[D66] US authorities step up nationwide crackdown on Occupy protests

[Antid Oto]

US authorities step up nationwide crackdown on Occupy protests
By David Walsh
14 November 2011


City governments and police across the US have stepped up their attacks on
Occupy movement encampments. Using a variety of pretexts—ordinances against
sleeping in city parks, alleged health and sanitation violations, unrelated
crimes, etc.—the authorities are attempting to criminalize the protests.

Occupy protests have broken out in hundreds of US cities and towns and more
continue to be organized. Polls indicate widespread support for the general
thrust of this movement: against social inequality, corporate control of the
political system and a society in which the rich run everything.

Yet local governments, often headed by Democratic Party mayors, are attempting
to suppress the protests and there is no outcry from any section of the
political or media establishment. “Democracy” in America means democracy for big
business politicians and their apologists in the media. When the population
begins to voice its concerns, it faces police barricades, tear gas and truncheons.

The liberal moralizers who denounce human rights violations committed by any
regime that stands in the way of Washington’s global interests have no
difficulty with repression in their own backyard. The AFL-CIO is predictably silent.

Over this past weekend, significant arrests or confrontations took place in
Albany, New York; Portland, Oregon; Asheville, North Carolina; Gainesville,
Florida; Springfield and St. Louis, Missouri; Fresno, California, Denver,
Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Atlanta, Georgia and other cities. A major
showdown continues to loom between protesters and authorities in Oakland,
California. Police violence against students last Wednesday, vividly captured on
video, has angered many in and around the campus of the University of California
in Berkeley.

One of the most serious confrontations took place in Portland Saturday night,
when police prepared to close the Occupy Portland encampment. (See: “Police
evict Occupy Portland protesters”)The unrest continued until Sunday morning,
with hundreds of angry people massed on downtown city streets. Two people were
arrested following a police order to disperse.

In Denver, police tore down tents and forced protesters out of Civic City Park
Saturday night, claiming that their belongings were blocking city sidewalks.
According to Occupy Denver, 21 protesters were arrested. Organizers reported:
“Crowds were pepper sprayed, shot with pepper balls and rubber ‘less-lethal’
rounds, and beaten with batons and fists. Street medics treated many injuries
(yet again) and our legal observers reported many gross attacks on individuals,
some not even affiliated with the demonstrations.”

When fellow protesters went to bail out those arrested, they were told that bond
had been set but they were not allowed to free their comrades. The police
stalled throughout the night, claiming at one point that the computer system had
broken down.

Occupy Denver reported that Sunday morning, at a court hearing, “every single
prisoner’s bond was increased. Some prisoners saw their bonds increased by 3 to
5 times the amounts that they were at just hours ago. Felony assault charges
were added to several of the arrestees, the ones (again, in an unsurprising
move) who were the most injured or brutalized during their arrests.”

In Albany, New York Saturday night state police jailed 24 protesters on the
grounds that they were violating an 11 pm curfew in state-owned Lafayette Park.
Attorney Robert Magee, a member of Occupy Albany’s legal working group, told the
media: “It’s a tragedy that people in the state of New York cannot exercise
their First Amendment rights in a public park.” Protesters chanted “Shame on
[Democratic Governor Andrew] Cuomo,” as police made the arrests.

Anthropologist Bradley Russell, dressed in a Civil War uniform, was arrested
earlier in the day in Albany for constructing a “freedom fort” in Lafayette Park
“out of squares of foam board, packing tape, an image of the Bill of Rights and
protest signs,” according to the Albany Times Union. “Russell also had made a
nearly life-size poster that said, ‘Take Your Picture with Emperor Cuomo’
printed across the top.”

Twenty-seven demonstrators were arrested Friday night in St. Louis, after
authorities ordered Occupy St. Louis to leave its encampment in Kiener Park.
Protesters have been living in the park since October 1.

One of the protesters, according to stltoday.com, is Don Waltman of Monroe,
Louisiana. “Waltman never planned on being part of Occupy St. Louis. But the
heavy equipment operator, who lost work after Hurricane Katrina, stopped here to
visit the Arch, stumbled upon the protesters, identified with many of them, and
stayed.”

Occupy St. Louis has gone to court against the city, arguing that the
enforcement of the park curfew violates free speech rights. A US District judge
denied a request for a temporary order against the ordinance. A federal court
will hear the case on Tuesday.

In Salt Lake City Saturday night, according to an Occupy Salt Lake City press
release, “scores of police from several different agencies occupied 400 South
and 400 West outside of Pioneer Park to shut down the camping operations of
Occupy SLC. Those wishing to remain steadfast in their belief in the meaning of
occupying public space were arrested. Eighteen demonstrators were handcuffed and
sent off to the county jail, while another demonstrator was released with a
citation… Demonstrators from Occupy Park City, Occupy Ogden and Occupy Provo
[all cities in Utah] were all present to support Occupy SLC as our camp was
forced to shut down.”

As police moved in and used heavy equipment to raze the camp, protesters
chanted, “This is what a police state looks like.”

The Occupy Salt Lake City press release further commented: “The police are in
front of us in these situations. They are the arms that bar us, but we are aware
that they serve as a tool in the hands of politicians who serve corporate
interests.” The press release announced a rally Monday outside the City County
building.

Nineteen people were arrested in Atlanta’s Woodruff Park Saturday night,
including two for remaining after closing time and 17 others charged with
“obstructing traffic” after the crowd poured onto nearby streets.

“A large Atlanta police force including motorcycles, mounted police, officers on
foot, a SWAT team in riot gear and a helicopter moved in aggressively and faced
off with the marchers,” Occupy Atlanta protest organizers explained in a
statement. “Peace was maintained until a policeman on a motorcycle accelerated
into a demonstrator.”

In Gainesville, Florida Friday night 20 people were issued notices to appear for
trespassing after refusing to leave Bo Diddley Community Plaza. Three protesters
were arrested and taken to jail. One of them, Annette Gilley, 58, said she was
arrested for “being the public” in a public park.

On Friday, 6 more arrests in Fresno, California brought the week’s total to 54.
Each night sheriff’s deputies arrest those who camp out at the courthouse park.
A city ordinance mandates the closure of the park at midnight. The protesters
have been in the park for 33 days.

The Fresno Bee reports, “Occupiers and deputies are on friendly terms during the
day, occupiers said. But come nightfall, ‘the mood changes,’ said Michaela
Oranda, 27. ‘We don’t agree we should be pushed out.’”

Numerous arrests have occurred in Asheville, North Carolina, including three
more Friday at midnight, again on the specious grounds that protests were in
violation of a curfew on city park property. The three jailed and released were
all military veterans, aged 72, 25 and 41.

An employee of the Asheville Police Department used her web page to denounce the
protest for wanting “to preach their ‘constitutional rights’ to me,” and an
entry in a local blogger’s web site suggested lynching the Occupy Asheville
protesters: “Some people just need a hug... around the neck... with a rope.”

In Nashville, Tennessee a local newspaper has revealed that state troopers and
Metro police officers conducted undercover operations to infiltrate Occupy
Nashville in the days leading up to the arrests of 30 people in late October.
The pretext here was the presence of illegal drugs and “lewd behavior.”
Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) troopers dressed in street clothes and mingled
among the crowd, according to the documents disclosed by the Tennessean.

One of the THP cops made the real purpose of such operations clear when he sent
an email in mid-October: “If they start camping, I’m confident that a public
health issue will soon develop. Then the Health Dept. can shut it down and we
all look like the good guys.”

http://wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/prot-n14.shtml