2012-03-18 "Occupy Spring: OWS celebrates six months by reliving the fall" by Nathan Schneider [http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/03/ows-celebrates-six-months-by-reliving-the-fall]
Occupy Wall Street celebrated its six-month anniversary yesterday in Zuccotti Park with a fast-forward replay of last fall: re-occupation, carnival, violent eviction, defiance. A morning chalk-in for families and an early afternoon march around the Financial District (actually, two: one silent and one rowdy) began a day of reunion at the movement’s New York home. As re-renamed Liberty Plaza (or Square or Park) became full once again with hundreds of people, the hardy organizers who’ve spent the winter in meetings and arguments were drowned out by joiners, curious visitors, drummers and reporters. A 24-hour re-occupation was called, and new defensive tactics were rehearsed. They danced, chanted and held a General Assembly. Numbers swelled to close to a thousand when marches from the nearby Left Forum conference joined later in the evening. The whole day was a welcome reminder that in occupation a magic dwells.
Around 10 p.m., tents and tarps went up in the park, among them several tents held high in the air above the crowd. Defenses went up too, including yellow police tape marked “Occupy” and a similarly rebranded roll of orange netting—just like what police have used to surround and trap OWS marches before.
But, around 10:30, more than a hundred police and Brookfield Properties private security poured into the park. They seemed intent on clearing people while minimizing arrest numbers, though dozens of Occupiers were beaten and arrested for holding their ground, and were taken away in police wagons and a repurposed city bus. Not until almost 45 minutes later did two ambulances arrive for the injured, including a woman who appeared to be suffering a seizure. At least two glass bottles were thrown and shattered near police.
Some Occupiers remained, but others set out on a march to Union Square, throwing bags full of trash into the street and chanting against the police and the state, with a few arrested in skirmishes along the way. The rest arrived at Union Square, holding up a yellow “Occupy Wall Street” banner on the square’s main steps, facing a line of several dozen police officers standing shoulder-to-shoulder. The crowd began to dissipate as the early morning wore on.
Familiar feelings, all over again: courage, awe, exuberance, rage, sadness, pain, fatigue. The city succeeded once again if its purpose was to keep the protesters’ attention on the police, rather than, for instance, on the financial institutions for which it continually assures support [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/nyregion/in-visit-bloomberg-defends-goldman-sachs.html]. The Occupiers succeeded if their purpose was to celebrate, reenact and make a blip in the media. What good either victory does the world outside Lower Manhattan still remains to be seen, this spring and beyond.
A tent held up on a pole over re-occupied Liberty Plaza at 10:30 p.m. on March 17.
 
Occupiers use orange police netting as a defense against police.



The following are Tweets posted to Twitter.com by participants at #m17




 

 

 





 
 
  










@Korgasm_ [http://twitpic.com/8yl4cc]




For the record, here is another chronology by a participant who posts to Facebook.com [http://www.facebook.com/seismologik]

 
 [http://news.yahoo.com/photos/nyc-police-evict-occupy-wall-street-protesters-1321366970-slideshow/]
NYC police evict Occupy Wall Street protesters
The encampment is gone, but the movement lives on. What nobody knows is just how long it can survive without a literal place to call home.
Occupy Wall Street protesters Eric Linkser, left and Cecily McMillan, right, take turns shouting information to protesters preparing to return to Zuccotti Park on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011, in New York. State Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman upheld the city's eviction of the protesters after an emergency appeal by the National Lawyers Guild. If crowds of demonstrators return to the park, they will not be allowed to bring tents, sleeping bags ...

 
 


[https://twitter.com/#!/zdroberts/status/181235743929274368]
@zdroberts
Fell down, got trampled by 6 people on top of me, cop hit me on my head with baton, pulled hair hit me again on back. Was yelling press #m17
9:29 PM - 17 Mar 12 via Twitter for iPhone


[https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23m17%20bible%20marine]


[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=383053445047441&set=a.331823396837113.85477.328225443863575&type=1&theater]


[http://twitter.com/#!/HelloFrances/status/181859008808878080/photo/1]

2:45 PM - 19 Mar 12 via Twitter for iPhone



2012-03-18 "Occupy Wall Street- M17- Zucotti Park - NYPD Arrests"
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4vBXMNE2MqM]
On March 17 , OWS demonstrators gathered for their Six month anniversary, were people re-occupied Zucotti Park. This footage begins around 9 O'clock,and shows the gathering that took place along with many arrests.The NYPD orders all to evacuate in order for the park to be "Cleaned". Many stayed and were then arrested. Here are those events.-------- Wonderful music by Ignacio Nunez- song is called La cajita de musica----------



2012-03-19 "Watch: Police Get Violent As OWS Retakes Zuccotti Park" by Josh Harkinson
[http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/03/watch-police-get-violent-ows-retakes-zuccotti-park]
On Saturday, hundreds of protesters marked the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street by attempting to retake Zuccotti Park. By the end of the night, 73 had been arrested and the park forcefully cleared. In scenes that recalled the early days of the movement last fall, citizen journalists captured the New York City Police Department roughing up dozens of apparently peaceful activists. One of them, Craig Judelman, posted a bloody photo of himself on Facebook with the caption, "just got punched in the face like 5 times by NYPD." Journalists J.A. Myerson and Ryan Devereaux have good summaries of other alleged brutality, including officers throwing punches, "rubbing" a boot on someone's head, dragging a woman by the hair, and breaking a guy's thumb. Many other incidents were caught on tape. Here are some of the most disturbing:


2012-03-19 "More evidence of NYPD brutality from #M17"
[http://privacysos.org/node/532]
Here's a better video of the NYPD's clearing of Liberty Plaza and of activist Cecily McMillian in police custody, apparently having a seizure while in handcuffs:

Please note that by playing this clip YouTube and Google will place a long term cookie on your computer.
The NYPD cleared the park and put up barricades in direct disavowal of a judge's order barring the police from doing so. The nearly 75 people who were arrested that night were therefore arrested for the crime of standing in a public park -- and it was the police, not the protesters, who were breaking the rules.
Those arrested Saturday night were released today, including McMillian, who is being charged with assaulting an officer. The city asked the judge to keep her on $20k bail; the judge declined and released her.
At least one other arrestee reports what sounds like ugly treatment by the police after he was taken into custody. Upon getting out of jail today, Shawn Carrié tweeted the following:

According to Twitter rumors, Occupy Wall Street will tomorrow join various civil rights and Muslim organizations in calling for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to resign.


2012-03-18 "NYPD's Iron Fist: OWS Re-Occupation Arrests: Protester Has Seizure in Handcuffs"
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1AiNMAv2KI]











2012-03-19 "As Occupy Arrestees Arraigned, Iris Scans Affect Bail" by Nick Pinto
[http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/03/as_occupy_arres.php]
The first of the more than 70 Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested Saturday afternoon and evening were arraigned yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Exhausted by a night and day in jail and shaken by the violence of the police response to Occupy Wall Street's six-month anniversary celebration, many burst into tears of relief when they were finally released to the friendly welcome of the movement's Jail Support team [http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/03/for_occupy_wall.php#more].
Unlike many of the other defendants with whom they shared cells, the protesters could feel confident that they would soon be released -- Occupy posts bail for those arrested during movement actions.
But protesters and their legal advisers were surprised yesterday to learn that the size of their bail was being affected by whether defendants were willing to have the distinctive patterns of their irises photographed and logged into a database.
Police and courts have been photographing irises since 2010, once at booking and once on arraignment. The practice is a response to a couple of instances in which mistaken identity allowed someone facing serious charges to go free by impersonating another defendant up on minor charges.
The idea of the state collecting distinctive biometric information from people who haven't even been charged with a crime yet, much less convicted of one, makes civil libertarians nervous, though, and over the last two years they've pushed back. Unlike fingerprints, they argue, no law was ever passed to require iris photographs -- it's just a policy. And while police regularly tell arrestees that the photographs are mandatory, and that failing to be photographed will prolong their stay in jail, defendants have often refused to comply without serious consequence [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/nyregion/new-objections-to-nypds-iris-photographing-program.html].
That appears to be changing. Yesterday, a defense lawyer had told Judge Abraham Clott she was under the impression that her client -- not affiliated with Occupy Wall Street, facing charges of marijuana possession -- was not legally bound to submit to an iris photograph. Clott responded in no uncertain terms: Iris photographs may be optional in the sense that the court can proceed without them if it has to, he said, for example if the photographic equipment breaks down. But they are not optional for defendants.
Judge Clott wasn't going it alone in this strict interpretation. National Lawyers Guild NYC President Gideon Oliver said that a memo, presumably from the Office of Court Administration has been circulated to judges, instructing them that iris photographs are mandatory.
Even if iris photographs could be made mandatory, though, they should never be used in setting bail, said Moira Meltzer-Cohen, a third-year law student who helps run Occupy Wall Street's bail services. "In New York, bail can only legally be set for a single purpose: to ensure that defendants appear at their next hearing," she said.
To evaluate someone's flight risk, courts can look at things like their employment, ties to the community, nearby family, a history of bench warrants, and the severity of the charges they're facing. If someone doesn't look like they're a flight risk, they're supposed to be released on their own recognizance, or ROR in court short-hand.
In the case of one Occupier arraigned yesterday, all the indicators pointed to an ROR. She was employed, her parents were sitting in the courtroom, and it was her first encounter with the justice system. Initially charged with resisting arrest and attempted robbery, the prosecutor dropped the second charge when he acknowledged that it arose from the arresting officer claiming she made a grab for his badge, even though the officer conceded he never thought she was trying to steal it.
Nonetheless, the prosecutor asked for $1,000 bail because the defendant had refused to let her iris be photographed. Judge Clott agreed, to the great dismay of Meltzer-Cohen.
"Even though all of the legitimate bail factors militate against setting bail, he did it anyway," she said. "Bail is not supposed to be used in any kind of punitive way. He's using his discretion as a judge to enforce a non-enforceable practice."
Several other Occupy protesters saw their refusal invoked as a justification for bail yesterday, but posted the money and were released. But Oliver said he has another client who's refusing to submit to an iris photograph, and that, police are refusing to produce him in court for arraignment until he does.
"It's a question of who will blink first," Oliver said last night, adding that if it goes on much longer, he'll file a writ of habeas corpus.
"It may well come to that tomorrow," Oliver said. "If this had come up earlier, I might be doing that now."
(For an update on the courts' use of iris scans, click here [http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/03/iris_scan_memo.php])


2012-03-19 "Occupy Spring: Why Occupy needs days of action" by Chris Longenecker
[http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/03/why-occupy-needs-days-of-action]
As I sit in the New York City Police Department’s central booking, which has become my second home over the course of the last 48 hours, I’m reminded again why we keep mounting days of action and protest. Since last Saturday’s attempt to re-occupy Liberty Square [http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/03/ows-celebrates-six-months-by-reliving-the-fall/], my role as an organizer in the Occupy movement feels more and more like it did back in the late fall. While doing jail support for arrested and brutalized comrades, my phone has been ringing and buzzing relentlessly with inquiries from fellow Occupiers, press, community-based organizations and union allies. Members of our movement, emboldened by #M17, have been living, sleeping and organizing in Union Square for the last two days, an occupation that continues as I write. It is safe to say that spring is here and that, once again, we have a day of action to thank for this resurgence.
An impromptu Direct Action Working Group meeting on the steps of the courthouse on Sunday turned into an hours-long whirlwind of organizing, regained momentum and vigor. We quickly reached consensus to acknowledge that the unwarranted acts of barbarism which ended Saturday’s celebration of the movement’s 6-month anniversary are not exceptions under Ray Kelly’s NYPD, but the rule. Systemically marginalized communities all over New York City live in fear of Kelly and his cronies every second of their lives. Plans were made to host a press conference on the steps on 1 Police Plaza at noon on Tuesday to highlight this reality. Speakers have been invited from the Muslim community, the homeless community, the LGBTQI community, communities of color, sex workers, the Occupy movement and countless others, to attest to the NYPD’s ongoing assault on the people of New York.
Plans are also being made to strike back on Saturday the 24th with a broad coalition of people from all over the city in solidarity against the capitalists and their servants in the police force, which the one-percenter mayor has accurately described as “my own army.” This Saturday, with our allies from labor and community-based organizations all over the city, we will demand the resignation of Ray Kelly and an end to the prison-industrial complex that has buried us in a climate of fear for far too long.
After #M17, the arguments of those who have discouraged such single days of action ring emptier in my ears than ever. Critics assume that days of mass action can only happen through mobilizations that bring activists to unfamiliar cities where they have no roots [http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/02/activism-for-the-end-times-mass-actions-or-focused-campaigns/]. They assert that mass actions don’t really inspire people to effective resistance against the 1 percent. They see these days as a distraction from long-term campaigns and the building of new institutions. As someone who has helped organize many of our mass days of action at Occupy Wall Street, I disagree.
Days of mass action are about more than simply what happens on the day of; the preparations for them are campaigns unto themselves. They are about coalition-building, outreach, engagement, solidarity and showing strength. The process of planning our May 1 “Day without the 99%” and general strike, for instance, has brought us much closer to allies in the immigrant worker justice movement and the labor movement than we would have imagined three months ago. Together, we’re organizing a unified solidarity march at the end of the day, which is unheard of in recent May Day history here in New York. After the march there will be a series of more aggressive direct actions by Occupy Wall Street, which our partners are prepared to back with their words and defend with their bodies. Working with us on the basis of mutual respect, many of our coalition partners are starting to organize themselves using modified consensus models, against the grain of the hierarchies in their own organizations. By cultivating these relationships over time, we can work toward a day when we have the capacity to simultaneously occupy all our workplaces and hold all the power in assemblies of our own making, peacefully subverting the system from within.
One of the most distinctive features of the nascent Occupy movement lies in its local character. General assemblies and direct-action networks are forming spontaneously in cities, towns and neighborhoods across the country. They are being created by residents and are tackling local issues in ways that speak to their own communities. Unlike the trend in the global justice movement of a decade ago, the mass days of action coming out of the Occupy movement do not ask people to converge at a single unfamiliar city. Our days of action — like the “Day of Rage” on October 15, #N17, the West Coast Port Shutdown and the May Day general strike — ask communities to adopt the call as they see fit. These days thereby become conduits through which we forge a movement that is both diverse and coordinated.
#M17 illustrated last weekend with incredible clarity that single, unified days of action are powerful tools in our arsenal as activists working to bring down an economic and political system that serves only the elite. On days of action, we can disrupt these forces, show our solidarity with one another, build revolutionary coalitions, expand our base and draw media attention to the injustices we oppose. #M17 was just the latest in this ongoing struggle. On Saturday, #M24, we will strike back once more in what is likely to be our biggest action since November, as we demand the immediate resignation of Ray Kelly and an end to the police state and capitalist tyranny.



2012-03-19 "Occupy Wall Street Urges May 1 Strike Over Arrests" by VERENA DOBNIK from "Associated Press"
[http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=15955816]
Occupy Wall Street activists on Monday called for supporters to skip work on May 1 to protest what they're calling police brutality during 73 arrests in New York during the weekend.
 Several dozen activists joined members of New York's City Council for a news conference in Zuccotti Park to complain about police tactics. On Saturday, police started detaining people after hundreds of Occupy supporters gathered in the park to mark six months since the start of the movement.
 Occupy organizers across the country have been mobilizing for months toward a one-day general strike in May.


2012-03-19 "NYC Activists Reflect On Occupy's Direction" by KAREN MATTHEWS and Tom McElroy from "Associated Press"
NEW YORK -- Occupy Wall Street protesters anticipate that with the coming of spring their movement for economic justice will pick up momentum, making priorities of issues as varied as the environment and the November elections.
But on Sunday, a day after police broke up a rally at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park and arrested dozens, some observers wondered whether a movement so diffuse could accomplish anything.
"I'm really grateful to be part of a generation that wants change, `cause we should all want change," said Jennifer Campbell, a graduate student in documentary filmmaking at Hofstra University. "But I'm not sure what that change is, or if they know what that change is."
And Harlem resident Kanene Holder said the movement is broader than any one issue. "This is not a beauty pageant," she said. "We cannot homogenize this movement into one streamlined vision."
Meanwhile, police were seeking a subpoena to identify an apparent Occupy protester who they said tweeted a threat to kill police officers, spokesman Paul Browne confirmed Sunday.
The New York Post and Daily News reported a message by an apparent Occupy protester saying they won't make a difference if they don't kill a cop or two was tweeted at about 11:40 p.m. Saturday.
The crackdown at Zuccotti happened late Saturday after hundreds of activists had gathered to mark the sixth-month birthday of the movement.
"There was a lot of silliness and just kind of singing and dancing and really very jovial," said Chris Casuccio, who works for a nonprofit organization. "We had some banners up. There was one tarp that was up but it was tiny. It could fit like five people under it."
But Detective Brian Sessa of the NYPD said protesters had started breaking park rules against setting up tents and tarps.
Police said 73 people were detained. It was unclear how many were still in custody late Sunday.
More than 70 people gathered at Union Square Park in lower Manhattan Sunday night and were still there early Monday morning.
Occupy activists said the officers moved in with little warning Saturday and beat some protesters. Police said Sunday they had no information about any protesters being injured.
"They just came in swinging batons," said protester Sandra Nurse. She said a woman began having a seizure and another protester's head was "smashed into a building window."
Casuccio said protesters had little time to leave Zuccotti if they wanted to avoid arrest. "They gave us one quick warning and then just came in, hundreds of people," he said.
Police responded to a request seeking a response to the accusations of brutality by releasing a video that they said showed Cecily McMillan, 23, elbowing a police officer in the face as she is led from Zuccotti Park.
The woman was taken into custody and sent to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric treatment, police said.
A group of council members from New York City were planning a news conference on Monday to denounce what they said was excessive force used by police on the protesters.
As cleaning crews used hoses to erase all signs of the clash on Sunday, Occupy activists offered differing perspectives on where the movement is headed.
"We're going to keep going," said Christopher Guerra, who has spent many nights at Zuccotti since the movement started last Sept. 17. He added, "It's going to get interesting during the election cycle. We're going to be more of a presence in the political world. I know we have a couple of people running for office."
According to Mother Jones magazine, 10 candidates for House and Senate seats in the November elections have made Occupy part of their campaigns. They include Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and Hakeem Jeffries, who is running for Congress in Brooklyn. But some Occupy supporters consider themselves anarchists who abjure electoral politics.
Nurse, a member of Occupy's direct action working group, said she expects college students will have "a huge role to play this summer organizing around student debt." She noted that the issue resonates both with students and with their parents and has the potential to broaden the movement.
Ted Schulman, an Occupy protester who lives near Zuccotti, said his focus is the upcoming United Nation Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He said he wants to "challenge the U.N. on what their vision of a green economy is."
Tourists streamed by Zuccotti on their way to the nearby World Trade Center site on Sunday, and some said they were not familiar with Occupy Wall Street. "We're from Colorado," a teenager in a tour group explained.
Brian Cummings of Columbus Junction, Iowa, said he did know about it.
"I understand the Occupy movement," Cummings said. "I understand a lot of people's frustration. I'm not sure how effective it is. ... Nothing seems to be being accomplished."


2012-03-19 "Cops Get Violent at Occupy Anniversary" from Ryan Devereaux & Jeff Smith
[http://majority.fm/2012/03/19/319-ryan-devereaux-jeff-smith-cops-get-violent-at-occupy-anniversary]
Ryan Devereaux from the Guardian at New York courthouse waiting appearance of Cecily McMillan, woman who suffered seizure Saturday while cuffed by NYPD, reports on general mood of gathering and ensuing melee.  And Jeff Smith, OWS media team, witness to Cecily McMillan brutality, reports on day’s events, police brutality and Occupy’s effort to move forward.  And the senseless killing of Trayvon Martin.  In the better half, criminalizing protest, Coke removes cancer causing ingredient, AARP’s secret plan to undermine medicare and more.  Your calls and IMs.
[http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/majorityfm/03-19-12-Ryan_Devereaux-Jeff_Smith-PUB.mp3]


Compare how the USA treats protesters with Cuba... same days, same amount of people arrested who were conducting the same "Occupy" tactic...
2012-03-19 "Cuba releases detained protesters; Ladies in White members released after about 70 women arrested over weekend in protests ahead of pope's visit to island"
[http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/03/2012318233057607836.html]
 Cuban authorities have released members of a banned dissident women's group who were detained over the weekend, according to a member of the group, days before a visit to the island by Pope Benedict XVI.
About 70 members of Ladies in White had been in custody, including 18 who staged a weekly Sunday march in the country's capital after they left their permitted route through Havana's Miramar neighbourhood.
The women, dressed in their customary white clothing, were rounded up and taken away in buses by police.
But Berta Soler, the leader of the group, and most of those also detained had been released overnight, Magaly Norvis Otero Suarez, a Ladies in White member, told the AFP news agency.
Suarez told Reuters that 16 of the women had been arrested on Saturday evening when they attempted to stage a march in central Havana and another 36 were detained on Sunday morning as they prepared to go to Mass at Santa Rita Catholic Church, then stage their silent march along 5th Avenue, Miramar's main boulevard.
They had gathered at the home of their deceased leader, Laura Pollan, over the weekend to commemorate the anniversary of the 2003 arrest of 75 government opponents that gave rise to the organisation, Otero said.
Human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez said that along with the estimated 70 women detained in Havana, another 12 dissidents were arrested in other provinces.
"The Ladies in White, or "Damas de Blanco" in Spanish, are the wives and mothers of political prisoners who were mostly released as part of a 2010 agreement brokered by the Roman Catholic Church.
The group has continued its weekly marches, which are the only public protests allowed in Cuba, saying there are still more political prisoners to be freed. They are allowed to walk along a 12-block stretch of 5th Avenue, but are quickly detained when they vary from the prescribed route.

Church occupied -
The detentions followed a controversial incident last week when 13 dissidents occupied a Havana Catholic Church demanding that Pope Benedict mediate an end to Communist rule.
After two days, they were removed by police at the Church's request, which raised the heckles of Cuba's small dissident community.
After a three-day visit to Mexico, the German pontiff is scheduled to visit Cuba between March 26-28 in a trip viewed as a show of improved church-state relations after decades of hostilities.
Sanchez said the arrests were "creating a not very favourable climate for the pope's visit."
"The fault lies first with the government for its excessive repression as always, and the Catholic authorities' error for allowing the violent expulsion of dissidents from the church," he said.
Soler has said her group would like to meet briefly with the pope to discuss human rights in Cuba. Church authorities said last week a visit with dissidents was not on the pope's programme.
The Cuban government views dissidents as "mercenaries" in the pay of the United States, which has maintained an economic blockade against the country since the country's revolution in 1959.