2012-02-06 "Occupy Oakland is target of protest" by Justin Berton, Demian Bulwa, Kevin Fagan from "San Francisco Chronicle"
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/06/BA0M1N3L93.DTL]
A face-off between Occupy Oakland activists and members of a new group that formed to protest their tactics erupted Monday in front of Oakland City Hall, with both sides accusing each other of missing the point of the Occupy movement.
About 40 people identifying themselves as members of Stand for Oakland gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza at noon to denounce what they said was violence and vandalism by Occupy Oakland protesters in recent weeks.
"I'm fed up with this movement," said Duad Abdullah, 51, an Oakland resident who said he has volunteered in city programs for more than 20 years. "It's fallen off to the negative side and hasn't brought about any change."
Abdullah and others said they sympathized with Occupy Oakland's focus on economic disparity, but said clashes with police had drained the city's scant resources. They cited in particular activists' trashing of parts of City Hall after a failed attempt Jan. 28 to take over the long-empty Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.
The Stand for Oakland group was outnumbered by more than 150 Occupy Oakland protesters. Several Occupy activists confronted the new group, saying any violence and property damage during their actions was in reaction to heavy-handedness by Oakland police.
They said police should save the city money by leaving them alone.
The Stand for Oakland rally participants made a point of getting a permit for their rally, drawing a contrast with Occupy Oakland. They included City Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who had briefly joined Occupy's encampment in its early days outside City Hall.
"They still haven't put forth an agenda that's beyond themselves," said Brooks, who differentiated between the larger movement and a handful of people she said had tarnished it. "What is it they're asking us to support? They're asking us to tolerate breaking into vacant buildings? For anyone else, that's straight-up criminal behavior."
Members of the Occupy group skirmished with police when officers ordered them to turn off a loudspeaker system, saying they had no permit and had sparked complaints.
Activists ignored the first warning, then protested that they were complying when officers in riot helmets moved in and snatched some of the equipment in a tug-of-war. While officers carried away an amplifier and speakers, a knot of activists managed to wrestle away a generator.
"It's another attempt to squash this movement," said Brian Glasscock, 20, who said he owned the confiscated gear. "It's like they don't even want us to talk about Occupy anymore."
Afterward, the Occupy and Stand for Oakland groups had different takes on what had happened - illustrating the varying views of how police have dealt with Occupy Oakland since its protests began nearly five months ago.
"I thought the police did what they had to do," said Marilyn Singleton, a 64-year-old doctor from Oakland who was with the Stand for Oakland group. "They can't let them run amok."
Valerie Carey, a 36-year-old Occupy Oakland activist who said she is looking for a job in community development, said the clash was an example of police repression.
"They came in with too much force," she said. "We have a right to assemble."
After an hour the Stand for Oakland activists left. The Occupy Oakland gathering marched to a nearby courthouse to denounce the prosecution of members of the group, including 11 protesters who were arraigned Monday on charges related to a demonstration in early January.
Ken Woolfe (left) becomes exasperated talking with Occupy members in front of City Hall. A rally by a group of people angered by the Occupy Oakland movement was joined by Occupy Oakland members and became confrontational.
Photo: Brant Ward / The Chronicle
Occupy Oakland protesters try to block the police from removing audio equipment used by the movement in front of Oakland City Hall. A rally by a group of people angered by the Occupy Oakland movement was joined by Occupy Oakland members and became confrontational.
Photo: Brant Ward / The Chronicle
[http://www.nlchp.org/news.cfm?id=178]:
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty [www.nlchp.org] [202-638-2535]
--- In an unprecedented letter to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, the United Nations has delivered a clear message: by not providing sanitation and safe drinking water, the city is violating the human rights of homeless persons. The letter, sent by UN Special Rapporteur Catarina de Albuquerque, cites targeted closings of public restrooms, decommissioning of water fountains, and a lack of other clean water sources as blatant violations. Albuquerque visited Sacramento in February 2011, as part of a fact-finding mission organized by the Law Center and Sacramento-based Safe Ground and Legal Services of Northern California. She heard direct testimony from homeless campers, who are forced to rely on makeshift privy systems to deal with privacy and human waste issues. "The UN has delivered a powerful message: the U.S. doesn't get a free pass on its human rights violations. Sacramento must take immediate steps to address the needs of its homeless population, " said Eric Tars, human rights program director at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (the Law Center). "Access to water and sanitary facilities is one of the most fundamental of human rights -- essential to everyone's health, dignity, and continued life. "
2012-02-07 "Who is 'Stand For Oakland'?" an info brief for Occupy Oakland by Matthew Jackson [http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/02/07/18706824.php]: Download the pdf [http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2012/02/07/whoisstandwithoakland.pdf] for images. Whether one agrees or not with these characterizations of Occupy Oakland and its internal dynamics, what is apparent is that the pro-police, conservative, and business lobbyists at the forefront of Monday's "Stand For Oakland" rally do not speak for, nor do they even understand the alienation and miscommunication that is affecting Occupy Oakland's relationship to many Oaklanders today. They are attempting to capitalize upon it, however. Occupy's organizers, especially those who were central to planning the January 28 actions that were subject to intense police violence and media disinformation, should attempt to better understand this popular dissatisfaction lest more reactionary, anti-democratic voices take the lead as they did on Monday. --- On Monday, February 6 a small group of protesters calling themselves "Stand For Oakland" gathered at 11:45 in front of City Hall. A single publicity notice for the protest was widely circulated on local blogs and neighborhood email lists at least several days prior. Verbatim, it reads; "Come take a "Stand for Oakland" with Residents, Merchants and Downtown Businesses who have been the silent majority. "On Monday, residents of Oakland will make a peaceful, visual statement opposing the vandalizing and terrorizing of our city - costing millions of dollars in security and lost revenue and causing a forced re-prioritization of citizen calls, on an already strapped police force, due to downtown chaos and violence. "Oakland is worth Standing up for. Look for the arm bands, and come get one: stand in solidarity with Oakland." [http://oaklandlocal.com/posts/2012/02/stand-oakland-community-event-called-downtown-monday-feb-6] This call, obviously, but not by name, targeting Occupy Oakland as a source of "terror" and "violence," invokes multiple other tropes that have been used by business lobbyists and political authorities in attempts to undermine support for the local Occupy movement. It calls on "residents" to oppose "vandalism" and "terrorism," implying subtly that these acts are committed by non-resident outsiders. The call also invokes the loss of security to "citizens" because of "downtown chaos and violence," which in turn invokes various racial images in a city like Oakland where many residents are in fact non-citizen immigrants. Downtown Oakland has for decades been a synonym for black and immigrant poverty in the eyes of residents of the Oakland hills and surrounding, more affluent and whiter cities and suburbs. No contact information, sponsorships, authorship, or any other identifier appeared on the "Stand For Oakland" invitation. It is difficult to tell who is actually behind the event. Further confusion is sown due to the fact that the anti-recall effort supporting Jean Quan is called "Stand With Oakland." Based on background research into some of the persons who appeared at the "Stand For Oakland" protest, and who spoke to the press on the group's behalf, and upon emails sent through neighborhood lists, it is our tentative conclusion that "Stand For Oakland" is likely the production of a handful of relative conservative Oakland political activists, and several members of the Oakland business lobby. They have, however, tapped a genuine frustration among many centrist liberals who for a variety of reasons feel alienated from Occupy Oakland, and who have been swayed by the now predominant framing —spread now incessantly by most major newspapers and TV stations— of the movement as causing "violence."
The conservatives - Two prominent voices at the "Stand For Oakland" rally quoted by news media were Marilyn Singleton and Nancy Sidebotham [http://www.mercurynews.com/occupy/ci_19903621]. According to the the San Jose Mercury News, Singleton and Sidebotham "support the original message of Occupy Oakland but are now concerned that the movement has been taken over by a fringe group that advocates violence." Marilyn Singleton is as a 64 year-old Oakland resident, but no other information is given by the news media about whether she actually has supported the "original message" of Occupy Oakland. A web search for information on Singleton cast serious doubt on this claim. Singleton is a candidate for Congress running against Barbara Lee. She is a conservative black Republican. A Youtube video posted by the Solano Tea Party Patriots features Singleton as their "special guest speaker" at a BBQ last September. A caption in the video identifies her as a "Tea Party Candidate." [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgnTG_nw7SE]
Singleton is a member of "Republicans for Black Empowerment," a social networking site established to connect conservative black political activists. According to the group's web site, Republicans for Black Empowerment "believe misinformation rather than adequate 'return on investment' cements black allegiance to the Democratic Party." [http://blackgop.ning.com] Singleton appears to agree with this tenet. On another member's wall she wrote last year: "I am in Oakland, another place where black folks are in serious need of education about how the Democratic Party has merely used them for votes, but given nothing in return." [http://blackgop.ning.com/group/rbecalifornia?groupUrl=rbecalifornia&xg_source=activity&id=2623483%3AGroup%3A3943&page=2#comments] On her Facebook page Singleton describes herself as a "nonpartisan" "conservative." Along with her background in medicine —she has been an anesthesiologist since 1973— Singleton describes herself as "a concerned citizen who wants to put Washington on a diet." She says that if elected to Congress, she would "promote policies that renew our spirit of personal responsibility, create a business-friendly environment, encourage community and market-based solutions to social problems, and foster a free society guided by a moral compass." Her platform is, in to sum it up, one of austerity and punishment similar to that of the national Republican Party. Her Facebook wall is filled with links to various ultra-conservative web sites. For example, on January 6 of this year she linked an article detailing claims by a Heritage Foundation fellow that "voter fraud is all too common in America today," and that "voter ID prevents election fraud." Singleton takes various anti-immigrant positions on her campaign web site. For example, among the five major issues she presents is "illegal immigration." Following the link provided Singleton explains, "illegal immigration is not about ethnicity; it is about our safety and security. We cannot have drug dealers, human traffickers, terrorists, and weapons freely crossing our borders – North and South [http://singletonforcongress.org/index.html?ifrm_2=illegalimmigration.html]. Marilyn Singleton addressing a Tea Party rally, Sept. 2011 These references to "terrorists" and "security" somewhat echo the "Stand For Oakland" rally's invitation in referencing "citizen" and "violence" and "chaos." Singleton expresses dissatisfaction with current policies allowing ICE access to local jails and police departments where the agency can identify and deport undocumented persons. According to Singleton, "more needs to be done." Singleton expresses dissatisfaction at "illegal workers" who "use our medical, social, and educational services without contributing." She expresses support for the anti-immigrant policies of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation [http://www.krieble.org/]. On education issues she says she would, "introduce legislation to eliminate the Department of Education," as would former GOP presidential primary candidate Rick Perry ("Oops!"). She promotes charter schools as the solution to educational inequality; "we must remove restrictive barriers to opening new charter schools, private schools, and home schooling co-ops, especially in the minority and economically depressed communities" [http://singletonforcongress.org/index.html?ifrm_2=education.html]. On taxes and the economy Singleton expresses a pro-corporate and pro-wealth attitude, saying, "excessive corporate taxation destroys jobs, entrepreneurship, and innovation," and calls for budget cutting measures at the federal level. "The ultimate cure is to stop the out-of-control spending and stop the waste and duplication of agencies and services" [http://singletonforcongress.org/index.html?ifrm_2=economy.html]
. As part of her campaign against Rep. Barbara Lee, Singleton attempted to link Rep. Lee with Occupy Oakland in a letter to the Oakland Tribute on January 31; "One group of protesters invaded the YMCA. Some threw rocks and bottles and tore down fencing outside the Kaiser Convention Center. Many broke into City Hall (which was closed for the weekend), where they burned flags, broke an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a children's recycled art exhibit. Yet our congressional representative, Barbara Lee, has supported the protesters, believing they should be allowed to "occupy whatever spaces they are occupying," including overnight stays in public areas. Despite the protesters' purposefully provoking the police, she has asserted that the police "overreacted" to this "nonviolent movement." Despite her support for the Occupy Oakland demonstrations, Lee has said that she had not gone, nor planned to go, to the site of the Oakland protests. Our police now are being monitored by federal overseers, but who is providing guidance and encouragement for peaceful protests? It certainly is not our federal representative" [http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_19861663]. Singleton appears to be a resident of the Oakland hills due to the fact that her son attended the more exclusive Skyline High School [http://singletonforcongress.org/index.html?ifrm_2=bio.html]. As for her political philosophy (perhaps it would be more accurate to say consciousness?), among other things she explains that: "...the existence of bigotry should never be used to skirt the rule of law, excuse bad behavior, or to fuel class and race warfare," and that she sees: "no value in bashing 'the rich'. Politicians would like you to equate 'the rich' with private jets and those who 'shop till
you drop.' The 'rich' are mostly people of modest means who have moved up the ladder of success."
Nancy Sidebotham is a pro-Oakland Police Department activists who has run for city council on several occasions. Her pro-police advocacy has been so intense, she explains on a past campaign web site, "that I have been the target of a drive-by shooting because I stood on the side of the police" [http://web.archive.org/web/20010419073358/http://www.nancysidebotham.com/page361394.htm]. Sidebotham's political activism spans other issues, from fighting to obtain streetlights in dark sections of her neighborhood, to forming merchants groups, opposing the construction of big box stores in East Oakland, and fighting PG&E utility surtaxes. She has put most energy into pro-police activities, however. Sidebotham chairs a Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council, neighborhood groups that cooperate and which are funded by the police, and which use police officer staff resources [http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityAdministration/d/NSD/DOWD005094]. Sidebotham's last web postings for her campaign for City Council in 2010 was headlined "OAKLAND IS OUR CITY!" It explains her opposition to any budget cuts affecting the police department, and opposition to policies such as Quan's 100 block plan that would have focused police resources in areas experiencing the highest levels of violent crime: "I am a very strong advocate of hiring qualified individuals to become Oakland Police Officers and fully staffing the Department to the level that represents the population of this wonderful city. Micro-management of OPD by politics and the politicians has got to stop. The laws are very clear; OPD's function is to uphold them and to serve and protect the citizen's of Oakland. The crime in Oakland is citywide not just in one or two neighborhoods. Once OPD is allowed to function as a full department vs. one of maintenance, we will start to see positive change, which in turn will bring down crime. Through the great programs of Neighborhood Watch (NW), Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council's (NCPC) and the philosophy of Community Policing, until recently,these have been a driving force that has brought partnering to a new level between the community and OPD" [http://web.archive.org/web/20110211042856/http://nancysidebotham.com/]. Sidebotham's political philosophy seems to be a mixed kind of anti-corporate populism with strong support for the police state. She does not seem to understand that broad swaths of Oakland's communities do not identify with or trust the police due to past and current patterns and practices of racial profiling, brutality, and other abuses. Sidebotham, like others who attended the "Stand For Oakland" rally, is a supporter of the recall effort targeting Mayor Jean Quan
[http://oaklandnorth.net/2011/10/26/group-seeks-to-recall-oakland-mayor-jean-quan/]. Joining Sidebotham at the "Stand For Oakland" rally was Angela Haller, another East Oakland foothills resident who is the Crime & Safety Team Chair for Beat 22X Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council. Haller has also advocated for increasing the police department's budget and is a long-time pro-police activist[http://macarthurmetro.org/201004/news/3835].
The Business Lobby - The Public Policy Director of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce Paul Junge participated in and helped publicize the "Stand For Oakland" rally. Prior to joining the Chamber, Junge's LinkedIn account [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-junge/12/805/44] shows that he was an "options trader" at the Cutler Group, LP, a financial corporation headquartered on Montgomery Street in San Francisco that trades in equity derivatives [http://www.cutlergrouplp.com/index.html]. Prior to this Junge was a television news anchor. Junge has never pretended to identify with the goals of Occupy. His Facebook page in fact reveals that he voted "no" in response to a poll asking "do you support the Occupy Wall Street Movement?" Junge and the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce appear to be behind the Facebook group "Jobs Not Tents," which in spite of its meager following of just 54 Facebook users, has attempted to publicize various anti-Occupy Oakland articles and press releases, mostly other Chamber propaganda. Joining Junge at the "Stand For Oakland" protest was local real estate developer Phil Tagami [http://www.insidebayarea.com/top-stories/ci_19903622]. Tagami achieved notoriety during earlier protests when he patrolled the Rotunda Building, which he owns, with a shotgun, threatening to murder protesters. Tagami appears in CBS video footage of the "Stand For Oakland" protest as another anti-Occupy activists ties an armband on him [http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/02/06/occupy-oakland-protesters-counter-protesters-gather-at-city-hall/]. Another "Stand For Oakland" participant, Daud Abdullah, said of Phil Tagami when he was appointed to the State Lottery Panel in January of this year by current Governor, and former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown (a friend of Tagami's); "Truly a really good person has been put in this position" [http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/2012/01/11/brown-names-oaklands-tagami-to-lottery-panel/]. Tagami is a key player in the downtown Oakland business lobby. In the early 2000s he occupied a seat on the Port of Oakland's board. He has exerted intense pressure on city politicians to eradicate Occupy Oakland, which like Junge he has never pretended to support.
The "Citizens" and "Residents" - The above mentioned Daud Abdullah who has expressed admiration for Tagami appears to be a centrist, Democratic-Party leaning Oakland resident and civic activist. Abdullah was quoted in multiple news articles about the "Stand For Oakland" rally. He has been rewarded by conservative members of the City Council for unknown "services." Libby Schaaf —currently co-sponsoring legislation targeting Occupy that calls for the city to "use whatever lawful tools we have [...] to prevent future shutdowns or disruptions of any port operations"— gifted Abdullah two Oakland A's tickets last summer for "service to the City of Oakland" [http://www.oaklandnet.com/form802/Default.asp?id=5031]. Another Oakland "resident," Ken Woolfe, is pictured in a San Francisco Chronicle article that describes him as "exasperated" after talking to Occupy Oakland activists at the "Stand For Oakland" event [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/06/BA0M1N3L93.DTL]. Woolfe, according to public records, appears to be a home owner in the Dimond neighborhood. He is a semi-retired employee of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He made small campaign contributions to Barack Obama in 2008. Email messages sent via the Dimond Neighborhood listserv and other email lists connecting homeowners, mostly in the middle class foothill areas of the city, but also in some pockets of the flatlands, show mixed levels of support for the "Stand For Oakland" rally. Dialog over the web indicates that the rally was more than just the product of pro-police and conservative activists and Chamber of Commerce representatives. One "neighbor" posting on an Oakland list is representative of the mood; "[the press] took picture of my sign "Occupy Wall St. not Oakland". Some who stood by us were from OO and were dismayed about the violence but felt ineffective in stopping it. If we did any good - it may have been to have OO notice the violence is destructive to the movement and how they are losing support of the community. I think that concerns them - we were invited to come to their meeting. Maybe we should - but people are feeling that they would be shouted down - maybe we should anyway. BTW everyone mentioned that they still support the original concept of OO." Another "neighbor" from East Oakland communicates a more complex position than the leaders and spokespersons of the "Stand For Oakland" rally over a neighborhood list; "Stand for Oakland is a reaction to the mayhem. It's not about the corruption of government, the abuse of power, the grand theft of our resources and the destruction of the middle class. I understand how it happened and why it's there. But it's a reaction to a reaction to a reaction... I am far more interested in your second point; which is our citizens figuring out ways to take back our Occupy and behave appropriately. Making it inhospitable for those who cannot abide by non-violent civil disobedience is exactly what has to happen and any of us being an armchair quarterback or joining some other group isn't going to help." Whether one agrees or not with these characterizations of Occupy Oakland and its internal dynamics, what is apparent is that the pro-police, conservative, and business lobbyists at the forefront of Monday's "Stand For Oakland" rally do not speak for, nor do they even understand the alienation and miscommunication that is affecting Occupy Oakland's relationship to many Oaklanders today. They are attempting to capitalize upon it, however. Occupy's organizers, especially those who were central to planning the January 28 actions that were subject to intense police violence and media disinformation, should attempt to better understand this popular dissatisfaction lest more reactionary, anti-democratic voices take the lead as they did on Monday.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
2012-02-05 "Police hold smaller Occupy Oakland protest in check" by Kevin Fagan, Vivian Ho, Will Kane, Michael Cabanatuan from "San Francisco Chronicle"
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/04/BAOL1N3901.DTL&feed=rss.news]
A week after a violent protest by Occupy demonstrators resulted in more than 400 arrests, calm reigned Saturday night as a small crowd of about 100 marchers was turned away from the Oakland Police Department, then paraded around downtown and North Oakland.
No violence was reported by late Saturday, and at 10:35 p.m., ebullient protesters called that a victory as they streamed back into Frank Ogawa Plaza, the Occupy protest's epicenter in Oakland.
"It was an amazing action," said Sarah Carlson, 29, of San Francisco. "Even people who have different ideas tactically about how to approach these things were disciplined."
The march left the plaza in front of Oakland City Hall just before 9 p.m. and headed down Broadway toward the Police Department headquarters on Seventh Street. Near the rear of the march, Zachary Running Wolf, a well-known East Bay protester, burned an American flag and left it in the middle of Broadway.
Gary Easley, 33, of Oakland, picked up the charred flag, and put it around his neck.
"I felt bad," he said.
As the marchers neared Eighth Street - chanting "Whose streets? Our streets!" - they encountered a line of about 50 Oakland police officers in riot gear, and headed east on Eighth Street into Chinatown.
"They're too small," Jacques Rivera, who works at Revolution Books, said of the crowd of protesters. "They're being cautious and strategic. They're not going to take a small march and get everyone arrested."
The police - some on foot, some in vans and black sport-utility vehicles - followed the marchers as they weaved through downtown Oakland, then headed north on West Street. Their ultimate destination was unclear.
As they marched, the protesters chanted: "We are nonviolent," "All cops are bastards," "We are peaceful, the pigs are not." Two helicopters followed the crowd as it worked its way through usually quiet North Oakland residential neighborhoods.
The passing parade of protesters followed by police drew curious residents out of their houses and onto the sidewalks.
"I heard the chanting outside the house and came outside to see what was going on," said Steve, 27, who would not give his last name. "I'm a strong supporter and a righteous believer (in Occupy). But it's kind of like, 'What are they accomplishing with this now?' "
Police and Oakland officials had worried that the march would turn into a repeat of last Saturday when a peaceful afternoon protest swirled into chaos and violence later in the day. More than 400 were arrested as they tried to seize the long-vacant Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, entered the Oakland YMCA and broke into Oakland City Hall, where they vandalized the ground floor.
The nasty conflict prompted a week of sometimes angry debate over the tactics of Occupy protesters and police alike. Despite calls for a commitment to nonviolence from city officials and some inside the Occupy movement - and the issuance of stay-away orders against 11 protesters - Occupy leaders called another in their series of what they termed "F- the Police" protests.
Statements posted on the Occupy Oakland website before Saturday's march urged those opposed to violence or vandalism to either steer clear or avoid interfering with those willing to engage in mayhem.
"If you identify as peaceful and are likely to interfere with the actions of your fellow protesters in any way (including telling them to stop performing a particular action, grappling, assaulting or holding them for arrest), you may not want to attend this march," one statement read. "It is a militant action. It attracts anti-capitalists, anti-fascists and other comrades of a revolutionary bent. It is not a march intended for people who are not fully comfortable with diversity of tactics."
In Frank Ogawa Plaza before the march, many in the crowd said the "diversity of tactics" included nonviolent civil disobedience. A man over the loudspeaker told the gathering crowd: "This is a nonviolent thing. It's going to be nonviolent like every other night."
After the march, Melvin Kelley, 19, of Oakland, said the online messages about violence and vandalism had been misconstrued.
"We're not going to tell them to do it," he said. "We're not going to tell them not to do it. We don't want them to set fires or anything, but we don't want to be starting confrontation within our group."
Occupy Oakland held a rally and march from Frank Ogawa Plaza to OPD Headquarters in downtown Oakland, CA to protest alleged police brutality against Occupiers. Saturday Feb. 4th, 2012.
Photo: Michael Short / Special to the Chronicle
The Move-In Assembly was created on December 24, following a proposal
passed at Occupy Oakland's General Assembly. It has been holding open
assemblies of approximately 80 people twice a week since December 28.
2012-02-04 "Powerful developer with land in Benicia accused of death threats in Nevada" by Matthias Gafni and Lisa Vorderbrueggen from "MediaNews Group"
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_19892868?source=most_viewed]
A lawsuit accuses the leaders of a powerful Contra Costa County family of threatening to kill a prominent Nevada lobbyist and friend of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid after a business deal went bad.
After the multimillion dollar Nevada real estate venture fell apart last year, Harvey Whittemore claims Albert Seeno Jr. and his son Albert III began threatening him and his family, even sending thugs to their homes to force open a safe and breaking into a house to steal computer equipment while Albert III waited in a getaway car.
The political power broker and his wife are seeking $1.8 billion in damages, claiming the Seeno father and son were involved in racketeering, extortion, grand larceny and threats. No criminal charges have been filed, and a Seeno attorney on Friday dismissed the allegations.
The federal court civil suit filed Wednesday alleged fraud among other things. It also names Thomas Seeno, Albert Jr.'s brother.
Whittemore, the Las Vegas gaming, alcohol and tobacco lobbyist, alleges that Seeno Jr. threatened to "take down" the state's "political machine" by telling the FBI about alleged financial misappropriations.
The lawsuit also includes tales of rifts and family secrets among the tight-lipped Seenos, including one brother who allegedly threatened to "murder" another.
The Seeno family has sued and been sued numerous times. A year ago, the FBI raided the company's Concord headquarters, and the company and its leaders have been fined for environmental and gaming violations over the years.
For years, the Seenos' Discovery Builders tried to develop a business park on 527 undeveloped acres in northeast Benicia. But the developer dropped the project in July 2010 after putting it on hold, citing the slumping economy.
At the time, Seeno Jr. said the "climate" for processing anything at Benicia City Hall was "intolerable." He also accused Mayor Elizabeth Patterson of making "slanderous comments about me and my family on the public record." Patterson, however, accused the developer of trying to discredit her for pointing out his past federal Endangered Species Act violations.
This lawsuit comes a week after the Seenos sued Whittemore in Las Vegas, claiming he embezzled and misappropriated tens of millions of dollars from their joint company to finance a lavish lifestyle and curry political favor.
Seeno attorney Kent Robison of Reno said Whittemore's suit was retaliation.
"It is beyond fiction the accusations he's making, and essentially they are garbage. The act of a desperate man doing desperate things," Robison said.
The allegations of physical violence are "brand new nonsense," Robison said. "He never expressed a word of fear before."
As the housing market exploded in Nevada in 2004, Thomas Seeno, of Alamo, bought half interest in Wingfield Nevada Group, a conglomeration of business enterprises developed by Whittemore valued then at more than $500 million, according to the suit.
Thomas Seeno asked Whittemore whether his brother, Albert Seeno Jr., a Clayton resident, could buy an interest, the suit alleges, saying Albert Jr. would bring tremendous resources to the deal. "Albert and Tom had been 'fighting' for years, and they saw the WNG investment as a way to bring the brothers back together," according to the suit.
Albert Jr. bought a one-third interest in February 2007, leaving all three men with equal ownership. By then, the company was worth $500 million to $1 billion.
As part of the agreement, the Whittemores over the years borrowed about $20 million from Tom Seeno, the suit alleges.
The Seenos would come after that money.
As the housing market dried up, the relationship between Whittemore and the Seeno brothers soured.
In February 2009, Whittemore claims Albert Jr. and Tom asked for his help because the family owed the IRS more than $500 million.
Whittemore, an attorney, claims he used a tax strategy allowing the Seenos to defer their taxes, negotiate new credit lines and increase their cash flow.
In August 2010, with the development market crumbling, Albert Jr. became disgruntled and accused Whittemore of embezzlement, fraud and other criminal activity. They met at the family's Peppermill Hotel and Casino.
"At the conclusion of these threats, (Seeno Jr.) reminded Mr. Whittemore of the threats he had made about murdering his own brother, Thomas Seeno, with his own bare hands and then threatened Mr. Whittemore's life and the lives of his entire family if he did not do as he was expressly instructed by Albert Seeno Jr.," according to the suit.
The Seenos' attorney says Whittemore told the Seenos he could not make his payments toward the company's growing debt. The Seenos audited the books and found that Whittemore had embezzled funds, according to the attorney.
Corporations are supposed to enrich the people. Taxes on capital-gains or any other profit made from financial speculation would enable more people to live in freedom and not in tyranny.
However, the class war waged by the investment class of USA Citizens is destroying all the programs and the taxes that fund them which help the majority of USA Citizens.
We are under a economic regime which enforces the perpetuation of poverty...
2012-02-04 "Feds cut Vallejo Housing & Redevelopment funds" by Jessica A. York from "Vallejo Times-Herald"
[http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_19892863] Vallejo's Housing and Redevelopment Commission has voted to scrutinize how the city distributes its low- to moderate-income funds in the face of drastic federal cutbacks. Federal funding for social service programs supporting seniors, homeless persons, low-income families and recovering addicts, will be unexpectedly reduced by 14 percent nationally for the coming fiscal year. That's on top of a 16 percent cut made to this year's budget, Vallejo Senior Community Analyst Guy Ricca told the commission on Thursday. The coming year's estimated Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding was set at about $1.1 million, before confirmation of the cutback was announced. "With CDBG it's a cut, it's a reduction, (but) it's not totally fatal -- about 30 percent over two years," Ricca said. The problem arises because Vallejo budgets CDBG money for two-year funding cycles, noting in its agreements with various organizations receiving funding that the second year is merely an estimate. The more dramatic cutback, Ricca said, will be to the city's Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), with an additional 40 percent loss on top of this year's 11 percent drop. Funding for next year was expected to reach nearly $703,000. Ricca said an ad-hoc committee would likely have to sit down with staff to "spend significant time ... reorganizing." Typically, HOME funds have been used for Habitat for Humanity rehabilitation projects, general community housing support programming, affordable housing and other uses. All of the subcommittee's recommendations will ultimately require both full Housing and Redevelopment Commission and Vallejo City Council approval.
Note: The Northbay Uprising upholds freedom
and life. By posting for a cause against a war with Iran, we declare we
do not support the fascist policies of Iran, but that we support the
People of Iran against a murderous war which, if Iraq is any example,
will kill MILLIONS of innocent lives, and may end up with another
Holocaust of the Jewish People in Israel.
--- 2012-02-04 "EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION TO STOP U.S. WAR AGAINST IRAN" NO WAR! NO SANCTIONS! NO INTERVENTION! NO ASSASSINATIONS!
No War On Iran: National Day of Action Feb 4 [http://www.facebook.com/events/214341975322807]
[StopWarOnIran.org]
A
broad spectrum of U.S.-based anti-imperialist and anti-war
organizations, including the International Action Center, agreed on a
Jan. 17 conference call to hold coordinated protests across the country
on Saturday, Feb. 4.
The demands will be: “No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no assassinations against Iran.”
The
ad-hoc group that took part in the call decided that although there are
only two weeks to organize, it will invite anti-war forces around the
world to join in to make this emergency protest a global day of action.
All
agreed on the need to stop U.S. imperialism and/or Israel from
launching a military attack on Iran. There was also a consensus that the
new sanctions President Barack Obama signed into law on Dec. 31 -- with
the goal of breaking the Iranian central bank -- were themselves an act
of war aimed at the Iranian people. The political activists on the call
raised the danger of a wider war should fighting break out in or around
Iran.
While the organizations involved had varied assessments of
the Iranian government, they all saw any intervention from U.S.
imperialism in the Southwest Asian country as a threat to the entire
region and to peace. Some of the people on the call who are originally
from Iran and who were in touch with family and friends there conveyed
the Iranian people’s anger at the recent assassination of a young
scientist.
There was agreement to make “no assassinations” one of
the demands to show solidarity with the Iranian population as well as to
condemn the U.S. and its allies for criminal activities against Iran
and its people.
As of Jan. 19, the organizations that called the
actions or endorsed later included the United National Anti-War
Coalition (UNAC), the International Action Center (IAC), SI! Solidarity
with Iran, Refugee Apostolic Catholic Church, Workers World Party, World
Can’t Wait, American Iranian Friendship Committee, ANSWER Coalition,
Antiwar.com, Peace of the Action, ComeHomeAmerica.us, St. Pete for
Peace, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Defenders for Freedom,
Justice & Equality-Virginia, WESPAC Foundation, Peace Action
Maine, Occupy Myrtle Beach, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, Twin
Cities Peace Campaign and Bail Out the People Movement (BOPM).
Individual
endorsers include authors David Swanson, “When the World Outlawed War,”
and Phil Wilayto, “In Defense of Iran: Notes from a U.S. Peace
Delegation’s Journey through the Islamic Republic”; and U.N. Human
Rights Award winner Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Crimes of local fascism...
We, the people, are forced to rely on energy monopolies whose only purpose is to make money.
The majority of the people are poor, and instead of laws protecting the people from being cut off from electricity during times of financial need, like how food stamps keep people from starving, people are punished with the fatal status of being without electricity. People die.
Fairfield city residents, Shetarra James and Latisha James, sisters, have been vilified in the
monopolized media across the USA, and they both have lost years of
their lives, causing extra anguish in their family for a mistake which ended with the result of losing their children.
The system was built by crazy capitalists to perpetuate this sort of madness...
Shetarra James
Shetarra James, after being victimized by the entire gawddam system for a mistake anyone could have made and which killed her children and fam's children:
Latisha James
2010-07-07 "Mother in fatal Fairfield fire arrested, pleads not guilty" from "News10/KXTV" [http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=85238]
FAIRFIELD, CA - Latisha James, one of two mothers accused in the deaths of four children in a Fairfield apartment fire in April was taken into custody Wednesday morning. James appeared in Solano County Superior Court Wednesday morning in a domestic violence case when she was arrested by the Solano County Sheriff's Department, according to Lt. Darrin Moody with the Fairfiled Police Department. James pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter and four counts of child cruelty with an enhancement of death. She was booked into Solano County Jail on $250,000 bail. The victims, ages 10 months to 4 years old, died April 28. The police and Solano County district attorney's office investigation determined James, 23, and her sister, Sheterra James, 24, had been outside of the apartment at least 30 minutes while the children were left inside unattended. The women were burning candles because the electricity had been turned off due to non-payment. The investigation found three of the children were restrained in strollers while a fourth wasn't when the fire started. The district attorney's office announced the charges against the two women last Friday. Sheterra James was the mother of three of the children and Latisha James was the mother of a girl who died. The court set July 19 for Latisha James' preliminary hearing. Police continue to look for Sheterra James.
2010-07-26 "2nd Mom In Fairfield Fire Taken Into Custody; Shetarra James Taken Into Custody" [http://www.kcra.com/news/24403224/detail.html#ixzz1LUcHNUlp] FAIRFIELD, Calif. -- Shetarra James, one of the mothers whose children were killed in a fatal fire in Fairfield, was taken into custody Monday. The District Attorney's office made the arrest. James was booked into Solano County Jail. Solano County prosecutors said they were pursuing manslaughter and child abuse charges against sisters Latisha and Shetarra James on suspicion of leaving their children home alone. A $250,000 arrest warrant was issued for Shetarra James. Latisha James was taken into custody in early July when she voluntarily showed up to her court appearance. The four victims' mothers were outside when the fire started. A candle left burning on a television set in a front living room was cited as the probable cause of the blaze. Robert Christopher Charles, 4; Natalie Rogers, 2; Nevaeh Nunn, 2; and 1-year-old Keviana Michelle Morgan all died in the Delaware Street fire.
2010-07 "Fairfield fatal fire mom Shetarra James pleads not guilty" from Bay City News [http://www.sacandco.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=88177&catid=2] FAIRFIELD, CA - A second Fairfield mother charged in connection with the fire deaths of four children at their home in April pleaded not guilty Tuesday afternoon in Solano County Superior Court to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. Shetarra James, 24, pleaded not guilty to four counts total. Three of her children died in the fire. A preliminary hearing date will be set Aug. 6. Her sister Latisha James, 23, lost her daughter in the fire and was arrested July 7. She faces the same charges, and both are being held on $250,000 bail. Shetarra James surrendered to authorities near a BART station at 40th Street and McArthur Avenue in Oakland Monday afternoon, Deputy District Attorney Karen Jensen said. She was arrested by investigators from the Solano County District Attorney's Office and booked into the Solano County jail at 8:30 p.m. Investigators blamed the April 28 fire on candles left burning on top of a television set in the families' residence at 728 Delaware St. The children were between 1 and 4 years old. Both women were outside the duplex when the fire started around 9 p.m. Three of the children died in the fire, and the fourth died later at the NorthBay Medical Center. The family was using the candles because electrical power to the residence had been shut off, fire investigators said.
2012-02-03 "Fairfield Woman Avoids Prison Sentence In Deaths Of Her Children, Niece" by Ben Sosenko
[http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/02/03/fairfield-woman-receives-probabtion-in-fire-death-of-children/]
FAIRFIELD (CBS13) — The Fairfield woman whose three children and niece died in an apartment fire in 2010 received 10 years probation on Friday instead of a prison sentence after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in their deaths.
Shetarra James could have faced up to 24 years in prison after being convicted in November on four counts of involuntary manslaughter and four counts of felony child endangerment. Instead, the judge ordered probation and time already served. She should be released from the Solano County Jail later Friday. In ordering probation, Judge Judge Peter B. Foor noted that James had no prior criminal record and said she will have to live with the tragedy for the rest of her life. He sentenced to 15 years in prison and then suspended it and placed her on probation.
James’ children, Robert Charles Jr., 4, Nevaeh Nunn, 2, and Keviana Morgan, 1, and her sister’s daughter, 2-year-old Natalie Rogers, burned to death in a Delaware Street apartment fire April 28, 2010. In an emotional scene, James read letters in the Solano County courtroom Friday apologizing to the children. She cried for most of the hour-long hearing. “I’m so excited with the result,” her sister Marcy James said. “She gets a second chance really. Like the judge said, a second change to get her life together.” Another of Shetarra’s sisters, Latisha James, was originally also charged in the case but those charges were dropped last year. Prosecutors have yet to say why they were dropped and if they intend to refile charges against Latisha James. They said Friday they’d make a decision on that in the coming week or two.
The sisters were burning candles in their apartment after their electricity was turned off for failure to pay their utility bill. The children were unattended when the fire broke out. The prosecution had sought the full 24 years in prison for Shetarra. “The only human face to it is the defendant’s face. She’s the only one that’s still alive,” Solano County Assistant District Attorney Karen Jensen said. “The children never had anybody to speak for them.” But jurors spoke on James’ behalf in the sentencing hearing, saying they didn’t want to see her go to prison. “She lost everything important to her,” juror Shelly Folden said. “My heart goes out to her as a mother.” Her defense attorney said Shetarra has suffered greatly from the ordeal. “She’s gone through a lot and anyone who says she didn’t grieve over her children is absolutely nutty,” Amy Morton said.
Shetarra James in court on August 19, 2011. (File Photo)
The monopolist corporations uses the government and churches to enforce a regime which perpetuates poverty and dependance on the monopolist capitalist way of life.
This ideaology of anti-life creates conditions for unlimited pollution, toxicity and cancer for everybody equally.
Ask yourself... are there people such as these, in your cities, advocating AGAINST self-sufficiency, clean ecology, localized agriculture and anything worthwhile and good?
2012-02-03 "Activists Fight Green Projects, Seeing U.N. Plot" by LESLIE KAUFMAN and KATE ZERNIKE
[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/us/activists-fight-green-projects-seeing-un-plot.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1]
Across the country, activists with ties to the Tea Party are railing against all sorts of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy. They brand government action for things like expanding public transportation routes and preserving open space as part of a United Nations-led conspiracy to deny property rights and herd citizens toward cities.
They are showing up at planning meetings to denounce bike lanes on public streets and smart meters on home appliances — efforts they equate to a big-government blueprint against individual rights. “Down the road, this data will be used against you,” warned one speaker at a recent Roanoke County, Va., Board of Supervisors meeting who turned out with dozens of people opposed to the county’s paying $1,200 in dues to a nonprofit that consults on sustainability issues. Local officials say they would dismiss such notions except that the growing and often heated protests are having an effect. In Maine, the Tea Party-backed Republican governor canceled a project to ease congestion along the Route 1 corridor after protesters complained it was part of the United Nations plot. Similar opposition helped doom a high-speed train line in Florida. And more than a dozen cities, towns and counties, under new pressure, have cut off financing for a program that offers expertise on how to measure and cut carbon emissions. “It sounds a little on the weird side, but we’ve found we ignore it at our own peril,” said George Homewood, a vice president of the American Planning Association’s chapter in Virginia. The protests date to 1992 when the United Nations passed a sweeping, but nonbinding, 100-plus-page resolution called Agenda 21 that was designed to encourage nations to use fewer resources and conserve open land by steering development to already dense areas. They have gained momentum in the past two years because of the emergence of the Tea Party movement, harnessing its suspicion about government power and belief that man-made global warming is a hoax. In January, the Republican Party adopted its own resolution against what it called “the destructive and insidious nature” of Agenda 21. And Newt Gingrich took aim at it during a Republican debate in November. Tom DeWeese, the founder of the American Policy Center, a Warrenton, Va.-based foundation that advocates limited government, says he has been a leader in the opposition to Agenda 21 since 1992. Until a few years ago, he had few followers beyond a handful of farmers and ranchers in rural areas. Now, he is a regular speaker at Tea Party events. Membership is rising, Mr. DeWeese said, because what he sees as tangible Agenda 21-inspired controls on water and energy use are intruding into everyday life. “People may be acting out at some of these meetings, and I do not condone that. But their elected representatives are not listening and they are frustrated.” Fox News has also helped spread the message. In June, after President Obama signed an executive order creating a White House Rural Council to “enhance federal engagement with rural communities,” Fox programs linked the order to Agenda 21. A Fox commentator, Eric Bolling, said the council sounded “eerily similar to a U.N. plan called Agenda 21, where a centralized planning agency would be responsible for oversight into all areas of our lives. A one world order.” The movement has been particularly effective in Tea Party strongholds like Virginia, Florida and Texas, but the police have been called in to contain protests in states including Maryland and California, where opponents are fighting laws passed in recent years to encourage development around public transportation hubs and dense areas in an effort to save money and preserve rural communities. One group has become a particular target. Iclei — Local Governments for Sustainability USA, an Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit, sells software and offers advice to communities looking to reduce their carbon footprints. A City Council meeting in Missoula, Mont., in December got out of hand and required police intervention over $1,200 in dues to Iclei. At a Board of Supervisors meeting in Roanoke in late January, Cher McCoy, a Tea Party member from nearby Lexington, Va., generated sustained applause when she warned: “They get you hooked, and then Agenda 21 takes over. Your rights are stripped one by one.” Echoing other protesters, Ms. McCoy identified smart meters, devices being installed by utility companies to collect information on energy use, as part of the conspiracy. “The real job of smart meters is to spy on you and control you — when you can and cannot use electrical appliances,” she said. Ilana Preuss, vice president of Smart Growth America, a national coalition of nonprofits that supports economic development while conserving open spaces and farmland, said, “The real danger is not that they will get rid of some piece of software from Iclei” but that “people will be too scared to have a conversation about local development. And that is an important conversation to be having.” In some cases, the protests have not been large, but they are powerful because officials are concerned about the Tea Party. On the campaign trail, Mr. Gingrich has called Agenda 21 an important issue and has said, “I would explicitly repudiate what Obama has done on Agenda 21.”
The Republican National Committee resolution, passed without fanfare on Jan. 13, declared, “The United Nations Agenda 21 plan of radical so-called ‘sustainable development’ views the American way of life of private property ownership, single family homes, private car ownership and individual travel choices, and privately owned farms; all as destructive to the environment.”
Other conservatives have welcomed the scrutiny of land-use issues, but they do not agree with the emphasis on Agenda 21. Jeremy Rabkin, a professor of law at George Mason University specializing in sovereignty issues, said there were “entirely legitimate concerns about international standards that come into American law without formal ratification by the Senate.” But some local officials argue that the programs that protesters see as part of the conspiracy are entirely created by local governments with the express intent of saving money — the central goal of the Tea Party movement. Planning groups, several of which said they had never heard of Agenda 21 until protesters burst in, are counterorganizing. Last year, the Board of Supervisors in Albemarle County, Va., ceased payment of dues to Iclei and withdrew its support from a national agreement on climate change in which counties can participate. Summer Frederick, the project manager for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission in Charlottesville, Va., now conducts seminars on how to deal with Agenda 21 critics. (Among her tips: remove the podium and microphones, which can make it “very easy for a critic to hijack a meeting.”) Roanoke’s Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 to renew its Iclei financing after many residents voiced their support. “The Tea Party people say they want nonpolluted air and clean water and everything we promote and support, but they also say it’s a communist movement,” said Charlotte Moore, a supervisor who voted yes. “I really don’t understand what they want.”
Correction: February 8, 2012 An article on Saturday about conservative activists who battle efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy misidentified an entity that ceased paying dues to Iclei, a nonprofit organization that offers advice on environmental sustainability, and withdrew from a national program related to dealing with climate change. It was Albemarle County in Virginia — not the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission in Charlottesville, Va. The article also described the planning commission incorrectly. It involves climate change efforts by counties, not by mayors.
Jared Soares for The New York Times At a Roanoke County, Va., meeting, dozens opposed the county's paying $1,200 to a nonprofit.
[occupylsx.org/?p=3428]
The following statement was passed at tonight’s General Assembly, which was held outside Westminster Abbey just across the road from the Houses of Parliament: From Occupy London, 3 Feb 2012 We send our support and warm wishes to Occupy Oakland from Occupy London. We unreservedly condemn the deliberate and planned police brutality and violence inflicted on non-violent Occupy protesters, including those aiming to take over an abandoned building to use as a community centre. We are horrified that armed Oakland police surrounded, tear-gassed, beat and fired rubber bullets at demonstrators, including children. Video footage shows the police firing rubber bullets at kettled protesters. Over 300 people were arrested and taken into custody. Some were tear gassed in their cells, handcuffed so their hands lost all sensation, denied food, medication and access to toilets, and forced to sit in their urine and vomit for hours, a clear human rights violation. As the home of the Black Panther Party, we know that Oakland has a tremendous history of organising, and faces particular targeting by police. The recent “F*ck the Police” demos are an important message that we will not tolerate the violence of the 1% per cent aimed at ensuring the smooth transfer of our wealth to them. We condemn Mayor Quan for spending $5 million to police and attack Occupy protesters, and for calling on people to support non-profits instead. Non-profits must immediately, visibly and loudly refuse to be used to attack independent activity and organising. If they don’t they will be condemned for collaborating in the attacks on Occupy and the movement for justice for the sake of their own funding and careers. From the start, Oakland has been a strength for us. Your October 2011 statement that “Every grievance against this system is worthy of a collective response” spoke for all of us. We cheered when Occupy brought thousands of unwaged and waged workers together to shut down the ports. We are delighted that despite attacks and evictions, Occupy Oakland are still taking to the streets, saying enough of endless money to pay for the banks’ crisis, while people are made homeless and impoverished. Some UK occupations have been evicted but people have stayed together and continued to organise. Others are facing threats of eviction. The uprisings this summer in response to yet another killing by police saw many young people arrested, criminalised and given punitive and sadistic sentences. In London, we are demanding that St Paul’s and the church stand with the 99 per cent against any attack on Occupy by the police and government. Your creative organising gives courage to our movement, here and in other countries. The overwhelming power of the 99% is, as the protestors chanted, “unstoppable”.
2012-02-03 "Letter to Mayor Quan from Occupy Portland" by Arlo Stone of the "PortlandOccupier.org" online journal [http://www.portlandoccupier.org/2012/02/03/letter-to-oakland-mayor-jean-quan/] Dear Mayor Quan, I would like to thank both you and the many police officers you summoned from the greater Oakland metro area for their excellent work this difficult weekend. In particular, the calming, measured presence displayed by riot police while using door-to-door urban warfare techniques with guns drawn to stalk me and dozens of other terrified kids at the local YMCA, while innocent civilian gym members looked on, is to be commended. It is a testament to the bravery of the OPD that they were somehow able to overcome the difficult on-the-ground battlefield conditions created by the necessary deployment of these paramilitary units, with the terror and the screaming and the fleeing and whatnot, and still root out 24 cowering occupiers to immediately slap with felony charges in addition to four days of torture at the Santa Rita jail. They certainly deserved it. As we all know, innocent people, who have done nothing wrong, have no reason to run from police bearing down on them with loaded rifles and shotguns inside a YMCA hallway ten feet away. Running away, screaming in terror (common anarchist diversionary tactic) and hiding amongst innocent civilians simply trying to work out at the YMCA that night are not things innocent people do. Maybe after the Occupy President(s)? you have on speed dial finally disavow the occupy creeps and escaped felons you see fleeing the gym in the video I’ve provided, we can start up the FEMA camps! Until then, trumped-up felony charges, forcing people to pee and shit themselves, denying them medical care, and some much deserved ridicule from the good men and women of law enforcement will just have to do. Good work. These people are dangerous Mayor Quan. I would know, I spent much of the week in their company. I witnessed them on multiple occasions, prepare to turn an unused building six years vacant into an productive, cost-free asset to the entire community in which it sits. Furthermore, I saw many crimes during my brief stay in your city, including but not limited to: conspiracy to feed the community, aiding and abetting empowerment, attempting to chalk, first degree planning to occupy a vacant building, attempted occupation, etc. If this isn’t felonious behavior, I don’t know what is. Only your quick thinking and in-depth awareness of the situation’s complexity and nuance, saved the day. Good time for a lucid moment between meds, mayor! Who knows how bad things would have gotten at the YMCA that night had you not totally diffused and deescalated the situation first, by unleashing your savvy squad of mocking, jovial peace officers to indiscriminately shoot bullets, grenades, gas and spray into crowds of children and unarmed protesters all afternoon. It was just the right amount of escalation, and precisely what the situation warranted. Mood changer! I was not able to discern on my way out of the YMCA in the last group of kids just before the door slammed, imprisoning 24 other occupiers, if the four brave peace officers coming down the hall with loaded shotguns and closing fast clearly seen at the end of the enclosed video were the same cops shooting at the children unprovoked and laughing about it earlier or the officers I observed earlier hiding in bushes, but still. Lot o’ bravery there. I hope you have awards. Although many YMCA members working out at the time you secured the building in this highly successful anti-insurgency operation were perhaps inconvenienced by their workout ending prematurely, to be rounded up for several hours and forced to produce a membership card or else be made to pee on themselves in jail, undoubtedly they will one day come to view their mandatory assistance in helping law enforcement “secure the perimeter” from these dangerous felons that night, with the kind of honor and pride one can only get while “helping” making one’s community safer at gunpoint while armed riot cops scrutinize your paperwork. “Zeigen sie uns Ihre unterlagen oder in den zug!” Let me also take a moment to commend you on hiring policy mayor Quan. A wise choice, out of area ex-military personnel, the perfect fit for improving fractured community/police relations. Fresh off winning hearts and minds abroad, why not redeploy these paramilitary warrior PTSD time bombs all over the bay area to help hunt felons running a muck and screaming in fear in the YMCA? Determining “bogies” in insurgency warfare situations such as you’ve created in Oakland, where multiple insurgent targets are expertly disguised as civilians, WHILE comingling with civilians, is not for the weak or uninitiated. In fact, some Occupiers even HAVE YMCA cards! Only true experts on such matters such as you have staffed your police army with, like the ones who helped us win both wars in the Middle East, could be expected to pull off this kind of operation — with no casualties even! Let’s not forget that, as these YMCA felons in the weeks ahead grumble about being let in voluntarily and cling to the scant few archaic habeas corpus shards lingering in the judicial system. Not. One. Fatality. Things are looking up, Mayor Quan. I think you should IMMEDIATELY use the video I’ve gratuitously provided to FIGHT your impending police dept. federal receivership due to ineptitude, by highlighting your recent success at the YMCA Saturday night. After all, 24 arrests inside the YMCA alone! I think even your most staunch detractor would agree: that’s a lot of felons. Using paramilitary riot cops with weapons drawn in any business open and full of civilian customers to systematically hunt down unarmed children mingling with gym patrons at a moment’s notice is a great new addition to the toolbox in Oakland, California. What could go wrong? Plus, it builds public relations in the community and provides quite a hoot for your zealous cop army! Two birds, one stone. Boom. In conclusion, Mayor Quan, the best thing about video evidence is that it really is indisputable. I am very much looking foreword to more documentation by innumerable other occupiers of you escalating these highly successful YMCA urban warfare tactics in the weeks ahead. Turning all of downtown Oakland into a real life war zone is the right play here mayor. The citizens of Oakland elected YOU to prevent Occupiers from: fighting for better pay and lives on behalf of the very cops hunting them at the YMCA and torturing them in jail; chalking up sidewalks; and committing who knows what other felonies to boot! Once all the hubbub dies down, I’m thinking trophy. Put it on the mantle there alongside all the great victories for bay area justice; Oscar Grant, Judi Bari, Darryl Cherney, George Jackson, Occupy Alcatraz, Huey Newton… gosh, the list is seemingly endless. On second thought, put it in city hall at OGP just to the side of the door you left open while green lighting “Operation YMCA”. I hear some space just recently became available. All the best with that receivership situation, Arlo
The "Occupy" movement has synthesized the actual aspirations of the people across the USA. Unlike the artificial "Tea Party" movement which has been engineered to be exclusively for Christian Dominionists who worship money (the free market), the new Civil Rights movement has metastasized with leaders who are poor and of so-called minorities. Across the USA, their priorities remain the same: "SERVE THE PEOPLE"
2011-12-06 "‘Occupy’ protesters reclaiming foreclosed homes in 20 cities" by David Edwards
[http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/06/occupy-protesters-reclaiming-foreclosed-homes-in-20-cities/]
David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.
---
The 99 percent movement, which has been evicted from many of their encampments across the country, is finding common cause with thousands of homeowners who are also being evicted from their homes.
Even though the movement has often been criticized for a lack of defined goals, Tuesday’s “Occupy Our Homes” action in at least 20 cities makes it clear that they are standing up to banks to reverse foreclosures.
“We’re in the neighborhood in New York City that had the highest number of foreclosure filings in 2010 to send a message that the economy is failing the 99 percent,” Vocal New York organizer Sean Barry told Raw Story from a Brooklyn neighborhood as about 200 protesters chanted in the background.
“We’re here because [there are] a lot of empty buildings owned by Wall Street banks and we’re going to liberate them.”
Tasha Glasgow, the single mother of a 9-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son, was expected to be one of the first occupants of a reclaimed home. Barry said that Glasgow, who had been in and out of the shelter system in New York City, had been slated to get a Section 8 voucher before budget cuts by Mayor Michael Bloomberg put an end to that promise.
“We’ve gained access to the home, and we’ve got the support of the neighbors,” Barry explained. “They’re going to start occupying it. … And then, there’s going to be 24/7 eviction defense by Occupy Wall Street.”
There were over 40 events planned in more than 20 cities Tuesday, but that is just the beginning.
“When it comes to Wall Street’s control over our economy, our democracy and our lives, there’s few better examples than the housing crisis,” Barry noted. “Occupy Wall Street is going to continue to support this national Occupy Our Homes campaign, and both defend homeowners who are being threatened with eviction due to foreclosure, and to move families that need homes into vacant buildings that banks are just sitting on.”
Photo: Vocal New York [http://twitter.com/#!/VOCALNewYork/status/144124667450494976/photo/1]
For the regular people who are making the "Occupy" events a reality, some had to have been fooled by how well the "Tea Party" movement was treated by the police in the past... 2012-01-30 "Violent Big Government Tyranny Continues Against Occupy Movement as Fake 'Grass Roots' 'Tea Party' 'Movement' Continues Not to Give a Rat's Ass" by Brad Friedman
[http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9097]
The fully-militarized, post-9/11 Big Government Police State in these United States continues unabated, even as we've had to turn our attention here, of late, away from the Occupy Movement to cover the pretend democracy known as the 2012 Presidential Race.
Because there has yet to be any accountability for the unprovoked violence against peaceful Occupy demonstrators by the Oakland Police Department last October [http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8869], nor for its Acting Police Chief Howard Jordan, who appears to have blatantly lied to the public and media about that violence [http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8890], nor for their atrociously lawless renegade Mayor Jean Quan, the OPD was able to use many of the same tactics once again over the weekend to round up hundreds of peaceful demonstrators.
This time, the OPD upped the ante by arresting some six journalists --- in violation of both Quan's previous (apparently pretend) directives, as well as the Department's own supposed procedures --- even as each of the journos claim to have clearly identified themselves as members of the media prior to being detained nonetheless. (At least the OPD didn't shoot at them this time [http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8900].)
Among those six journalists attempting to do their jobs, was Mother Jones' Gavin Aronsen, who has been covering the Occupy movement on the ground in Oakland and San Francisco for months. He is a superb journalist who I had the privilege of working closely with last year [http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8728] in the course of my "Secret Koch Tapes" exclusives that I ran at MoJo in September [http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/exclusive-audio-koch-brothers-seminar-tapes].
Here's Aronsen's appalling account of what happened before and after his arrest on Saturday in Oakland [http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/journalists-arrested-occupy-oakland]. It includes this passage near the end for additional context (and for those who pretend to care about the Constitution, who I will get to in a minute):
[begin excerpt]
"The Bay Area Occupy movement has got to stop using Oakland as their playground," Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said in a statement during last night's arrests that made no mention of her police department's lack of regard for journalists' First Amendment protections. Last week, the United States dropped 27 spots in Reporters Without Borders' annual press freedom index due to police treatment of journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street movement [http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2011-2012,1043.html]. By Josh Stearns's count, more than three dozen reporters have been arrested since the movement began last year in Manhattan [http://storify.com/jcstearns/tracking-journalist-arrests-during-the-occupy-prot].
[end excerpt]
Oakland isn't the only Occupy hot-spot where police appear to be continuing to abuse their Big Government powers to violently strip private citizens of their Constitutional rights. In Washington D.C., one of the few cities where Occupy encampments, until now, have been allowed to remain in place, police have announced that will be coming to an end as of a Monday deadline. Today.
To prepare for their big day, over the weekend the D.C. Police distributed "eviction notices" and warmed up their Tasers, as seen in this outrageous video shot on Sunday in our nation's capitol...
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/one-protester-tased-arrested-at-occupy-dc/2012/01/29/gIQAxqRKaQ_blog.html]
Had that ever happened to one --- just one --- so-called "Tea Partier", this nation would likely have descended into an all-out shooting civil war by now. Yet similar police abuses have been seen against Occupiers in state after state [http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8929].
Such that what is seen in the video above, and the other acts mentioned, were done to fellow citizens whose Constitutional Rights the "Tea Party" doesn't give two shits about, their fake "grass roots" "movement", apparently, couldn't care less about any of these clear cases of the very "Big Government Tyranny" and stripping of Constitutional rights that they have long been allowed to pretend they give a damn about. They don't. They care about nothing more than electing Republicans to office. Period. The Constitution has absolutely nothing to do with any of it.
---
COMMENT #2 [Permalink]
... David Lasagna said on 1/30/2012 @ 10:47 am PT...
Horrifying video.
What's the backstory here? Looks like those cops enter the park and go right for that guy. As soon as he sees them he seems to know they're coming for him saying,"They're coming at me. They're coming at me." And before that you hear a voice(I assume it's the guy capturing the video) explaining to someone something that sounds maybe like-"I think they're going to arrest the student rep now." He says this with a little chuckle.
So what's going on? Why do the cops beeline for that guy? What was he supposed to have done, if anything? Why do they taser him for no apparent reason? Why are no words spoken by the cops, at least that you can hear on the video?
Unless there is some extrordinary reason which is not readily apparent from the video I think all those cops should have to do serious jail time. Extra time for the woman who did the tasering. This kind of behavior must not be allowed to stand.
This country is becoming increasingly and more dangerously lout of control.
---
COMMENT #5 [Permalink]
... David Lasagna said on 1/30/2012 @ 12:52 pm PT...
Libconlib @3--
Don't understand your comment at all.
1. If cops had gone to a Tea Party rally and singled someone out outta the blue and tasered them, I would be horrified in that case, too. I don't care about the political stripes of who's being tasered. When I see ANYONE being tasered unnecessarily it freaks me out. I know it could just as easily be me being electrocuted. From what I can tell the use of tasers by law enforcement in this country is way, way outta control.
2. I don't see anything here as fighting across party lines. I think one of the points Brad is trying to make here is along the lines of hey, here's the sort of thing that the Tea Party is always screaming about--government abuse of power-- and while you never actually see this type of shit coming down on Tea Party activists, you DO see it coming down all the time on the heads of Occupiers. So where are the Tea Partiers when the shit they rail against is actually happening in real time to American citizens? Why aren't they putting their money where their mouths are and standing in solidarity with their Occupy Brethren and Sistren?
The answer would seem to be that though as you say both movements have much in common there is at least a faction of the Tea Party movement who seem to see progressives only as yet another "them" or "other".
Pointing that out is not fighting across party lines, in my view. It's naming the beast, in this case hypocrisy or inconsistency of word and action, so as to make it more visible.
Aside from the Oakland Commune, another encampment receiving the same "death" treatment is the one in the District of Colombia: 2012-01-31 "Police targeting Occupy DC protesters one by one?"
[http://occupycyberspace.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/police-targeting-occupy-dc-protesters-one-by-one/]
On Monday the US Park Police in DC have decided to start implementing a ban on overnight camping. Since its genesis, the Occupy DC encampment hasn’t fallen victim to harsh crackdowns by law enforcement, making it one of the longest standing occupy movements. The tents in McPherson Square have been pitched for approximately four months, but now protesters are not allowed to sleep while occupying. As of Monday evening there have been no arrests. But will that change?
The
worst action done by anybody associated with the "Occupy" encampment in
the District of Colombia was a crappy smoke bomb thrown over the White
House fence: 2012-01-18 "Smoke Bomb Thrown at White House" by Ben Nuckols from "AP" newswire and carried by all of the mainstream press:
WASHINGTON
(AP) — As hundreds of Occupy protesters massed outside the gates of the
White House, an apparent smoke bomb was thrown over the fence Tuesday
night, forcing authorities to disperse the crowds. President Barack
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were not in the White House when it
happened — he was taking her out for a night on the town to celebrate
her 48th birthday.
There were no arrests in the incident, said George Ogilvie, U.S. Secret Service spokesman.
Several
hundred protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement
converged on the West Lawn of the Capitol Tuesday to decry the influence
of corporate money in politics and voice myriad other grievances.
Organizers
had touted the rally, known as Occupy Congress, as the largest national
gathering of Occupy protesters to date and secured a permit that would
have allowed up to 10,000 people to participate. By mid-afternoon, the
protest appeared to have fallen far short of those goals.
Still,
participants said they were optimistic about the strength of the Occupy
movement, which began in September when protesters pitched tents in a
lower Manhattan park. The movement has since spread to dozens of cities,
including Washington. While many cities have moved to evict the
protesters, the National Park Service has allowed encampments to remain
in two public squares near the White House. "I'm encouraged," said Jon
Wynn, 63, of Snow Camp, N.C., who traveled to Washington to attend the
protest and visit friends. "There's energy here, even if there's not a
whole lot of people."
The protest comes amid numerous polls that
show 84 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing,
near an all-time low.
While the rally was mostly peaceful, there
were some scuffles between police and protesters along walkways leading
to the Capitol. By mid-afternoon Tuesday, four people had been arrested —
U.S. Capitol Police said — one for allegedly assaulting a police
officer and three accused of crossing a police line.
The Occupy
movement includes activists who want to change government from within
and anarchists who oppose all government. Tension between the two camps
was evident at Tuesday's gathering, where some taunted police while
others participated in earnest group discussions about how to influence
their elected representatives.
At the "Occupy" encampments across the USA, a major worry remains that the "criminally insane" walk amongst them, carrying weapons or threats of violence. Remember the "Jesus Shooter" of November, 10th, 2011? He was the most frightening example of the criminally insane, who mingled with the "Occupy" encampment in the District of Colombia...
2011-11-11 "Shots Fired Near White House" by Sarah Maslin Nir from "New York Times"
[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/us/shots-fired-near-white-house.html]
Shots were fired from at least one car about a block away from the White House Friday night, and a loaded AK-47 assault rifle was recovered from the scene, the Secret Service said. The episode does not appear to be connected to the White House. President Obama was in California and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was in New York for Veterans Day observances, according to their public schedules. Secret Service officers heard gunfire near Constitution Avenue and 16th Street around 9 p.m., said Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service. Two cars drove off west on the avenue before one, a black Honda, was found abandoned near 23rd Street, Mr. Donovan said. Witnesses told officers that a man fled the car on foot. Officers found the loaded assault rifle in the car, Mr. Donovan said. The authorities were searching for the people who may have been involved.
2011-11-16 "In a Video, White House Shooting Suspect Called Himself ‘Modern-Day Jesus Christ’" by Elizabeth Harris for "the Ledge" blog from "New York Times"
[http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/in-a-video-white-house-shooting-suspect-calls-himself-modern-day-jesus-christ/]
In a video intended as an audition tape for Oprah Winfrey, the 21-year-old Idaho man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House last week expressed frustration with the United States government and called himself “the modern-day Jesus Christ that you all have been waiting for.”
Wearing a large crucifix around his neck and a shaggy beard, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez read from what appeared to be a set of prepared remarks, saying that because the government was “bullying these other countries for their oil, our freedom is at stake.” But for much of the video, Mr. Ortega-Hernandez is focused on what he calls his mission, dictated by God, “to lead the world to Zion.” He asks Ms. Winfrey for a platform.
“There is still so much more that God needs me to express to the world,” Mr. Ortega-Hernandez said. “It’s not just a coincidence that I look like Jesus.”
Shortly after 9 p.m. last Friday night, gunfire was heard in the vicinity of the White House, and a black Honda Accord with Idaho license plates sped away. It was found seven blocks from the White House just minutes later. Inside, officials discovered an assault-style semiautomatic rifle. Both Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, were out of town at the time of the shooting.
On Wednesday, Mr. Ortega-Hernandez was arrested in Pennsylvania and subsequently charged with attempting to assassinate President Obama. According to officials and court documents, Mr. Ortega-Hernandez became convinced that the government was “conspiring against him”; he had called Mr. Obama “the Antichrist” and said he “needed to be taken care of.”
CNN reported that the video was recorded just weeks before Mr. Ortega-Hernandez was arrested.
2011-11-18 "Accused White House shooter: I'm new Jesus" by ALIYAH SHAHID from "New York Daily News"
[http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-11-18/news/30416891_1_maria-hernandez-accused-white-house-federal-court]
The bearded Idaho wacko accused of trying to kill President Obama with a long-range rifle round thinks he is the second coming of Jesus Christ.
A bizarre video of Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, who was charged with attempted assassination on Thursday, shows the 21-year-old making a pitch to Oprah Winfrey to cast him on her show.
“You see, Oprah, there is still so much more that God needs for me to express to the world. It’s not just a coincidence that I look like Jesus,” Ortega-Hernandez said, with his hair slicked and a crucifix around his neck, in the rambling, 20-minute video.
“I am the modern day Jesus Christ that you all have been waiting for.”
In the footage, obtained by Idaho TV station KBOI, Ortega-Hernandez reads from a note pad as he discusses his stint as a gangbanger, pushes for the legalization of marijuana and wonders aloud about why people spend time drinking and partying.
“Please do not take me as a joke or as a deception. I have never felt so sure that I was sent here by God to lead the world to Zion,” Ortega-Hernandez professes.
The video was shot in September by Ramon Bailey, a student at Idaho State University, KBOI reported. Bailey said he filmed the spot after Ortega-Hernandez approached him and said he wanted to shoot a “commercial.”
Bailey said the taping was so off-the-wall and disturbing that he didn’t even bother to edit it.
Ortega-Hernandez, who hails from Idaho Falls, is due back in Federal court in Washington D.C. on Nov 22.
Authorities say he fired nine rounds at the White House last Friday, one of which penetrated an outer window of Obama’s living quarters before being stopped by an inner layer of bullet-proof glass.
The President was en route to Hawaii at the time of the attack.
Ortega-Hernandez, who abandoned his ride near the White House, was later nabbed at a Hampton Inn in Indiana, Pa., some 200 miles from Washington.
Despite questions from officials as to the crackpot’s sanity, his mother, Maria Hernandez, told the Post Register in Idaho that her son has no history of mental illness.
“He has different ideas than other people, just like everyone, but he was perfectly fine the last time I saw him,” she told the newspaper. “He might be saying weird stuff that sounds crazy, but that doesn’t mean (he) is crazy. He might be confused and scared.”
According to court documents, a witness told investigators that Ortega-Hernandez had reportedly said Obama was the “Anti-Christ,” the “devil” and that he “needed to kill” the President.
If convicted, he faces life in prison.
The "Jesus Shooter" had become international news
2011-11-20 "White House shooter was on ‘god’s mission’ to kill ‘devil’ Obama" by AlbLebanon Editor
[http://www.alblebanon.com/content/white-house-shooter-was-on-gods-mission-to-kill-devil-obama/]
Source:http://www.bangaloremirror.com
The suspected gunman who opened fire on the White House was charged Thursday with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States or his staff.
Idaho man Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, was arrested at a Pennsylvania hotel after he shot an assault rifle at the White House believing that he was Jesus and President Barack Obama was the Antichrist, according to court documents and those who knew him.
At one point, he even suggested to an acquaintance the president was planning to implant computer tracking chips into children. Meanwhile, details have emerged about further items found in Ortega’s car, which included a baseball bat and brass knuckles.
At his first appearance in court in Pennsylvania Thursday, Ortega sat quietly, his hands free but his feet shackled.
He said only, “Yes, ma’am” when he was asked if he understood that he would be going back to Washington to face the charge. Ortega is accused of firing nine rounds from an AK47 at the White House Friday night, cracking one one window close to the President’s bedroom.
Police said that Ortega had become ‘obsessed’ with Obama and that God had given him a personal mission to attack the White House.
“He hates the president, he hates Washington, he hates society,” another official told the Washington Post.
Gunfire was heard between the White House and the Washington Monument on Friday evening. An abandoned car with an assault rifle with a scope and nine spent shell casings were later discovered by police inside.
The FBI have revealed the semi-automatic assault rifle was a Romanian Cugir SA.
Police believe that the gunman opened fire across a lawn from half a mile away around 9:30pm then ran off.
When the White House was checked Tuesday, a bullet was found to have smashed through a window.
It was only stopped from going inside the White House by the bulletproof glass interior layer behind it. A second round was found outside.
Authorities are investigating Ortega’s mental health and say there are indications he believed his attack on the White House was part of a ‘personal mission from God’, according to a law enforcement official. A US Park Police said he was ‘unstable with violent tendencies’.
Unfortunately, because the "Jesus Shooter" had been mixing in with the divine flock at the Occupy encampment near the White House, the monopolized media organs of the fascists started to call Oscar Ortega-Hernandez the "Occupy Shooter", only his vibe wasn't mixing in as a stereo-typical "naive leftist" or "marxist/anarchist". Being a devotee to Jesus, Oscar Ortega-Hernandez was quietly forgotten to the layperson as it would not be in the interest of the Christian ruling class to insult their own ideology. 2011-11-17 "Fox Falsely Dubs Alleged White House Attacker As "'Occupy' Shooter""
[http://mediamatters.org/research/201111170007]
Fox & Friends claimed that alleged White House shooter Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez had been "tied to [the] Occupy" movement, even calling him the " 'Occupy' shooter." In fact, investigators have reportedly "found no connection between him and the Occupy protesters."
Fox & Friends Dubs Ortega-Hernandez The "'Occupy' Shooter" -
Fox & Friends Graphic Claims Shooter "Tied To Occupy" Movement. During the November 17 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson asked Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin: "It looks like this White House shooting suspect may have tried to blend in with the Occupy protesters in D.C. when he came from out West. So I pose this question to you this morning: What would have happened if a tea party person had tried to do that?" Malkin responded that "there is now conflicting testimony or evidence of whether he was in the Occupy D.C. camp, but apparently, reportedly, allegedly there is somebody within that movement who has confirmed that he was there at the camps." Malkin later noted that "the guy was just completely off his rocker and had nothing to do with any coherent sense of political ideology." But during the segment, onscreen text continued to tie Ortega-Hernandez to the Occupy D.C. movement: [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 11/17/11]
In Fact, Investigators Have Reportedly Found "No Connection" Between Ortega-Hernandez And Occupy D.C.
Washington Post: Investigators "Have Found No Connection Between [Ortega-Hernandez] And The Occupy Protesters." From a November 16 Washington Post article [http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/white-house-shooting-suspect-arrested-in-pa/2011/11/16/gIQAdK3PSN_story.html]:
In trying to determine why he recently traveled to the nation's capital from the western part of the country, investigators searched the Occupy D.C. campground near the White House but have found no connection between him and the Occupy protesters, according to three law enforcement officials familiar with the case.
One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said the motive for the gunfire might have been simple anger: Ortega-Hernandez "hates the president, he hates Washington, he hates society," the official said. [The Washington Post, 11/16/11]
Comments:
by nerzog (November 17, 2011 12:56 pm ET)
"Ortega-Hernandez hates the president, he hates Washington, he hates society..."
Sounds more like a Teabagger, to me.
---
by David2012 (November 17, 2011 12:59 pm ET)
He's from Idaho, too. They may want to be a little careful here.
---
by Martinking68 (November 19, 2011 11:52 am ET)
He also believed Obama to be the antichrist like a quarter of all Republicans think is at least possible.
---
by CoolSlaw (November 18, 2011 10:05 am ET) 7 1
What Fox news is doing here is really scary propaganda and misinformation straight from the pages of "1984", "running man", "Enemy of the State" or "V for Vendetta".
They are literally trying to shift public sentiment about an organization by knowingly lying about the affiliations of a violent criminal. We know Fox lies and distorts all the time, but it's especially destructive and egregious when they knowingly falsely attribute acts of violence to smear individuals and groups for political gain.
They tried to imply the Gabby Gifford's shooter was some wild eyed progressive. That was false and irresponsible, but this latest attempt takes it a step further by casting a specific organization, in this case Occupy Wall Street, as being responsible.
Fox News has gone way too far with this.
---
by turtledoubledeuce5333 (November 18, 2011 12:48 pm ET)
Fox knows damn well that this guy is likely not involved with the Occupy group. They don't care about the truth and never have, it's all about demonizing those they don't agree with. This shooter was just an opportunity to do that. They have no journalistic integrity whatsoever.
What I find particularly interesting is that Fox went out of it's way to promote the Tea Party rallies, grossly over-stated their attendance and all but celebrated their existence. Now, with the Occupy demonstrations, they've gone out of their way to downplay their size, lie about them and try everything in their power to destroy them. Is that fair and balanced? Is that being a news organization? How anyone can still call them that is mind-boggling at this point. The fact is that the Occupy protests completely dwarf the Tea Party events, and it's not even close, but you would never know that if all you watched was Fox News.
Bill O'Reilly recently arrogantly declared the Occupy movement over. On the contrary, Bill. It's Fox News who's done. Sure, you'll still have your stupid little show on that joke of a news channel but you're the ones who have failed. The Occupy movement is growing more every day, despite your channel's best efforts to silence it. You tried to steer a country in one direction, and you succeeded in some parts of the country by getting these Tea Party clowns elected, but that success will be short-lived. You aren't going to kill the Occupy movement. Fox News is insignificant.
---
by matrixbio2014 (November 18, 2011 5:00 pm ET)
They didn't call him "muslim occupy shooter"? Faux is losing its touch among those who negatively stereotype.
---
by CoolSlaw (November 19, 2011 8:59 am ET) 4
It's in the specific way they've assigned this shooter to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Previously they would mislabel and imply the behavior of a criminal as coming "from the left" or assign high profile public figures as those whose rhetoric "inspired" the shooter.
With this latest jump, we've fully entered that realm where Fox news has done exactly what science fiction authors, and totalitarian regimes have exposed us to. They are using the power of their influence over the public to create downright hatred of a group of private citizens by assigning blame to them for what is essentially an act of terror....with absolutely no evidence to support their claims.
It's sometimes hard to see the grades of "slippery slope", but I think Fox just sent us down a significant new portion of that downward slide.
The "slippery slope" slides to the depth of the worst of fascist propaganda such as the following from an influential conservative journal. Notice how the language used against anyone associated with the "Occupy" movement resembles the propaganda used by the worst of Latin America's "little Hitlers":
2012-01-30 "Head of Occupy DC "Fun Committee" Gets Tasered. Are We Still Having Fun?" by JWF from
[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=49168]
JWF is a guest blogger for Human Events and the proprietor of Jammie Wearing Fools.
---
As the Occupy DC savages are preparing to be kicked out today, police on Sunday needed to use a little extra force to subdue one of the occupiers [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/one-protester-tased-arrested-at-occupy-dc/2012/01/29/gIQAxqRKaQ_blog.html].
[begin excerpt]
Tensions between Occupy DC protesters and law enforcement increased Sunday afternoon with the arrest of a demonstrator and the approach of Monday’s noon deadline to enforce a ban on overnight camping.
Tempers flared around midday after police subdued a protester in McPherson Square with an electric shock. Several protesters accused the police of using excessive force, saying the demonstrator had been handcuffed by two police officers before a third used the electronic device to stun him.
Police on scene confirmed that a person had been subdued with a Taser and arrested but gave no further details.
The encounter occurred as Park Police passed out flyers warning of the deadline to begin enforcing a longstanding ban on camping overnight in the square and Freedom Plaza. A protester, who is known as “Lash,” became angry when police entered his tent, other demonstrators said.
[end excerpt]
According to far left fringe site Crooks and Liars, this "Lash" creature is head of the Occupy DC fun committee [http://crooksandliars.com/andrew-metcalf/end-occupy-dc].
[begin excerpt]
Lash, the head of the fun committee, said he and a small group of people would be staying in the park. They would not sleep for as long as humanly possible.
[end excerpt]
Well, I guess he managed to get some sleep, as after his shocking run-in with police he passed out and puked.
Good times, good times.
Another place where they need tasers, along with tear gas and water cannons, is out in Oakland, where these wild beasts went on a rampage Saturday resulting in hundreds of arrests.
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/29/BA4T1N07OE.DTL]
[begin excerpt]
Oakland officials and Occupy protesters confronted the fallout from their increasingly toxic conflict on Sunday, a day after the tensions reignited in chaotic, often violent demonstrations that resulted in at least 400 arrests. Once again, each side blamed the other for sparking the violence.
City officials took stock of the damage from Saturday's clashes, which included injuries to three police officers and several protesters, as well as vandalism inside City Hall.
There, dozens of protesters had broken in with a crowbar, grabbed an American flag, and ignited it on the front steps.
"It's like a tantrum," Mayor Jean Quan said while showing the damage inside the building, which included a broken model of City Hall she estimated to be 100 years old. "They're treating us like a playground."
Quan said Occupy Oakland had "refused to be nonviolent" and, as a result, was "turning off the rest of the movement." She said police would step up efforts to obtain restraining orders against some protesters to keep them from approaching City Hall.
[end excerpt]
Amazingly, the media continues to float the canard that it all started out peacefully [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/oakland-assesses-damages-occupy-movement-cops-clash-article-1.1013718].
[begin excerpt]
Then came Saturday, which started peacefully enough — a midday rally at City Hall and a march. But hours later, the scene near downtown Oakland had dramatically deteriorated: clashes punctuated by rock and bottle throwing by protesters and volleys of tear gas from police, and a City Hall break-in that left glass cases smashed, graffiti spray-painted on walls and an American flag burned.
[end excerpt]
It always starts "peacefully" yet winds up with violence. The media fails to see the irony [http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_19843262].
[begin excerpt]
"This particular faction of Occupy ... they're very violent and I'm going to be asking for a lot more mutual aid," Quan said, adding that the weekly marches prevent the city's police force from patrolling other parts of Oakland. "They are hurting the neighborhoods by continuing to do this on Saturday nights."
[end excerpt]
It's a shame we no longer have a functioning Justice Department in this country or this nonsense would come to a halt today.
Here are some of the "peaceful" occupiers burning the American flag. But whatever you do, don't question their patriotism.
Of course, it is no secret that "Human Events" publishes propaganda typical of a fascist dictatorship. After all, they are owned by the same people who gave credence to any type of tyranny across Latin America many times worse than Cuba, and who are like family with "Christian" mercenaries who ship cocaine into the USA, like Ollie North and John Singlaub (do a websearch on those two alongside "cocaine" and see what you find). Presenting the "EAGLE Publishing, Inc.":
No, we didn't go looking for these stories, just happened to come across them. So perhaps there are others out there that we missed this week. Perhaps there is evidence of Democratic extremists similarly targeting Republicans with brutal violence and threats of brutal violence. If so, we haven't seen it.
This all takes place on the very same week in which Arizona's Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was finally forced to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives [http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9088] while she attempts to continue recovering her brain function after being shot in the head and nearly killed just over one year ago this month in Tucson, AZ (Not far from where the cop near Phoenix proudly posted the bullet-ridden photo of Obama). While six others were killed during the same incident in Tucson, as the shooter used a legal weapon allowing him to get off some 30 shots per clip, federal and state lawmakers have failed to do a damned thing about any of it.
And the election year is just beginning.
And now it comes to this...
2011-01-01 "Jesse Jackson Predicts ‘Somebody Shoot[ing] An AK-47 In The White House’ As A Result Of GOP Criticism" by Frances Martel
[http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jesse-jackson-predicts-somebody-shooting-an-ak-47-in-the-white-house-as-a-result-of-gop-criticism/]
Jesse Jackson, Sr. is worried for the safety of the President. The Reverend made his way to Martin Bashir‘s show today, where he was asked to comment on Republican disrespect of the president. And while the conversation began on the topic of acceptable political discourse, literally within the same sentence Jackson turns around and warns of the possibility that “somebody shoots an AK-47 in the White House.” Huh?
Bashir rattled off a laundry list of Republican bad behavior, from Arizona governor Jan Brewer pointing at the President to Rep. Joe Wilson shouting “you lie!” to Newt Gingrich using the term “food stamp president.”
“Why do Republicans think this is acceptable behavior in public?” Bashir asked.
“Demonizing the President is both morally wrong and dangerous,” Jackson began, citing “the continued demonization and then somebody shoots an AK-47 in the White House… to demonize him and demonize the poor is unacceptable.”
Noting that there wasn’t much of an explanation here, Bashir pressed on, asking whether Jackson was predicting “some sort of terrible outcome.”
“Ignorance and hatred and violence is in a certain pattern,” Jackson continued, citing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and noting that “George Wallace never hit anybody.”
“I’ve seen, sir, that remarkable photograph of you on the day Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered,” Bashir replied, “are you saying that Barack Obama’s very safety is being imperiled?”
“Absolutely,” replied Jackson, “ignorance and hatred leads to violence.” He went on to argue that “there is something unholy about this.”
Seems like we’re a long way off from the days Jackson was privately calling for President [then Senator] Obama’s castration [http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/item_2IKMVtS3vzxRvoAAxZ0ZGL].
The segment via MSNBC below:
Comment:
Greg: Jesse is certainly correct. Elements on the right have been conducting a passion play since Obama's first day. We are currently at station ten, "Patriots are crucified". The aim is to convince the corn fed ill bred followers to imagine themselves actors in a historic drama. Some wish to carry this fiction out as heroes, using violence to prevent a curtain torn as darkness falls.
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