift structure.

Who knew camping gear could be such a threat? When it's used to bring attention to economic injustice, clearly camping becomes a revolutionary act.

Make no mistake, these evictions are all about power. While Portland was reasonably successful with minimal violence, it could have been much worse. City officials want Occupy Portland gone, not for the excuse of public safety and health. The real reason for the eviction is local businesses want people to go shoppin'. Banks, businesses feel the OWS movement is a deterrent to entice rich, scared 1%ers to drive down to the city center and whip out their MasterCard and Visa. I kid you not.

Meta: 

Comments

The eviction is ongoing, violence reported now

There is reports of violence, "hits", arrests by police in Portland now. So, it could go even more violent or other negatives. That said, at this moment, @ 2:30PM, PST, the live stream shows a swarm of people in support of the occupiers with police lined up in riot gear.

To see a live stream, the local news, KGW as well as others is live and then Occupy Portland is running a live stream.

If anyone has a video of people popping the cork on Champagne, I'd love to show that. It personally really surprised me to think, these people are smart in terms of protest strategy.

Most interesting, the more police push, the more a swarm of people, thousands, are coming down to the Occupy area in support of the protesters.

follow us on twitter, facebook, rss

I've checked the site for cell phone access and so far, so good on iPhone, iPad, Android and Symbian S60. That said, folks, please let me know any difficulty in reading EP while mobile. We'll make sure it's accessible.

I put this comment here because EP was started in 2008, after pure disgust with the lack of focus on economics and more importantly, accurate statistics and theory, in the MSM as well as the political movement sites/blogs/forums.

So, you might be interested in our articles. If I write any sort of economic fiction, I am strongly open to be corrected for accuracy, valid statistics is something I pay strong attention to.

There are way too many special interests out there promoting whatever it is whey want to promote, with number spin. Seriously, statistical number spin, which you will not find unless you dig into the bowels of the data.

We can dig into the actual data, do have a statistical background, mathematical background, to see those various spin techniques with numbers.

Bottom line, we end up writing a host of articles proving the U.S. workforce, the U.S. middle class is being destroyed AND how that actually impedes the national economy and even the global economy. You count. You're over 70% of GDP. ;)

voodoo donuts

Seems the protestors are whipping out the ammo, with voodoo donuts. These things are addictive, a local specialty, and they are passing boxes of 'em around, eating them and offering them to police.

Truly creative methods of resistance and protests from the occupiers. Who would of thunk of irresistible donuts?

arrests at 50

If anyone is watching local news for thing ongoing showdown, it's clear many in the media are really trying to portray the OWS movement as being a bunch of dirty, homeless scum. It's clear nothing is further from the truth. There is no human waste around, these guys are extremely organized, with plenty of bathrooms. They try to find needles and other horror stories to ignore this group's message.

It's clear if one watches other media, live stream, these people are from all sorts of backgrounds, some obviously highly educated too and considering there are hundreds of thousands of people around the country doing these protests, the crime element is extraordinarily low. Think about a city of 100,000 people and how much crime there is per day, then compare.

I'm fairly convinced there is some sort of corporate something trying to dismiss the protests as if the obvious fact we have the 99% of the people, regardless of how hard they work, how much education they obtained, are being wiped out financially.

Turning to foreign-based media

It's one of the ironies of these strange times that we find ourselves turning to foreign-based news media to find out what's happening in our own country when global corporatism is confronted locally.

Reuters via Yahoo reported Portland as a stand-off (at about 9 PM PST, 13 November 2011). Reuters says about 1,000 protesters and over 300 officers from about a dozen law enforcement agencies.

news.yahoo.com/portland-police-protesters-confrontation-012247500.html

Al Jazeera for USA news?

Myself, I tend toward UK-based news media to find out what's happening in the USA when our own media abandon their responsibilities -- The Guardian, FT, Reuters and BBC.

A friend, who likes to watch television and has hundreds (if not thousands?) of channels available to her, tells us that the best coverage of the Occupy movement has been Al Jazeera English!

Foreclosures on Mayor Sam Adams' properties

Strange thing is that the eviction of Occupy is being ordered by Mayor Sam Adams, who was earlier seen as a strong supporter of Occupy especially since two or three residences owned by him (with mortgages), one of those being his own home, were foreclosed on in the last couple of years.

But now Adams is saying that the occupiers have to get out of the park, counseling that the movement has to move beyond the occupy mode. (Like 'grow up'?)

Adams has recently announced that he won't be seeking a second term despite that he was elected as a populist with a strong majority in 2008 (58 % on first round of voting, with no need for a run-off) and despite that Portland is well-known for re-electing populist mayors. Adams survived two recall efforts since his election, probably to some extent inspired by his openly gay life-style.

It's like the congress critturs who decided not to run after voting for NAFTA and other FTAs. Somehow they managed to find highly remunerative employment soon after leaving Congress.

Could $$$$ be involved?

Adams Woes

He's got a lot of pressure, as I note the pressure from businesses, corporations especially to clear the parks. Then he's not running because after he was elected it came out he had an affair with an underage (or close to it) person and that prompted a recall, which failed.

I think the MSM has been turning the general public against OWS, but the good news is all of this light (literally they lit up the parks with huge lamps), on OWS shows these people are perfectly good citizens, simply trying to protest the outrageous hijack of economy, income inequality, lack of jobs, supports for citizens of the nation.

'Adams has passport ready' ?

A friend visiting from Portland says that in Sam Adams' announcement that he would not be seeking a second term as mayor, Adams acknowledged that he has his passport ready and is planning on leaving the USA to live somewhere else.

police use batons on protestors, at Portland

Surprise, surprise, police used batons.

occupy Rochester NY

The mayor of Rochester would not allow occupiers to stay in park past 11PM. The only city in NY to arrest occupiers for curfew violations. But, the ACLU sent him a couple of letters and he back off. Occupy Rochester is now 24/7. Power to the people!

OWS interrupts U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Raw story generally gives good coverage of OWS. interrupt details here.

What a great target, there is no worse lobbyist group than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.