Indybay Journalists Charged with Felony: Conspiracy to Make Media

Santa Cruz - District Attorney Bob Lee has embarked on a full frontal assault against independent media in Santa Cruz by including four regular contributors to the independent news website Indybay.org amongst the eleven people charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors after the occupation of a vacant bank building on November 30th, 2011. District Attorney Lee apparently believes it is his duty to dictate how events such as the occupation of the vacant bank at 75 River Street should be reported on by the media, and if he does not approve of the coverage, then journalists risk the DA bringing charges against them.

Bradley Stuart Allen and Alex Darocy are Indybay photojournalists and Indybay editors who were reporting on the occupation. No charges nor arrests were made at the time, but warrants were issued over two months later on February 8th, 2012 — for Bradley, Alex, and nine other individuals. Alex was arrested at his home before he could submit to the surprise warrant. Bradley and Alex were originally charged with felony vandalism, felony conspiracy, and two counts of misdemeanor trespass, but after a three-day preliminary hearing starting March 13th the felony vandalism charge against both was dropped. Alex and Bradley remain out of police custody on their own recognizance.

Selective Prosecution

On the face of it, the misdemeanor trespass charges filed against both Alex and Bradley for documenting the occupation from inside of the building seem in line with a February 8th press release from the DA which declared that the "District Attorney's Office remains committed to enforcing the law." But the DA fails to mention that his office is not committed to enforcing the law consistently and that the charges against Alex and Bradley are clearly a case of selective prosecution. District Attorney Lee knows full well that a staff photographer for the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper likewise shot photographs from inside of the occupied bank building, yet Lee has chosen not to file any charges against him. Why would a District Attorney pursue such a selective prosecution?

Viewpoint Discrimination

Upon reading court filings and hearing statements made by the District Attorney during the preliminary hearing for Bradley and Alex, it is apparent that District Attorney Lee believes he is entitled to dictate the terms of media coverage in Santa Cruz County. In a brief filed prior to the preliminary hearing, DAs Lee and Rebekah Young wrote this about Alex's and Bradley's coverage of the occupation: "Their postings contain no interviews (or even attempted interviews) with representatives from the police, with the property owners, or with members of the community who might not have been in favor of the group's conduct." This is clearly viewpoint discrimination on the part of the District Attorney. According to Bob Lee's logic, if journalists do not interview police for a story, then somehow those journalists' rights and privileges as members of the media no longer matter.

Conspiracy to Make Media

As for the most serious remaining charge, felony conspiracy, District Attorney Lee has offered absolutely no supporting evidence of a criminal collusion. The DA has not argued that Alex and Bradley had prior knowledge that the building would be occupied. The DA simply asserts that the mere act of newsgathering at an announced demonstration, which turned into an unannounced building occupation, constitutes felony conspiracy to promote trespass and vandalism. In the same preliminary hearing supplemental brief referenced above, the DA wrote: "The defendants' presence and postings... aided and abetted the organization's occupation of the property." From this, District Attorney Lee takes another leap by claiming that Bradley and Alex "effectively serv[ed] as the media arm of the organization; the group's propagandists." The "conspiracy" is nothing more than reporting on a newsworthy event.

Ben Rice, who is representing Bradley, states, "As the control of 'news' is increasingly controlled by the '1 percent' we have to stop the government from deciding who or what sources may lawfully provide alternate sides to important stories. At Bradley's preliminary hearing, we presented evidence from expert witnesses that Indymedia and Bradley are legitimate news sources. We provided evidence that Bradley has been using his skill as a photojournalist for ten years to examine many of our world's most perplexing social problems. Bradley's focus on those issues is particularly important because so many of them are ignored by mainstream media. The judge's determination to keep the conspiracy charge alive should give all journalists pause."

Free Alex and Bradley! Independent Media Is Not a Crime!

The National Press Photographers Association (NPAA) and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) wrote a Letter Brief addressed to the court seeking dismissal of charges. In a related joint press release, the NPAA and RCFP wrote: "This is just the most recent case where journalists have been interfered with and arrested while covering Occupy Wall Street protests throughout the country. In almost every case, those charges — ranging from disorderly conduct and obstruction of governmental administration to trespass — have been dismissed or the defendant journalists have been acquitted." So why is Bob Lee pursuing these charges, at taxpayer expense, unless to unfairly promote one journalistic viewpoint over another by deterring independent journalists from closely reporting on social justice movements as they happen.

Stop the harassment and intimidation of independent journalists! Drop the charges against Bradley Stuart Allen and Alex Darocy now!

Eviction Date Set for Occupy Porto Alegre

By Clarinha Glock

Porto Alegre, Brazil- In this southern Brazilian city that has an international reputation as a pioneer in environmental policies and citizen participation, the city government has set an eviction date for the small protest movement that is occupying the central square.

But the protesters say they are not leaving.

The Occupy Porto Alegre group has occupied the central Praça da Matriz square for three months, as of Tuesday.

But municipal environment secretary Luiz Fernando Záchia says they had asked him to be able to complete a three-month stay and then leave on their own on Wednesday Mar. 21.

However, if that doesn’t happen, and "if the office of the public prosecutor decides they should leave and a legal order to that effect is issued, the park guard service can act," Záchia said.

But on their blog, the movement said that no agreement had been reached with the city government and they did not plan to pack up their camp and pull out, because the protest action is protected by the Brazilian constitution.

Occupy Porto Alegre, inspired by the 2011 Arab Spring and Spain's "Indignados" movement, met in January with the representatives of several other Occupy and Indignados movements during the Thematic Social Forum, an outgrowth of the World Social Forum.

The demonstrators set up their tents on Dec. 20 in the central Praça da Matriz, which is surrounded by the Palace of Justice, the seat of the government of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the state legislature and the metropolitan cathedral.

This square has traditionally been the site for rallies and demonstrations, with groups ranging from landless peasants to the teachers’ union frequently gathering here to protest.

But now, some 30 people have been taking turns staying in the group’s tents, which draw visitors and the curious and have become a hub of debate on clean energy, organic food and human rights.

Students, professionals, craftspeople, street artists, the unemployed – everyone here leads by example, preparing nutritious, natural meals with food provided by market stallholders in exchange for help loading and unloading trucks.

Like the rest of the Occupy movements around the world, also inspired by Spain’s Indignados movement, which emerged in May 2011, the Porto Alegre movement prefers not to have formal leaders. The participants all speak for the group, and decisions are adopted in assembly.

Mauricio, a 19-year-old student of social sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, came to the square as soon as he heard about the camp. "This is a form of protest against unbridled competition; we’re demonstrating for peace," he told IPS.

The schedule of activities has included meetings with environmentalists to discuss the controversial reform to Brazil’s forestry code, which is making its way through Congress, and the impacts caused by the huge hydroelectric dams under construction in the Amazon jungle and other parts of the country.

Members of the group will take part on Friday Mar. 23 in a public hearing on the Paiquerê hydroelectric dam to be built on the Pelotas river between the cities of Bom Jesús in Rio Grande do Sul and Lages in the neighbouring state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil.

"The hydropower plant is close to being approved," said Luís, a 22-year-old biologist. "We’re going to argue that it is unconstitutional, because it threatens endangered species and the Mata Atlântica (Atlantic rainforest)," an ecosystem that once stretched over much of the eastern edge of Brazil but now survives only in small degraded patches and protected areas.

"They’re going to flood 4,000 hectares and destroy araucaria (Brazilian pine) trees that are hundreds of years old. The area is an ecological corridor," he told IPS.

Municipal environment secretariat staff visited the camp twice, on Mar. 9 and 12, with the intention of evicting the Occupy movement. On both occasions the demonstrators told them that all decisions were reached by consensus in assembly, and that there was a lengthy schedule of activities to celebrate the camp’s three-month anniversary.

Secretary Záchia has been trying to avoid a confrontational tone. "You have to understand that this is a democratic city that has room for all movements, large or small. It’s not up to me to say who has the privilege of staying," he told IPS.

Porto Alegre was a pioneer of environmental policies in the 1970s; in 1989 it developed the world’s first full participatory budgeting process; and in 2001 it became a global reference point as the site of the World Social Forum (WSF).

But the occupy movement "is also petering out in other cities," Záchia said. "And I repeat: they were the ones who set the Mar. 21 departure date. All I am supposed to do is organise my park maintenance team, to go in on the 22nd and do the necessary work, because conditions in the square have deteriorated."

The secretariat’s staff have found damages to the vegetation in the square, as well as destruction of some portions of the mosaic-style Portuguese pavement or calçada portugesa.

There have also been complaints from "dozens" of local residents because the tents have been set up in the shadiest places, which is a problem during the heat of the southern hemisphere summer, the official said.

The demonstrators respond that they have talked to the people who use the park. "Their requests that we clear some parts have been addressed," said another protester, Analise. "We cleared paths so they can walk through without any problems."

The group’s web site provides links to related movements in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as Spain, Britain and the United States, which are preparing for a major global day of action on May 1, International Workers Day.

But until then, and before joining forces to tackle broader fights, the Occupy Porto Alegre activists will have to battle for the very survival of their movement. "Our strategy was to ask to be allowed to stay until Mar. 21," Alfeu, 21, told IPS. "But the idea is to not leave," said another demonstrator.

Facing Painful Cuts and Tuition Hikes, U.S. Students "Occupy Education"

By Judith Scherr

Berkeley, California - Shawn Deez, a freshman in peace and conflict studies, says she thinks she knows why some classes are scheduled at the University of California, Berkeley, and some are not. It's corporate influence that makes the difference, she said.

It was Mar. 1, Occupy Education's National Day of Action, observed with marches and rallies at some 30 California universities and at a number of venues around the country.

While much of the media focused on the steep tuition hikes at state universities and community colleges, many participants at UC Berkeley used the lens of the Occupy Movement - the 99 percent versus the one percent - to examine the underlying problems in education.

Deez spoke to IPS during a downpour while waiting for a noontime rally on the UC Berkeley campus. She contended that the influence of corporations such as BP – formally British Petroleum – which has partnered with the university and its affiliated laboratories on a 400,000-dollar biofuels institute, heavily influences the departments in which university funds are spent. She said the humanities have no corporate funding and face increasing cuts.

Moreover, she said, corporate interests have turned the university away from its mission. 

"The idea of careerism has taken over the university," she said. "There's no idea of going to the university any more just for knowledge."

And then there's the question of who profits from the steep tuition hikes. Banks have been frequently targeted by the six-month-old Occupy Movement, for their bad home loans and foreclosures. But University of California, Davis instructor Joshua Clover explained to the Berkeley crowd of around 300 how banks profit from the hike in their tuitions.

"The public university wants to raise its price of admission much faster than any increase in people's ability to pay," he said. "Those banks really need you suckers for those loans. The university and banks enter into an alliance through which the banks make staggering profits from the university's huge fee hikes."

After that, the banks control the debtor's lives. "This is the outcome of the university's laying down with capital," he said, telling the students that the answer isn't a "kinder, gentler capitalism", but an end to the system.

Before the rally, "teach-outs" were held in small groupings around the campus. Matt Williams, a senior in sociology, led one on affirmative action. UC Berkeley statistics for 2010 show there were just four percent African American and 13 percent Latino undergraduates.

He said that part of the problem is the different quality of high schools, where some schools offer advanced placement classes in which a student can earn 4.5 points (an A is four points), and where counselors steer students into college preparatory classes and even help students write their entry essays.

Donnell Vital-Gibson, an eleventh grader at Oakland Technical High School, was listening to the speaker on affirmative action and talked to IPS afterward, explaining that he was one of the lucky ones in Oakland. His high school has advanced placement classes, he said, but schools in Oakland's poorer neighbourhoods do not.

"We're fighting the one percent right here," he said.

After the rally, the students took off on a march to Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza, the former home of Occupy Oakland, to meet up with community college students and others from Occupy Oakland.

Then some 60 among them marched again, heading to a church in Richmond, about 12 miles away, where they would join students from San Francisco, spend the night at a church, then walk 99 miles over several days, to UC Davis, near the state capitol in Sacramento.

They are planning "Occupy the capitol," a statewide education rally in Sacramento Mar. 5.

"The march is a way to engage the community," said Stephan Georgiou, a student at San Francisco City College, a community college where 67 classes were cut this year. Georgiou said they're facing the "dismantling of community colleges in California," and that people are not aware of the programme cuts and layoffs.

He said some legislators are trying to "take the autonomy away from the colleges and turn them into vocational schools."

Around the time Georgiou was marching from Oakland to Richmond, 13 demonstrators were arrested in San Francisco for refusing to leave a state office building until their demands for education funding were met. A City College engineering instructor was among the arrestees.

Around 3 p.m., another rally was held in Berkeley. This one, at the K-12 school administration building, was put together by Occupy Berkeley High and attended by some 600 students, whose signs and t- shirts said: "Wake up! Stand up! Speak up! Shake up! We are the 99 percent. Tax the rich."

The "tax the rich" refers to a proposed "millionaires tax" that will be on California's November ballot, if its supporters collect the required signatures. It would levy an additional state income tax of three percent for Californians whose annual adjusted gross income is over one million dollars, and five percent for those making over two million dollars a year.

The funds would restore budget cuts to education, public safety, and other services. The California Federation of Teachers is backing this measure.

Berkeley High senior Amelia McCrea spoke to the crowd, calling for the millionaire's tax and asking: "Doesn't the government realise that someday, we're going to be running the show?

"We are the future innovators, artists, politicians, shapers of the world and we are the ones who supply the hunger for knowledge and drive to learn. We must show the state, the country, that we won't sit idly by while education is being undervalued."

McCrea continued, "I believe that students should be recognised as a priority over the funding of prisons," and then she invited the audience to enjoy the dance performances and music provided by fellow students. 

Occupy 4 Prisoners Protest Outside San Quentin Prison

San Quentin - Occupy Oakland joined together with prison reform activists, forming Occupy 4 Prisoners, outside the infamous prison February 20th to protest against the high incarceration and living conditions.prevalent in the facility. Some of their issues involved the strict sentencing, ending solitary confinement, and children being tried as adults.


"I myself experienced more than 14 months of solitary confinement and after only two months my mind began to slip," said Sarah Shourd.  Shourd was one of three people, along with her friends Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who were imprisoned for in an Iranian jail in 2009. They have since focused their efforts toward prison reform.



"We have merged the prison rights movement with the Occupy Movement. The 99 percent has to be concerned about the bottom 1 percent," said activist Barbra Becnel said, quoting a message she said came from death row prisoner Kevin Cooper.


Demonstrators also held a moment of silence for Christian Alexander Gomez who died February 2 while on a hunger strike in California's Corcoran State Prison. He was one of the prisoners who staged a wave of hunger strikes in solidarity with other prisoners who united against the isolation unites in Pelican Bay State Prison.

Occupy My Heart: A Revolutionary Christmas Carol at the Prop Theater

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Occupy Wall Street's Livestream Operators Arrested by Adam Martin

New York City - Occupy Wall Street is in the middle of one of its day-long marches in New York Tuesday, protesting the National Defense Authorization Act, but for those following along on the Global Revolution livestream, the real action is happening in the broadcast studio itself. That's because police have apparently just raided the Brooklyn studio of Globalrevolution.tv and taken some of the project's key volunteers into custody.
  The raid Tuesday follows a notice to vacate that police delivered to the Bushwick studio on Monday night. Victoria Sobel, a Global Revolution volunteer, said Vlad Teichberg and a guy named Spike, both of whom maintain the live feed aggregator, had been taken into custody by police, along with four or five others.

In Manhattan, about 100 Occupy protesters (according to Animal New York's Twitter) marched to the offices of New York senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, where they told stories and made impassioned cases for the wrongness of the NDAA. They plan a final rally at Grand Central station at 5 p.m., which should make for some fun interactions with hurried commuters. Lots of people were watching the proceedings on live feeds operated by Globalrevolution.tv, but now that site has stopped broadcasting the New York protest and is showing footage of Occupy Maui.

If you were following along earlier today, you may have been startled at about 1:45 p.m. to see the live feed cut away from the street-level action and to the face of Vlad Teichberg, one of the main organizers of Global Revolution. The new shot showed a large, graffittied space where Teichberg and a couple of colleagues were confronting a man they identified as the landlord, who had apparently broken in their door. They put the camera on him, he threatened to call the police, they said he had no right to come into the space by force, and he eventually left.

But Sobel said that was just the start of the day's conflict. Shortly after the confrontation, the police arrived. "Within the past hour, the police came in and removed people that were inside the studio," she said. "I believe the police just began knocking on the door and saying they would kick the door down and saying they would arrest people on the spot." The Global Revolution studio is now locked, Sobel said. The live feed has finished its Hawaiian broadcast and is playing a pre-recorded video. "The message is that even if they take the space, the [broadcast] will continue to be maintained," Sobel said. But right now, it seems to be out of commission.

Police and buildings department officials had served the Buswhick, Brooklyn space with notices to vacate on Monday night, declaring it "imminently perilous to life." The blog A Great Big City picked up this photo of the notice to vacate from the studio from the Twitter stream of Glass Bead Collective:

There is a handful of live streams that regularly cover Occupy events, such as Tim Pool's The Other 99 and Spencer Mills's OakFoSho. But Global Revolution is considered the main channel. It's an aggregator of live streams worldwide, borne of the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park. And this wouldn't be the first time the headquarters had moved.

In an Oct. 4 profile, The New Yorker's Andrew Marantz wrote: "For the first few weeks of the protest, Global Revolution operated from under a tarp in Zuccotti Park, using wireless hot spots. Two weeks ago, the group, frustrated with the amount of equipment they were losing to theft and rain, moved to NoHo." Global Revolution operated from a building at Lafayette and Bleeker while journalists such as New York's John Heilemann and Wired's Sean Captain profiled it. Heilemann's Nov. 27 piece described the 39-year-old Teichberg as "so jacked in to the electronic grid that he comes across like a character out of Neuromancer." By Dec. 11,, when The New York Times wrote about the rise of live feeds in publicizing the Occupy protests, the Global Rev. headquarters had moved to Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Anti-Wall Street Protesters Make a Show at Rose Parade By Hillel Aron

Pasadena – Hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters sought to upstage the 123rd Tournament of Roses parade on Monday but were largely confined to the sidelines.

Several hundred protesters marched in a "human float" that followed behind the official parade, unfurling a 250-foot banner of the constitution and also displayed an approximately 70-foot octopus made of recycled plastic grocery bags.

"Everything is not coming up roses," one protester's sign said. Another read, "This is what democracy looks like."

Onlookers were allowed to walk along the parade route behind the official floats, so the protesters were joined by thousands of spectators and even a handful of counter-protesters, one of whom admonished the protesters to "get a job" on his megaphone.

The iconic Tournament of Roses parade, which was first held on New Year's Day in 1890, is broadcast on several U.S. television networks and in dozens of countries around the world.
The protesters' attempts to gain national attention were largely thwarted by television networks, which gave little attention to their efforts.

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed during the Iraq war, joined the march and told supporters: "I haven't paid my income tax since my son was killed. I refuse to be a funder for their crimes against humanity."

Police estimated that roughly 300 to 400 protesters followed the parade route.

"They did exactly what they said they were going to do," said Pasadena Police spokeswoman Lt. Phlunte Riddle, who added that no arrests were made during the parade.

Three activists who were seated along parade the route did manage to unfurl a banner that read "Stop Foreclosures" across from the television news cameras when a Wells Fargo-sponsored carriage passed by before police quickly took it down.

"We wanted to send a message to Wells Fargo and every other bank," said Joshua Taylor, one of the three protesters.

Some protesters who marched behind the parade were wearing tents in a nod to the movement's origins, which was launched in New York in September and quickly saw tent cities spring up in major cities across the country to protest against economic inequality, corporate excesses, high unemployment and bailouts of major banks.

Protesters have since embraced a range of other causes, and in some cities the demonstrations have also focused on grievances about excessive police use of force.

Lawrence O'Donnell Knocks One Out of the Park

I haven't really watched mainstream news in a long time - sorry Rachel, Ed, and Lawrence I love you but I find what you guys don't cover to be pretty important too - but things like this make me want to do so.  I will let Lawrence himself say the words for me.  This needs to be taken to heart with ALL police stations not just now, when the heat is on them, but forever and globally.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

However these words must not just go for the press, but for ordinary citizens. By taping the actions of the police they are able to make sure the police do not violate anyone's rights yet not interfere with their job.  They also document the officers who do go beyond that line and start their own crimes.

Ever since the Rodney King beating was taped there have been laws put into place stating it is against the law to tape police officials. In the areas where this has not been the case, the police instead lie to civilians and tell them they are not allowed to do it despite the fact recording police is a sometimes the only way to make sure they don't go outside their boundaries.

If it wasn't  for taped events like the Rodney King beating, the police intimidation in Miami on Memorial Day earlier this year,  or the execution of Oscar Grant (and it WAS an execution), people would be less likely to believe these events happen.  One of the many things the Occupy Movement has brought to light, and they are many, is that police as a whole have no problem trying to stop people from recording what they're doing.  Now the ball is in the court of the police everywhere.  Stop preventing people from taping you whether they're press or civilian.

Utah Doctors Join "Occupy" Movement by Brian Moench

Utah's Bingham Canyon mine

Utah - Taking inspiration from the Occupy Movement, last week a group of doctors and environmental groups in Salt Lake City, Utah announced a law suit against the third largest mining corporation in the world, Rio Tinto, for violating the Clean Air Act in Utah. This is likely the first time ever that physicians have sued industry for harming public health.

Air pollution causes between 1,000 and 2,000 premature deaths every year in Utah. Moreover, medical research in the last ten years has firmly established that air pollution causes the same broad array of diseases well known to result from first and second hand cigarette smoke--strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, virtually every kind of lung disease, neurologic diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, loss of intelligence, chromosomal damage, higher rates of diabetes, obesity, adverse birth outcomes and various cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer and leukemia.


Most of Utah’s cities are in violation of many of the EPA's national air quality standards, and for several days during a typical winter Utah is plagued by the worst air pollution in the country. The American Lung Association routinely gives Utah’s largest cities an “F” for our air quality. Last February, Forbes magazine, hardly a cheerleader for excessive environmental protection, rated Salt Lake City as the nineth most toxic city in the country, and the biggest contributor to that ranking was the mining and smelting operations at the Bingham Canyon mine, run by London-based mining conglomerate Rio Tinto/Kennecott (RTK).

This mine is the world’s largest man made excavation and has created the largest mining related water pollution problem in the world. The mine is located on the western doorstep of Salt Lake City, home to well over one million people. There is no comparable juxtaposition of an enormous mining operation this close to such a large urban center. RTK's mine and smelter operations account for 30% of the particulate matter emitted into the atmosphere over Salt Lake County, making it by far the largest source of industrial pollution in the urban areas of Utah.

The smelting operations and fugitive dust from the 1,100 foot high waste rock piles and tailings ponds are a constant source of highly toxic heavy metal contamination--lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium-- to the air, water, and soil of Utah’s largest city. The mining industry watchdog, Earthworks, states that before the most recently approved expansion, RTK was releasing 695 million pounds of toxic material into the Salt Lake City environment every year. Because heavy metals do not degrade, are not combustible and cannot be destroyed, that heavy metal toxic burden steadily increases year after year, as it has for over 100 years.

Despite this extreme burden on public health, predictably, the Utah Division of Air Quality recently issued a permit for RTK to expand their operations by 32% which will make their pollution emissions even worse.
RTK is making record profits--$15 billion last year. In August Chairman of the Board, Jan du Plessis bragged, “Rio Tinto has produced another set of record breaking results.” du Plesses apparently specializes in delivering pollution, he is also chairman of the Board of British American Tobacco. Tom Albanese, Rio Tinto’s CEO who made almost $8.5 million in compensation last year, recently lamented, “[Rio Tinto must do] a better job at managing the curse of resource nationalism... and the activism of stakeholder engagement.” Let me translate that for you: local people throughout the world are tired of being exploited for profit, they're starting to stand up for themselves, and Rio Tinto doesn't like it. Utah citizens tired of RTK’s pollution would be considered part of that “curse” to Rio Tinto executives.

This issue is simple: RTK can well afford to clean up, but they won’t, and no one is making them. Their contribution to our pollution is hurting all the residents of Salt Lake City and adding to the premature death total mentioned above. For environmental and public health advocates, RTK pursuing and receiving an approval to expand was “the last straw.”

If the core tenet of the Occupy Movement is that corporations and the 1% manipulate every level of government to serve their profit driven agendas and simultaneously disregard, if not openly undermine, the interests of the 99%, then there is no better example than RTK’s operation of Utah’s Bingham Canyon mine.
UPHE estimates that the mortality, health and environmental costs to the community from RTK pollution is between $2 billion and $4 billion, several times the value of the wages and taxes that they pay. Nonetheless, a massive PR budget allows RTK to heavily advertise themselves as “job providers”, and take virtually no responsibility for the various environmental and health consequences of their operations.

Frederick Douglass, the19th century civil rights leader, said,"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Let it be known that the people in Utah will no longer “quietly submit” to more pollution, more deaths, shortened life spans and poorer health to fatten the wallets in the London board room of Rio Tinto. We are going to “take back” the air we breathe

Woman Loses Her Baby Due to Police Brutality

Seattle - After being pepper-sprayed and attacked by Seattle police, Jennifer Fox, a pregnant woman who joined the Occupy Movement, had a miscarriage. Homeless and pregnant, she felt it was her duty for her and her child's future to join the protesters.

When the police started to move in and attack – an unfortunately all-to-familiar scenario now – she said to the police “I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let methrough. I am trying to get out.”

Instead of letting her go the police started to hit her stomach, step on her, pepper-spray her face, and push a bike into her.

Everything seemed to be fine until Sunday when she “started getting sick, cramps started, and I felt like I was going to pass out.” A trip to the hospital revealed she was having a miscarriage, possibly due to the kick and pepper-spray that affected her child.

This took place during the same protest which saw an elderly woman hit with the spray as well.

She said she is currently looking for a lawyer to take her case.

Hopefully one of the people she sues will be Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel who said “pepper spray is not age specific. No more dangerous to someone who is 10 or someone who is 80.”

Looks like you're wrong Jeff, as you traumatized a mother and caused her to miscarry.

Some of the video of the aftermath can be seen here.

Commentary: Dan Siegel Versus Jean Quan

Someone finally has some sense in Oakland. After the horrible job Jean Quan made in having the police attack the citizens of Oakland several times the city's top civil rights attorney resigned from his job.

Dan Siegel is obviously on the side of Occupy Oakland and looking after its citizens when the city fails to do so. He mentioned several times his disgust with having police take down people's tents, even though it's a peaceful movement by their own admission. He says of the actions the city did makes him "Really disappointed with the city, the most hostile city to the Occupy movement. Where else are they having 600 police officers take down some tents?"

Mayor Quan apparently doesn't care about what he said, as she said they've had times where they disagreed. She called the occupation a “campaign tactic....one that has divided Oakland, a city of the 99%. It's time to work together on the issues of unemplyment, foreclosures, and education cuts. While the camping must end the movement continues.”

Is she crazy? Is she really pretty much saying “Okay children you've had your fun, now go elsewhere”?
She keeps throwing gasoline onto the flames, huh?

Occupy Rochester Scores a Win

Rochester - Thursday night a victory, little-known to those outside the Occupy Movement and not televised, was granted to Occupy Rochester.  The mayor of the city, Thomas Richards, gave the protesters 24-hour access to Washington Square Park.  Alongside Mayor Richards was police chief Jim Sheppard to sign the contract at 6:30 p.m. EST.

With the permitted access now the protesters are able to pitch tents, put up banners, and use amplified sound  The only stipulation is the city has the ability to withdraw the permission after 2 months if the conditions of the contract were not met.


One of the protesters, Jack Spula,said  "I think the city did the right thing, I feel there is something building between officials and the grassroots in terms of aims of this movement. We're actually shaking the foundations of things and people are listening."

Occupy Oakland Staying Defiant Against Police

Oakland, California – A day after a man was shot and killed near the protest site, Oakland's Police Officers' Association demanded the end of Occupy Oakland. The protesters, however, are refusing to follow the orders.

Saying through an open letter "You have sent the world a strong message; now it is time to go home. Your leaving today, peacefully, of your own free will, on the 30th day, will send a message to Oakland that you care about our citizens and respect our city. With last night's homicide, in broad daylight, in the middle of rush hour, Frank Ogawa Plaza is no longer safe. "Please leave peacefully, with your heads held high, so we can get police officers back to work fighting crime in Oakland neighborhoods."

KGO-TV said the man, in his 20s, who protesters identify as "Alex," was killed during an argument between two groups. Protesters say Alex was not staying at the Occupy encampment but he frequently stopped by. 

Protesters answered the letter by saying the shooting is a routine occurrence in the city, followed by accusations officials left the lights around the plaza off after dark for the last two nights.

One protester, Cat Brooks, said “People were being murdered long before the Occupy Oakland encampment happened. If police say that's why they can't do their job, that's laughable."

Lately businesses, saying customers are being driven away, have increased the pressure they're putting on Oakland's city council. One councilman, said to a reporter "I have been very, very vocal about the fact that we cannot allow this to continue, because lives and property losses are what's at stake. We have to end this occupation."

It seems short of the police and businesses however, no other group is coming to the police's aid.  When the occupation was broken up on October 25, it required 14 other law enforcement agencies.  Citing the fact city officials let the protesters back into the plaza however, they are saying the situation is no longer their problem.  Religious leaders, it seems, are supportive of the local Occupy movement, rallying with them the day after the fatal event.

Occupy Denver Gets a Leader.

Denver - Although the Occupy Movement is leaderless, one group deviated from the norm and selected a leader.



Denver Mayor Michael Hancock got the answer of his life after he insisted the local Occupy group piks a leader so communications can happen between the movement and city/state officials. They granted him his wish and now have Shelby as a leader.



Shelby is a three-year-old border collie who is, in the words of a Shelby supporter, “closer to a person than any corporation: She can bleed, she can breed, and she can show emotion. Either Shelby is a person, or corporations aren’t people.”



Occupy Denver says it's looking forward to the talks between her and the mayor. The leader is planning to lead Saturday's march in the city against corporate personhood and invites others to join.

Jon Corzine Gets a Sketch from OWS

New York – Jon Corzine has more problems on his hands than most people think. Enter Wall streetartist named Geoffrey Raymond. He made his name known for his paintings of Wall Street people who found themselves in trouble.

Raymond said after he heard the news about Corzine he went to his studio and instead of doing a sketch of Ken Lewis, he'd do one of Jon Corzine.

When asked what inspired him to do this sketch instead of the Ken Burns one he said “The missing $600 million dollars” making a reference to the amount of missing money from MF Global customers' future accounts when Corzine failed to turn the brokerage into an investment bank.

So far 35 portraits of executives, politicians, and government officials have been painted since he quit his job in 2006. Originally he painted waitresses and bartenders. His old job was as a PR executive.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker heckled at Chicago's Union League Club from WBEZ on Vimeo.

Up until about 1:30 moments like these make me happy. After that point I want to cry blood. The fact he said "No matter how loud you shout the facts are the facts and the fact is our policies worked" means he is absolutely deluded in his Ayn Rand philosophy. Scott Walker should've been stripped of his clothes, dragged outside, and left there so everyone can point and laugh.

Police Arrest 30 in Occupy Portland

Portland - Early Sunday morning Portland police arrested approximately 30 Occupy Portland protesters after they refused to leave Jamison Square, a park in Pearl District.

Although the downtown camps at Lownsdale and Chapman Square will be permitted, Portland police chief Mike Reese and Mayor Sam Adams stated the city's no-camping ordinance will continued to be enforced.


The occupation of Jamison Square took place after around 100 people protested a Bank of America event at the convention center.


People who decided to stay and be arrested instead of leave face charges of interfering with a police officer, criminal trespassing, and disorderly conduct.  Although most were released Sunday morning, six who refused to give their names weren't released until later in the afternoon.


What may not be reported however, and I hope I'm wrong on this, is the fact the Portland Police Department released not only the names of those arrested but their ages as well.  Why they chose to do this is anyone's guess but mine is to send a chilling effect to anyone who is considering joining or willing to risk arrest in support of the Occupy Movement.

I've been watching the Occupy movement (as well as participating in my local group.  We don't have the numbers to occupy yet) and wondering if this was their big plan.  If the people decide to leave then I guarantee mayors, governors, and private businesses would do all they can to stop occupations.  Hopefully the people will fight against it and when spring hits it'll be something they've never seen.  Tons of people will be occupying.

I personally think the Occupiers should stay out in full force if they can and while doing so find out a way to stay warm.  Maybe some old run-down buildings as close as possible. In the southern part of the country the Occupy movement would need to pick up the likely slack.

What I think would be really funny is if winter was unusually warm.  Hm, that'd be something wouldn't it?