Zuccotti Park was raided in the wee hours of the morning by NYPD.
- Police gave Occupiers NO time to removed their property. They moved in and started trashing everything and loading it into trucks.
- Police blocked all media and herded them into a “Press Pen”, far from the action. They also ordered TV helicopters out of the sky. At least one journalist was arrested, the NY Times’ Jared Malsin
- There have been many arrests and injuries, including Councilman Ydanis Rodriquez, who suffered a head injury at the hands of the NYPD.
- Andrew Katz reports that Foley Square will replace Zuccotti park. “No tents, just people”.
No surprise, complete with the excuse of garbage and trash Bloomberg would order the raid. After all, OWS was planning on shutting down the New York Stock Exchange.
The OWS website has a great phrase, you cannot evict an idea that's come.
London is also working on evictions and arrests of OWS. Portland, Oregon's camp was shut down over the weekend.
It's fairly clear we have a site by site coordinated effort to disperse, discredit and dispel the Occupy movement with everything from a media campaign reporting drugs, garbage and crime exclusively to outright police raids.
Most interesting is how media was kept at bay. Salon notes a Daily News reporter is arrested:
Daily News cheers Occupy Wall Street raid, until Daily News reporter is arrested. "Bravo" says New York newspaper to NYPD eviction, just before the NYPD jails one of their own.
There are reports of at least four Journalists arrested in spite having a press pass.
Protestors then obtained a court order allowing them to return to the park, yet at this moment, are swarming the park perimeter waiving the order, which so far, Bloomberg has disregarded.
The final court ruling allows protestors to stay in the park 24/7, but cannot bring in equipment, tents and camp.
Probably the most important piece of news is this is a coordinated attack on the Occupy movement. Oakland May Jean Quan spilled the beans that this is a coordinated plan by at least 18 major cities to kick around the movement.
We'll update events in the comments, and this site has live video feeds from Occupy movements around the globe.
Comments
consider this post an open thread, OWS events moving fast
OWS has a lot of media, so I try to link to them as reference, or not biased reports as best I can, but this story moves so fast.
To me, what's happening is overall an attack on the protestors to shut down their message. No surprise to me because what they are protesting is what the power in this country (as well as the globe) doesn't want you to know, we're their chattel, sheep.
There are some news live blogs, the Guardian, Think Progress and Raw Story has also been writing a lot of coverage, which you will not see in MSM, on OWS.
Should Not Hurt Them Too Much
My current thought -- subject to eternal change -- is that if this movement is what we think and hope it is, it won't matter that they can't stay overnight.
As others have pointed out, it may not have been possible to stay through the winter. It sure would be hard to keep up the good fight while constanting thinking about how to keep warm and dry in freezing weather.
We'll see.
I wish them the best of luck. I believe they are still riding a rising wave.
disperse, travel times, blockings
First, they do not have a physical presence 24/7 due to the camps being destroyed. Then, they have to travel in to protest events. Police can block them, it's expense to travel in, i.e. they are not concentrated.
I think they can still do it but I think this is a blow. The good news is this is really bringing more press to their message and in looking at it, long term, most of America probably agrees with them.
Right now, we have GOP candidates being locked out, complete media black out that they even exist and it's probably because they are not touting the corporate party line.
We have a known corrupt guy, Newt Gingrich rising to the top of the GOP field and he literally received $300 million from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.
i.e. we don't have hardly any representation in D.C. going on so assuredly their movement will grow. Let's hope.
I've been impressed with their organization, esp. for a "bottom up" movement structure.
$300 Million?
"We have a known corrupt guy, Newt Gingrich rising to the top of the GOP field and he literally received $300 million from Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac."
To me, Gingrich is just another shamelessly overpaid political hack -- worse than that, he's a known profiteering lobbyists since leaving the Congress. He's really a joke, apparently being brought out of his lush retirement years to upstage any real competition to Romney, who is now looking more and more like the GOP nominee for 2012. In other words, Newt is the fall guy for a final Mitt versus Newt charade. But I can't corroborate the $300,000,000 figure at all. It can't be for his current campaign. According to Reuters blog 15 November 2011 --
It's notorious that Gingrich received campaign contributions from F & F way back in his time as Speaker of the House (a decade ago), but I doubt that $300,000,000 figure from F & F even if we totaled all of it over his entire nefarious career. More recently, in 2006, Gingrich Group (lobbyists) was apparently on the F & F payola list. This is from politico.com, citing msnbc's 'First Read' --
However, the number cited at msnbc's 'First Read' is "$300,000 from Freddie Mac in 2006" (CNBC debate moderator John Harwood).
$1.6 million is the new figure
Since he came to the front, you can bet more "leaks" on his corporate, lobbyist ties will pop up.
Bottom line, any real candidates are getting a media blackout and what's left is "no choice", in other words, as usual, we don't have any choice. Obama is busy putting together the worst trade deal, NAFTA style, we've seen since the China PNTR. I don't know why the focus so often on NAFTA, sure it is awful, but it's the China PNTR which is the real disaster (evidenced by our outsourced manufacturing, trade deficit and "trade" of economic strength).
Obama is now spewing some minor rhetoric on China, but he's had 3 years to do something and brazenly refused. I don't believe a word of what he says.
Dont forget - Occupy the Highway March on Washington
"If this movement is what we think and hope it is, it won't matter that they can't stay overnight." -- Jersey
It's hard to hit a moving distributed-network target.
image from OccupyTheNation.com, 'Occupy the Highway'
Whatever the long-term consequences of the police repression may be -- and they are incalculable -- this movement has already done more to change the political landscape than would have been imaginable just 60 days ago.
The Founding Fathers would be proud in this creation rising out of their genius in enacting the First Amendment.
See, www.occupythenation.com/news-and-updates/62-occupy-the-highway-the-99-march-to-washington
out for change OWS
I honestly think the entire nation needs to get out, protest, march and maybe we might get some change. But in terms of breaking through the political wall, even when you get your long shot guy into office, either they are then outgunned by "Congressional leadership", or they turn around and also become corrupted.
Regardless, the issues OWS talks about, most have been this site's mantras, themes, but by the math and stats, since 2008, so I sure as hell hope the movement grows. We need something which sticks to those basic economic issues which show the U.S. middle class, workforce has been decimated.
OWS continues strong, markets affected?
Protests continue strong around Wall Street. Corporate media can't ignore the phenomena, which were scheduled by corporate media and the powers-that-be to be ignorable after the police repression earlier this week broke up the happy campers. Barricades were supposed to be removed by now, but apparently they remain, and reports are that attorneys are complaining that they are unable to get through the barricades/check-points to meet filing dates for various documents. There have been reports that some protestors briefly blocked street traffic this morning.
Is there any correlation between the OWS protests and markets centered in NYC?
Looking at Bloomberg live streaming at the NYA:IND webpage during the past hour (2:00 PM to 3:00 PM EST), everything is down in USD terms. Although the Euro was briefly up against the USD, that didn't last long, so .... in summary .... Euro is down, NYSE is down, oil is down, gold is down, PM are all down -- but US 10-year Treasurys are up (shown on Bloomberg as yield down).
With European markets now closed for the night, sovereign (notably Spanish) bonds are down (yields are up), European stocks are in decline, with major banks leading the sell-off.
From a Bloomberg webpage --
Gold appears to be falling to around $1700, as platinum continues in the underdog position (???) at under $1600.
Can US Treasurys be the new gold?
no way
as much as I wish OWS would move markets, todate, no way. As far as precious metals, commodities, that has much more to do with Europe, various CPIs and bond yields. Last night the Euro hit a new low against the Dollar, now that drives markets.
Headline hyperbole
"as much as I wish OWS would move markets, to date, no way." -- Robert Oak
Well, yeah, of course. But you know me -- I can't resist going all out for a juicy headline. Reach exceeds grasp. Anyway, I remembered to put a question mark with it.
Reports in on OWS 'Day of Action'
I see photos around the net showing that police repression has continued today, with the usual brutality.
From BBC News, 17 November 2011 ("Last updated at 15:00 ET") --
Thanks for the OWS updates
They are so busy today and I too see police are getting way more brutal and the press is continuing to attempt to turn the public against OWS.
The more effective they are and especially drawing attention to lobbyists they more they will be attacked.
They blocked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in D.C. for a bit and that's the propaganda machine dragon.
Looks like I'll have to put up maybe more "link/open" threads so we can keep up with the latest.
OWS has many, many twitter, live stream, youtube, websites and so on social media for the latest news and updates, so make sure you link up to them. They are scattered, I've linked to the main ones already but there are many more.
Countdown to Occupy DC, Super Committee
Six days remain for the Super Committee to get back to Congress with its fast-track proposals (demands?) -- due the day before Thanksgiving -- and not everyone is down with corporate media spin that the Super Committee "must not fail."
See --
'The People Rooting for the Super Committee to Fail' (The Atlantic Wire via Yahoo! News, 17 November 2011)
'Eight days left: Was super committee a bad idea from the start?' (Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News, 16 November 2011)
Meanwhile, from OccupyTheNation webpage:
'Occupy The Highway: The 99% March to Washington' will reach Washington's doorstep on Saturday (19 November 2011), planning on stopping on Sunday for a "day off at Occupy Baltimore." The final items on the Occupy March itinerary are, as follows:
11/21/11: Occupy Baltimore to Laurel, MD
11/22/11: Laurel, MD to Occupy DC
11/23/11: Occupy DC to The White House for Super Committee meeting
Kleptocrats may ponder (paraphrasing here from Yeats' The Second Coming) "what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Washington to be born?"
Except this beast is hardly rough. Tough? Yes. Smart? Yes. Determined? Yes. But also entirely smooth, civilized, even sophisticated.