Occupy Philly

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia stormed Occupy Wall Street encampments under darkness Wednesday to arrest or drive out some of the longest-lasting protesters since crackdowns ended similar occupations across the country.

Dozens of officers in riot gear flooded down the steps of Los Angeles City Hall just after midnight and started dismantling the two-month-old camp two days after a deadline passed for campers to leave the park. Officers in helmets and wielding batons and guns with rubber bullets converged on the park from all directions with military precision and began making arrests after several orders were given to leave.

The raid in Los Angeles came after demonstrators with the movement in Philadelphia marched through the streets after being evicted from their site. About 40 protesters were arrested after refusing to clear a street several blocks northeast of City Hall, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. They were lined up in cuffs and loaded on to buses by officers. Six others were arrested earlier after remaining on a street police that police tried to clear.

socialismartnature:

In city after city, the same scene is replayed — hundreds of cops excessively clad in riot gear (are they preparing to confront, or engage in, a riot?), are sent in to evict Occupy camps under the cover of midnight’s darkness.

Though we now know (thanks to the confession of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan) that many of these municipal crackdowns have been actively coordinated at a local and even federal level, even where there has not been outright conspiracy by the powers-that-be, the political and economic elite of each city have learned to mimic this particular strategy of repression.

Though cities are suppressing the physical encampments of the Occupy movement, the 1% who effectively rule this nation better be aware that the struggle for social, political, and economic democracy, which Occupy heretofore embodied, is not going away. This Genie is not going to be so easily stuffed back in to the bottle.

Though it may need to metamorphose in form, the process whereby the Occupy encampments are destroyed is akin to the process whereby the caterpillar is destroyed as it turns into a butterfly. Having put an end to the current phase of the struggle, the ruling class of this nation are unwittingly ushering in the next, more powerful phase of this struggle, which we will inevitable see arise in the months to come.   

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Los Angeles police officers, scores of them in riot gear, dismantled an Occupy encampment at around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, after allowing hundreds of protesters to camp in front of City Hall for weeks.

When the police moved in, protesters scrambled out of the park and gathered in large groups in the surrounding streets. The police said they arrested 200 people.

By 3 a.m. the area around City Hall was quiet — the camp had mostly been cleared and police were focusing on a few protesters who had climbed up trees with their tents. The park was a sea of collapsed tents and litter. Several protesters who had linked arms in a circle were carried out by officers.

In Philadelphia early on Wednesday, police officers began to clear out a nearly two-month-old encampment next to City Hall. They met little resistance from protesters, many of whom marched elsewhere in the city after the police arrived at the site.

There were no reports of violence, but some demonstrators were arrested in what Mr. Goldstein called a “civil disobedience” action. Live aerial pictures from a local television station showed other protesters being detained about a mile north of City Hall, where they had marched. “You can’t evict an idea,” the local movement’s Facebook page declared.

nebraska-admiral:

It includes the use of horses to disperse the crowd. Also, someone I know (somewhat) had their foot broken by one of the police officers, apparently with press credentials. It should be noted that the sidewalk is where the police told the protesters to go - then dispersed them further. The police captain was on WHYY this morning acting as if this was a peaceful process without injury, but what’s starting to surface is that that’s not quite the case. 

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Washington, Nov 30 (Prensa Latina) - U.S. police forces dismantled on Wednesday camps of protesters in Los Angeles and Philadelphia during another day of governmental repression against the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement.

Riot troops disrupted the Californian City Hall Square early Wednesday morning forcing OWS members protesting against social and economic inequality in the U.S. to leave the square.

A similar operation occurred in Philadelphia, where police forces arrested 40 people after clearing Dilworth Square and warning protesters they could not resume the demonstration, by order of the mayor’s office.

Head of Police Charlie Beck told CNN news channel that nearly 1,000 officers participated or collaborated in the raid, arresting nearly 200 people.

Popular demonstrations began two months ago as a replica of demonstrations in Spain and protesting corporate financial greed and the excessive power of banks.

On September 17, the OWS took to the streets to denounce the global economic and political crisis.