Live feed for Portland Occupy protests (they are due to be evicted, by police, at midnight tonight).

looks like it is sort of starting. Police would be stupid to enforce this right at midnight. If I were them I would enforce it when least suspecting a clash.

reply to post by ExPostFacto


It was actually midnight last night.
They may try to mess with them again tonight, but this thread was started yesterday. I realized later I should have posted the date when I said tonight.

Originally posted by GogoVicMorrow

When you find this many people gathering in the streets after midnight for some other cause you can complain.
More people are here supporting this movement than anything else I've seen lately and this is just one area in one city. There are some reports that it's 10,000+.

The thread has been getting along fine without any trolling. If you want to argue the cause why don't you try doing it with reasoning rather than smear tactics and baseless statements. Then we will respond to you like a real part of the conversation.

I didn't smear anyone, and it is true 5,000 people DO NOT MAKE 99% OF 305 MILLION+, and 40,000 does not make 99% of 6 billion...

The Tea Party gathered a lot more people, and for the right cause, at least in the U.S., than the OWS camp has...

That's without mentioning the fact that MANY of those attending are doing so for the free food, being paid by taxpayers with money laundered by the rich leftwinger elites who formed, and organized this movement.

That's also without mentioning the conditions these people are living in which is deplorable and speaks volume.

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


Wheee ok then

With the Tea Party no more than a small co-opted minority of the republican party, I really don't think it's fair to call it a movement anymore. Hell.. most of their money came from Monsanto and Oil companies. Because they're bought and paid for.

Such a shame your noble cause has been ... purchased.. and absorbed.

But all Tea Party ever was .. was the less fortunate Republican's that got left behind. Now back in the fold like always


Hail Kissinger.. and all that jazz... Peace

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


You've been spamming the same lines for weeks..

I think we know where you stand..
No need to remind us every 2 minutes thanks..

Originally posted by Resinveins
reply to post by ElectricUniverse

 

Wheee ok then

With the Tea Party no more than a small co-opted minority of the republican party, I really don't think it's fair to call it a movement anymore. Hell.. most of their money came from Monsanto and Oil companies. Because they're bought and paid for.

Such a shame your noble cause has been ... purchased.. and absorbed.

But all Tea Party ever was .. was the less fortunate Republican's that got left behind. Now back in the fold like always

Hail Kissinger.. and all that jazz... Peace

edit on 14-11-2011 by Resinveins because: (no reason given)

edit on 14-11-2011 by Resinveins because: (no reason given)

Don't forget the VERY original tea party (well, not the boston tea party, you know what I mean) was a non-partisan group against the bank bail outs and federal reserve.

THEN it got taken over by the republicans.

This time the democrats tried to take OWS over. Nope, not happening this time!

reply to post by CREAM


The people that started the original tea party have come out in support of OWS.

This is what the Tea Party should have been and would have been had they not let neocons hijack it.

OWS stands for "Over Welcome Stay"

We were raided here in Salt Lake City at the same time. Interesting that the attacks in Denver, SLC, Portland and St Louis were all coordinated and were conducted in the name of "public safety" (like the gheto raids on the Jews by the Nazis). They actually waited until after elections...hmmmmmm....

Mayor Becker was granting 24 hour permits for Occupy to camp in the park. The mayor went to Arizona and Chief Burbank decided to evict the movement while he was gone, probably an attempt to save face on the part of the mayor.

Interestingly enough, the officers removing the body of the dead homeless man referred to him as a “bumsicle”. SLC has had over 100 weather related homeless deaths since 2009, nothing new here on the Wasatch Front. The cops are obviously used to the term, almost sounds endearing.

Statements made to local news stations, that didn’t make the newscast, were a bit frightening actually. Burbank answered questions about the Constitutionality of the eviction by stating that the freedom of speech and assembly were rights guaranteed by the Constitution, but government, in this case Chief Burbank, had the right to determine where, when and duration… holy #…

He stated he was interested in helping Occupy “relocate” and was willing to “accommodate’ their wishes to be arrested if necessary.

The militarized police response was unbelievable. Two court services busses, two mobile command centers, 25-30 marked and unmarked police cruisers, several ambulances, two firetrucks, a K9 unit, two dump trucks, a front end loader, several large police SUVs a dozen city clean up crew members and about 150 officers, some with visible riot gear. Not to mention the undercover officers identified in the park by Occupy members. Homeless advocates observed several intoxicated individuals being dropped off at the park via police cruiser about an hour prior to the attack. Two of these people were among those arrested.

www.fox13now.com...

Police came looking for a fight and met a peaceful movement instead. They stood around not quite knowing what to do. Inside sources reported that the jail had been on lockdown and was anticipating “hundreds” of arrests. The 16 arrested, excluding the drunks, were volunteers that had been designated “arrestable” in the general assembly prior to the attack. They were booked and released through pretrial services because none of them had any prior offenses. Hmmmmmmmm.

Occupy arranged to greet the arrestees and transport them to shelter upon release. All of them were in the general assembly yesterday, at the same park, and participated in the reorganized agenda. Each was charged with curfew violations and ticketed to the tune of $280 each. Occupy is taking up collections to pay the fines. We are seeking legal action against the Unified Police Department through the ACLU.

This may have, ironically, been just what the movement needed. We were starting to protest and march less because we were worried that our gear would be ransacked by the homeless when we were out. We were spending a great deal of effort policing the homeless and dealing with the police presence their constant fights, assaults and drug and alcohol use brought to the camp. Being “liberated” from Pioneer Park has actually allowed us to concentrate our efforts where they will do some good.

Chief Burbank spoke to the media about “tents filled with human excrement, urine and biohazards”…I was in front of the bulldozer pulling tents out of the way and throwing trash in the dump truck, I was only able to see one sad little tent on the edge next to the tennis courts that actually had a turd in it and a bottle of what looked like urine. I didn’t see the drug paraphernalia he was inferring. The rest of the tents that were being thrown away belonged to the homeless cadre that had abandoned them earlier. The Occupy folks had dismantled the kitchen and moved their gear to storage and were in the process of salvaging the gear that had been collectively purchased and donated to the homeless when the police arrived and began the assault.

I was there two or three hours prior and stayed until they asked the lingerers to leave. To their credit, the Unified Police officers conducted themselves, for the most part, with professionalism and dignity. There were a few that were obviously heckling or verbally harassing the protesters, but that was a rarity. Most looked a bit confused when things didn’t get violent. They are trained for physical resistance, not cooperation.

Any hoooo
Occupy is lean and mean and has already met and determined the next course of action. We are sending representatives to neighboring Occupy movements and garnishing solidarity nationwide for concerted efforts. Things are beginning to get serious and the recent actions on the part of TPTB have only shown us that we are absolutel

Any hoooo
Occupy is lean and mean and has already met and determined the next course of action. We are sending representatives to neighboring Occupy movements and garnishing solidarity nationwide for concerted efforts. Things are beginning to get serious and the recent actions on the part of TPTB have only shown us that we are absolutely unable to operate within the system. We are adjusting our tactics accordingly. Stay tuned…

www.fox13now.com...

PS I was just wondering, seeing the total disregard for 1st Amendment rights, how long it will take to make a move against 2nd Amendment rights in the name of “public safety”. You know, guns as a public hazard, bullets that leach lead, explosives stored in homes… that is just down the road if Occupy is squelched. You folks on the right should really be thinking about that right now, especially as Constitutionalists, Christians and gun owners are increasingly being identified as “home grown terrorists”. Many of us at Occupy are gun owners and have concealed carry permits, but out of reverence for the non violent nature of the movement, we have elected to leave our weapons at home, for now.

Why aren’t you hunters and gun owners out here protecting the Constitution? Maybe an armed presence would help keep the unruly from taking over and ruining the movement.

Just a thought.

Oh, I forgot this interesting note!

A homless advocate that used to live in the park, now a self made millionaire from park City, parked two huge Hummer limos and two Trailways busses between the police force and the park and began helping the remaining homless load their gear into the limos for storage at one of his local warehouses. He then transported some of them to Ogden where the Universalist Church allowed them to camp on its property. He transported Occupy members to Gallivan Plaza for pizza and a rally. A remanat has been allowed, until TPTB change their mind again, to Occupy gallivan Plaza in a "free speech zone" that must be manned by five "awake"individuals around the clock. Six tents remain and we are allowed to sleep, but five of us must be available at all times to answer any questions the public may have. Police have promised to check in regularly to ensure that the "five awake and available" provision is adhered to. Guess that means they really can dictate where, when and duration of 1st Amendment rights, aye?

reply to post by PapaKrok


Thank you for all the info.
Question, what are the main issues discussed at the Occupy you attend? At the three I have been to they seem to be getting on track protesting the government and wall street equally which I am really happy to see. Though the ones I have attended are all smaller cities and are practically independent Occupy protests rather than Occupy Wall Street/focusing only on the business aspect. I actually am hoping to see that spread as there is no corporate corruption without government corruption and vice versa. I am afraid of the bigger more representative (in the press) protests will be coopted by the Democrats and be further tied to Obama's campaign by Fox news and the GOP.

At the protests I have been too the message has been:

- End conflict of interest between Government and Big Business.
- End risky loaning to unemployed/underemployed students in a recession depression economy.
- End use of lobbyists and career politicians.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


I am seeing the same thing here in SLC with a renewed effort to deal with local issues of corruption and misuse of public funds. The election process was recently rigged with a draconian redistricting effort that created a georaphical supermajority in both houses. Its criminal. We are also focusing on:

Increasing forclosures and and the effort to conceal the robosigning fiasco. We are getting ready to Occupy individual homes facing forclosure around the valley. Its working in other places and we are on fire here with forclosed properties...

Calling attention to the new FDIC guarantees made to the big banks to cover their bad debt. Increasing awareness of the private profit / public debt practices of the plutocracy. This has NOTHING to do with free enterprise or local business, BTW. We are in support of both.

A sharp decrease in funding for essential mental health services that has dramatically increased the use of the penal system to house and treat the mentally ill / homeless.

Continued misuse of state funds and programs for personal use, including a decade long pillage of funds collected by the Alcohol Commision.

Blatant cronyism and nepotism within the local government.

Very blurry church / state issues....

And, of course, trying to get the lobbyists and the money out of politics by advocating a direct, technology driven democracy. Lofty? Oh yes! But we have always started with the ideal and back engineered from there.

Instigating legal action against the city and the mayors office for violation of 1st Amendment rights. The ACLU is on board with this now.

We are beginning to focus on local city counsel meetings, legislative hearings and community events. We are supporting national OWS agendas like bank holidays and spending holidays as well. We are building a better consensus and solidarity between cities and neighboring states as well.

I like where this is going.


Another post script:
Homeless advocates are reporting that the arrangements made for the homeless by the Unified Police Department and Chief Burbank were largely symbolic and most of the homless simply filtered back to the park after the cameras packed up and The Chief went home to his cozy bed.

reply to post by PapaKrok


Good. I am glad to see the movements addressing issues and distancing from the media/confusion imposed agenda of a solely anti wall street movement. Hopefully soon it will be harder for news to spread their disinfo. There is change to be had, I think we will start seeing it soon.

Originally posted by GogoVicMorrow
reply to post by PapaKrok

 

Good. I am glad to see the movements addressing issues and distancing from the media/confusion imposed agenda of a solely anti wall street movement. Hopefully soon it will be harder for news to spread their disinfo. There is change to be had, I think we will start seeing it soon.

edit on 14-11-2011 by GogoVicMorrow because: (no reason given)

Yea, though clear leadership and an exact statement of pupose is being intentionally avoided to insure autonomy and avoid being coopted by any one movement. Ironically, ambigoity has now extended to geolocation and has given us greater flexibilty and focus to act on individual actions. There are action groups forming around core issues that will receive support from the greater body as needed. Cooperation with existing advocacy groups is being garnished, from the Tea Party to the Labor Unions and seems to be solidfying around issues of austerity, poverty and class discrimination. Its a thing of beauty.

I see a very possible scenario of Occupy protesters comprised of Muslims, wiccans, liberal, commies, social workers, ex finacial planners, laywers, homless, Christians, Tea Partiers, preppers, etc being called in to prevent forclosure of homes belonging to right leaning Constutionalist gun activists, for example...

We are, believe it or not, all in this together against those that would make us slaves. The sooner we get over our preconceived ideas regarding the right / left paradigm and get solidarity against the machine, the better off we we all become.

reply to post by PapaKrok


I myself am actually a libertarian, a gun owner, and a student. I have helped organize a local occupy protest. Occupy Ashland Kentucky, headlined the front page of the local paper three times and was mentioned on the official OWS page. One of the points I mentioned in the original interview before it was ever mentioned by OWS was to avoid making declarations of intent in order to avoid being co-opted. I was very poorly paraphrased by the interviewer (something like "keep the motives vague," I don't remember I just remember being kinda pissed) and withing one day I had a local Obama campaign volunteer admonishing me for say that and then at our first G.A. he was actively trying to co-opt it for Dems. I have a thread with info and pics here just search Ashland and maybe a few more key words Occupy perhaps.

I just want to throw a quick comment in towards detractors.

Saturday night between 5 and 10 thousand people rallied at Occupy Portland to thwart eviction. Under threat of arrest, tear gas, and rubber bullets 1 bottle was thrown at an officer and the guilty was promptly handed over to police. Think about that as you toss around rhetoric of impending violent revolution or desire for such.

That goes for you supporters too that are insisting armed revolution is the only course open to us.

If I agree or disagree with any Occupy doesn't pertain to the bit of dissapointment I feel of having the experiment rousted, even though earlier I had voiced my concern about people getting hurt.

I looked at it for the potential for people to learn and adapt.
It wouldn't have the same visual impact, but an Occupy camp in a rural environment could've had open cooking and heating, and the little city it was could've been a great enviroment for growth, without intrusion.

reply to post by PapaKrok


Oh my...just heard word that the new approved location has been given an eviction notice. Goes to show that you just can't believe what a politician, or a police chief, actually says....truthiness and all. That totally lets us off the hook for honesty and honor, right?

I was watching the news on TV and saw a clip from Oakland this morning. A lone BIG mofo was yelling at the police with a Guy Faukes mask on his head. They needed like 3 cops to arrest him because he was fighting back. The reporter did say however this guy was the only he's seen use violence.

Big ups to our arrested brotha for not letting fear control him!