After major 1st Amendment ruling protecting citizens’ right to record arrests, Boston police settle lawsuit
Simon Glik was prosecuted for recording video of an arrest in a public place; a U.S. appeals court ruled the First Amendment protected his right to do so.
The city of Boston will pay $170,000 to settle a lawsuit that forced a landmark ruling on a citizen’s First Amendment right to record the activities of police officers in public. The settlement, announced today by the ACLU of Massachusetts, ends a case that produced a significant victory for those who believe citizens – and journalists – should have the right to record police activity in public places.
In October 2007, Glik he said he saw police officers arresting a teenager in the most public of places – the Boston Common – and pulled out his cellphone to start recording video. Within minutes, he was under arrest for illegal electronic surveillance under Massachusetts’ wiretapping statute.
Occupy Wall Street Goes to School
For all their irreverence, the protesters are becoming serious about their tactics. Over the next few weeks, demonstrators will take part in hundreds of training sessions in all 50 states. This weekend in New York, activists learned how to form human walls, surround each other in tightly locked circles, and scatter to pose as normal civilians, a technique that enables them to get around police lines before regrouping. Classes in New York will continue every Friday and culminate in a major protest on May 1.
Occupy Spring
Almost from the moment Occupy Wall Street protesters were evicted from their camp in Zuccotti Park last November, observers have speculated whether the movement was finished, or if it would somehow rebound in the spring.
Dedicated Occupy activists dismissed the possibility that the movement had already run its course and promised an “American Spring,” kicking off a new season of activism with May Day events coordinated across the country.
As it turns out, spring came early.
http://tinyurl.com/cz2zywn
Occupy Groups Reimagine The Bank
Groups within the Occupy Wall Street movement are trying to overhaul the banking system and even dream of creating a new kind of bank.
Occupy isn’t in the headlines so much these days, but work continues behind the scenes. The Alternative Banking Group of Occupy Wall Street meets weekly in different places. Members are older than some might think – in their 30s, 40s and 50s – and many work or formerly worked in the financial industry.
“We have almost no consensus opinion, except that the system is not working,” says Cathy O’Neil, who often facilitates the group that is working on legislation and regulation to reform the financial system. “A lot of these people are from finance or have a background in law or SEC regulation. There’s lots of people from banks and hedge funds.”
http://tinyurl.com/cwbrxss
College Student Leaders Occupy Sallie Mae
Hundreds of fired-up and fed-up undergraduates from all over the nation marched up a major Washington, D.C., thoroughfare on March 26, carrying a message: “Sallie Mae, You can’t hide. We can see your greedy side.”
They filled the street outside the D.C. offices of Sallie Mae for much of the morning, and 36 were arrested after occupying the front entrance to the building. They were asking for a meeting to discuss student debt forgiveness. “This is what democracy looks like!” they chanted to business district passers-by.
With student loan debt climbing to $1 trillion in 2012, education debt is the next bubble, say the students. A major part of the problem is banks like Sallie Mae-the largest private lender, which made $2.7 billion in loans last year and has invested millions lobbying to secure loan terms that favor the private banks and ensure large profits at the expense of students and families.
http://tinyurl.com/c8r2xyo
MF Global bankruptcy overseer asks judge for permission to pay ‘performance bonuses’ to company executives
In a separate development on Tuesday, two U.S. senators introduced a non-binding resolution opposing potential bonuses for MF Global executives.
Sources close to the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of MF Global Holdings Ltd have said he may ask a bankruptcy judge to approve performance-based bonuses to a few top MF Global executives under a retention plan.
Ferber and Steenkamp would potentially receive such payouts.
“It is absolutely outrageous to suggest that bonuses should be paid to the same people who were in charge when the company went bankrupt and lost its customers’ money,” said Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
http://tinyurl.com/cnvkm2s
Occupy May Day: Not Your Usual General Strike
Last December, Occupy Los Angeles proposed a General Strike on May 1 “for migrant rights, jobs for all, a moratorium on foreclosures, and peace – and to recognize housing, education and health care as human rights.” The idea has spread through the Occupy movement. Occupy Wall Street in New York recently expressed solidarity with the proposal and called for “a day without the 99%, general strike, and more!” with “no work, no school, no housework, no shopping, take the streets!” Reactions are ranging from enthusiastic support to outraged skepticism. What form might such an action take, and what if anything might it achieve?
http://tinyurl.com/cbfjl4o
Independent Agency Gets New Powers to Prosecute New York Police Officers
Lawyers for the independent agency that investigates allegations of police abuse in New York have been given wide new powers to prosecute officers in misconduct cases under an agreement city officials reached on Tuesday.
The changes follow a period in which the Police Department has withstood an onslaught of corruption cases and increased scrutiny on several fronts, including its surveillance and stop-and-frisk practices, the integrity of its crime data and its use of force in policing Occupy Wall Street protests.
Occupy Charlotte returns to protest transit fare increase
Occupy Charlotte has been relatively quiet since authorities evicted the group from its three-month-long campsite at the Old City Hall grounds on East Trade Street in late January. But while local occupiers have virtually disappeared from the public eye, they’ve hardly given up their fight. At 6 a.m. Wednesday, occupiers will make a comeback of sorts, gathering at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center Plaza on East Forth Street, not far from its old campground, to demonstrate against a proposed transit fare increase.
The Charlotte Area Transit System will hold a public hearing on the increase at 5:30 p.m. in Room 267 of the Government Center’s Metropolitan Transit Commission.
“CATS has proposed a 25 cent increase in local transit fare,” Carolyn Flowers, CATS chief executive, said in a statement earlier this month. “This increase is needed to keep pace with the cost of providing transit service. Without a fare increase it will be difficult to maintain our current level of service for customers.” The last fare increase came in July 2010.
Funeral for education reform to be held in Baton Rouge
In a release, organizers say they are holding the event after parents, teachers and citizens hoped for “real reform, but the policies proposed and the legislative process thus far is proving to be fatal.”
Gov. Bobby Jindal has proposed sweeping reform to public education this legislative session with a plan already approved in the House for low-income students to use vouchers to leave underperforming schools to attend private or charter schools. Jindal has already proposed changes to teacher tenure and has gained approval on his plan to tighten guidelines on early childhood education centers.
http://tinyurl.com/ccpqntb
Protesters Chant for Hours Outside Romney Fundraiser [CA]
As Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney arrived in Redwood Shores for a private fundraising event this evening, members from the Occupy Redwood City, San Jose and Oakland had several words to say to him.
Though the protesters never got a glimpse of Romney, protesters persistently chanted for several hours with props and other noisemakers.
http://tinyurl.com/d5lurmk
One Response to “The OB Media Rundown for 3/28/12”
on March 28th, 2012 at 3:02 am #
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