NYPD shred kids' paper hearts commemorating Occupy arrestees before their very eyes

By Cory Doctorow at 12:33 pm Monday, Dec 12

Occupy protesters and their kids made 5,000 paper hearts, one for each of the arrests at the Occupy Wall Street protests. They made a mosaic of these at the gates of New York's City Hall, only to have the police literally rip down and shred them.

Parents for Occupy Wall St. March against police brutality. Children created 5,000 paper hearts one for every peaceful protestor arrested on behalf of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the three month period leading up to the march. The children delivered them to New York City Hall for Mayor Bloomberg only for the NYPD to aggressively tear them down and apart in front of the children. Children cried and the NYPD did yet another action against peaceful protestors. We as a country should not stand for this, get involved, speak up, do something for our children's futures.

It's predictable but weird how many of the YouTube commenters criticize the parents for involving their kids with a protest. I grew up on protest marches and demonstrations with my parents, and I take my daughter to them, because I think that parenting is (partly) about imparting values to your children. Growing up amid a critical discourse about issues of social justice and freedom helped make me who I was, and my parents were always available to debate these subjects with me, encouraging me to listen to arguments on either side without hiding which side they were on.

NYPD and NYC City Hall Break Kids Hearts (via Beth Pratt) Tags: authoritarianiam, happy mutants, Kids, occupy, ows, police, protest, video, youtube

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Mace-in-the-face NYPD officer "broke pepper-spray rules" at Occupy Wall Street. Punishment: "loss of vacation time."

By Xeni Jardin at 9:27 pm Tuesday, Oct 18

Remember Anthony Bologna, the New York police officer seen on videos pepper-spraying female Occupy Wall Street demonstrators at close range? An internal NYPD review finds that he violated departmental standards on the of pepper spray. His punishment: he will lose 10 vacation days. (via Warren Ellis) Tags: occupy wall street, ows

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Occupy protests around the world: 951 protests in 82 countries

By Xeni Jardin at 12:19 pm Monday, Oct 17

The Guardian is mapping "Occupy" protests around the world.

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Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street

By Xeni Jardin at 10:24 am Tuesday, Oct 18

The Real Role Of Anonymous In Occupy Wall Street: "Anonymous has caught the attention of the media--and even Homeland Security--with its biggest contribution to Occupy Wall Street: hype. But, so far, the amorphous, leaderless hacktivist movement has disappointed anyone expecting full-on revolution from a Guy Fawkes-masked army or a massive cyber attack." (Fast Company)

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NYC backs off Occupy Wall Street "cleaning"

By Rob Beschizza at 6:34 am Friday, Oct 14

The Awl offers a selection of photos and videos from the early hours today, in which the city of New York's deadline for clearing out the park (so it might be "cleaned") passed. Tags: occupywallstreet

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Occupy Wall Street: a protester's version of the Citibank arrests

By Xeni Jardin at 6:32 am Monday, Oct 17

Gawker has published the account of Elana Carroll, one of the 24 (or more?) "Occupy Wall Street" protesters in New York who were arrested at the Greenwich Village Citibank location this weekend.

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Occupy the World

By Xeni Jardin at 12:28 pm Tuesday, Oct 11

Reuters: "Tahrir Square in Cairo, Green Square in Tripoli, Syntagma Square in Athens and now Zuccotti Park in New York -- popular anger against entrenching power elites is spreading around the world."

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More than 100 arrested at Occupy Boston

By Xeni Jardin at 10:29 pm Tuesday, Oct 11

Video Link: "Occupy Boston 10/10/2011: Police show their presence at new campsite."

Hundreds of "Occupy Boston" protesters were arrested last night, as police moved in on demonstrators who refused to leave a park. From the Boston Globe:

At 1:20 a.m., the first riot police officers lined up on Atlantic Avenue. Minutes later, dozens of sheriff vans and police wagons arrived and over 200 officers in uniforms and riot gear surrounded the Greenway. Police Superintendent William Evans and Commissioner Edward F. Davis watched from across the street. Evans gave the crowd two minutes to disperse from the park, warning that they would be locked up if they did not comply.

The crowd of protesters, energized by the sudden appearance of the Boston and Transit police officers, chanted, ‘‘The people united will never be defeated,’’ “This is a peaceful protest,” and “the whole world is watching.’’

About 10 minutes later, the first officers entered the park and surrounded the group. Evans, using a loudspeaker, gave one more warning and then each protester was individually put on his or her stomach, cable-tied, and dragged off as others tore down tents and arrested and detained people on the fringe of the park.

And from the New Yorker:

More than a hundred people taking part in the Occupy Boston protests were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after police moved in to close down a secondary tent city that had been built after the group outgrew their original footprint at Dewey Square. Two hundred police, some clad in riot gear, loaded people into vans before tearing down between twenty and thirty tents. Videos of the arrests immediately made their way around the Web, including several capturing a chaotic scene in which marchers from a group known as Veterans for Peace came into physical contact with officers.

That video is below. More live streams at OccupyStream.

(thanks, Ned Sublette!)

Video Link: "Boston Police Attack Veterans for Peace."

Video Link: "Occupy Boston: Police Action." Tags: occupy boston, occupy wall street, ows, police

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Portraits from Occupy Wall Street (Boing Boing Flickr Pool)

By Xeni Jardin at 10:13 pm Tuesday, Oct 11

Boing Boing reader Joe Holmes shares this set of portraits of Occupy Wall Street participants, in the Boing Boing Flickr Pool. Tags: occupy wall street, ows

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Occupy Wall Street: Protests travel to homes of ultra-rich

By Xeni Jardin at 10:45 pm Tuesday, Oct 11

A doorman looks out the entrance to a Park Avenue building as members of the Occupy Wall Street walk past in protest through the upper east side of New York October 11, 2011. The Occupy Wall Street movement took protests to the New York homes of super-wealthy executives on Tuesday as rallies against economic inequality were planned this week for over 50 U.S. college campuses and in several cities around the world. Police response in New York City is expanding. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)

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At Chicago Board of Trade: "We are the 1 percent" signs mocking Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Chicago protests

Arturas Rosenbacher (@USAanon) shot this photograph of windows in the building where the Chicago Board of Trade is located. The CBOT was established in 1848, and is the world's oldest futures and options exchange.

"We are the 1%," the sign reads, an apparent response to the Occupy Chicago (and Occupy Wall Street) protests. "We are the 99%" is one of the mantras of that movement for financial reform.

There's a related article at the Village Voice. Tweet This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 3:38 pm and is filed under Wide. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Molly Crabapple's Occupy Wall Street "Vampire Squid" poster, for your printing/stenciling pleasure

Artist Molly Crabapple created this downloadable, printable, stencil-able, remixable poster with an excellent reference to Matt Taibbi's classic characterization of Wall Street fraudsters: a bunch of vampire squids. Tweet This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Post, Wide. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Interactive map of Occupy Wall Street protests

Mother Jones is maintaining an interactive map of "Occupy" protests around the US, and beyond. That little lonely red dot in the Pacific is a demonstration in Hilo, Hawaii! If you know of others, tell them: "Send a link to a news article or blog posts to traja [at] motherjones [dot] com or @tasneemraja."

You can find more information about demonstration gatherings at the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Together websites, the "official" sites for this movement. The latter shows more than 300 Occupy meetups in cities around the world.

(thanks, Michael Mechanic) Tweet This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Occupy Everywhere

Friends in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and other cities around the U.S. are sharing tweets, photos, and texts with me today about Occupy Wall Street and spinoff demonstrations. I was on IM with Boing Boing pal Joe Sabia in New York City, who co-curates Boing Boing's in-flight video channel on Virgin America airlines, and he abruptly signed off: "GTG. JOINING THE PROTEST."

Moments later he texts me from his phone, out in the streets: "A protest just came by, and I spontaneously joined. Kind of amazing. About a thousand NYU and New School students coming in from Washington Square Park to Wall Street." And a few minutes after that, "This is definitely more than a thousand."

The New York Observer reports on numbers at nearby Foley Square:

Union members representing the AFL-CIO (AFSCME), TWU Local 100, and SEIU 1199, among others, were scheduled to join the protesters, and it’s an older crowd than previous marches. Occupy Wall Street organizers are estimating the crowd to be 10,000 people.

Filmmaker Michael Moore tweets: "#OccupyWallStreet has shut down Broadway. Wow. NYPD prohibiting traffic."

Meanwhile, I see friends Doc Pop and Quinn Norton live-tweeting protests in San Francisco. "Today's #occupywallstreet protest in SF is surprisingly big," Doc Pop writes, with the photo above, "A solid group about 3 blocks long."

Quinn tweets, "Marching through the tenderloin. 99% indeed."

In Los Angeles, where I am based, some remarkable news breaking this afternoon: the City Council has voted to officially support Occupy LA, and is asking the mayor to issue an executive order supporting the movement and its goal of financial reform, and reducing the gap between rich and poor in America.

Update: In Seattle, police are forcibly removing the tents at an "Occupy" demonstration/encampment. @occuppyseattle's feed has details. There are reports that large numbers of arrests are being made there.

Below, Gawker's Adrian Chen grabbed this photo at the NYC demos today. "To be honest, I don't get it," he says. "But I like it." Boing Boing readers, what's happening where you are?

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Jelani, a 16-year-old Occupy Wall Street protester

[Video Link]

Turnstyle News from Oakland, CA interviewed Jelani, a 16-year-old protester who traveled with his grandmother from Pontiac, Michigan to New York City for the Occupy Wall Street protests. "I had never slept on the street before," he says. His mom said it was okay to take time out from school, because he has a 4.0 GPA. What a cool kid, and what a cool mom and grandmother he has.

(Thanks, Alejandro De La Cruz) Tweet This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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