Category: protest
A man who identified himself as Brendan Watts was beaten to the ground by police officers in Zuccotti Park. According to reports he was injured and suffered a fractured skull after being hit with a baton to the head as police clashed with protesters. Brendan Watts; photo: Occupy Wall St. on Facebook
. Video below
“I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protestors. The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights and the United States will stand up for them everywhere.”
-Barack Obama,
28 January, 2011
Shocking Images Show Escalating Violence Against OWS
by Beth Buczynski
November 19, 2011
Shocking Images Show Escalating Violence Against OWS | Care2 Causes
November 17th marked the two-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. To demonstrate resilience and solidarity in the face of coordinated crack-downs, Occupiers around the world organized a massive day of action.
Many of these actions were met with marked violence by law enforcement. At UC Davis, a police officer flippantly pepper-sprayed seated college students at point-blank range while a wall of onlookers documented the heartless act.
Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis- YouTube. Crowd chants police out of the quad with “Shame On You” and “You Can Go”
Update: The cop who used the pepper spray, reported to be Lt. John Pike, earns $110,000 a yearâalmost twice that of an experienced assistant professor at UC Davis. Pikeâs cell phone number is (530) 752-3989 (confirmed). His email is japikeiii@ucdavis.edu. Tell him what you think of his violence against these kids and the interests that he serves.
A similar scene played out at Occupy Portland, which was completely destroyed by the Portland Police Department last week. On November 17th, 21 Occupy Portland protesters were arrested occupying Chase Bank and Wells Fargo. These actions followed the arrest of twenty-five union members on the Steel Bridge protesting the lack of infrastructure spending and job creation, which was led by We Are Oregon and organized labor.
see Occupy Portland Under Attack: Police Evict Protesters | Care2 Causes
Over twelve instances of pepper spray at point blank range targeting people on the sidewalk, reported Occupy Portland in a statement. Two people were stepped on and pushed down by police horses. At least six people were beaten with batons by the police. Seven people were injured from impacts with police bicycles. One individual suffered an injured back after being forcefully grabbed by a mounted office. One elderly person was taken to the hospital with leg or hip injuries.
âOn multiple occasions the police pointlessly endangered demonstrators and ensarled traffic, including a mounted charge of peaceful protesters on a sidewalk, forcing them onto the MAX tracks on SW Yamhill,â said David Osborn.
In New York City, the nexus of the Occupy Wall Street movement, over 30,000 people took to the streets (see above) to protest political and economic injustice, and to show support for the recently evicted Zuccotti Park occupation. Over 100 were arrested at the action, including journalists.
A man who identified himself as Brendan Watts was beaten to the ground by police officers in Zuccotti Park. According to reports he was injured and suffered a fractured skull after being hit with a baton to the head as police clashed with protesters.
see Blood on Wall Street: Violent OWS arrests (GRAPHIC PHOTOS, VIDEO) â RT and videos belowAt first, OWS protesters were chanting “Put away the riot gear. I don’t see no riot here” and ‘”This is a nonviolent protest”. But when police went on with tough arrests â it was “Shame” and “This is what a police state looks like” chants all the way.
At 3pm, thousands of students, workers, and other supporters gathered in Union Square chanting âShut the city down!â and using the Peopleâs Mic to share stories of how banks and corporate greed have impacted the 99%. Simultaneously, Occupiers took to multiple subway stations in all five boroughs. The day of action culminated when the student strike, labor unions, and various OWS groups took over a number of streets in Lower Manhattan on their way to Foley Square before marching across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Shocking Images Show Escalating Violence Against OWS | Care2 Causes
Brendan Watts videos (New York)
OWS NYPD Bloody Faced & Crying Protester Ugly Arrest – Brendan Watts – YouTube
Man BLOODIED by NYPD at OccupyWallStreet
photos
Portland
A woman is blasted with pepper spray during Occupy protests in Portland Thursday. (Randy L. Rasmussen, The Oregonian)
“The dramatic photo of a young woman getting a blast of pepper spray on her face during a mostly peaceful Occupy protest in Portland is destined to become an enduring image of the national movement.”
Portland pepper spray incident generates iconic Occupy photo – KDVR
Seattle
Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at Westlake Park. Protesters gathered in the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pine Street after marching from their camp at Seattle Central Community College in support of Occupy Wall Street. Many refused to move from the intersection after being ordered by police. Police then began spraying pepper spray into the gathered crowd hitting dozens of people. A pregnant woman was taken from the melee in an ambulance after being struck with spray. Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO / SEATTLEPI.COM
Seattle Police officers deploy pepper spray into a crowd during an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 at Westlake Park. Photo by Joshua Trujillo, seattlepi.com
PHOTOS: Elderly woman, pregnant woman hit with pepper spray at Occupy Seattle | Seattle's Big Blog – seattlepi.com
New York
Try arresting that!
“brooklyn bridge gettin it! covered end to end. Try arresting that!”
Occupy Wall St. on Facebook | Wall Photos
LONDON â Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said he is worried about the growing number of monks and nuns setting themselves on fire in southwest China, in an interview broadcast Saturday.
The Dalai Lama told the BBC that those setting themselves alight were courageous, but questioned how effective self-immolation was as a form of protest against Chinese rule.
“The question is how much effect” the self-immolations have, the 76-year-old asked British broadcaster.
“That’s the question. There is courage — very strong courage. But how much effect? Courage alone is no substitute. You must utilise your wisdom.”
Eight Buddhist monks and two nuns have set themselves alight in ethnically Tibetan parts of Sichuan province since the self-immolation of a young monk in March at Kirti monastery sparked a government crackdown.
Activists say that at least five monks and two nuns have died and that Chinese police have at times responded by beating the burning protesters and their colleagues rather than providing assistance.
Asked whether the self-immolations could make life worse for people in Tibet, the Dalai Lama said: “Many Tibetans sacrifice their lives.
“Nobody knows how many people killed and tortured — I mean death through torture. Nobody knows.
“But a lot of people suffer. But how much effect? The Chinese respond harder.”
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, founded a government in exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala after being offered refuge there.
He remains revered in China’s Tibetan areas but is vilified as a “separatist” by China’s communist authorities. (AFP)
DHARAMSHALA â Expressing her support and solidarity with the Tibetan people, a prominent Chinese research scholar living in Sydney has strongly criticized the Chinese government’s repressive policies on Tibet for the last six decades.
In an article, Dr Chen Hongxin, a research scholar of Chinese contemporary politics, described the recent self-immolations by Tibetans since March as a way of protest against the Chinese government’s wrong policy on Tibetans and their religious belief.
âAt least six Tibetans have died as a result of self-immolation, and they have called for religious freedom, the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom in Tibet.â
Dr Chen also wrote about critical questions that people might raise, why âhappy and prosperous Tibetansâ are ending their lives through self-immolations. Why the Tibetan monks who respect life and practice Buddhism for millenia by renouncing ill-feelings, are now burning themselves to death one after another?
âThe answers underlying these questions lies in the truth of past 60 years which will bring tears in the eyes of the international community. In fact, through successive generations, the Tibetans have not only etched their history, but also exposed the Chinese government’s propaganda through peaceful protests,â she wrote.
The article contained criticism of China’s draconian measures towards the Tibetan monastic community. âDespite reconstruction of Tibetan monasteries in 1980s, the authorities imposed restrictions on the admission of Tibetans into monasteries, made âpatriotic educationâ, which involves denouncing His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a compulsory subject for monks to study.
Dr Chen further wrote about her impression of Mr Xi Jinping’s visit to Lhasa this year. âDuring his visit to Lhasa, the future Chinese president, Xi Jinping, not only did not meet Tibetans, but did not even visit a monastery. On the contrary, he met with officials from the police, army, political and judicial authorities. This act has exposed the Chinese government’s intention of brutal and repressive policy on Tibet.â (tibet.net)
Little Boxes – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “Little Boxes” is a song written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962, which became a hit for her friend Pete Seeger in 1963.
The song is a political satire about the development of suburbia and associated conformist middle-class attitudes. It refers to suburban tract housing as “little boxes” of different colors “all made out of ticky-tacky”, and which “all look just the same.” “Ticky-tacky” is a reference to the shoddy material used in the construction of housing of that time.
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there’s doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
see also > what next: If I Had A Hammer
Nonviolent direct action seeks to
create such a crisis and foster such a
tension that a community which has
constantly refused to negotiate is
forced to confront the issue. It seeks
to so dramatize the issue that it can
no longer be ignored.
…Martin Luther King Jr…
4/16/63
- Labels: big brother, corporations, corruption, greed, protest
Rankin & Dub Ainu Band “You can’t see it, and you can’t smell it either “
english subtitles
Radiation is scary, radiation is dangerous, you can’t see or smell it, and you can’t run from it
Independent Media Center | www.indymedia.org | ((( i ))): “Lies, Damn Lies, and Safe Nuclear Power – by Stephen Lendman
In any form, nuclear power is inherently unsafe. For decades, nuclear expert Helen Caldicott warned it must be abandoned, saying:
‘As a physician, I contend that nuclear technology threatens life on our planet with extinction. If present trends continue, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink will soon be contaminated with enough radioactive pollutants to pose a potential health hazard far greater than any plague humanity has ever experienced.’
Anti-nuclear activist/expert Professor Karl Grossman agrees, calling ‘Atomic Energy: Unsafe in the Real World’ in his June 29 article, saying:
‘Nuclear power requires perfection and no acts of God’ to avoid accidents that may become catastrophes. Humans and technology aren’t perfect. Natural and other type disasters happen. ‘(W)e can’t eliminate them. But we can – and must eliminate atomic energy’ or it will eliminate us.
On March 18, Bloomberg said Japan’s Fukushima disaster ‘follows decades of falsified safety reports, fatal accidents and underestimated earthquake risks in Japan’s atomic power industry.’
The same is true in America and elsewhere – governments, regulators, and power companies suppressing vital truths, instead of shutting down inherently unsafe plants, making all of them ticking bombs…”
whats up: You can't see it, and you can't smell it either | Nuclear Nightmare Unfolding: “Everyone knows about Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and, now, Fukushima. But what about Semipalatinsk, Palomares and Kyshtym? The world is full of nuclear disaster zones — showing just how dangerous the technology really is.”
Anonymous (used as a mass noun) is a term used in two senses. As an Internet meme it represents the concept of many online community users, or the online community itself, acting anonymously in a coordinated manner, usually toward a loosely self-agreed goal. It is also a label adopted by specific loose groups of people who undertake protests and other actions under the title “Anonymous,” which derives from the same meme. It is generally considered to be a blanket term for members of certain Internet subcultures.
Actions credited to “Anonymous” are undertaken by unidentified individuals who apply the Anonymous label to themselves as attribution. After a series of controversial, widely-publicized protests and reprisal DDoS attacks by Anonymous in 2008, incidents linked to its cadre members are said to be increasingly common.
Although not necessarily tied to a single online entity, many websites are strongly associated with Anonymous. This includes notable imageboards such as 4chan and Futaba, their associated wikis, Encyclopædia Dramatica, and a number of forums.
Anonymous broadly represents the concept of any and all people as an unnamed collective. Definitions tend to emphasize the fact that the term cannot be readily encompassed by a simple definition, and instead it is often defined by aphorisms describing perceived qualities.
“Anonymous is the first internet-based superconsciousness. Anonymous is a group, in the sense that a flock of birds is a group. How do you know they’re a group? Because they’re travelling in the same direction. At any given moment, more birds could join, leave, peel off in another direction entirely.”
âLanders, Chris, Baltimore City Paper, April 2, 2008.
In late 2010, the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks came under intense pressure to stop publishing secret United States diplomatic cables. In response, Anonymous announced its support for WikiLeaks. Operation Payback changed its focus to support WikiLeaks and launched DDoS attacks against PayPal, MasterCard, Visa and the Swiss bank PostFinance, in retaliation for perceived anti-WikiLeaks behavior under the codename of Operation Avenge Assange. Due to the attacks, both MasterCard and Visa’s websites were brought down on December 8th. A threat researcher at PandaLabs said Anonymous also launched an attack which brought down the Swedish prosecutor’s website when WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in London and refused bail in relation to extradition to Sweden. (read more) (video clip)
Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, react as their car is attacked by protesters in London. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP
A Rolls-Royce limousine carrying Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, was attacked and 12 police officers were injured in London late Thursday amid violent student protests.
A rear window was smashed and the vehicle was splattered with paint as up to 20 demonstrators lunged at the vehicle, carrying the couple to a theater in the West End.
Clarence House said the couple were “unharmed” and they arrived on time at the London Palladium for the Royal Variety Performance, although the Duchess of Cornwall appeared shaken by the ordeal.
Reports said the vehicle was attacked with fists, kicks and bottles, with protesters chanting “Off with their heads!” and “Tory scum.”
Clashes escalated among thousands of students gathered in parts of the capital Thursday evening after MPs controversially voted to increase UK college fees from £3,290 ($5,200) to £9,000 ($14,000) per year — a vote that saw splits within the ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. (read more)
- Labels: audacity, protest, revolution
The “kettling” that Barnaby talks about here is when the police surround demonstators and hold them, in this case in the freezing cold.
- Labels: big brother, England, freedom, protest
Thousands of students and lecturers are descending on London to demonstrate against plans to almost treble tuition fees in England to £9,000 per year.
The National Union of Students is threatening to try to unseat MPs who go back on pre-election pledges to oppose any rise in tuition fees.
It says the Liberal Democrats face an electoral “wipeout” if they break their pledge to vote against higher fees.
The coalition government says its plans are “fairer” than the current system.
But the UCU lecturers’ union leader, Sally Hunt, attacked the proposals which will see the upper limit for fees rising from £3,290 to £9,000 per year from 2012.
Student targets
“There is nothing fair or progressive about tripling the cost of a degree and axing college grants that are often the difference between students being able to study or not,” said Ms Hunt.
Student leaders say they expect 24,000 people to take part in the demonstration in Westminster.
They say they will try to use the proposed “right to recall” legislation to unseat MPs who ditch their election pledge to oppose an increase in tuition fees.
- Labels: government, non violent direct action, protest