Hennepin Cty Sheriff LIES re #occupymn (police stooges used as excuse)

The Occupy movement which has focused the eyes of the world on corporate greed and economic inequality is free speech in action.  OccupyMN is part of that worldwide movement.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has started a PR campaign against OccupyMN. Attached is a defamatory press release sent out October 24th at 4:30 pm by the Sheriff’s office. It emphasized the cost of the police and detailed a list of incidents at the camp over the past two weeks.

1)  Call the Hennepin County Commissioners, Mayor Rybak, and Minneapolis City Council members to reinforce the First Amendment rights of OccupyMN protesters to peaceably assemble.
From Naomi Wolf: …the First Amendment means that it actually is not up to the mayor or the police of any municipality, or to the Parks Department, or to any local municipality to prohibit public assembly if the assembly is peaceful but disruptive in many ways. Peaceful, lawful protest — if it is effective — IS innately disruptive of “business as usual.” That is WHY it is effective.

2) Call the Hennepin County Commissioners, Mayor Rybak, and Minneapolis City Council members to tell them to let the protesters have tents for sleeping in the cold.  Many other Occupy cities have tents, including Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, and our nation’s capital, Washington, DC.

Chair of Hennepin County Commissioners is Mike Opat, 612-348-7881. Mark Stenglein, 348-7882; Gail Dorfman, 348-7883; Peter McLaughlin, 348-7884; Randy Johnson, 348-7885; Jan Callison, 348-7886; Jeff Johnson, 348-7887. General information: 612-348-3000.

MayorRybak’s office:  Phone:(612)673-2100    Fax:(612)673-2305

MinneapolisCity Council:  http://www.minneapolismn.gov/council/ to find the phone of your City Council member.

Finally, as news unfolds and you hear false or specious claims via the media, please call that media to account by phone, email, comments on articles, etc. 

It is true that Mayor Rybak  joined us the first day and is supportive.
And technically it is the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department that has jurisdiction over the People’s Plaza.  But they have worked hand in hand with Minneapolis police officers.  The People’s Plaza is in the heart of Minneapolis and the Mayor and City Council have a vested interest.  When calling them, alert them to the duplicity of the Sheriff’s Department in attempting to make the protesters look violent:

Tonight the TV news reported on a box of bricks labeled “riot equipment” left at the Plaza without saying that the person who left it was a provocateur that the protesters had been watching. The protesters told the police who left the box and even pointed him out on the light rail platform. They watched in despair as the police briefly questioned him and then released him. In the attached picture you can see the box of bricks with the very childish and provocative note: “Riot Equipment: NEEDS: bricks, large but throwable stones, and gasoline.” For the media to imply that the box might have been left by a protester was a travesty.

Provocateurs are expected in this movement, but such biased media reporting needs to be exposed.

That they did not hold the man who placed the box and message, but then used the incident as PR to attempt to discredit the peaceful protesters, smacks of complicity. He was perhaps a plant in an attempt to make the protestors look violent, as they are not.  Or perhaps the “law” officers just seized the incident and created PR to make the people of People’s Plaza look violent.  Whatever the case, much of the mainstream media has sent a false message and needs to tell the whole truth of the incident from not only the police perspective, but from the protesters’ perspective.

Also, earlier in the day (2pm) county police had told the organizers that they had to remove tarps, which are essential to keeping materials dry. After the organizers contacted County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, within half an hour they were told it was a “miscommunication.”

The press release states cost as a reason to close down the People’s Plaza as well.  Yet privately the police admit that they had way too many police on duty the first two weeks of the camp; they should own up to this publicly when stating the cost.  The protesters stated from the beginning that they are nonviolent.

We also need to write up/publicize our experiences at the Plaza to let the public know how exciting it is. Every day I am amazed by events in the Plaza. Last night, they began showing documentaries on a screen using a laptop as projector. The protesters’ warmth, energy and creativity are as thrilling as the mission.

Polly Kellogg

With additions by Sue Ann Martinson

The protesters rights are stated in the First Amendment.  Here is more from Naomi Wolf:

Please, citizens of America — please, OWS — do not buy into this rhetorical framework: an absolute “right to be free of disruption” from First Amendment activity does not exist in a free republic. But the right to engage in peaceable disruption does exist.

Citizens who live or work near protest sites or marches have every right to be free of violence from protesters and they should never be subjected to destruction of property. This is why I am always saying to OWS and to anyone who wants to assemble: be PEACEFUL PEACEFUL PEACEFUL. Be respectful to police, do not yell at them; sing, don’t chant; be civil to pedestrians and shop owners; don’t escalate tensions; try to sit when there is tension rather than confront physically; be dignified and be nonviolent.

But the First Amendment means that it actually is not up to the mayor or the police of any municipality, or to the Parks Department, or to any local municipality to prohibit public assembly if the assembly is peaceful but disruptive in many ways. Peaceful, lawful protest — if it is effective — IS innately disruptive of “business as usual.” That is WHY it is effective.

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Read the press release from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office below.       

HENNEPIN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

News Release
Media Contact:   LisaKiava    (612)919-5918

 Bricks & rocks found at Hennepin County Government Center

 October 24, 2011 (Minneapolis) –   OccupyMN has been conducting a demonstration on the Hennepin County Government Plaza since October 7, 2011. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office supports the First Amendment rights of residents on county property, while protecting the free use of government buildings by the public and employees.  The Sheriff’s Office maintains public safety for everyone who uses theGovernment Center — including those who work, visit, and demonstrate on the property.

Since October 5, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office has been meeting daily with organizers from OccupyMN. In each meeting, the rules have been explained. As always, conduct on county property that violates county policy,Minneapoliscity ordinance or state law is not allowed. Tents are prohibited due to the public safety risks posed by such structures.

From the start of the OccupyMN demonstration,October 7, 2011, through Sunday, October 23, 2011, the Sheriff’s Office personnel costs have been approximately $200,080 ($128,780 in overtime pay and $71,300 in regular pay).

Since the demonstration began on October 7, seven people have been issued trespass notices. When an individual has been issued a trespass notice, the individual is prohibited from returning to the Government Center for a year.

In addition to the trespass notices, the following is a list of incidents related to the demonstration fromOctober 7, 2011–October 24, 2011:

10/10/11:

• One male unresponsive and extremely intoxicated was transported to HCMC.

• One male transported to HCMC for a diabetic reaction.

• One male transported for a head injury to HCMC (unknown cause).

• One suicidal male transported.

10/11/11:

• One person fatigued on the plaza and refused further medical.

10/12/11:

• One person down and fell from a wheelchair. HCMC on scene and handled the incident.

10/13/11:

• Tents had to be removed from the Plaza.

 10/15/11:

• A woman was arrested for trespassing.  Previously, she was given a trespass notice by Hennepin County Security and after defacing a building.  (Yeah, cuz she ran against the Sheriff in the election and got many votes making him look .. um . petty, vengeful, immature and widely DISLIKED.  She did not deface a building, she wrote in chalk.  C'mon! Assinine.)

 10/20/11:

• Seven protesters arrested by Minneapolis Police for impeding traffic at 6thSt/2nd Ave.The protesters set up three tents in the middle of the intersection.  (AGAINST A GREEDSO BANK. 

• Medical assistance requested for one man hearing voices on the plaza. (Of course, the occupation's fault, right?)

10/21/11:

• Port a Potty was intentionally lit on fire. Suspect unknown. (This was someone absolutely Not attached to the occupiers and they KNOW that.)

• Indecent exposure incident: One female and two males ran around the plaza wearing underwear. Parties left the plaza before they could be stopped and identified.

10/23/11:

• A man was arrested on theGovernmentPlazafor theft and obstruction. The suspect is accused of stealing items from other demonstrators.

• Another man was using alcohol on theGovernmentPlaza.  He was found to have a warrant out ofStearnsCountyand he was arrested. He was also trespassed from the property.

 10/24/11:

• Hennepin County Security found a box of bricks and rocks on the GovernmentCenterPlaza.  A note was attached to the items and it described the items as supplies for a riot.  The Sheriff’s Office is investigating. This incident is a concern for the safety of all citizens at the Government Center, those who work at the Government Center, and law enforcement officers.

 For media information, contact PIOLisaKiava 612-919-5918or lisa.kiava@co.hennepin.mn.us

#occupymn - one week later (updated)

Re: #occupy

I hope this will lead to a growing militant uncontrolled movement - that is not led into the Democratic Party elections and seems to be developing into a new international force.

Old lefties like me and the new people have yet to form a clear ideology.

Reports from all over (Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Hong Kong, et al) show that it, (occupation) goes fortunately beyond the usual suspects in those nations.

The little left sects are occupying in Mpls, but I hope to ignore them as they are subject to nonpolitical flattery - and instead see and enjoy the new activists. Some disturbing elements have been there, but will they stay and learn anything?

This are many youthful high-energy activists who know what the ISSUES TRULY are and excite me. But I don't go to see someone's "Circle of Love" or do Buddhist meditation.

We shall see how this movement proceeds with a cold winter coming, few logistical details taken into account - and what it will be like next Spring.

Since there will be no serious Democratic Party presidential primary elections, the
chances of co-option by the Democratic Party operatives will be less next Spring and perhaps by then most will have little interest in the 2012 elections and will be focused on building NEIGHBORHOOD GROUPS that can link together including in large united actions against capital and its operatives - and the presstitutes. 

Meanwhile I can pray real affinity groups on economic democracy, social media that works, ecological awareness will coalesce - ever sharpening our demands.

Who would have thought it, after the Nov. 2010 U. S. elections that with the sparks of Tunisia, Egypt, Madison - and yet so little shutdown ACTION in MN this summer that this could happen!!!

I have a (hopefully) big action for Saint Paul SOON and moveon is getting into high action mode. We don't need camp counsellors coming out to make up activities; we merely need to stay ON POINT.

I got this response from a friend occupying in DC: 

   Old lefties like me are kinda confused... The only issue I can get excited about is the war issue and that gets me plenty excited! All the rest is intellectualizing and posturing to make yourself feel good and to show how smart you are and ends up a diversion. I say the more complicated we make it, the more watered down the movement gets and we lose the force and fire and the strength in our hearts that we must demonstrate to prevail.. I have been feeling lackluster these past three-four days and I finally figured out why. All the passivity is boring! I want to run through the streets with a drum and banner cadre, moving double time to the beating drum. I want to strike fear, to appear and then vanish. I want impromtu demonstrations blocking streets at rush hour then leaving before the pigs get us. This ain't no game. it is serious business. Occupation D.C. in Freedom Plaza has done excellent work but more on the diplomatic level. I will to step it up on the emotional and psychic level and so I will. If it pleases the cosmic, so I will.

And I could not resist from replying:  

My friend- - with a few excellent exceptions, I cannot even hold a discussion of this caliber w/most of the MN "occupiers" - you're a regular and know my aim is to bring people to a higher level of knowledge about economics mostly and celebrate empathic human values. (I did my "time" as healer and got over it and the kind of People Pleasing to be more hipster/New Age rather than anti-corporate is making me ill.) I am not into symbolically holding an action to protect "transparent" tents. I want to watch Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Raytheon, Lockhead, the Kochs, the lobbyists eat shit, instead of me and the rest of humanity. I want to avoid addiction to excitement and adreline rushes. Solidarity based on REAL vaues, not pics for media ops. I see an awful lot of mic hogging and few real symbolic anti--System photos so far. A sort of infantile infatuation with a new kind of authoritarianISM ha emerged, an anti-intellectualISM I cannot stomache. I sort of feared the Kevin Zeese organizing methodology, it left me cold at first. Now, however I am seeing what a few brains can do to get focus.

What Cornell West did is absolutely awesome, symbolically. THis junta of five is, indeed, the Real Enemy along w/their cohorts the Chamber of Commerce and anyone who takes their ca$h. The whole addictive corporate/ruling elite delusionary system is hard to bust.l This addiction to stuff, property, prestige and privileged life style of the West (now bitting the dust) is part of The System. Its emotionalISM is part of the adrenalated call of the addictive system engendered by capitalISM itself. 

 How to fight back? I am not sure of The Answer, but I do know the question. Maybe the next few months of "occupation" will provide an answer but I think "getting on the page" and knowing what rattles your cage is the absolute first step. It's NOT fighting the cops for lack of "something better to do" - or a Camp Counsellor facilitator who keeps you busy, busy, busy w/2nd grade art projects. I still strongly believe it's the women like myself of the "old" left ilk who are vocal and outraged who should be leading .. and singing our way into a better future. I adore the Latvia/Lithuanian women who brought down the USSR by seizing the media and making tons and tons of noise against a totally dysfunctional syste that produce Chernobyl. 

Someone made a remark on a thread that resonated and echoes your sentiment about feeling lacklustre. The person said that our MN occupiers did great demos - if you are into standing still demos. (the SEIU showed how poweful we CAN be when fighting The System.) Here, they don't even have outreach flyers! Only a handful hold the megaphones and have access to the livestream chat line where they discuss pizza and how sexy various "leaders" are. I ask myself - why risk indictment for THAT. 

No! No! No! i want actions that make the Supremes sleepless at night, the Kochs terrified of going to the Four Seasons for dinner, Obama ashamed at every single $26,000 pancake breakfast, the banks going broke as accounts are withdrawn . . . I want the damn addiction to TV and sports exposed as unsatisfying addictions. And I don't want a new codependent occupation delusion taking over. I want decentralization and an end to worker exploitation. Can this movement get there? Can WE get more dependent on VALUES inspiring it than emotion or the proper list of "demands" ?. I think the Nazis won in Germany due to shit values. They (the middle/working class) feared crime and chaos and becuz they did, they got even MORE of it. the insane ran the asylum. 

Here we fight old stale "utopian" values and resist process which is tedious sometimes but rewarding in the end as it produces stability (not addiction to a resistance to change) and a sense of safety - ultimately providing the bedrock for real creativity. MurKans so fear looking at the real lack of safety here engendered by Shock CapitalISM. Terrorists aren't the problem - but failure to look at how much that technique cost us in the past decade or more. Fear HAS worked for "The Bosses" - time now for courage, which is an inside job. Provoking police - as inexperienced politicos are trying to make us believe the past few days is the mark of the rebel is really an immature REACTION position. I will write more about the need to talk long and loud about foreclosure, homelessness, huge bank profits being made off the poor, cuts to disability,covert sexism and racism, ecodamage, fucked water - the entire klusterfuck in fact - in upcoming days I am sure. These and more, much more are the End product$ of an addictive financial "system." 

But right now I am interested in what VALUES are we demonstrating and communicating to those who are still in the trance who might join us IF we showed all the things in our hearts, not just sentimental rhetoric and mislead "actions" that don't communicate VALUES. And THAT is, indeed, serious business cuz the Kochs, the Clintoni$ta$, the bank$ter$ behind Obomber, the K Street flesh merchants of the Death Culture do not want it coming to the fore .. I think much stinky, horrible stuff lays ahead the more we get across where/when our hearts and minds and HONEST emotions are clear. 

Friend, we are after the same damn joy - the joy of resistance that leads to enrapturing EMPOWERMENT. We should not settle for less. Being one of the 99% ain't enough for me. I wanna be in the 99% who Make a Difference by outsmarting, out flanking, out planning and out loving that elitist hog sty at the top who stole OUR money!

Occupy Minnesota gets tents torn down. - YouTube

Occupy Minnesota gets tents torn down. - YouTube

March caps week of OccupyMN protests

March caps week of OccupyMN protests

Posted: 5:17 pm Fri, October 14, 2011
By Finance and Commerce Staff
Tags: Grant Stevensen, Occupy Wall Street, OccupyMN, Wells Fargo Center

(Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

More than 300 protesters, mostly labor union and social activists, marched on the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Minneapolis on Friday afternoon, eventually sitting down and blocking the intersection of Sixth Street and Marquette Avenue next to the building.
They held signs saying, “Don’t Foreclose on the American Dream” and “Wells Fargo Pay Your Fair Share,” and chanted, “Big banks must stop” and “The people, united, will never be defeated.” The protest coincided with an upswing of anti-corporate activism across the country, generally called the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The Rev. Grant Stevensen, pastor of St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in St. Paul, told the group before the march that he had heard from too many people who were ashamed because they were losing their homes to foreclosure.
“Shame is how the powerful have always stayed in power,” Stevensen said.

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Faces of Occupy MN Day 1

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Molly Hanley and Brittany Rosco: "We want to provoke a change, and make everyone know that we need change" said Hanley. "People before profits." Rosco continued, "And we need to stop fighting amongst ourselves and try something new that has worked in other countries. We don't want everything for free. We just want fairness."

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Thousands gathered at the Hennepin County Government Plaza (or the "People's Plaza") throughout the first day of Minnesota occupation in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. We sat down with the 99% to hear the issues and concerns, and asked "Why are you here?" See a video of the protesters marching to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis here. PHOTOS AND CAPTIONS BY REBECCA MCDONALD | B FRESH PHOTOGRAPHY on October 7, 2011.

Indigenous Rights Celebration at OccupyMN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deNNDov_U1Q
 

Truthdig - Why the Elites Are in Trouble/General Assembies

Truthdig - Why the Elites Are in Trouble

Why the Elites Are in Trouble

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_the_elites_are_in_trouble_20111009/

Posted on Oct 9, 2011

By Chris Hedges
Ketchup, a petite 22-year-old from Chicago with wavy red hair and glasses with bright red frames, arrived in Zuccotti Park in New York on Sept. 17. She had a tent, a rolling suitcase, 40 dollars’ worth of food, the graphic version of Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and a sleeping bag. She had no return ticket, no idea what she was undertaking, and no acquaintances among the stragglers who joined her that afternoon to begin the Wall Street occupation. She decided to go to New York after reading the Canadian magazine Adbusters, which called for the occupation, although she noted that when she got to the park Adbusters had no discernable presence.
The lords of finance in the looming towers surrounding the park, who toy with money and lives, who make the political class, the press and the judiciary jump at their demands, who destroy the ecosystem for profit and drain the U.S. Treasury to gamble and speculate, took little notice of Ketchup or any of the other scruffy activists on the street below them. The elites consider everyone outside their sphere marginal or invisible. And what significance could an artist who paid her bills by working as a waitress have for the powerful? What could she and the others in Zuccotti Park do to them? What threat can the weak pose to the strong? Those who worship money believe their buckets of cash, like the $4.6 million JPMorgan Chase gave* to the New York City Police Foundation, can buy them perpetual power and security. Masters all, kneeling before the idols of the marketplace, blinded by their self-importance, impervious to human suffering, bloated from unchecked greed and privilege, they were about to be taught a lesson in the folly of hubris.
Even now, three weeks later, elites, and their mouthpieces in the press, continue to puzzle over what people like Ketchup want. Where is the list of demands? Why don’t they present us with specific goals? Why can’t they articulate an agenda?
The goal to people like Ketchup is very, very clear. It can be articulated in one word—REBELLION. These protesters have not come to work within the system. They are not pleading with Congress for electoral reform. They know electoral politics is a farce and have found another way to be heard and exercise power. They have no faith, nor should they, in the political system or the two major political parties. They know the press will not amplify their voices, and so they created a press of their own. They know the economy serves the oligarchs, so they formed their own communal system. This movement is an effort to take our country back.
This is a goal the power elite cannot comprehend. They cannot envision a day when they will not be in charge of our lives. The elites believe, and seek to make us believe, that globalization and unfettered capitalism are natural law, some kind of permanent and eternal dynamic that can never be altered. What the elites fail to realize is that rebellion will not stop until the corporate state is extinguished. It will not stop until there is an end to the corporate abuse of the poor, the working class, the elderly, the sick, children, those being slaughtered in our imperial wars and tortured in our black sites. It will not stop until foreclosures and bank repossessions stop. It will not stop until students no longer have to go into debt to be educated, and families no longer have to plunge into bankruptcy to pay medical bills. It will not stop until the corporate destruction of the ecosystem stops, and our relationships with each other and the planet are radically reconfigured. And that is why the elites, and the rotted and degenerate system of corporate power they sustain, are in trouble. That is why they keep asking what the demands are. They don’t understand what is happening. They are deaf, dumb and blind.
“The world can’t continue on its current path and survive,” Ketchup told me. “That idea is selfish and blind. It’s not sustainable. People all over the globe are suffering needlessly at our hands.”
The occupation of Wall Street has formed an alternative community that defies the profit-driven hierarchical structures of corporate capitalism. If the police shut down the encampment in New York tonight, the power elite will still lose, for this vision and structure have been imprinted into the thousands of people who have passed through park, renamed Liberty Plaza by the protesters. The greatest gift the occupation has given us is a blueprint for how to fight back. And this blueprint is being transferred to cities and parks across the country.
“We get to the park,” Ketchup says of the first day. “There’s madness for a little while. There were a lot of people. They were using megaphones at first. Nobody could hear. Then someone says we should get into circles and talk about what needed to happen, what we thought we could accomplish. And so that’s what we did. There was a note-taker in each circle. I don’t know what happened with those notes, probably nothing, but it was a good start. One person at a time, airing your ideas. There was one person saying that he wasn’t very hopeful about what we could accomplish here, that he wasn’t very optimistic. And then my response was that, well, we have to be optimistic, because if anybody’s going to get anything done, it’s going be us here. People said different things about what our priorities should be. People were talking about the one-demand idea. Someone called for AIG executives to be prosecuted. There was someone who had come from Spain to be there, saying that she was here to help us avoid the mistakes that were made in Spain. It was a wide spectrum. Some had come because of their own personal suffering or what they saw in the world.”
* Correction: An earlier version of this column said JPMorgan Chase gave a donation “a few days ago.” JPMorgan’s website says its gifts to the New York City Police Foundation, which together add up to “the largest [gift] in the history of the foundation,” began arriving last year.
“After the circles broke I felt disheartened because it was sort of chaotic,” she said. “I didn’t have anybody there, so it was a little depressing. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
“Over the past few months, people had been meeting in New York City general assembly,” she said. “One of them is named Brooke. She’s a professor of social ecology. She did my facilitation training. There’s her and a lot of other people, students, school teachers, different people who were involved with that … so they organized a general assembly.”
“It’s funny that the cops won’t let us use megaphones, because it’s to make our lives harder, but we actually end up making a much louder sound [with the “people’s mic”] and I imagine it’s much more annoying to the people around us,” she said. “I had been in the back, unable to hear. I walked to different parts of the circle. I saw this man talking in short phrases and people were repeating them. I don’t know whose idea it was, but that started on the first night. The first general assembly was a little chaotic because people had no idea … a general assembly, what is this for? At first it was kind of grandstanding about what were our demands. Ending corporate personhood is one that has come up again and again as a favorite and. … What ended up happening was, they said, OK, we’re going to break into work groups.
“People were worried we were going to get kicked out of the park at 10 p.m. This was a major concern. There were tons of cops. I’ve heard that it’s costing the city a ton of money to have constant surveillance on a bunch of peaceful protesters who aren’t hurting anyone. With the people’s mic, everything we do is completely transparent. We know there are undercover cops in the crowd. I think I was talking to one last night, but it’s like, what are you trying to accomplish? We don’t have any secrets.”
“The undercover cops are the only ones who ask, ‘Who’s the leader?’ ” she said. “Presumably, if they know who our leaders are they can take them out. The fact is we have no leader. There’s no leader, so there’s nothing they can do.
“There was a woman [in the medics unit]. This guy was pretending to be a reporter. The first question he asks is, ‘Who’s the leader?’ She goes, ‘I’m the leader.’ And he says, ‘Oh yeah, what are you in charge of?’ She says, ‘I’m in a charge of everything.’ He says, ‘Oh yeah? What’s your title?’ She says ‘God.’ ”
“So it’s 9:30 p.m. and people are worried that they’re going to try and rush us out of the camp,” she said, referring back to the first day. “At 9:30 they break into work groups. I joined the group on contingency plans. The job of the bedding group was to find cardboard for people to sleep on. The contingency group had to decide what to do if they kick us out. The big decision we made was to announce to the group that if we were dispersed we were going to meet back at 10 a.m. the next day in the park. Another group was arts and culture. What was really cool was that we assumed we were going to be there more than one night. There was a food group. They were going dumpster diving. The direct action committee plans for direct, visible action like marches. There was a security team. It’s security against the cops. The cops are the only people we think that might hurt us. The security team keeps people awake in shifts. They always have people awake.”
The work groups make logistical decisions, and the general assembly makes large policy decisions.
“Work groups make their own decisions,” Ketchup said. “For example, someone donated a laptop. And because I’ve been taking minutes I keep running around and asking, ‘Does someone have a laptop I could borrow?’ The media team, upon receiving that laptop, designated it to me for my use on behalf of the Internet committee. The computer isn’t mine. When I go back to Chicago, I’m not going to take it. Right now I don’t even know where it is. Someone else is using it. But so, after hearing this, people thought it had been gifted to me personally. People were upset by that. So a member of the Internet work group went in front of the group and said, ‘This is a need of the committee. It’s been put into Ketchup’s care.’ They explained that to the group, but didn’t ask for consensus on it, because the committees are empowered. Some people might still think that choice was inappropriate. In the future, it might be handled differently.”
Working groups blossomed in the following days. The media working group was joined by a welcome working group for new arrivals, a sanitation working group (some members of which go around the park on skateboards as they carry brooms), a legal working group with lawyers, an events working group, an education working group, medics, a facilitation working group (which trains new facilitators for the general assembly meetings), a public relations working group, and an outreach working group for like-minded communities as well as the general public. There is an Internet working group and an open source technology working group. The nearby McDonald’s is the principal bathroom for the park after Burger King banned protesters from its facilities.
Caucuses also grew up in the encampment, including a “Speak Easy caucus.” “That’s a caucus I started,” Ketchup said. “It is for a broad spectrum of individuals from female-bodied people who identify as women to male-bodied people who are not traditionally masculine. That’s called the ‘Speak Easy’ caucus. I was just talking to a woman named Sharon who’s interested in starting a caucus for people of color.
“A caucus gives people a safe space to talk to each other without people from the culture of their oppressors present. It gives them greater power together, so that if the larger group is taking an action that the caucus felt was specifically against their interests, then the caucus can block that action. Consensus can potentially still be reached after a caucus blocks something, but a block, or a ‘paramount objection,’ is really serious. You’re saying that you are willing to walk out.”
“We’ve done a couple of things so far,” she said. “So, you know the live stream? The comments are moderated on the live stream. There are moderators who remove racist comments, comments that say ‘I hate cops’ or ‘Kill cops.’ They remove irrelevant comments that have nothing to do with the movement. There is this woman who is incredibly hardworking and intelligent. She has been the driving force of the finance committee. Her hair is half-blond and half-black. People were referring to her as “blond-black hottie.” These comments weren’t moderated, and at one point whoever was running the camera took the camera off her face and did a body scan. So, that was one of the first things the caucus talked about. We decided as a caucus that I would go to the moderators and tell them this is a serious problem. If you’re moderating other offensive comments then you need to moderate these kinds of offensive comments.”
The heart of the protest is the two daily meetings, held in the morning and the evening. The assemblies, which usually last about two hours, start with a review of process, which is open to change and improvement, so people are clear about how the assembly works. Those who would like to speak raise their hand and get on “stack.”
“There’s a stack keeper,” Ketchup said. “The stack keeper writes down your name or some signifier for you. A lot of white men are the people raising their hands. So, anyone who is not apparently a white man gets to jump stack. The stack keeper will make note of the fact that the person who put their hand up was not a white man and will arrange the list so that it’s not dominated by white men. People don’t get called up in the same order as they raise their hand.”
While someone is speaking, their words amplified by the people’s mic, the crowd responds through hand signals.
“Putting your fingers up like this,” she said, holding her hands up and wiggling her fingers, “means you like what you’re hearing, or you’re in agreement. Like this,” she said, holding her hands level and wiggling her fingers, “means you don’t like it so much. Fingers down, you don’t like it at all; you’re not in agreement. Then there’s this triangle you make with your hand that says ‘point of process.’ So, if you think that something is not being respected within the process that we’ve agreed to follow then you can bring that up.”
“You wait till you’re called,” she said. “These rules get abused all the time, but they are important. We start with agenda items, which are proposals or group discussions. Then working group report-backs, so you know what every working group is doing. Then we have general announcements. The agenda items have been brought to the facilitators by the working groups because you need the whole group to pay attention. Like last night, Legal brought up a discussion on bail: ‘Can we agree that the money from the general funds can be allotted if someone needs bail?’ And the group had to come to consensus on that. [It decided yes.] There’s two co-facilitators, a stack keeper, a timekeeper, a vibes-person making sure that people are feeling OK, that people’s voices aren’t getting stomped on, and then if someone’s being really disruptive, the vibes-person deals with them. There’s a note-taker—I end up doing that a lot because I type very, very quickly. We try to keep the facilitation team one man, one woman, or one female-bodied person, one male-bodied person. When you facilitate multiple times it’s rough on your brain. You end up having a lot of criticism thrown your way. You need to keep the facilitators rotating as much as possible. It needs to be a huge, huge priority to have a strong facilitation group.”
“People have been yelled out of the park,” she said. “Someone had a sign the other day that said ‘Kill the Jew Bankers.’ They got screamed out of the park. Someone else had a sign with the N-word on it. That person’s sign was ripped up, but that person is apparently still in the park.
“We’re trying to make this a space that everyone can join. This is something the caucuses are trying to really work on. We are having workshops to get people to understand their privilege.”
But perhaps the most important rule adopted by the protesters is nonviolence and nonaggression against the police, no matter how brutal the police become.
“The cops, I think, maced those women in the face and expected the men and women around them to start a riot,” Ketchup said. “They want a riot. They can deal with a riot. They cannot deal with nonviolent protesters with cameras.”
I tell Ketchup I will bring her my winter sleeping bag. It is getting cold. She will need it. I leave her in a light drizzle and walk down Broadway. I pass the barricades, uniformed officers on motorcycles, the rows of paddy wagons and lines of patrol cars that block the streets into the financial district and surround the park. These bankers, I think, have no idea what they are up against.
Illustration by Mr. Fish

Occupy Wall Street - Minneapolis - Day 1

Sept. 7th, 2011 - Excerpts from interviews with people attending the first day of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Minneapolis. Interviews include Governor Jesse Ventura and WAMM chairperson Marie Brown.(and yours truly)

OMN Signs of Change. Craig Stellmacher

The media, starts to pay attention to the OWS movement. In Minneapolis all the local stations attended and stood at the edge doing stand-ups. Two helicopters flew overhead... I went into the crowd and asked why people were there and what they thought.

Sing along against FASCISM !!

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girlchild in the dark
Comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Downy sins of streetlight fancies
Chase the costumes she shall wear
Ermine furs adorn the imperious
Severin, Severin awaits you there
I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears
Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather
Shiny leather in the dark
Tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
Severin, Severin, speak so slightly
Severin, down on your bended knee
Taste the whip, in love not given lightly
Taste the whip, now plead for me
I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears
Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girlchild in the dark
Severin, your servant comes in bells, please don't forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

Do not kiss the shiny boots of fascists, folks !!

Protest News Occupy MN protesters march to the Fed [VIDEO]

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2011/10/occupy_mn_protesters_march_to_the_fed_video.php

Protest News

Occupy MN protesters march to the Fed [VIDEO]

By Jessica Lussenhop Fri., Oct. 7 2011 at 5:33 PM

 

As their numbers increased in the Hennepin County Government Center Plaza this afternoon, more and more chatter rose among the Occupy MN crowd about marching to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The Fed was the originally planned occupation destination, but organizers worried that arrests could take place as soon as marchers started blocking traffic. "They wanted to just do it," says April Lukes-Streich, one of Occupy MN's organizers. "We were like, 'You guys, don't.'"

Finally word came that if marchers were flanked by Minneapolis police, they could go at 2:30 p.m. The protesters held themselves back until about 2.

A hundred or so marchers made their way down the middle of Washington Avenue to the Fed, and convened briefly in the public plaza outside. They then marched down into the Fed's adjoining park, which is technically private property. Police waited at the bottom of the sloped park.

Check out the march, the park occupation and the police presence below:
Previous coverage:

• Jesse Ventura joins kick-off of Occupy MN [VIDEO]
• Occupy Wall Street protest coming to Minneapolis
• Occupy MN gets law enforcement OK for occupation of Government Plaza
•