Journalist Tim Pool began live-streaming an Occupy Wall Street solidarity march for Occupy Oakland in Manhattan Sunday night. The march was intended to demonstrate support for the 400 or so Occupy Oakland protesters arrested in Oakland, California on Saturday and charged with breaking into a YMCA and Oakland's City Hall in addition to resisting police. Read More
The heady days of New York's Wall Street occupation are officially over, reports The New York Times. Boo! We were hoping that the protesters were just in hibernation, waiting until the Spring weather thaws out Zuccotti Park and makes it habitable again. But one of the lawyers representing OWS campers stated that the lawsuit they filed back in November to regain park access was dropped after the barricades and Brookfield Property security guards were removed from Zuccotti on January 10th.
Fighting over that particular scrap of land is no longer part of the OWS agenda. Instead, the grassroots movement is focusing its efforts Southward, to the country's capital.
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A Greyhound bus carrying passengers from San Diego, CA to Washington D.C. dropped off 13 of its passengers in the middle of Texas on Saturday after the driver allegedly took issue with the Occupy movement.
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Last Monday, the headquarters of Global Revolution TV, the livestream that puts out video for Occupy Wall Street content, was raided by New York City building inspectors. Despite having paid $2,000 a month for rent on their apartment and studio space at 13 Thames St. in Bushwick for two years, Vlad Teichberg and his pregnant wife Nikky suddenly found themselves at 8 p.m. on the day after New Year's, with guns allegedly pointed at their faces as cops and firefighters accompanied the Inspectors who deemed their floor unlivable. They were forced to leave. The next day, Mr. Teichberg and six of the Global Revolution operatives were arrested for trespassing and (Mr. Teichberg was also held for 30 hours and charged for assaulting his landlord) when they tried to go back into their own home and retrieve papers from their apartment.
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Since the holiday season, the Occupy Wall Street movement has seen a drop in media coverage. Some of this may be attributed to the dissemination of the movement after the Zuccotti Park raid last November, while another factor has to do with the fact that reporters covering the protests tend to get treated by the NYPD as part of the demonstration...even if they're carrying city-accredited press badges.
Today, members of OWS (but not OWS itself, since, as a member of the press team told The New York Observer by phone, the still-existing General Assembly did not pass this motion), citizen journalists, and anyone else who isn't afraid of getting arrested will be protesting outside of Mayor Bloomberg's house for the ethical treatment of the press.
Full memo below:
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Well if Rick Santorum can tie for first place in Iowa, we guess anything is possible. Like a mega-move comeback from an Occupy Wall Street solidarity faction, which has sent out a press release for January 20th's "Occupy the Courts" day. No, that's not what happens when everyone with DATS show up and pleads not guilty. It's a Supreme Court sit-in!
Press release below. Warning: May include phrases like "Cornel West" "personhood rights" and "Corporations are NOT people!" (Which...obviously! That's why they never get arrested!)
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This weekend 49 protesters were arrested in an effort to occupy Duarte Square Park: a vacant lot owned by Trinity Church (aka Hudson Square Properties). Although the turnout wasn't quite as big as last month's OWS anniversary (that mayhem in the streets known as the "Day of Action"), the attempt to claim the half-block in Tribeca by scaling and cutting the fence surrounding the area was nonetheless inspiring in its imagery. But was Occupation 2.0 a success?
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Two weeks ago, three Occupy Wall Street members began a hunger strike in front of Duarte Square. They were protesting Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church for not allowing them to use the empty lot owned by the church's real estate arm, Hudson Square Properties. The demonstrators were arrested...twice...for trespassing on the church's land.
It seemed like an odd battle to pick for Occupy Wall Street; especially since Trinity Church had provided the OWS with space to hold meetings, use WiFi and public facilities, and even join in discussions with religious leaders. But since Nov. 17th's Day of Action saw members get arrested for trying to make a temporary camp in the empty lot, the Occupiers have focused their energy on guilting the church into just giving them the land.
Except, as we noted at the time, this was never going to happen. Read More
Update: Vice has wrote to us that they aren't behind the Occupy Williamsburg thing. They just tweeted about it. So it's still not a joke, except the joke that Vice was making when they tweeted "Not a joke."
Oh please, Vice magazine. We know you are owned by HBO. We know that your current homepage features men in nice suits with signs saying "Suck 1% of My Dick."
So what are you trying to prove with tonight's event? Read More
Video
Yesterday, we wrote a lot about the Occupy Wall Street protesters who put on giant vampire squid puppets and marched down to Goldman Sachs headquarters at 200 West End. Their message may have ended up getting lost in translation, but it did make for an amazing video from Big Apple TV, the New York-centric spin-off of Next Media Animation, the Taiwanese studio that has brought us American pop-culture in weird, cartoonish installments since about 2010-ish.
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This weekend, several well-meaning (we hope) parents decided to show their kids what activism looked like as they combined the anti-bullying campaign that's been sweeping the nation with an OWS rally against those mean "bully" policemen. The kids made signs and put paper hearts on the gates of City Hall. Guess what happened next?
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During the Occupy Wall Street arrests at the World Financial Center Plaza this morning, credentialed New York Times freelance photographer Robert Stolarik was prevented from taking photos of the police descending on the Occupy Wall Street protesters. You can even watch it happen in the video! (It's at the two minute mark.)
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Update: The video below also contains footage of The New York Times' credentialed freelance photographer Robert Stolarik being barred from covering the arrests. Read about it here.
Earlier today, as we noted, Occupy Wall Street marched in solidarity of their West Coast counterparts as they attempted to shut down the major ports of commerce used by global financial banking and security firm Goldman Sachs.
The protesters, carrying and wearing giant squid outfits to represent what Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi described when talking about Sachs as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money," marched from Zuccotti Park to Sacks HQ at 200 West Street.
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Today is a great day to march against those capitalist fat-cats if you happen to live on the West Coast, on a day that OWS has called "Occupy Strikes Sachs." (Get it??) Protesters will disrupt ports from Anchorage to San Diego in an effort to block Goldman Sach's daily shipment order of $705 million in cargo.
But don't worry...if you live in New York, you can still help out by marching to Sach's headquarters.
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In a very clever campaign swipe, Occupy Wall Street is now co-opting this year's trendy "anti-bullying" message--championed by Dan Savage, Lady Gaga, and the cast of Glee-- and turned it into an "Stop Bullying Us, Ray Kelly and Michael Bloomberg" initiative. Starring your kids...marching in solidarity with the 99%! Because the police can't pepper spray children (fingers crossed).
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