And giving fuel to anti-American politicians everywhere.
The presence of squatters in an abandoned structure is not technically legal, but it generally requires the property owner to make a complaint before police take action. A main thrust of some cities’ occupations is to get homeless families to occupy foreclosed, bank-owned homes — a course of action endorsed by the general assembly at “Occupy Oakland,” and even a member of Congress. [Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)][...]
Asserting what they thought were squatters’ rights, about 50-75 “Occupy Chapel Hill” [North Carolina] demonstrators broke into an abandoned Chrysler building on Saturday night, taping up banners in the windows. They screened a film and danced into the night, with officers only making a single, brief appearance before leaving entirely.
Things changed dramatically by Sunday afternoon, when local media reported that more than 25 commandos armed with assault rifles staged a raid on the building, rushing in to find just eight protesters who’d stayed the night.
Others near the building, including a reporter, had guns drawn on them and were forced to lay on the ground and be placed in handcuffs.
A photo published by The News Observer shows men who look more like soldiers than police, aiming weapons of war at unarmed protesters. The city of Chapel Hill has a population of just 57,000.
Hundreds of police officers in riot gear raided Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, evicting dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters from what has become the epicenter of the worldwide movement protesting corporate greed.About 70 people were arrested, including some who chained themselves together, while officers cleared the park so that sanitation crews could clean it.
[...]
Police in riot gear filled the streets, car lights flashing and sirens blaring. Protesters, some of whom shouted angrily at police, began marching to two locations in Lower Manhattan where they planned to hold rallies.
Some protesters refused to leave the park, but many left peacefully. Hundreds of police officers surrounded the park in riot gear with plastic shields across their faces, holding plastic shields and batons which were used [in] some cases on protesters.
[...]
Paul Browne, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, said the park had been cleared by 4:30 a.m. and that about 70 people who’d been inside it had been arrested, including a group who chained themselves together. One person was taken to a local hospital for evaluation because of breathing problems.
Caused by what, we are not told.
Early Monday morning, Oakland police raided the camp site to evict the protesters from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza.[...]
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s legal adviser and longtime friend, Dan Siegel, explained to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Monday night why he decided to resign his post.
Siegel was very unhappy with the police raid on the “Occupy Oakland” encampment on October 25 but had hoped the protesters would be allowed to continue their demonstration.
[...]
“This is a tremendous movement, a productive movement,” Siegel continued. “It’s a progressive movement of people who’ve been passive for years in the face of economic attacks, homelessness, joblessness, foreclosures, crushing student debt, and so on. I think it has the potential to really remake American society and if that’s true, then people who run cities, and particularly cities like Oakland — where the 99 percent live — should be supportive of those movements and should not think that they can control them.”
“To me it seems like a totally useless and futile activity to spend millions of dollars to take people out of tents, to create situations where there is bloodshed in our streets and lots of chaos for days, because they’re going to come back,” he added.
Well, kudos to Mr. Siegel. (Even if he may be getting out before they storm the mayor’s office and blood flows (more) freely in the streets. I don’t know that. Just throwing it in as a possible reason for his sensibility.)
All right. Okay. He sounds very sincere.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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