Latest developments in the Occupy protests
By The Associated Press
–
17 hours ago
Some of the latest developments in the Occupy protests:
CALIFORNIA
A
day of demonstrations by students and anti-Wall Street activists was
disrupted Tuesday when a campus police officer shot a man with a gun
about a half-mile from the main protest site at the University of
California, Berkeley.
The shooting occurred inside the Haas School
of Business as hundreds of demonstrators left an outdoor plaza at the
school for a march to demonstrate outside a bank. Officials didn't yet
know whether the suspect was part of the Occupy Cal movement, said Ute
Frey, a spokeswoman for the university.
ReFund California, a
coalition of student groups and university employee unions, called for a
campus strike, and protesters marched and rallied to protest banks and
budget cuts to higher education.
Earlier in the day, more than
1,000 students, campus employees, faculty and other demonstrators filled
an outdoor plaza after many took part in teach-ins. The plaza was
covered with banners that read "stop the cuts" and "educate the state."
In Los Angeles, police and Occupy protesters are working on a plan that would close down an encampment that encircles City Hall.
Cmdr.
Andrew Smith said Tuesday police don't have a sense of when
demonstrators will pack up and go home but discussions are ongoing and
both sides hope for a peaceful resolution.
Tensions rose briefly
earlier Tuesday when about 100 protesters marched downtown in solidarity
with New York counterparts being ousted from their encampment. No
arrests were made.
GEORGIA
About 50 protesters gathered on
the steps of City Hall in downtown Atlanta on a rainy Tuesday evening,
holding banners reading, "Take Back Wall Street" and "Oakland, Wall
Street, Atlanta, Chapel Hill: Our Passion for Freedom is Stronger Than
Their Prison."
Spokeswoman La'Die Mansfield said the Occupy
Atlanta demonstrators joined protests across the country in solidarity
with New York protesters who were told to vacate Zuccotti Park.
The
Occupy Atlanta protesters were forcibly removed by police from the park
they had camped in for weeks after Mayor Kasim Reed decided conditions
had become unsafe. The experience has given the Atlanta protesters a
kinship with movements in New York and Oakland, where police also
clashed with protesters, Mansfield said.
ILLINOIS
Protesters staged a sit-in Tuesday in front of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office to try to stop health care cuts.
The
protesters had the backing of a variety of activist groups, including
Occupy Chicago, as they marched to City Hall from a nearby church. About
a dozen protesters eventually took up seats on the floor outside
Emanuel's office under the watchful eyes of police and journalists.
Dozens more protesters assembled in a cordoned-off area in a hallway
outside Emanuel's office. The mayor wasn't there.
The protesters
oppose his proposed budget, which would close six of the city's 12
mental health clinics and partner the city's neighborhood health clinics
with a federal program.
They chanted and offered testimonials about how they had been helped by the clinics.
MAINE
Occupy
protesters worked Tuesday to insulate their tents, set up portable
heaters and buy extra thermal socks as they vowed to stick it out in a
city park for the winter months ahead in Maine.
Close to 60 tents
are now set up in Lincoln Park, with many people placing hay bales
around their tents and tarps over the top for insulation to ward off the
cold to come. Some have brought in portable kerosene and propane
heaters to prepare for the weather in Portland, which averages 62 inches
of snow a year.
MASSACHUSETTS
Hip-hop mogul and political
activist Russell Simmons told protesters at the Occupy Boston encampment
Tuesday that it will take dramatic action to rid the American political
system of corporate influence.
Simmons arrived in Boston after police dismantled the birthplace of the Occupy movement in New York earlier Tuesday.
"The
Occupy movement is under attack," Simmons said, adding that there is no
contradiction in a multimillionaire such as himself supporting a
movement demanding economic equity. "I benefit off the tax code, but I'm
ready to pay more taxes and ... I don't like having my secretary paying
more in taxes than me."
Also Tuesday, Occupy Boston demonstrators
filed a lawsuit as a pre-emptive strike against any attempt to remove
them from their protest site.
The lawsuit said the demonstrators
are concerned about attempts in New York and other cities to shut down
the protests. The group is seeking a temporary restraining order to
prevent the city or police from removing them from Dewey Square in
Boston's financial district, where they have had an encampment since
Sept. 30.
A hearing on the request is scheduled in Suffolk Superior Court Wednesday.
MICHIGAN
The Detroit City Council has given Occupy Detroit protesters a one-week extension on their right to hold out at a city park.
Organizers
of Occupy Detroit told council members Monday that they wanted extra
time to clean up the park and move their belongings to new, winter
locations.
Council members approved the extension Tuesday. It
allows group members to remain at Grand Circus Park until 10 p.m. next
Monday.
About 150 people have moved into the park since Oct. 14.
The city last month denied a request for a 45-day permit.
MINNESOTA
Authorities
in Minneapolis aren't saying when or if they will begin enforcing a new
rule against sleeping overnight on a government plaza after they
declined to remove Wall Street protesters the night the rule took
effect.
Several dozen protesters spent Monday night on the plaza
between the Hennepin County Government Center and Minneapolis City Hall.
Since Oct. 7, the roughly half-block area has been the site of protests
rooted in a movement that began in New York City.
Carolyn
Marinan, a Hennepin County spokeswoman, and Sheriff Rich Stanek have
said they're balancing free speech with concerns about the safety of
protesters, who have been forbidden to set up tents.
"It's not
going to be OK for people to stay overnight when temperatures are
dangerous and cold," Marinan said Tuesday. "We don't want someone
freezing on our plaza."
MISSOURI
A federal judge refused
Tuesday to order Kiener Plaza re-opened for round-the-clock protests by
the group Occupy St. Louis, whose tent city was ousted over the weekend
after police began enforcing a 10 p.m. curfew in city parks.
U.S.
District Judge Carol Jackson said Occupy St. Louis failed to show that
the curfew was being selectively enforced in Kiener Plaza or that the
enforcement was a reaction to the political nature of the protest, the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Occupy St. Louis maintained its
tent city in Kiener Plaza from early October until police arrested 27
members without incident early Saturday.
NEW YORK
Hundreds
of police officers in riot gear raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment
in New York City in the pre-dawn darkness Tuesday, evicted hundreds of
protesters and then demolished the tent city, leaving the future of the
demonstration in limbo.
Later in the day, a New York judge upheld
the city's crackdown. Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman said in his
ruling that the protesters "have not demonstrated that they have a
First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their
tents, structures, generators and other installations to the exclusion
of the owner's reasonable rights ... or to the rights to public access
of others who might wish to use the space safely."
Protesters were
allowed back into Zuccotti Park two by two Tuesday evening. They each
could take only a small bag. No sleeping bags or tents were allowed.
City
Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez was released without bail Tuesday night
after being charged with resisting arrest as police cleared the Occupy
Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park.
Rodriguez emerged from a
courtroom Tuesday night with visible scrapes on his left temple and
right forehead. He says an officer assaulted him two blocks from the
park as he went to observe the police action. Police had no immediate
comment.
Several journalists were arrested, handcuffed and hauled onto police buses along with hundreds of protesters Tuesday.
Mayor
Michael Bloomberg defended the NYPD's policy of keeping the media back,
saying it was intended to keep them out of harm's way.
City
officials said the behavior was troubling, and City Council Speaker
Christine Quinn said the council would look into "reports of excessive
force by the NYPD and reports of infringement of the rights of the
press."
According to a poll released Tuesday, most New York voters
don't believe the Occupy Wall Street movement has a clear message or
represents 99 percent of Americans, but they support the demonstrators'
right to stay in public parks around the clock.
The Siena College
poll showed 45 percent of voters statewide have a favorable view of the
movement. Forty-four percent have an unfavorable view, up six percentage
points from a month earlier.
However, 57 percent of those polled
said the demonstrators should be able to stay in the parks all day and
all night, while 40 percent say they should not.
In upstate New
York, a Republican Party official clashed verbally with Occupy Albany
protesters Tuesday and urged Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to appoint a
special prosecutor to handle curfew violations by the demonstrators in a
public park next to the state Capitol.
Albany County Republican
Chairman Don Clarey went to the encampment Tuesday to tell reporters
that Cuomo should appoint the special prosecutor.
"The rule of law is at stake here," Clarey said. "We need to enforce the law."
Demonstrators
surrounded him Tuesday with signs with slogans like "Got Lies" and
"Robin Hood was right" and countered that they have a constitutional
right to be there. "The Constitution is the law of the land," some
chanted, making him hard to hear.
OHIO
Police in Ohio say they have arrested seven Occupy protesters for refusing to leave a bank.
Columbus
police Sgt. Rich Weiner says the group on Tuesday took their protest
and chanting into a Fifth Third branch and a U.S. Bank branch, where
they were arrested.
He said they were asked to leave by security, and those who refused were arrested on misdemeanor criminal trespassing charges.
The
Rev. Jesse Jackson plans to join an Occupy group in Ohio at a rally
protesting the recent clearing out of Occupy camps in New York and other
cities.
Spokesmen for Occupy Cincinnati and Jackson say he will
join the group Tuesday night at a downtown park where the group's
members have been meeting and last month camped out. The group says
about 20 University of Cincinnati students joined them Tuesday in a
meeting on the UC campus where Occupy Cincinnati had urged students to
walk out of classes in support of the movement.
OKLAHOMA
A
member of the Occupy Tulsa group said Tuesday that demonstrations will
continue there around the clock despite recent arrests of protesters in
the city and elsewhere.
Occupy Tulsa members have been gathering
at a downtown park for several weeks to protest what they say is
corporate greed and economic inequality.
Tulsa police officer
Jason Willingham estimated 40 to 50 arrests had been made at H.A.
Chapman Centennial Green since Nov. 2, the most recent on Sunday.
Occupy
Tulsa member Brian Horton said those arrested in Tulsa weren't acting
as part of the group when they violated the city's 11 p.m. park curfew.
OREGON
A
group of key Occupy Portland demonstrators say they're breaking off
ties with the city and police amid allegations by demonstrators that
police used excessive force when they broke up a downtown camp that
protesters had held for five weeks.
Protester Justin Bridges was
hospitalized Sunday after police dragged him away from the camp, and he
now claims officers beat and brutalized him. Police said Bridges was
simply pulled away from a dangerous situation when he fell to the ground
between protesters and riot police.
Six demonstrators who had
served as liaisons between Occupy Portland, the city and police
published an open letter Tuesday saying they were giving up their
positions "in direct response to the deplorable police actions" and what
they see as a lack of communication.
Officials told protesters in
a state park on the Capitol grounds in Salem their tents and other
structures have to be out by the end of the month.
Parks and
Recreation Department officials say the camp's food and medical
structures at Willson Park are open all night and are attracting unruly
people.
The department told the protesters Monday their permit to
demonstrate would end at the end of the month. The park is open to
pedestrians 24 hours a day, and state officials say the protesters can
be there if they don't camp or have structures.
PENNSYLVANIA
Police say a homeless man was arrested early Tuesday for assaulting a homeless woman at the Occupy Philadelphia encampment.
Officer
Jillian Russell says the 47-year-old man was arrested after slapping
and punching the woman. He is charged with simple assault.
Both
the man and the woman told police they were affiliated with the protest.
A member of Occupy Philadelphia said he couldn't immediately verify
whether that was the case.
TENNESSEE
A flood of support for
Wall Street protesters poured in after Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam
imposed a curfew that led to the arrests of 55 people in Nashville,
according to public records obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Of nearly 400 emails sent to the Republican governor's office, only 11 supported his actions.
The
documents also include cost estimates for cleaning the plaza following
the protest. One company on Oct. 31 said it would cost more than $46,000
to clean and refinish the surface, while another estimated it to be
about $18,000 to pressure wash and treat the areas.
TEXAS
Police say seven people have been arrested at an Occupy El Paso campsite in a peaceful removal of the protesters.
El
Paso police spokesman Darrel Petry says no one was injured during the
arrests early Tuesday at San Jacinto Plaza. The seven El Paso residents
are accused of misdemeanor unlawful camping in a city park and also
being in a public park after hours, he said.
A federal judge has
refused to grant an order sought by Occupy Dallas demonstrators to
prevent the city from closing their campsite.
Protesters failed to
get a temporary restraining order Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Jane
Boyle earlier expressed concern that federal courts did not have
jurisdiction.
The city last week said protesters had violated an
agreement to allow the campsite near Dallas City Hall. The city noted
reports of a sexual assault of a child at the site, the removal of a
baby over possible endangerment and trespassing arrests.
A Nov. 12 deadline to comply has been extended.
Occupy Dallas officials said protesters are abiding by the deal.
VIRGINIA
Members
of Occupy Richmond say they'll take up a newspaper publisher's offer to
encamp on his property next door to the mayor's residence.
The
protesters said they'll accept the offer from Raymond Boone, editor and
founder the Richmond Free Press. They said they'll begin their
encampment on Tuesday.
Boone offered his property last week in an editorial.
WASHINGTON
The
Occupy movement has reached one of Washington state's most remote towns
— the fictional home of the characters in the vampire teen series
"Twilight."
The Peninsula Daily News reports that 17 people held
an Occupy Forks protest on Saturday, rallying outside a Bank of America
branch, the only corporate presence the protesters could find in the
town.
It's about a four-hour trip from Seattle, on the western side of the Olympic Peninsula.
AUSTRALIA
Police
in Australia have swooped down on the Occupy Melbourne camp, arresting
three protesters as they enforced city orders requiring demonstrators to
take down tents and tarpaulins.
A Melbourne spokeswoman says
campers weren't evicted Wednesday morning but were issued notices giving
them an hour to remove the shelters. She said some protesters have
lawfully remained at the camp.
SWITZERLAND
Police in the Swiss city of Zurich have cleared a makeshift camp linked to the global Occupy protest movement.
Zurich
city police say 31 protesters peacefully resisted the clearance and
were briefly detained when officers enforced an evacuation order for the
historic Lindenhof square early Tuesday.
Police spokesman Marco Cortesi says some 20 protesters had earlier left the camp voluntarily.
The
protesters had pitched their tents in the old town square Oct. 16 as
part of an international anti-capitalist movement sparked by efforts to
"occupy Wall Street."
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