Hello everyone.
The news is quite late today, thanks to a power outage that killed my alarm clock and my laptop. I guess I was sleepier than I thought.
Here's the news.
-- Charges against five protesters in Berkeley have been brought up by prosecutors, stemming from an event back in November. The four students and one professor have been charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest. The five were among 39 who were arrested that day. Video shows police officers jabbing protesters with batons. The professor is stunned by the charges, saying that it is odd to file charges when the video obviously shows excessive force by authorities.
-- Occupy DC took to the streets yesterday to protest the "Anti-Occupy" law, HR 347. The protesters met in McPherson Square and spread out from there, with tape over their mouths to symbolize the shuttering of free speech in America. Many believe this law is meant to cordon people into "free speech zones." With the new law removing the word "willfully" from its version, prosecutors would know longer have to prove that a protester knew they were doing wrong. Simply being in a federally protected area would be enough for a conviction.
-- A 51 year old man was arrested during an Occupy London event on Sunday, charged with causing a disturbance. The group met peacefully and began to march, but the older man ran out in traffic and tried to stop cars and pedestrians from passing. The other protesters continued their peaceful march while the man was arrested. He allegedly refused to leave the roadway and began to yell at police.
-- 14 protesters were arrested at several Atlanta Chase Banks during a protest on corporate greed. At least one of the protests was given no warning before police began to indiscriminately arrest those around them. One of the banks was vandalized with paint thrown on the outside. (Okay, pause. A bucket of paint was thrown onto a bank, and that is vandalism. I agree with that. But there is a problem here, and it makes me crazy. How long does it take for paint to dry? A long ass time; that's why we even have a saying about "watching paint dry." Because it takes a while. This protest happened during a time when the banks were OPEN. People were there. So why the hell didn't they have police block off the area, and go throw some buckets of soapy water on the paint, or use a pressure washer to get it off before it dried? I'll tell you why. Because they want money for "damages." And they should NOT get it. The person who threw the paint should definitely be charged for it. But the bank's negligence made the problem WORSE, and I don't think anyone is responsible for that but them. If it had happened at night when no one was there, or when no one could have possibly cleaned it up, that would be different. But I'm sick to death of seeing things like this. If you allow a problem to get worse when you could have very well fixed it, and then try to milk someone else for money, I think you should be charged with some sort of negligence. Because that, right there, is greed. And that is disgusting.)
***Solidarity***
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