Showing posts with label wall street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wall street. Show all posts

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Occupy Wall Street Bans Rape Whistleblower


Occupy Wall Street Bans Rape Whistleblower From ‘Spokes Council’


"Organized coverup of violence and financial malfeasance by de facto leadership of the supposedly leaderless movement."





Nan Terrie, the anti-rape activist at Occupy Wall Street who has also been active in calling for an audit of the group’s finances, has been officially excluded from future “spoke counsel” meetings for alleged violent behavior. This is ironic, since Ms. Terrie has been vocal about exposing violence and sexual assault in the #Occupy movement.
The minutes of the January 20, 2012 Spoke Council meeting details some of the back-and-forth about excluding Ms. Terrie, who has been a vocal whistle-blower about theft, violence, and sexual assault, allegations that have been proven to be true as verified by outside reporting and police arrest records. Terrie has also asked for an accounting of money spent by the #Occupy movement. Further, she has alleged an organized coverup of violence and financial malfeasance by de facto leadership of the supposedly leaderless movement.
Ms. Terrie, an 18-year-old activist originally from Florida, was treated at the hospital for a concussion just two nights ago, after being hit in the head with a chair at a meeting.
Once again, the actions of the official #Occupy movement appear to be just as corrupt and petty as the society they supposedly eschew.
http://nudesforjesus.blogspot.com/2012/01/occupy-wall-street-bans-rape.html

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Big Money Tabs Romney & Obama

Big Money Tabs Romney & Obama

Big Money Tabs Romney & Obama

BUT THE REAL INDICATION that Romney’s got the nomination sewed up is Wall Street’s hedging their bets between Mitt and Obama. SOME CALL IT ‘HEDGING YOUR BET (while others call it ‘playing both sides.)Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase have already contributed over $1 million combined to Romney’s campaign coffers. Fundraising receptions for Mitt at $2500 per plate are also on Wall Street's menu .JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon, Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of the Blackstone Group, brought in beaucoup bucks for Mitt’s drive to the White House in two fundraising dinners held in NYC last winter. View Entire Story Here & Here. source:

Mitt Romney: An Obama neo-socialist in disguise?
Perhaps you find it odd that Mitt Romney is proposing to give the top one percent an $82,000 tax cut above and beyond the full extension of the Bush tax cuts. And perhaps you find it very odd that that makes Romney’s plan by far the most progressive tax plan in the Republican race.But you have to keep Romney’s audience in mind.In Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Kimberly Strassel criticizes Romney because he “wants Americans to know that he is in the tank for the middle class.” Romney “is following Democrats down the class-warfare rabbit hole,” she writes. “These are mistakes Ronald Reagan would never have made.”In Forbes, ex-Reagan administration official Peter Ferrara puts the same point more strongly. “Cowed by President Obama’s class warfare rhetoric, Romney promises to eliminate taxes on capital gains, interest, and dividends, only for middle income Americans,” Ferrara writes. “He says he would do that because they were the ones most hurt by the recession, not the wealthy. But effective tax policy does not distribute tax cuts based on who ‘needs’ a tax cut the most. That is Obama neo-socialist class rhetoric.”Put differently: In elite conservative circles, Romney “is following Democrats down the class-warfare rabbit hole” with an economic plan based on “Obama neo-socialist class rhetoric.” Recall, again, that Romney’s plan extends all the Bush tax cuts and then piles another tax cut that would substantially tilt toward the wealthy on top. The simple fact that he’s attempting to sell it as a measure for the middle class is, in these conservatives’ minds, a betrayal.I largely agree with Ross Douthat that liberals are overstating the degree to which the Republican primary battle is hurting Romney. But this is a more concrete cost. Romney has been lured into offering a very large tax cut for the top one percent at a time when Americans are very supportive of the opposite: increasing taxes on the top one percent. Whatever you think of the economics of the two positions, Romney’s tax plan is going to make life a lot harder for him in the general election. But it’s a tax plan that he had no choice but to offer, and in fact a tax plan that may yet prove to be too moderate for a significant portion of the Republican base.
 source:

Chart of who "owns" the Federal Reserve

Chart shows the link between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,Standard Oil of Indiana,General Motors and Allied Chemical Corporation (Eugene Meyer family) and Equitable Life (J. P. Morgan).Liggett Group formerly known as Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, the fourth largest tobacco company in the United States, General Electric (NBC), Twentieth Century Fox Corporation, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., American Express Intl' Banking Corp., Staff Report, Committee on Banking, Currency and Housing, House of Representatives, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, August 1976.

20th Century FOX and NBC 'General Electric' Owned by Same Individuals 

Chart 1

Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence

Published 1976
Chart 1 reveals the linear connection between the Rothschilds and the Bank of England, and the London banking houses which ultimately control the Federal Reserve Banks through their stockholdings of bank stock and their subsidiary firms in New York. The two principal Rothschild representatives in New York, J. P. Morgan Co., and Kuhn,Loeb & Co. were the firms which set up the Jekyll Island Conference at which the Federal Reserve Act was drafted, who directed the subsequent successful campaign to have the plan enacted into law by Congress, and who purchased the controlling amounts of stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 1914. These firms had their principal officers appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Advisory Council in 1914. In 1914 a few families (blood or business related) owning controlling stock in existing banks (such as in New York City) caused those banks to purchase controlling shares in the Federal Reserve regional banks. Examination of the charts and text in the House Banking Committee Staff Report of August, 1976 and the current stockholders list of the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks show this same family control.

                                N.M. Rothschild , London - Bank of England
                                 ______________________________________
                                |                                     |
                                |                           J. Henry Schroder     

                                |                             Banking | Corp.
                                |                                     |
                          Brown, Shipley - Morgan Grenfell - Lazard - |
                           & Company        & Company       Brothers  |
                                |               |              |      |
            --------------------|        -------|              |      |
            |                   |        |      |              |      |
 Alex Brown - Brown Bros. - Lord Mantagu - Morgan et Cie -- Lazard ---| 
 & Son      |  Harriman       Norman     |    Paris          Bros     |
            |                   |        /      |            N.Y.     |
            |                   |       |       |              |      |
            |            Governor, Bank | J.P. Morgan Co -- Lazard ---| 
            |            of England    /  N.Y. Morgan       Freres    |   
            |            1924-1938    /   Guaranty Co.      Paris     |
            |                        /    Morgan Stanley Co.  |      / 
            |                       /           |              \Schroder Bank   
            |                      /            |              Hamburg/Berlin
            |                     /      Drexel & Company         /  
            |                    /       Philadelphia            / 
            |                   /                               /
            |                  /                           Lord Airlie
            |                 /                               /
            |                /     M. M. Warburg       Chmn J. Henry Schroder
            |                |      Hamburg ---------  marr. Virginia F. Ryan
            |                |         |               grand-daughter of Otto
            |                |         |                Kahn of Kuhn Loeb Co.
            |                |         |                        
            |                |         |                        
Lehman Brothers N.Y -------------- Kuhn Loeb Co. N. Y.                         
            |                |     --------------------------                     
   ยต
            |                |       |                      |                     
           8
            |                |       |                      |
Lehman Brothers - Mont. Alabama   Solomon Loeb           Abraham Kuhn
            |                |     __|______________________|_________
Lehman-Stern, New Orleans   Jacob Schiff/Theresa Loeb  Nina Loeb/Paul Warburg
-------------------------    |       |                      |
             |               | Mortimer Schiff        James Paul Warburg
_____________|_______________/       |
|            |          |   |        |
Mayer Lehman |     Emmanuel Lehman    \
|            |          |              \
Herbert Lehman     Irving Lehman        \
|            |          |                \
Arthur Lehman \    Phillip Lehman     John Schiff/Edith Brevoort Baker
              /         |             Present Chairman Lehman Bros
             /  Robert Owen Lehman    Kuhn Loeb - Granddaughter of
            /           |             George F. Baker
           |           /               |
           |          /                |
           |         /           Lehman Bros Kuhn Loeb (1980)
           |        /                  |
           |       /             Thomas Fortune Ryan
           |      |                    |
           |      |                    |
      Federal Reserve Bank Of New York |
           ||||||||                    |
  ______National City Bank N. Y.       |
  |        |                           |
  |   National Bank of Commerce N.Y ---|
  |        |                            \
  |   Hanover National Bank N.Y.         \
  |        |                              \
  |   Chase National Bank N.Y.             \
  |                                        |
  |                                        |
Shareholders - National City Bank - N.Y.   | 
-----------------------------------------  |  
  |                                        /
James Stillman                            /
Elsie m. William Rockefeller             /
Isabel m.  Percy Rockefeller            / 
William Rockefeller          Shareholders - National Bank of Commerce N. Y.   
J. P. Morgan                 -----------------------------------------------
M.T. Pyne                    Equitable Life - J.P. Morgan
Percy Pyne                   Mutual Life - J.P. Morgan
J.W. Sterling                H.P. Davison - J. P. Morgan
NY Trust/NY Edison           Mary W. Harriman
Shearman & Sterling          A.D. Jiullard - North British Merc. Insurance
|                            Jacob Schiff
|                            Thomas F. Ryan
|                            Paul Warburg
|                            Levi P. Morton - Guaranty Trust - J. P. Morgan
|
|
Shareholders - First National Bank of N.Y.
-------------------------------------------
J.P. Morgan
George F. Baker
George F. Baker Jr.
Edith Brevoort Baker
US Congress - 1946-64
|
|
|
|
|
Shareholders - Hanover National Bank N.Y.
------------------------------------------
James Stillman
William Rockefeller
|
|
|
|
|
Shareholders - Chase National Bank N.Y.
---------------------------------------
George F. Baker

Chart 2

Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence

- Published 1983
The J. Henry Schroder Banking Company chart encompasses the entire history of the twentieth century, embracing as it does the program (Belgium Relief Commission) which provisioned Germany from 1915-1918 and dissuaded Germany from seeking peace in 1916; financing Hitler in 1933 so as to make a Second World War possible; backing the Presidential campaign of Herbert Hoover ; and even at the present time, having two of its major executives of its subsidiary firm, Bechtel Corporation serving as Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration.
The head of the Bank of England since 1973, Sir Gordon Richardson, Governor of the Bank of England (controlled by the House of Rothschild) was chairman of J. Henry Schroder Wagg and Company of London from 1963-72, and director of J. Henry Schroder,New York and Schroder Banking Corporation,New York,as well as Lloyd's Bank of London, and Rolls Royce. He maintains a residence on Sutton Place in New York City, and as head of "The London Connection," can be said to be the single most influential banker in the world.

                               J. Henry Schroder
                               -----------------
                                      |
                                      |
                                      |
                          Baron Rudolph Von Schroder
                           Hamburg - 1858 - 1934
                                      |
                                      |
                                      |
                            Baron Bruno Von Schroder
                            Hamburg - 1867 - 1940
 F. C. Tiarks                         |
 1874-1952                            |
     |                                |
 marr. Emma Franziska                 |
 (Hamburg)                    Helmut B. Schroder
 J. Henry Schroder 1902               |
 Dir. Bank of England                 |
 Dir. Anglo-Iranian                   |
 Oil Company         J. Henry Schroder Banking Company N.Y.
                                      |
                                      |
                       J. Henry Schroder Trust Company N.Y.
                                      |
                                      |
                                      |
                   ___________________|____________________
                  |                                        |
            Allen Dulles                              John Foster Dulles
          Sullivan & Cromwell                        Sullivan & Cromwell
          Director - CIA                             U. S. Secretary of State
                                                     Rockefeller Foundation

 Prentiss Gray
 ------------
Belgian Relief Comm.                     Lord Airlie
Chief Marine Transportation              -----------
US Food Administration WW I          Chairman; Virgina Fortune
Manati Sugar Co. American &          Ryan daughter of Otto Kahn
British Continental Corp.            of Kuhn,Loeb Co.
       |                                    |
       |                                    |
 M. E. Rionda                               |
 ------------                               |
Pres. Cuba Cane Sugar Co.                   |
Manati Sugar Co. many other                 |
sugar companies.                     _______|       
       |                            |
       |                            |
 G. A. Zabriskie                    |
 ---------------                    |                Emile Francoui
Chmn U.S. Sugar Equalization        |                --------------
Board 1917-18; Pres Empire          |            Belgian Relief Comm. Kai
Biscuit Co., Columbia Baking        |            Ping Coal Mines, Tientsin
Co. , Southern Baking Co.           |            Railroad,Congo Copper, La
                                    |            Banque Nationale de Belgique
             Suite 2000 42 Broadway | N. Y                      |
          __________________________|___________________________|_
         |                          |                           |
         |                          |                           |
    Edgar Richard            Julius H. Barnes             Herbert Hoover
    -------------            ----------------             --------------   
Belgium Relief Comm         Belgium Relief Comm       Chmn Belgium Relief Com
Amer Relief Comm            Pres Grain Corp.           U.S. Food Admin
U.S. Food Admin             U.S. Food Admin           Sec of Commerce 1924-28
1918-24, Hazeltine Corp.    1917-18, C.B Pitney       Kaiping Coal Mines
   |                        Bowes Corp, Manati        Congo Copper, President
   |                        Sugar Corp.                  U.S. 1928-32
   |
   |
   |
John Lowery Simpson
-------------------                      
Sacramento,Calif Belgium Relief                       |
Comm. U. S. Food Administration             Baron Kurt Von Schroder
Prentiss Gray Co. J. Henry Schroder         -----------------------
Trust, Schroder-Rockefeller, Chmn         Schroder Banking Corp. J.H. Stein
Fin Comm, Bechtel International           Bankhaus (Hitler's personal bank
Co. Bechtel Co. (Casper Weinberger        account) served on board of all
Sec of Defense, George P. Schultz         German subsidiaries of ITT . Bank
Sec of State (Reagan Admin).              for International Settlements,
            |                             SS Senior Group Leader,Himmler's
            |                             Circle of Friends (Nazi Fund),
            |                             Deutsche Reichsbank,president
            |
            |
Schroder-Rockefeller & Co. , N.Y.
---------------------------------
Avery Rockefeller, J. Henry Schroder
Banking Corp., Bechtel Co., Bechtel
International Co. , Canadian Bechtel
Company.          |
                  |
                  |
                  |
         Gordon Richardson
         -----------------
Governor, Bank of England
1973-PRESENT C.B. of J. Henry Schroder N.Y.
Schroder Banking Co., New York, Lloyds Bank
Rolls Royce

Chart 3

Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence

- Published 1976
The David Rockefeller chart shows the link between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,Standard Oil of Indiana,General Motors and Allied Chemical Corportion (Eugene Meyer family) and Equitable Life (J. P. Morgan).

DAVID ROCKEFELLER
----------------------------
Chairman of the Board
Chase Manhattan Corp
      |
      |
______|_______________________
Chase Manhattan Corp.        |    
Officer & Director Interlocks|---------------------
------|-----------------------                    |
      |                                           |
Private Investment Co. for America       Allied Chemicals Corp.
      |                                           |
Firestone Tire & Rubber Company          General Motors              
      |                                           |
Orion Multinational Services Ltd.        Rockefeller Family & Associates
      |                                           |
ASARCO. Inc                              Chrysler Corp.
      |                                           |
Southern Peru Copper Corp.               Intl' Basic Economy Corp.
      |                                           |
Industrial Minerva Mexico S.A.           R.H. Macy & Co.
      |                                           |
Continental Corp.                        Selected Risk Investments S.A.
      |                                           |
Honeywell Inc.                           Omega Fund, Inc.
      |                                           |
Northwest Airlines, Inc.                 Squibb Corporation
      |                                           |
Northwestern Bell Telephone Co.          Olin Foundation  
      |                                           |
Minnesota Mining & Mfg Co (3M)           Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co. of NJ
      |                                           |
American Express Co.                            AT & T   
      |                                           |
Hewlett Packard                          Pacific Northwestern Bell Co.
      |                                           |
FMC Corporation                          BeachviLime Ltd.
      |                                           |
Utah Intl' Inc.                          Eveleth Expansion Company
      |                                           |
Exxon Corporation                        Fidelity Union Bancorporation
      |                                           |
International Nickel/Canada              Cypress Woods Corporation
      |                                           |
Federated Capital Corporation            Intl' Minerals & Chemical Corp.
      |                                           |
Equitable Life Assurance Soc U.S.        Burlington Industries
      |                                           |
Federated Dept Stores                    Wachovia Corporation
      |                                           |
General Electric                         Jefferson Pilot Corporation
      |                                           |
Scott Paper Co.                          R. J. Reynolds Industries Inc.
      |                                           |
American Petroleum Institute             United States Steel Corp.
      |                                           |
Richardson Merril Inc.                   Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.
      |                                           |
May Department Stores Co.                Norton-Simon Inc.
      |                                           |
Sperry Rand Corporation                  Stone-Webster Inc.
      |                                           |
San Salvador Development Company         Standard Oil of Indiana

Chart 4

Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence

- Published 1976
This chart shows the interlocks between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York J. Henry Schroder Banking Corp., J. Henry Schroder Trust Co., Rockefeller Center, Inc., Equitable Life Assurance Society ( J.P. Morgan), and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

 Alan Pifer, President
 Carnegie Corporation
 of New York
----------------------
         |
         |
----------------------
 Carnegie Corporation
 Trustee Interlocks       --------------------------
----------------------                            |
         |                                        |
Rockefeller Center, Inc                 J. Henry Schroder Trust Company
         |                                        |
The Cabot Corporation                   Paul Revere Investors, Inc.
         |                                        |
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston          Qualpeco, Inc.
         |
Owens Corning Fiberglas
         |
New England Telephone Co.
         |
Fisher Scientific Company
         |
Mellon National Corporation
         |
Equitable Life Assurance Society
         |
Twentieth Century Fox Corporation
         |
J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation

Chart 5

Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence

- Published 1976
This chart shows the link between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Brown Brothers Harriman,Sun Life Assurance Co. (N.M. Rothschild and Sons), and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Maurice F. Granville
Chairman of The Board
Texaco Incorporated
----------------------
        |
        |
Texaco Officer & Director Interlocks  ---------------- Liggett & Myers, Inc.
------------------------------------           |
        |                                      |
        |                                      |
 L  Arabian American Oil Company            St John d'el Ray Mining Co. Ltd.
 O      |                                      |
 N  Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.           National Steel Corporation
 D      |                                      |
 O  Brown Harriman & Intl' Banks Ltd.       Massey-Ferguson Ltd.
 N      |                                      |
    American Express                        Mutual Life Insurance Co.
        |                                      |
 N. American Express Intl' Banking Corp.    Mass Mutual Income Investors Inc.
 M.     |                                      |
    Anaconda                                United Services Life Ins. Co.
 R      |                                      |
 O  Rockefeller Foundation                  Fairchild Industries
 T      |                                      |
 H  Owens-Corning Fiberglas                 Blount, Inc.
 S      |                                      |
 C  National City Bank (Cleveland)          William Wrigley Jr. Co
 H      |                                      |
 I  Sun Life Assurance Co.                  National Blvd. Bank of Chicago
 L      |                                      |
 D  General Reinsurance                     Lykes Youngstown Corporation
        |                                      |
    General Electric (NBC)                  Inmount Corporation
 
** Source: Federal Reserve Directors: A Study of Corporate and Banking Influence. Staff Report,Committee on Banking,Currency and Housing, House of Representatives, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, August 1976.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Occupy Wall Street protesters to return with tents to the park.

(AP Photo/John Minchillo)

UPDATE (12:44 P.M. EST): The National Lawyers Guild has obtained a court order allowing Occupy Wall Street protesters to return with tents to the park. The guild said the injunction prevents the city from enforcing park rules on Occupy Wall Street protesters. Zuccotti Park remains closed, however, until local courts can rule further. More as this develops.

MANHATTAN -- Hundreds of New York City police officers decked out in riot gear surrounded and then dismantled the core of the Occupy Wall Street protest early Tuesday morning, tearing down tents and arresting at least 75 people after they refused to leave. The surprise raid, which began at about 1 a.m. and was reportedly requested by the private owner of Zuccotti Park, spurred a massive outpouring of people -- a mix of supporters, curious observers, and media from around the world -- into the streets of downtown New York.

Hundreds of demonstrators dispersed in search of a new gathering spot (a march on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's City Hall was quickly aborted) while others stood by, shouting, as a backhoe, sanitation trucks, at least four dumptrucks, and trash compactors rumbled down Broadway and cleared the park. There were murmurs of regrouping at another downtown location as dawn approached, while one activist warned a television reporter that the movement was doubling down for Thursday's planned "day of rage," when protests have been planned across the country.

"Protesters can return after the park is cleared," said the mayor's office in a tweet delivered shortly after 1 a.m. However, sleeping bags and tents will no longer be allowed, effectively ending the ragged, utopian statement of a society that has been camping out in the square since Sept. 17.

"Some have argued to allow the protestors to stay in the park indefinitely -- others have suggested we just wait for winter and hope the cold weather drove the protestors away -- but inaction was not an option," Bloomberg later said in a statement. "I could not wait for someone in the park to get killed or to injure another first responder before acting. Others have cautioned against action because enforcing our laws might be used by some protestors as a pretext for violence -- but we must never be afraid to insist on compliance with our laws."

At around 2 a.m., police started knocking back the swarm of observers, many of whom were wielding cellphone cameras. The officers marched in horizontal lines, gripping their batons with two hands in order to break up the crowds. "Move the f--k up! Move the f--k up!" yelled one especially agitated police officer as he aggressively shoved his nightstick against the back of a National Memo reporter who was walking away from the scene.

Retreating demonstrators occasionally panicked as the cops tried to clear out a four-block radius from the park. "EVERYBODY GET TO THE CHASE BANK," screamed a demonstrator as a few members of the increasingly fragmented crowd were marched back across a street. The official Occupy Wall Street livestream was flooded with viewers and at least temporarily put out of commission by the raid.

The unexpected raid was accompanied by an attempted media blackout, as the police prohibited reporters (including those with press passes) from entering Zuccotti, closed the subways leading to downtown Manhattan, and even prevented news helicopters from flying in the airspace over the park.

Neither were politicians spared. Ydanis Rodriguez, a city council member representing New York City's 10th district visiting the park, was reportedly injured and arrested by the police.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler and State Senator Daniel Squadron, Democrats who both represent Lower Manhattan, responded to the latest developments in a joint statement issued to the press early Tuesday afternoon.

“The City’s actions to shut down OWS last night raise a number of serious civil liberties questions that must be answered," they said. "Moving forward, how will the City respect the protesters’ rights to speech and assembly? Why was press access limited, and why were some reporters’ credentials confiscated? How will reported incidents of excessive force used by the police be addressed?

“Irrespective of this incident, OWS is now bigger than Zuccotti Park, and no one has the power to silence this national movement.”

But the raid has thrown the signature protest defined by a sustained physical presence in a well-known public space into disarray, even as activists swore they would only be emboldened by the most strategic and aggressive effort yet by city authorities to crush the movement. Plans were already forming early Tuesday to reignite the protest at Foley Square, a nearby park and common site for targeted actions by "Occupy."

In recent weeks, despite the fact that specific policy demands never emerged, a growing strain of thoughtemerged on the left that the debate had already been won by shifting the national conversation from fiscal austerity to income inequality. Adbusters, the Canadian group that took a lead role in getting things started two months ago, issued a strategy memo just hours before the raid suggesting the camps might be in a position to declare victory and pack up before winter.

Camps throughout America have been coming up against increased hostility from police as the holidays approach and elected officials lose patience with a cause that operates outside the traditional political channels.

A video of the chaos at its peak early in the morning follows:



With research and reporting contributed by Peter Sterne

Police officers trash the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park





Zuccotti Park Eviction: Police Arrest 70 Occupy Wall Street Protesters

By Colleen Long and Verena Dobnik - Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Police arrested 70 protesters at New York's Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, including some who chained themselves together, while clearing the park so that sanitation crews could clean it. (Photos below).

Concerns about health and safety issues at Occupy Wall Street camps around the country have intensified, and protesters have been ordered to take down their shelters, adhere to curfews and relocate so that parks can be cleaned.

At about 1 a.m. Tuesday, New York City police handed out notices from Brookfield Office Properties, owner of Zuccotti Park, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous. Protesters were told they could return in several hours, but without sleeping bags, tarps or tents.

Paul Brown, 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.

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.

Ben Hamilton, 29, said he was arrested "and I was just trying to get away" from the fray.

Rabbi Chaim Gruber, an Occupy Wall Street member, said police officers were clearing the streets near Zuccotti Park.

"The police are forming a human shield, and are pushing everyone away," he said.

Jake Rozak, another protester, said police "had their pepper spray out and were ready to use it."

Notices given to the protesters said the park "poses an increasing health and fire safety hazard to those camped in the park, the city's first responders and the surrounding community."

It said that tents, sleeping bags and other items had to be removed because "the storage of these materials at this location is not allowed." Anything left behind would be taken away, the notices said, giving an address at a sanitation department building where items could be picked up.

Alex Hall, 21, of Brooklyn, said police walked into the park "stepping on tents and ripping them out,"

The New York Times reported that the clearing out of Zuccotti Park came as protesters announced on their website that they planned to "shut down Wall Street" with a demonstration on Thursday to commemorate the completion of two months of the beginning of the encampment, which has spurred similar demonstrations across the country.

On Monday, a small group of demonstrators, including local residents and merchants, protested at City Hall. In recent weeks, they have urged the mayor to clear out the park because of its negative impact on the neighborhood and small businesses.

A video of the chaos at its peak early in the morning follows:


Occupy encampments have come under fire around the country as local officials and residents have complained about possible health hazards and ongoing inhabitation of parks and other public spaces.

Anti-Wall Street activists intend to converge at the University of California, Berkeley on Tuesday for a day of protests and another attempt to set up an Occupy Cal camp, less than a week after police arrested dozens of protesters who tried to pitch tents on campus.

The Berkeley protesters will be joined by Occupy Oakland activists who said they would march to the UC campus in the afternoon. Police cleared the tent city in front of Oakland City Hall before dawn Monday and arrested more than 50 people amid complaints about safety, sanitation and drug use. SOURCE: