84-Year-Old Dorli Rainey, Pepper-Sprayed at Occupy Seattle, Denounces "Worsening" Police Crackdowns This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. JUAN GONZALEZ: Police departments across the country are coming under criticism for using excessive force against Occupy Wall Street protesters over the past two months. In Seattle, Mayor Mike McGinn apologized Wednesday hours after an 84-year-old retired Seattle school teacher named Dorli Rainey was pepper-sprayed in the face during a protest. AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about what happened, Dorli Rainey is joining us right now from Seattle. Dorli Rainey, welcome to Democracy Now! DORLI RAINEY: Good morning. I am a member of Occupy Seattle. I got pepper-sprayed because we were penned in by the motor—by the bicycle groups, until there was no way out. My problem is not only with police brutality, it is with the progressive getting worse attitude of the police. And what we have to do is change the mindset of people that guns will not solve our crisis. NORM STAMPER: I certainly do believe that. CHUCK WEXLER: Well, yeah.
Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi | UCDavis Bicycle Barricade 18 November 2011 Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi Linda P.B. I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. You are not. I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons: 1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today 2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality 3) to demand your immediate resignation Today you ordered police onto our campus to clear student protesters from the quad. What happened next? Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. What happened next? Police used batons to try to push the students apart. This is what happened. You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Sincerely, Like this: Like Loading...
Woah! Police Pepper Spray Old Ladies And Pregnant Girls At Occupy Seattle! It seems as though the Occupy movements around the country are becoming more and more violent. Case in point: pregnant and elderly women are being sprayed in the face with pepper spray by cops! In Seattle, Washington yesterday, the protestors of #OccupySeattle marched from their camp at Seattle Central Community College to Westlake Park. STORY: BATTLE NEW YORK! Police Empty Zuccotti Park Of Occupy Wall Street Protesters! During the march, the protestors were met by numerous police officers at several points. As the march continued onward the Seattle Police Department officers became fed up and doused the crowd with pepper spray. An 84-year-old woman named Dorli Rainey, a priest, and a pregnant woman are all in the hospital today because the Seattle Police Department used force to deal with them. STORY: Occupy Conspiracy! Seattle police spokesperson Jeff Kappel said that pepper spray “is not age specific. There is a clear unapologetic attitude from the Seattle about recent events.
How To Occupy Interview with creator of Occupy Wall Street "bat-signal" projections during Brooklyn Bridge #N17 march REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi Earlier this evening, tens of thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters marched throughout New York City, many making their way on to the Brooklyn Bridge, carrying LED candles and chanting. As Occupiers took the bridge in a seemingly endless sea of people, words in light appeared projected on the iconic Verizon Building nearby: "99% / MIC CHECK! A few hours later I spoke with Mark Read, who organized the "bat-signal" project. XJ: How did this come together? Mark Read: It came up at an action coordination meeting. And a guy named Hero, who has been central to a lot of facets of the occupation since the beginning, turns to me and says, "We need a bat signal. I said, I think I can do that. My friend Will Etundi, who I know from these renegade street parties, the alter-globalization movement, carnivals against capital—he's part of a community of friends who deploy spectacle and art in the service of radical politics. I knew we'd need a powerful projector. MR: I did.
Occupy UC Davis on USTREAM: Live Stream of Occupy UC Davis, but it schould really be Decolonize UCD. Watch without ads Ustream © Search Log in / Sign up With Facebook (faster) Log in or sign up with Facebook See what your friends like and watch, get awesome recommendations Instant login, no passwords or With email or username Forgot your password? Don’t have an account? Go live! Find more broadcasts Expand Video Occupy UC Davis Follow Following Unfollow 41 followers Watch without ads Flag this content Please select your reason for flagging this video as inappropriate from the dropdown below. If you are a copyright owner, or are authorized to act on behalf of one or authorized to act under any exclusive right under copyright, please do not flag this content but instead report alleged copyright violations on our DMCA notice form. Cancel or Remove ads Create Highlight Occupy UC Davis News - Political News 41 followers 22,743 views Follow Following Unfollow Live Stream of Occupy UC Davis, but it schould really be Decolonize UCD Comments Load more... USTREAM You're on! English © 2014 Ustream, Inc.
Obama Calls On Authorities To Refrain From Violence Against Peaceful Protestors The Arab Spring has become the American Fall. Surely what President Obama believed ten months ago was true for Egypt, is also true for America today? Via The White House: The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release January 28, 2011 State Dining Room THE PRESIDENT: Good evening, everybody. The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. I also call upon the Egyptian government to reverse the actions that they’ve taken to interfere with access to the Internet, to cell phone service and to social networks that do so much to connect people in the 21st century. At the same time, those protesting in the streets have a responsibility to express themselves peacefully. Now, going forward, this moment of volatility has to be turned into a moment of promise. In the absence of these reforms, grievances have built up over time. Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people. Now, ultimately the future of Egypt will be determined by the Egyptian people. Friends:
Occupy Wall Street - History in the Making Since the Canadian activist group, Adbusters, called for everyone to Occupy Wall Street on September 17, 2011, millions of people worldwide have joined the movement. Pushing primarily for greater wealth equality in the US and less corporate influence over the government, the Occupy movement is one that aims to lessen the gap between the 99% and the wealthiest 1% in America. The demonstrations are based in Zuccotti Park in the Wall Street financial district of New York, but since then they have spread to over 900 cities worldwide. However, social media and technology have definitely played a significant role in helping to advance the movement. Youtube, especially has been the group's main mode of communication; as well as Twitter, which has allowed them to feed a steady flow of updates to millions of followers. One supporter, a Brooklyn software developer, even went so far as to create a special smart phone application to help protesters demonstrating at an Occupy rally. Now Searching...
Caught on Camera: 10 Shockingly Violent Police Assaults on Occupy Protesters November 18, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Occupations across the country have born the brunt of some violent police tactics, and in a world where everyone has a camera-phone, a lot of their brutish behavior has been caught in photographs and on video. Police work is difficult and dangerous, and the majority of officers on the street behave like pros. But being human, cops are also prone to fear and rage like everyone else. Unlike protesters, cops are also armed, and it's difficult to hold them accountable for their actions when they don't behave professionally. Below are some of the most stunning incidents of police officers going wild on Occupy protesters around the country. 1. This now-iconic image was captured by The Oregonian in Portland on November 17. 2. In this video, a group of college students are huddled on the ground in a defensive position at UC Davis on November 18.
Justice Dept: Homeland Security Advised Raids On Occupy Wall Street Camps President Obama's "position" regarding the NYPD's raid of Zuccotti Park, is that "every municipality has to make its own decision about how to handle" the issues of free speech and the concerns of the community. But according to Rick Ellis at the Examiner, a Justice Department official says that the recent evictions of Occupy movement across the country including Salt Lake City, Denver, Portland, Oakland, and New York City were "coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies." Ellis reports that his source says though the decision to evict protesters ultimately rested with each individual jurisdiction, the local police departments "had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies" from the feds. The AP reports that another set of conference calls on October 11 and November 14 were organized by the Police Executive Research Forum and included representatives from 40 different cities.
OWS Continues to Dominate the Zeitgeist: Outcry over Abuse of Students at UC Davis Grows, Right-Wing Plan to Smear Protests Exposed In a few short hours, the video was popping up seemingly every few seconds on Twitter with horrified responses from those who shared it. As a group of students sat on the UC Davis quad Friday evening, arms linked, huddled across a roadway, a cop reached up, flourished a can of pepper spray, and provocatively sprayed it on their faces to horrified shouts from onlookers. Eventually, the students began collapsing, and they were dragged away, arrested. Fast forward to the end of the video, when the remaining students chant "you can go" to the police officers. If protesters are continually met with brutality that horrifies onlookers and compels them to side with the protesters, well, then Occupy Wall Street isn't going anywhere. All this is proof that Zuccotti Park may be gone, but the momentum of the movement continues. Here's how the writers at Student Activism describe what happened at UC Davis: Students. Police used batons to try to push the students apart.