[D66] Police attack Occupy protests in Denver, Colorado

[Antid Oto]

Police attack Occupy protests in Denver, Colorado
By Joseph Kishore
31 October 2011


The police repression of Occupy demonstrations in the US escalated over the
weekend. In the most serious incident, riot police using tear gas and wielding
batons arrested 20 in Denver, Colorado. Several protesters were injured.

Other arrests were carried out in Portland, Oregon; Nashville, Tennessee;
Rochester, New York; and Austin, Texas.

Nearly three thousand people have been arrested nationwide on various charges
since the protests began in September. The past two weeks have seen a marked
increase in arrests in different parts of the country, primarily in cities with
Democratic Party mayors.

In Denver, the 20 protesters were arrested in two separate incidents on Saturday
afternoon and evening, and one protester was hospitalized for injuries inflicted
during a police arrest. Other protesters were shot with rubber bullets or
“pepper balls,” including one in the face. One was knocked out of a tree while
filming the incident.

The total number of protesters arrested as part of Occupy Denver is now at least
77. The Denver city government is headed by Mayor Michael Hancock, a Democrat.

Five of the arrests over the weekend occurred during a protest involving about
2,000 people at the Colorado state capitol building. Police later gathered en
masse to tear down tents at the nearby encampment, arresting 15 more, including
several minors. Two of those arrested are being held on felony charges.

The Denver Westword, an independent newspaper, reports that one man, Phillip
Becerra, “was injured in the face and neck [from pepper bullets] during the
afternoon’s first outbreak away from the tents. Another protester was injured
when a police motorcycle rolled over his foot. ‘They pepper sprayed me and I
fell and then went to pour water on my face,’ says Becerra… ‘When I got back up,
I was shot in the face. I had to go to the hospital to have the wound treated.’”


When they moved to the camp, police came decked out in riot gear. The Denver
Post reports, “University of Colorado student Daniel Ellen tried to jump through
a gap to help other protesters he feared were stuck in the tents but was knocked
to the ground by police. He stood up and charged at them again, screaming in
anger, took a blow to the temple with a baton and was pushed down twice more.”

Most of those arrested had to pay out $550 in bail, despite misdemeanor charges
(of “failing to obey a police order”) with no prior record. One individual,
apparently the same person who had his foot run over by a motorcycle, faces a
Class 4 felony charge for assaulting a police officer.

He allegedly pushed the motorcycle as it passed through the dense crowd. The
police officer got off his bike and chased him down, forcefully arresting him.

The Westword quoted defense attorney John Buckley: “Sidewalks are historically a
place where people can assemble. What law they violated at that point is a
mystery to all of us.”

A telling incident occurred during the earlier protests when Ed Pelmutter, a
Democratic member of the US House of Representatives, waded into the crowd in an
attempt to diffuse the protests. “We want jobs!” one protester reportedly
shouted at him. “Democrats won’t get elected anymore!”

In Nashville, Tennessee, police arrested more than two dozen protesters early
Saturday morning, bringing the total arrested in recent days in that city to
about 50. Republican Governor Bill Haslam arbitrarily declared a curfew of 10:00
pm on Thursday for Legislative Plaza, providing the pretext for arresting those
involved in a week-long demonstration.

Tennessee courts have so far rejected attempts to prosecute those arrested, with
Magistrate Tom Nelson declaring Saturday that he could “find no authority
anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative Plaza.”

A reporter from the alternative weekly, the Nashville Scene, was among those
arrested. A video records his attempts to explain to police that he is a member
of the media. As he is forced down and handcuffed, a police officer can be heard
saying, “Gentleman, when you get him up there, charge him with resisting
arrest.” He was later charged with public intoxication.

In Portland, Oregon, 27 protesters were arrested early Sunday morning after
refusing to leave a public park in the city’s downtown area. Portland’s
Democratic mayor, Sam Adams, called the arrests “unnecessary” as the city had
given protesters “numerous opportunities to simply walk away” and abandon the camp.

In Austin, Texas, 38 people were arrested early Sunday morning. The conflict
apparently was sparked by demands from city authorities to remove food tables,
which became the pretext for mass arrests.

In Rochester, New York, police arrested 32 protesters on Friday night. One
protester told the crowd on Saturday afternoon that Mayor Thomas Richards, a
Democrat, “decided that Rochester, New York would be the first city in New York
state to forcibly remove protesters exercising their first amendment rights.”

The weekend arrests followed similar actions in San Diego, California (51
arrested on Friday); Tampa, Florida (3 arrested on Friday); Atlanta, Georgia (52
arrested on Wednesday morning) and San Jose, California (7 arrested Tuesday
morning).

In Oakland, California, Scott Olsen, a protester who was critically injured by
police on Tuesday night, was listed as in “fair” condition after nearly a week
in the hospital.

The extreme reaction of police to the relatively small Occupy protests is one
reflection of a deep-seated fear within the ruling class that these
demonstrations could become a spark for a much broader and powerful movement of
the working class. Many of the police operations have the stench of test runs
for various methods and technologies used to suppress popular opposition.
Several, including in Oakland and Denver, have turned into police riots.

The repression poses all the more clearly the basic political issues, in
particular the central role of the Democratic Party enforcing the interests of
the corporate and financial aristocracy in the United States. Barack Obama has
said nothing about the police repression, tacitly endorsing the arrests by
insisting that protests must remain “lawful.”

http://wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/occu-o31.shtml