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Dozens arrested as May Day Occupy protests turn violent
Occupy Wall Street protesters smashed windows in Seattle, were chased through New York streets by police on scooters, and clashed repeatedly with officers in Oakland on Tuesday in May Day demonstrations intended to revive their movement against economic injustice. (Photos: Reuters; Getty Images)
Colorful May Day parades worldwide
The First of May was celebrated around the world as Labour Day. And although this year’s celebrations had a sour note due to ever-deepening economic crisis and cross-breeding with the Occupy movement, they were mostly colorful and cheerful affairs. In some parts the parade was an opportunity to voice a dissent with the government’s labour policies. In other, it was just a celebration. (Photos: Reuters; AFP/GettyImages)
Steve Murray: Walking a mile in a constituents shoes
An NDP member of the B.C. legislature, Jagrup Brar, will be living off of $610, the province’s current welfare rate, for the month of January in order to raise awareness of poverty. Steve Murray has suggestions for other politicians who wish to “walk a mile (1.60934 km) in someone else’s shoes.”
And one more look back before we move on.
Sarah Lazarovic charts November’s facial hair and impromptu park dwellings.
Dozens arrested as Occupy Los Angeles evicted in late-night raid
Police in riot gear and biohazard suits removed anti-Wall Street activists from an encampment outside the Los Angeles City Hall on Wednesday, arresting dozens of people as they enforced the mayor’s eviction order.
Busloads of police closed in on the eight-week-old camp after midnight and declared the hundreds of protesters congregated on the lawn, sidewalks and streets around City Hall to be an “unlawful assembly,” ordering them to disperse or face arrest. (Photo: David McNew/Reuters)
Twenty injured after woman pepper sprays L.A. Black Friday shoppers in act of ‘competitive shopping’
Twenty people, including children, received minor injuries after a woman reportedly pepper sprayed other shoppers at a Los Angeles-area Walmart store on Thursday as late-night Black Friday sales began in the United States and Canada.
Calling it an act of “competitive shopping,” a fire captain told the Los Angeles Times the woman had intentionally taken the pepper spray with her to the department store in Porter Ranch to get the edge on her fellow shoppers.
She used the pepper spray in several areas of the store, Los Angeles Fire Capt. James Carson told the Times.
At least seven of the shoppers were receiving medical care; areas of the store were reportedly evacuated after the incident. Victims reported irritation of the skin, eye and throat. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)
Police move in on Occupy Toronto protesters in St. James Park
Police have moved in to enforce the eviction order at St. James Park after making three announcements requesting protesters leave.
Officers have been moving through the park from tent to tent, asking protesters to vacate the area. The central gazebo has been barricaded, with boards and signs on all sides, and a few people remaining within.
City bylaw officers have also arrived in the park and were taping pieces of paper, each with a letter and a number, to tents and structures. One bylaw officer explained they were photographing all the structures for the purposes of record-keeping.
Occupiers were beating a drum and chanting “we occupy” and “make the rich pay.” Protesters had been shouting at police, with a spontaneous chant erupting of “Whose park? Our park.”
Occupy Toronto: Protesters must vacate park, judge rules
Occupy Toronto protesters must pack up their tents and leave St. James Park, where they have been camping out for more than a month, a Superior Court judge has ruled.
In a decision released Monday, Justice David Brown found the city was within its rights to force an end to the demonstration, calling it a “reasonable limit” on the group’s rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“If the protesters possess a constitutional right to occupy the park and appropriate it to their use, then the next protest group espousing a political message would have the right to so occupy another park, say, Moss Park; and the next group the next park, and so on, and so forth,” Judge Brown wrote in his 54-page ruling. “So would result a ‘tragedy of the commons,’ another ironic consequence of a movement advocating greater popular empowerment.” (Photo: Mark Blinch/Reuters)
Screen grab of police in riot gear spraying what appears to be pepper spray at a group of Occupy protesters on the University of California’s Davis campus. Read more
Wall Street shutdown fails as hundreds of Occupy protesters clash with police
Hundreds of Occupy protesters have clashed with police in New York’s financial district as authorities battled to thwart their bid to shut down Wall Street.
Police barricaded the narrow streets around the New York Stock Exchange and used batons to push protesters onto the sidewalk as they marched through the area during the morning rush hour to prevent financial workers getting to their desks.
About 75 people were arrested, police said, but by 11 a.m. protesters had returned to nearby Zuccotti Park, which had been the two-month-old Occupy Wall Street movement’s camp headquarters before police evicted them from the space on Tuesday.
Protesters banged drums and yelled “We are the 99%” — referring to their contention that the U.S. political system benefits only the richest 1%. Some chanted at police: “You’re sexy, you’re blue, now take
Occupy Toronto protesters served eviction notice
Bylaw officers have served eviction notices to Occupy Toronto protesters, pinning sheets of paper to tents requesting that all traces of the campsite be removed immediately.
Toronto police officers accompanied bylaw officers as they went from tent to tent.
“We are working to ensure the bylaw officers can do their jobs properly,” Constable Wendy Drummond said.
Occupy Toronto protesters are planning a general assembly at noon to decide how best to respond to the eviction notices.
“We don’t want to see a repeat of Wall Street,” said Taylor Chelsea, referring to the dismantling of the occupy protest in New York earlier Tuesday, which led to dozens of arrests. (Photo:Darren Calabrese/National Post)
Michael Moore’s $2M hypocrite house: film director lives like the 1% he condemns
It’s no secret that Moore has made millions from his muckraking documentaries, and there’s no reason he shouldn’t have. As one of the most successful documentary film-makers ever, he’s successfully tapped a rich vein of anti-capitalist rhetoric that sells well among U.S. liberals.
What puts Moore in the Gore camp is his refusal to admit he shares the wealth of his targets, as if wealth and success in themselves are dishonourable. In an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan he quails when asked to admit “the bleeding obvious”, i.e. that he’s a member of the 1%.
“How can I be in the 1%?” Moore responds. “Even though I do well, I don’t associate myself with those who do well. I am devoting my life to those who have less and have been crapped on by the system.”
Moore would be much more worthy of respect if he were more honest, and acknowledged his own wealth and lifestyle if he wants to condemn others. Success is nothing to be ashamed of, or justification for the kind of public ridicule Moore likes to direct towards it. The real evil is greed, and the corruption that often accompanies it. But greed is not a private preserve of the wealthy, and isn’t nearly as easy a target as the crime of being rich. (Photo by The Michigan View)
‘This was peaceful until you came’: Occupy Oakland protesters hit with tear gas by police
Police in riot gear clashed with protesters in Oakland on Thursday, firing tear gas to disperse demonstrators lingering in the streets after a day of mostly peaceful rallies against economic inequality and police brutality.
The confrontation, which erupted after midnight, appeared aimed at preventing the protesters from expanding their foothold in the streets around a public plaza that has become a hub for demonstrations in the largely working-class city on the eastern banks of San Francisco Bay.
More than 200 officers, some ferried downtown aboard buses, lined up shoulder to shoulder and donned gas masks, then declared the crowd to be an “unlawful assembly” and fired volleys of tear gas as protesters turned and ran. (Stephen Lam/Reuters)
