Occupy movement

It appears that a coordinated Canadian crackdown is underway today, just as we saw last week throughout the US. -- MCR

Occupy Toronto, is it a fight to remain or social change?

Digital Journal,

22 November, 2011

As the midnight hour approached the protesters at St. James Park remained after the eviction order came into effort. There were conflicting reports as to if the police was going to take action through the night.

According to a liaison at the camp the police are not expected to take any action tonight. The staff sergeant at 51 Division confirmed to the group that no police action would be taking place tonight.

In the media tent Brian, 25, was broadcasting, saying that the group has walkie talkies to keep up with what is going on.

Brian said he's a college graduate who works during the day. He also says he works at a cafe at night on occasion. He said he is protesting for corporate accountability. The movement's web live site is calling tonight Code Red.

According to the Live Stream at #Occupy Toronto the protesters said that they are the birth of a movement and that they are planning to stay at the park for as long as it takes. There is a barricade around the camp's library to protect the contents.

Television crews were set up to record what is happening at the Toronto location.

There is legal support by different law firms according to the live stream. The lawyers are ready to take care of those who are arrested as they continue to stay past the eviction.

The movement plans to have neighbourhood outreaches and meetings in the future. There are also talks about occupying City Hall.

As reports that the police were closing roads two streets over Brian put a bandana covering his lower face and announced that they would be live streaming outside. The report was a false alarm that the police was in the area for other reasons, which those in the tent acted in disbelief, believing that the police were playing with them.

There were 1,000 people at the camp at 12:45 a.m.

As a casual observer the live feed shows a group of young adults who are concerned about what is happening about the world but without a real plan as to how to achieve their goals, which are vast. One of their concerns is that Canadians will be the slaves of the American, One World Agenda. With verbal attacks against certain politicians though the movement seems to grow more fragmented from the core ideal of the 99 percent wanting the 1 percent, AKA the corporations, to be accountable.

It appears that the movement in Toronto is being run by young people who are angry at everyone, blaming those who have achieved something for all the problems that are in the world. One girl read a poem that included a line about how the first banks started the road to greed. Perhaps it is a lack of sleep but watching the live stream shows that there is little form or reason for those that huddle in the cold tents of a city park. The question becomes has the fight to remain in the park no matter what become the movement? When the tents are broken down and the litter cleared will the movement to make a real positive change still be as strong?

Occupy L.A. receives offer to decamp

"If there's an offer of land on which to farm and build towards sustainable community, take it! L.A. was home to a beautiful community garden in South Central back in 2005-2006. The experience is there. We cannot fight over encampment locations and ignore the fight on the real issues or an opportunity to demonstrate successful community. Los Angeles has behaved well over the last two months. I'm proud of LAPD's restraint, especially as compared to other cities". -- MCR

LA Times, 

21 November, 2011

Los Angeles officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters a package of incentives that includes downtown office space and farmland in an attempt to persuade them to abandon their camp outside of City Hall, according to several demonstrators who have been in negotiations with the city.

The details of the proposal were revealed Monday during the demonstration's nightly general assembly meeting by Jim Lafferty, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who has been advocating on behalf of the protest since it began seven weeks ago.

Lafferty said city officials have offered protesters a $1-a-year lease on a 10,000-square-foot office space near City Hall. He said officials also promised land elsewhere for protesters who wish to farm, as well as additional housing for the contingent of homeless people who joined the camp.

For aticle GO HERE

Pregnant Seattle protester miscarries after being kicked, pepper sprayed

the Raw Story, 22 November, 2011

A woman who was pepper sprayed during during a raid on Occupy Seattle last week is blaming police after she miscarried Sunday.

Jennifer Fox, 19, told The Stranger that she had been with the Occupy protests since they started in Westlake Park. She said she was homeless and three months pregnant, but felt the need to join activists during their march last Tuesday.

“I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in,” Fox recalled. “I was screaming, ‘I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out.’”

She claimed that police hit her in the stomach twice before pepper spraying her. One officer struck her with his foot and another pushed his bicycle into her. It wasn’t clear if either of those incidents were intentional.

“Right before I turned, both cops lifted their pepper spray and sprayed me. My eyes puffed up and my eyes swelled shut,” Fox said.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer photographer Joshua Trujillo snapped a picture of Fox in apparent agony as another activist carried her to an ambulance.

Seattle fire department spokesman Kyle Moore told The Washington Post that a 19-year-old pregnant woman was among those that were examined by paramedics.

While doctors at Harborview Medical Center didn’t see any problems at the time, things took a turn for the worst Sunday.

“Everything was going okay until yesterday, when I started getting sick, cramps started, and I felt like I was going to pass out,” she explained.

When Fox arrived at the hospital, doctors told her that the baby had no heartbeat.

“They diagnosed that I was having a miscarriage. They said the damage was from the kick and that the pepper spray got to it [the fetus], too,” she said.

“I was worried about it [when I joined the protests], but I didn’t know it would be this bad. I didn’t know that a cop would murder a baby that’s not born yet… I am trying to get lawyers.”

The Scoville heat chart indicates that U.S. grade pepper spray is ten times more painful than the blistering hot habanero pepper, according to Scientific American. While law enforcement officials regulary claim that the spray is safe, researchers at the University of North Carolina and Duke University found that it could “produce adverse cardiac, respiratory, and neurologic effects, including arrhythmias and sudden death.”

'Anonymous' hackers target pepper-spraying UC Davis police officer

LA Times,

22 November, 2011

The Internet hacking group Anonymous has launched its latest attack on the UC Davis police officer accused of pepper-spraying student by posting a video online that lists his personal contact information.

In a 10-minute video attributed to the group, a computer-altered voice publicizes the home address, home telephone and cellphone numbers and email address belonging to Lt. John Pike.

A call to the listed cellphone number was answered by a voicemail announcement naming Pike as its owner, but said no space was available to leave a message.

The mysterious group speaks directly to Pike in the first minute of the video, telling him to “expect our wrath” and threatening, “We are going to make you squeal” as the viral video of Pike pepper-spraying passive protesters plays in the background.

A shorter two-minute video was also posted by the hacking group that tells officials, “It is quite difficult to engage in a peaceful protest when you come bearing arms like we’re flies to the swatter. We are here to inform you that it will no longer be tolerated.”

Anonymous members advocate for civil disobedience by hacking into computer systems and releasing private and classified information.

The far-flung group launched its attack on Pike just days after the students were sprayed Friday. Since the incident, two unidentified UC Davis police officers and the police chief have been placed on administrative leave.

OWS and OccupyDC unite

About two dozen occupiers from the Occupy Wall Street movement have gone the distance to get their message across. The protesters walked from Lower Manhattan to the nation's capital to unite with the Occupy DC camp. The trek took two weeks to achieve and they plan on spreading the occupy message in the capital city.