Police violence in Chicago: Boston Occupier gets 10 stitches from police baton

Wood says that he remembers pulling at least two young women out of the scrum before winding up about three bodies behind the escalating conflict. Even back there he wasn’t safe though; within seconds – at around 5:15pm – a close-by cop indiscriminately swung his baton into the crowd, cracking Wood directly above the left side of his temple. Bloody and shaken, he says everything went blurry.

http://tinyurl.com/bmtol83

When ‘black bloc’ and the police are the same thing

As in so many similar situations in so many other countries in the past, the goal of this combination of violent acts and lying media propaganda is to invalidate any legitimate citizen protest of the many immoral acts being wreaked upon the peoples of the world by our governments. The techniques of imperial control which have been used so successfully overseas are now being fully deployed against the people at home. Deployed against us. As far as our war-addicted governments are concerned, we are all insurgents now.

http://tinyurl.com/29agjos

Chicago’s fishy NATO arrests

While the facts surrounding the five arrestees remain murky, the furor surrounding the raids, arrests and charges in the past week are enough to illustrate the immediate impact of alleging terrorist threats during mass activist mobilizations. Twitter was abuzz with unsubstantiated, nervous rumors about pending police raids and lurking, unmarked vans. And once again, the terms “anarchist” and “Occupy” have been linked to terrorism in the media and public consciousness. Even if, as the NLG argues, the charges are “fabricated,” the suggestion of terrorism stokes fear and upholds the good protester/bad protester narrative that has long haunted Occupy groups nationwide.

So while the Tribune may be right, that the NATO summit and surrounding protests did not leave a “black eye” on the city, even the worst bruises heal fast. Something more damaging may, however, remain: the ongoing persecution of anarchists and activists with entrapment, intimidation and trumped-up charges.

http://tinyurl.com/dyebl6k

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 5/23/12” »

Occupy Boston shows support for NATO protests

Even though the protests against the NATO summit are happening in Chicago, about two dozen Occupy Boston protesters gathered in Copley Square Sunday night to say they are there in spirit.

“So they’re my personal friends over there. Three quarters of Occupy Boston right now is in Chicago,” Bill Lewis said.

http://tinyurl.com/84twen8

NATO summit protests

Chicago is only the second city in the United States to host a NATO summit.  The international meetings put a spotlight on global issues, but it was the scene outside of those meetings in Chicago where political protests clashed with police. Thousands of protesters filled the area around where the event is held.

The standoff lasted several hours, requiring hundreds of officers – many dressed in riot gear and gas masks. Some officers repeatedly hit protesters with batons while some of the protesters reportedly threw red paint and sticks at police. In all, about 45 protesters were arrested.
. . .

Back here in Boston, about 25 people showed up in Copley Square Sunday night to protest the NATO summit. The rally was organized by the Occupy Boston movement, but a much calmer scene than in Chicago.

http://tinyurl.com/7ft5wjb

T fare hike protest blocks Beacon St.

A group of disabled and wheelchair-bound activists took to the streets during their protest yesterday — literally.

The group chained their chairs together in a crosswalk on Beacon Street in front of the State House to signal their opposition to the MBTA’s fare hikes for THE RIDE. With traffic blocked, police were called in, the chains were cut and the activists retreated to the sidewalk in front of the State House.

“Most disabled people are low-income, so this is an emergency for us,” said James Brooks, a community organizer who lives in Brighton.

http://tinyurl.com/6qr5dgp

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 5/22/12” »

NATO activists set sights on Charlotte

CHICAGO Activists who staged a massive protest march at the NATO summit here Sunday vowed to bring thousands of demonstrators to Charlotte during the Democratic National Convention.

The events are significant to Charlotte because protest groups are planning to converge on the city en masse hoping to cast media attention on issues ranging from economic inequality and war to the environment.

http://tinyurl.com/7xtwqh7

NATO protests in Chicago: Police van drives into protesters, web video reporters detained, held at gunpoint (photos+video)

Chicago Police van number 6751, accelerated as it passed through the crowd, striking several people and seriously injuring one victim who was later transported to the emergency room. The extent of the victim’s injuries are not known. The driver of the van made no attempt to ascertain the condition of any of the people that were struck. Witnesses watched as the van passed through the phalanx of police surrounding the scene and drove away from the area. Had there been a civilian driving, they would certainly have been charged with a hit-and-run on a pedestrian in the roadway and taken into custody once they had been apprehended. No order to disperse had been given to the crowd.

http://tinyurl.com/dyjuy9d

Occupy Journalists Stopped, Searched, Handcuffed & Interrogated at Gunpoint

Under cover of the night around twelve police cars stopped five journalists when they were heading back to where they are staying in Chicago during the NATO summit. All five have been covering protests against the NATO summit for the past few days.

The five journalists included Luke Rudkowksi, who streams as @Lukewearechange, Tim Pool, who streams as @Timcast, Jeoff Shively (@Jiraffa), Dustin & Jess. They are known for their work livestreaming and tweeting out regular coverage of Occupy protests.

Rudkowski of We Are Change managed to record the Chicago police approaching the journalists in the car. The police have their guns drawn. They shout, ?Hands! Hands! Get your hands up!? And then, ?Fuckin? hands!? Then Pool?s voice can be heard saying, ?We?re being raided. For folks who are watching, we are being raided by the CPD right now as we speak.?

http://tinyurl.com/6u4amfv

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 5/21/12” »

Voters in Franklin County, MA, oppose corporate personhood

The Occupy Wall Street movement may have garnered plenty of media attention last year, but it’s in town halls that the grass-roots movement has paid off this spring: Half of Franklin County’s 26 towns have either voted to reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s giving corporations the same rights as people or are scheduled to do so.

The town meeting votes in 11 Franklin County towns, together with similar actions in nearby Amherst and Northampton, plus Boston and Worcester, are among resolutions by 55 Massachusetts communities supporting a U.S. Constitutional amendment.

Votes in Charlemont and Wendell next week will complete the list of 13 towns that have considered the corporate non-citizenship articles being considered as a result of coordination by a group of volunteers that grew out of Occupy Franklin County meetings this winter.

http://tinyurl.com/6q3w8lm

[For news on the thousands of Occupy protesters in Chicago at the NATO summit, see the Daily Digest today]

Amendment to legalize use of military propaganda on American audiences inserted into latest Defense funding bill

An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill. The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website.

The tweak to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts-the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987-that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns.

The bi-partisan amendment is sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State.

http://tinyurl.com/c78hhg9

Human Moral Weakness and its consequences

The rule today is that you break the law if breaking the law maximizes profits and you won’t go to jail as a result. Fines are considered a cost of doing business, the legality or illegality is irrelevant.

This flows from the very top of our society. It is how our CEOs and executives think, and as our politicians and prosecutors refuse to investigate or charge those who are guilty of widespread fraud, it is clearly how our political and legal class thinks.

Authority, in other words, says that it’s all right to do illegal and immoral things in pursuit of profit.

Well, so long as you’re told to do so by someone important.

http://tinyurl.com/7tvo88b

Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 5/20/12” »

NATO-Chicago Dispatch: Long-haul road-trip with the Boston Occupiers

It really was a whirl. I’m not sure how the Complaining About Free Shit working group felt about the bus, which came courtesy of National Nurses United, but I full engaged the road show. When I felt like resting, I rested. When I felt like reading, I read. Otherwise, when I felt like being entertained, I just listened, and got two ears filled with everything from credible conspiracy theories to at least one comparison of the situation to Christ’s expedition in the wilderness.

In short I had a great time reading, writing, and interviewing Occupiers whose personal stories add up to the reason that more than 50,000 people are heading to Chicago this week. I was hardly even fazed when some movement members who were not on the bus started flaming me on Twitter for mooching off of Occupy resources, which I’d actually feel badly about if there weren’t empty seats. They also accused me of sacrificing whatever little bit of objectivity I had left in covering Occupy by riding along.

That’s completely understandable, or at least it was until I touched down in Chicago and got the briefing for independent journos who are covering NATO. Reliable word is that police aren’t distinguishing between reporters and protesters, writers and anarchists – we’re all subject to the military-grade aggression that’s already being thrust upon folks who are courageous enough to stand up to war profiteers and murderers. At least in that regard, I’d argue that we’re all on the same bus after all.

http://tinyurl.com/739j754

Another road trip to Chicago report

If the Flower Power generation was reacting against the buttoned-down sexual prudery of its parents, the post-hope generation is engaged in rejecting a culture that promised opportunity, family and security and delivered nothing but hurt, loneliness and debt. If the 1960s were about confronting hypocrisy with hedonism, the 2010s are about confronting alienation with community.