fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

The National Lawyers Guild is calling for nearly 300 Occupy L.A. protesters arrested early Wednesday to be released from jail.  

The majority of the 292 protesters were taken into custody for failing leave a City Hall park after police issued a dispersal order early Wednesday, city officials said. A smaller number also were cited for resisting arrest.

All are being held on a minimum $5,000 bail until they are arraigned by a judge — a process that can take up to two days.  

Attorney Carol Sobel of the lawyers guild said protesters should be released with notices to appear before court and not be punished “for exercising their 1st Amendment rights.”

She said she several attorneys said they had not been able to visit their clients behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center because the jail was closed because of staffing problems and the large influx of inmates.  

Sobel rebuked city officials for being too focused on its plan of moving in on protesters and — neglecting to plan for what came next.  

“They had this elaborate plan,” she said. “But they didn’t have a plan for arresting them.”  

The city attorney’s office has not yet been asked to file charges by the Los Angeles Police Department, according to Chief Deputy City Atty. William Carter. But Carter said that will probaly happen soon.   

Carter said the city probably would press charges in many of the cases, but noted: “We will review each case individually.”  

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

When NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly stopped by Columbia to answer questions for a class taught by former New York Mayor David Dinkins, an Occupy Wall Street sympathizer whipped out a projector and started displaying images of police brutality. 

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.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

As cities around the country have swept Occupy Wall Street camps from their plazas and parks in recent weeks, a number of mayors and city officials have argued that by providing shelter to the homeless, the camps are endangering the public and even the homeless themselves.

Yet in many of those cities, services for the homeless are severely underfunded. The cities have spent millions of dollars to police and evict the protesters, but they’ve been shutting down shelters and enacting laws to prohibit homeless from sleeping overnight in public.

In Oakland, Atlanta, Denver and Portland, Ore., there are at least two homeless people for every open bed in the shelter system, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In Salt Lake City, Utah, and Chapel Hill, N.C. — two other cities that have evicted protesters from their encampments — things are better but far from ideal. In Chapel Hill, according to the HUD study, there are 121 beds for 135 homeless people, and in Salt Lake City, 1,627 for 1,968.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Dozens of Occupy Philly protesters remained in a park outside Philadelphia’s City Hall on Monday after ignoring a Sunday evening deadline to leave, unsure whether police would enforce an eviction order and vowing to stand firm if they did.

Mayor Michael Nutter told protesters Friday that they had until 5 p.m. Sunday to pack up the tents and other creature comforts they have used while staying in Dilworth Plaza since the beginning of October, two weeks after Occupy Wall Street in New York prompted sympathizers to erect encampments in city centers across the nation. Occupy Wall Street was evicted in mid-November, and other Occupy camps have faced similar fates.