Posts tagged movement
Death, Disease and Sexual Assaults are Hallmarks of the Occupy Wall Street Protests
Nov 11th
Murders in Oakland and Vermont
OAKLAND, Calif. — Police are investigating a fatal shooting just outside the Occupy Oakland encampment in Northern California and the apparent suicide of a military veteran at an Occupy encampment in Vermont’s largest city.
There is a very good reason why they call it the Flea Party.
The Oakland killing is further straining relations between local officials and anti-Wall Street protesters. A preliminary investigation into the gunfire Thursday that left a man dead suggests it resulted from a fight between two groups of men at or near the camp on a plaza in front of Oakland’s City Hall, police Chief Howard Jordan said.
Investigators do not yet know if the men in the fight were associated with Occupy Oakland, but they are looking into reports that some protest participants tried to break up the altercation, Jordan said.
Burlington, Vt., police said preliminary investigations show a 35-year-old military veteran fatally shot himself in the head Thursday at an Occupy Wall Street encampment. The name of the Chittenden County man is being withheld because not all of his family has been notified.
He shot himself inside a tent in City Hall Park. Mike Noble, a spokesman for the Fletcher Allen Health Care hospital in Burlington, confirmed that the man had died. Noble said he could provide no other details. source – AJC
Deputy Chief Andi Higbee in Burlington told reporters the shooting raised questions about whether the protest would be allowed to continue.
TB on the rise
ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) – The home base for Occupy Atlanta has tested positive for tuberculosis.
The Fulton County Health Department confirmed Wednesday that residents at the homeless shelter where protesters have been occupying have contracted the drug-resistant disease. WGCL reports that a health department spokeswoman said there is a possibility that both Occupy Atlanta protesters and the homeless people in the shelter may still be at risk since tuberculosis is contracted through air contact. source – CBS Atlanta
Occupy sexual assaults and other violence
Occupy Wall Street has been going on for a little over two months, but protests are becoming controversial as news of sexual assaults and other criminal activity are marring its humble efforts.
Police reported around six sexual assaults coming out of the Occupy camps, with three coming from Zuccotti Park in New York City. The Zuccotti Park attacks forced the innocent protestors to set up an “all women tent.”
Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, told Fox News: “The concern would be the rapes and attacks that aren’t reported, we have no way of really knowing. If you have three or five crimes reported, you really don’t know if it’s eight or 10 that happened.”
A man was accused of sexually abusing a woman Oct. 8. This first reported incident occurred while the woman was in her sleeping bag in Zuccotti Park. The woman did not report the incident until she saw the suspect, David Park; appear at the protest site again.
Another man, Tonye Iketubosin, was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman last week in her tent on Oct. 25, also at Zuccotti Park. He was even questioned about the rape of a second woman on Oct. 29.
A 23-year-old man from Dallas was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old runaway in their local “Occupy” movement while in Cleveland. Cops are looking into a sexual assault allegation that occurred Oct. 15.
Apart from the sexual assault reports, incidents of violence have also been on the rise. A man taking pictures in Zuccotti Park was left with a laceration on his face after a protestor struck him, a police report from last week stated.
Local businesses feel the brunt of some of the protestors in Manhattan, as well. The owner of one shop claimed the protestors terrorized her after she refused to let them bathe in her store restroom.
In Boston, a number of the homeless protestors were discovered to have concealed weapons and drugs on them.
A San Diego camp vandalized and destroyed food vendors after the small business owners stopped giving the protestors free food.
However, one of the most grievous incidents happened in Portland. A Molotov Cocktail was allegedly set off near the city’s World Trade Center, forcing authorities to respond to the calls. They received unconfirmed information on the deadly weapon a few days early and responded as they saw fit.
“Paralysis is occurring across law enforcement. It’s becoming a Catch 22,” said Mullins about the protesting incidents in Manhattan. “To go in there to clear the park is going to cause confrontation. To not do so is detrimental.” source – CP
As We Predicted, George Soros’ Occupy Movement Turns Violent
Nov 3rd
Occupy Oakland in flames: Cops use tear gas and protesters are run over on violent night as they shut-down busy shipping port
Riots: Occupy Oakland protesters pass a burning rubbish heap during a confrontation with police
Occupy Oakland protesters claimed victory after they shut down one of the nation’s busiest shipping ports – escalating a movement whose tactics had largely been limited to marches, rallies and camps.
In a five-hour stand-off protesters vandalised businesses and smashed bank windows, as they tried to shut down the city – and police appeared to respond using tear gas and flash bang grenades.
The California demonstrators blocked operations at the city’s port and stopped traffic on Wednesday in protests against economic inequality and police brutality, marred by scattered vandalism.
Violence: Occupy Oakland protesters vandalised businesses and smashed bank windows on Wednesday
Police in riot gear arrested dozens of protesters who had marched through downtown to break into a vacant building, shattering windows, spraying graffiti and setting fires along the way.
‘We go from having a peaceful movement to now just chaos,’ protester Monique Agnew, 40, said.
Around 3,000 people converged on the Port of Oakland, the nation’s fifth-busiest harbour, swarming the area and blocking exits and streets with illegally parked vehicles and chain-link fences.
Port officials said they had to cease maritime operations, citing concerns for workers’ safety – but hope to resume operations on Thursday and that their workers can get to their jobs safely. source – Daily Mail UK
Vatican Sides With Occupy Wall Street Movement
Oct 25th
Vatican sides with anti-capitalist protesters and attacks global financial system
The Vatican aligned itself with anti-capitalism protesters around the world on Monday when it condemned “the idolatry of the market” and called for a radical shake-up of the global financial system.
By demanding that the worst excesses of global capitalism be reined in, the Holy See echoed the message of protesters encamped outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London, the indignados of Spain and the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US.
In a forthright statement, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace called for an end to rampant speculation, the redistribution of wealth, greater ethics and the establishment of a “central world bank” to which national banks would have to cede power.
Such an authority would have “universal jurisdiction” over governments’ economic strategies.
Existing financial situations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were outdated and no longer able to deal with the scale of the global financial crisis, which had exposed “selfishness, greed and the hoarding of goods on a grand scale”.
The global financial system was riddled with injustice and failure to address that would lead to “growing hostility and even violence”, which would undermine democracy.
Wealthy countries should not be allowed to wield “excessive power” over poorer nations, the Vatican said.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, the head of the pontifical council, said banks needed to question whether they were “serving the interests of humanity” in the way they operated.
The proposal was short on specific detail, beyond calling for a new tax on international financial transactions.
The Vatican hardly has an exemplary record on financial transparency and propriety.
Last year the Vatican Bank, known officially as the Institute for Religious Works, had €23m (£20m) of its assets frozen by Italian authorities as part of an investigation into suspected money-laundering.
After years of resisting calls for greater openness, the scandal forced the bank to adopt international norms on transparency. The Holy See’s murky financial past has included, most notoriously, its involvement in the bankruptcy of Italy’s biggest private bank, the Banco Ambrosiano, in the early 1980s.
Its president, Roberto Calvi, who was nicknamed “God’s Banker”, was found hanged beneath Blackfriars Bridge, with investigators unable to rule whether he had committed suicide or had been murdered.
Thomas J Reese, a Vatican analyst at Georgetown University in the US, said the “radical” proposals put forward on Monday aligned the Holy See with the Occupy Wall Street movement and meant that the Vatican’s views on the economic crisis were “to the Left of every politician in the United States”.
He said the proposals reflected many of the encyclicals and addresses issued by Benedict XVI on the global economy during the last six years of his papacy. source – Telegraph UK
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‘Global Day of Revolution’ Sees Wall Street Protests Spread Across the World
Oct 15th
The power of darkness
“…but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53b
This is NOT ‘legimate protest’, and it is NOT ‘democracy’. This is ANARCHY fomented by the FAR LEFT RADICALS that are destroying this country and the world. What you are watching is the coming true of the long-held dream of Bill Ayers, Saul Alinsky, George Soros and Barack Obama that the free world would be reduced to a smoldering pile of ash and remade as a despotic, Socialist regime. These people are the ENEMY of freedom and of freedom-loving people.
“Demonstrators worldwide shouted their rage on Saturday against bankers and politicians they accuse of ruining economies and condemning millions to hardship through greed and bad government.
Italy: Protesters look at a parked car on fire during a demonstration, in downtown Rome after tens of thousands marched today as part of a global day of protests
Galvanized by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the protests began in New Zealand, rippled round the world to Europe and were expected to return to their starting point in New York. Organizers hope to see non-violent demonstrations in 951 cities in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa in addition to every state in the United States.
Most rallies were however small and barely held up traffic. The biggest anticipated was in Rome, where organizers said they believed 100,000 would take part.
‘At the global level, we can’t carry on any more with public debt that wasn’t created by us but by thieving governments, corrupt banks and speculators who don’t give a damn about us,’ said Nicla Crippa, 49, who wore a T-shirt saying ‘enough’ as she arrived at the Rome protest.
‘They caused this international crisis and are still profiting from it, they should pay for it.’
The Rome protesters, including the unemployed, students and pensioners, planned to march through the centre, past the Colosseum and finish in Piazza San Giovanni. Some 2,000 police were on hand to keep the Rome demonstrators, who call themselves ‘the indignant ones’, peaceful and to avoid a repeat of the violence last year when students protesting over education policy clashed with police. As some 750 buses bearing protesters converged on the capital, students at Rome university warmed up with their own mini-demo on Saturday morning. source – Daily Mail UK
New World DIS-Order! Riots Erupt In Boston, Chicago, LA, Denver and Seattle
Oct 2nd
The Arab Spring has arrived
The protests against corporate America, which began in New York City two weeks ago, have spread across the country, with demonstrations occurring in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Denver and Seattle.
The protests against corporate America, which began in New York City two weeks ago, have spread across the country, with demonstrations occurring in five other major cities.
Sparked by the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has seen thousands of protesters camped out in New York’s Financial District for the past fortnight, mass gatherings have started nationwide, with the unified purpose of voicing anger at the U.S. banking and political systems.
The anti-corporate protest in New York City entered its fifteenth day today, as the city’s residents began to increasingly feel the effect of a mass gathering that began as little more than a dozen students.
In Los Angeles, several hundred protesters marched from Pershing Square to City Hall on Saturday, and said they would remain camped at the site ‘indefinitely’, like their New York counterparts.
Organised by a group called Occupy LA, the demonstrators echoed the refrain begun by those on the East Coast, saying they hoped to change economic polices that benefit the richest one per cent of Americans.
So just WHO are these people. Hmmm, let me see now. See the "END AID TO ISRAEL" sign in the background? Now you know who is behind these riots.
Crowd members waved signs, including one that read ‘The Banks Ate My Baby,’ and chanted ‘Hey hey, ho ho, corporate welfare’s got to go,’ the Los Angeles Times reported. ’In the end, what we want to do is inspire working-class people to get involved in the political process,’ Adam Liszkiewics, a 32-year-old USC graduate student, told the paper.
The Occupy Boston movement appears the most well-developed of the off-shoot protests, with a sizeable camp, featuring tents, medical supplies and even wi-fi, setting up at Dewey Square, across from the Federal Reserve building.
Tactical groups have been formed, covering legal affairs, food and media outreach, and a crowd in the spot had reached nearly 1,000 on Friday night on the first day of protest, the Boston Herald reported.
Key organisers said they had been to New York to learn from the protests. Matthew Krawitz, an unemployed I.T. expert, told how he had been in Manhattan for the first day of the demonstrations there and wanted to replicate the scene in Boston.
There were other protests in the city over the weekend, including one outside the Bank of America aimed at expressing people’s anger at foreclosures and the announcement the bank will charge customers $5 a month to use debit cards to access their own money. It resulted in 24 arrests.
President Obama’s old stomping ground has been gripped by the ‘Occupy’ movement as well. A group of activists have gathered in front of the Federal Reserve Bank Chicago as part of a rally to protest against poverty and unemployment in the U.S. source – Daily Mail
