Monday, April 30, 2012

#OWS Update: Banks Panic Over MayDay Protests!!! and New York City & NYPD Being Sued Meanwhile Banks & police track ‘Occupy’ protesters And Maddow On The GOP's War On Women

 "Freedom" sign made out of bricks in English and Arabic in Bahrain

 Protesters Pepper Sprayed at Berekley 


Civil Rights marches were not turned around from doing their duty no matter how the Police treated them

 Yes if thousands of police hit the streets dressed in Riot Gear we can expect a riot - Their aim is not to serve and protect the 99% They are the willing tools of the authorities at the Municipal level and guided by The Tacit support of Washington!!!

UPDATE #OWS MAY DAY
"The city and police violated demonstrators' free speech rights, used excessive force, arrested protesters on dubious charges and interfered with journalists' and council members' efforts to observe what was going on, the four City Council members and others say in the federal civil rights suit."


"This unlawful conduct has been undertaken with the intention of obstructing, chilling, deterring and retaliating against (the) plaintiffs for engaging in constitutionally protected protest activity," says the suit, which was filed a day before Occupy and labor activists planned a large May Day march..."

From: NYC officials sue police over response to Occupy Wall Street protests By JENNIFER PELTZ - Associated Press
, April 30, 2012


Mayday! Mayday! "Mayday!" Bankers Panic Over May Day Demonstrations by Jerry Ashton at Huff Post, April 30,2012

"Mayday," which is used as a distress signal and derives from the French "m'aider ("come help me"), is being given new meaning by Wall Street and its Bankers in response to the upcoming "May Day" Occupy national protests.

This May Day demonstration will be the largest of its kind in a half-century and will take place in cities across the U.S. On May 1, 2012, tens of thousands of people throughout the U.S. and the world -- workers, students, immigrants, professionals, houseworkers -- employed and unemployed alike - will take to the streets to unite in a General Strike against "a system that does not work for us."

May Day is a holiday for the 99 percent. It is a day for people to come together, across all those lines which too often divide us -- race, class, gender, religion -- and challenge the systems that create these divisions.

...Pointedly, the extent to which Wall Street (and city government) will use their near-military police force to corral and subdue protestors will be the likely determiner as to how peaceful the protests will be.
(When I visited Union Square the other day for the student rally against $1 trillion in educational debt, there were close to 50 - FIFTY! - police cars surrounding the Park. If that is their response to several hundred people at a Student demonstration, what is in store for May 1?)

...In 2010, JPMorgan gave the New York City Police Foundation the largest donation it has ever received -- $4.6 million. They outfitted over 1,000 officers with state-of-the-art laptops and communications tools. Donations are large and ongoing from Wall Street to the cops to this day... and one has to ask -- Is this not turning New York City's police department into the largest de-facto privately funded anti-protest army in the United States?


Will justification for police violence be concocted, as exampled by the police and the military actions taking place even today against protestors in Greece, Spain and the Middle East? Will the suppression of the "American Spring" begin on May Day?

Planning for exactly that possibility, New York City's Occupy has organized neighborhoods and sites into what it terms "Green, Yellow and Red" zones. The safest for protestors (from arrest and harassment) are designated green, the more problematical as yellow, and the more risky as red.



And once again the Republicans prove they are in fact engaged in a war as it were on Women's rights in America. The GOP is attacking women's reproductive rights and their right to equal . Rachell Maddow argues that these are important issues while the GOP spokespersons are patronizing and condescending in their attitudes towards women's issues.

Rachel Maddow Coolly Smacks Down ‘Condescending’ GOP Strategist On MTP VIDEO by Josh Feldman Mediate.com, April 29, 2012
Rachel Maddow sat in on today’s Meet the Press panel to talk about the importance of the women’s vote in the 2012 election and the ongoing “War on Women,” which is a totally real thing and not something being overplayed by both sides to hyperbolize serious economic and gender issues. When Maddow tried to point to disparities in pay between the genders, GOP strategist Alex Castellanos called her out on it in such a way that Maddow found his tone incredibly condescending.



also see: Martin Bashir: ‘If There Isn’t A War On Women, Most of Us Must Be Ignorant’ VIDEO by Jon Bershad at Mediaite, April 27,2012



UPDATE: #OWS blowback for The City of New York and NYPD for police brutality and false arrests and breach of the rights of protesters.
But still no word from Obama or the DOJ .
It appears that in the post 9/11 America citizens do not have the same rights they had prior to 9/11.

NYC City Councilors Sue NYPD Over Occupy Wall Street Abuses- Common Dreams staff April 30, 2012

The City of New York, the New York Police Department, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and several large corporations including JPMorgan Chase have repeatedly violated the constitutional rights of Occupy Wall Street protesters, according to a wide-ranging federal lawsuit filed on Monday morning.

The NYPD made false arrests and violated free- speech rights of protestors and journalists last year, according to a complaint filed today in a Manhattan federal court.

Four New York City Councilors - Letitia James, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams - filed the civil rights lawsuit alleging that city police used excessive force and violated free speech rights as part of its crackdown on protesters. Also joining the suit as plaintiffs are a local Democratic Party official, freelance journalists, and Occupy activists.

"This unlawful conduct has been undertaken with the intention of obstructing, chilling, deterring and retaliating against (the) plaintiffs for engaging in constitutionally protected protest activity," the lawsuit alleges.

The City Council members are calling for an independent monitor to review all of the more than 2,000 OWS-related arrests and further explore the city's decision to temporarily close Zuccotti Park and other public spaces during the protests. The suit also seeks unspecified damages.

The new lawsuit is a 146-page "compendium of complaints, amplified by the council members' participation."

* * *

Banks cooperating with police to track ‘Occupy’ protesters | The Raw Story


The nation’s largest financial institutions are preparing for the upcoming Occupy Wall Street’s May 1st demonstrations by communicating with police, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.Brian McNary, director of global risk at Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, said that banks from America and overseas are working together to “identify, map and track” protesters across social networks in order for business meetings to avoid disruption.
Demonstrations in 115 cities are being planned for this coming Tuesday, inspired by the 1886 Chicago’s Haymarket Square clash between police and workers.


and: Taking Back May Day: What to Expect on the Nationwide Day of Rallies, Strikes and Actions Organizers and activists have planned direct actions and mass rallies, marches and blockades, as well as mutual aid and concerts to include as many people as possible. viaAlternet.org,April 29,2012

The stickers, posters and graffiti have been popping up for months on subway walls, street signs, pay phones, and abandoned buildings, all with the same message: "May 1: Strike!"

...The last time May 1 brought coordinated action across the country was in 2006, when immigrant workers took to the streets to remind the country what it would be like without them in the famous “Day Without an Immigrant.” May 1, 2012 has been called a general strike, but also, in direct reference to and solidarity with the immigrant rights actions of 2006, “A Day Without the 99%.” Organizers and activists, aware that actually pulling off a nationwide general strike will take years, not months, of work, have planned direct actions and mass rallies, marches and blockades, as well as mutual aid, concerts, and other events to include as wide a swath of the population as possible, providing workers who can't strike with other ways to take part.

Educate and celebrate

Internationally, May 1 is a day for celebration, a holiday in many countries, and many of the actions this year focus on bringing that spirit of celebration back and into the streets. “I've actually spent two May Days not in the States and it was just amazing, the workers are out in the streets and it's their holiday,” Stamp said. “My favorite art for May Day depicts the shedding of chains,” George Machado, an Occupy Wall Street organizer who helped put together a concert in New York's Union Square, told AlterNet. “We have our grievances and yeah we're angry, but we want to celebrate with one another.”

Unlike last fall's rumor that Radiohead was playing the Liberty Plaza occupation, this concert is really happening: Tom Morello, Das Racist, Immortal Technique and others are playing in the public square from 4 to 5:30pm. But like that rumored show, Machado and other organizers hope that the big-name artists will help draw in people who've never been involved with Occupy, labor, or immigrant rights organizing. “It's been so difficult for the media to categorize this movement because there's this large social aspect to it,” Machado noted. The concert aims to bring people together around music, but in a politicized context, adding weight to the already political work of the musicians involved, but also reminding everyone that there is a joyful dimension to collective action.

For More on War on Women

GOP seeks to cut breast and cervical cancer screenings - The Rachel Maddow Show (April 28th, 2012)



The Rachel Maddow Show - Rape, incest survivors find no quarter from Virginia governor

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