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27 Dec 2011 23:54

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World: “Horrible things were happening before my eyes”

  • Police brutality that’s not “Occupy”-related: It’s been ignored by most Western media, but a police crackdown on a labor strike in Kazakhstan earlier this month resulted in 16 deaths (officially reported; protesters say the number is much higher), one truly disturbing video of protesters getting shot and beaten as they run away, and now, charges of a torture basement beneath a Kazakh police station. Here’s what’s being reported.
  • DETAINED FOR NO REASON Asem Kenzhebaeva says that on the day of the protests, police detained her, for no reason, while she was searching the streets of Zhanaozen for her father, who had gone missing earlier that day. “That day, police were arresting anyone they saw in the street,” Kenzhebaeva said.
  • TORTURE BASEMENTPolice brought her to a dark, dirty basement under the station, filled with other detainees. According to Kenzhebaeva, women were being stripped naked, dragged by the hair, and beaten by “people in masks.” Kenzhabaeva was beaten and strangled–but ultimately released by the police.
  • WHAT TORTURE? When she returned to the scene with government officials later that week, the basement had been completely cleaned up, and looked “white like a hospital.” Her father, meanwhile, turned up two days later, having been severely beaten by police. He died of his wounds the day before Christmas (Photo: AFP). source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink


28 Nov 2011 23:53

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World: New elections, new attitude? Egypt’s elections go smoothly (so far)

  • Egypt headed to the polls today: In this photo via ITV News, you can see a small portion of the crowds that gathered to vote in this week’s elections in Egypt. No protests broke out on the first day — a change of pace from last week’s protests in Tahrir Square. In fact, reports of violence were rare, and voter fraud was rare. Here’s to hoping the events have begun to usher in a new era and a more positive Egypt.  source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink


22 Nov 2011 00:29

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World: Egypt: Cabinet offers resignations ahead of parliamentary elections

  • Protests in Egypt ahead of parliamentary elections: Last week, Egypt’s military-backed cabinet introduced plans for a new constitution — one that gave the military a lot more power, and the parliament a lot less. Reacting to the sudden changes, the Muslim Brotherhood started protests in Tahrir Square on Friday; over the weekend, hundreds camped out and continued protests. That growing group of people was met with riot police. As a result of all this, the interim cabinet offered their resignation Monday; this hasn’t stopped the protests, however. The elections start a week from now. source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink


21 Nov 2011 13:33

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U.S.: UC Davis Chancellor: “I take responsibility,” but I won’t resign

  • As Chancellor, I take responsibility for everything that happens on this campus. At the same time, our campus has policies, and–the only reasons we have those policies in place is to make sure the 32,000 students who are using our campus are safe.
  • UC Chancellor Linda Katehi • After refusing to resign due to the events at UC Davis last week, wherein UCPD Lt. John Pike pepper sprayed a line of seated, peaceful protesters. During the same KQED interview,  she also that she needs to “understand what went wrong…why things went so wrong,” which seems to be obfuscating the issue. Isn’t it clear what what wrong? Anyway, the UCPD police chief, along with Pike and another officer, have all been placed on “administrative leave;” 60,000 people have signed a petition calling for Katehi’s resignation. (Note: this interview wrapped up earlier the hour; we’ll let you know when a transcript is available.) source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink


17 Nov 2011 10:32

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U.S.: Occupy Wall Street descends on Wall Street on two-month anniversary

  • 50+ people arrested near Wall Street this morning source
  • » An attempt to prevent trading: A number of protesters, many from Zuccotti Park, tried to prevent traders from reaching the floor of Wall Street, but trading started at the usual 9:30 a.m. despite this. Protesters held up signs that said such things as “Tear down this Wall Street” and shouted phrases like “We aren’t afraid of your nightsticks,” in reference to the NYPD. “We’re not going to go away,” one protester, Davie Field, told the New York Times. “You can slash our tents and kick us out of the park, but we’ll keep coming back every day.”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


15 Oct 2011 13:42

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World: Occupy movement gains massive international footprint

  • 82 number of countries taking part in the October 15 protests, a global offshoot of Occupy Wall Street
  • 951 number of cities where protests are taking place today — amazingly, it started with just one about a month ago
  • six number of continents that have some sort of event going on today; maybe Antartica has one too, possibly? source
  • » Highest and lowest saturations: While North America, Europe and South America have a particularly high number of protests, Africa, Asia and the Middle East are looking a little thin. Australia’s somewhere in the middle. While many of the protests have been peaceful, some have gotten violent, most notably in Rome, where anarchists drew attention away from peaceful protests.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


14 Oct 2011 12:27

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U.S.: Occupy Wall Street: Clashes with protesters after cleanup delayed

  • Brookfield believes they can work out an arrangement with the protesters that will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use, and that the situation is respectful of residents and businesses downtown.
  • NYC Deputy Mayor Caswell F. Holloway • Discussing the near-disaster Occupy Wall Street had last night, after Zucotti Park owners Brookfield tried to force people away from the park for cleaning — which many park-dwellers assumed was an attempt to kick them out. The city, which claims it’s acting in the interests of the company that owns the park, has put the ball in Brookfield’s court. Despite the company and city backing down, there have been violent clashes between the police and protesters today. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


 

01 Oct 2011 16:43

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U.S.: Labor unions slowly latching onto Occupy Wall Street

  • I think it’s a tactic and a valid tactic to call attention to a problem. Wall Street is out of control. We have three imbalances in this country—the imbalance between imports and exports, the imbalance between employer power and working power, and the imbalance between the real economy and the financial economy. We need to bring back balance to the financial economy, and calling attention to it and peacefully protesting is a very legitimate way of doing it.
  • AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka • Talking on C-SPAN Friday about mass protests in general and Occupy Wall Street in particular. Trumka’s endorsement of the protests shadows the growing support the movement is getting from such labor unions as the Transport Workers Union. If the movement grows among labor unions, that will help swell the growth of the movement significantly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


27 Sep 2011 10:13

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U.S.: NYT indirectly calls Occupy Wall Street protesters stupid

  • So even as the members of Occupy Wall Street seem unorganized and, at times, uninformed, their continued presence creates a vexing problem for the Police Department.
  • New York Times writer Joseph Goldstein • In an article about the NYPD’s seemingly poor handling of Occupy Wall Street. The article as a whole makes intelligent and understandable points (and goes in-depth about the use of pepper spray on Saturday), but this particular line really bothered us. This comes off as The New York Times ripping the dirty hippies for being dirty hippies, which is just an approach they should not take here. It’s condescending and shows a lack of respect for the protesters. What if they just dropped a line like that into an article about the Tea Party? It’d get savaged by the blogs! Instead of just interviewing your sources at the NYPD, Mr. Goldstein, why don’t you interview the protesters (who, we don’t know if you’ve noticed, have been clamoring for media attention), instead of discretely calling them idiots? You did it before, with this article. This piece feels like you’re writing an article about one side of the story. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


18 Sep 2011 22:45

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U.S.: Video: Slow-motion sights and scenes from Occupy Wall Street

  • Sent to us via Twitter user Eric Brown, this five minute clip from last night does a good job capturing the mood of the still-budding protests near Wall Street in New York City. “This is a group of passionate, concerned, and intelligent people,” Brown writes. “Their behavior in the park suggested a great appreciation of democracy, and a desire to cut through the clogged media and political channels to communicate a message they feel is incredibly important.” Brown notes a large police presence was there when he shot this last night, but both sides were peaceful. Great clip. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink


 
 
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