As fellow law professor sent me this video of Oakland police shooting a photographer. The video raises serious questions of the unjustified use of force.
In the video, the police appear to be standing without challenge when, around the 33 second mark, an officer suddenly shoot a photographer who is a good distance from the police line.
I cannot imagine the claim of justification in this case when the use of rubber bullets present significant potential harm to citizens, as shown below.
Kudos: Professor Alberto Bernabe (John Marshall Law School)
Source: Lowering Bar
Too bad Oakland and Berkeley can’t be more like Seattle. I see where the administration of UC Berkeley is giving full amnesty to all OWS protesters who have been arrested. The arrests will not affect their academic standing.
Nice update shano.
Meanwhile the Seattle City Council passes a unanimous resolution in support of their Occupy movement:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2011/11/14/seattle-city-council-backs-occupy-seattle/
–”The City will review its banking and investment practices to ensure that public funds are invested in responsible financial institutions that support our community,” the resolution stated.
The resolution said the Council may consider “future legislation to promote responsible banking and provide an incentive for banking institutions to invest more in our city, particularly with regard to stabilizing the housing markets and supporting the creation of new businesses.”
–”The City will continue to address economic inequality and wealth disparities by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender,” said the resolution. It discussed a wide range of ways “to address historic trends in disparities.”
–”The Council will request a report from the Department of Finance and Administrative Services on all exemptions or waivers allowed for City taxes, to examine the impact of both tax shifts and lost revenue to the City against the economic and social benefits the exemptions are intended to bring . . .”
The Council will also analyze how city election campaigns are currently financed “and explore alternatives.”
The city will also urge Congressional leaders to “support job creation, substantial investments in the nation’s critical physical and technological infrastructure and deficit reduction by adopting fiscal policies with equitable corporate and individual taxation and by allowing the 2010 extension of President Bush’s tax cuts to expire in 2012 . .
Bron: my point was not the tax code, just that the 1% have manipulated the government in order to get cozy deals on their taxes. (Do you get a tax break for your hobbies?)
That is the point. You can look to any industrial sector, and giant corporations have written the legislation themselves and bought some friendly politician to pass it. It is CORRUPT. It is creating monopolies, it gives unfair advantage to the rich, and it is anti-free market.
Bdaman: the people at the Occupy camp at Zuccotti are not all the same people on any given day. Sure, there are facilitators and working groups who put out meeting agendas (which are posted on a white board for all to see), but I am sure the population there is very fluid.
People who visit, people who come for a few nights, homeless people who need a meal, people who work and then show up for a meeting. People who come for the General Assembly. People just passing through with some supplies, like me.
It is direct Democracy, and I guess we cant have any of that in the US, now can we?
Bdaman, there has been some word that anarchists have infiltrated. Also some black clad individuals that nobody has seen before with what appear to be Molotov cocktails. The OWS groups have had some difficulty with that and in some cases they have tried to point out these folks to the police. Only to be ignored. Also, in New York, police are directing homeless people and winos to the occupy encampment, telling them they can get free food and medical care. That is not altruistic, it is deliberate sabotage.
The Oakland police in particular do not seem to be interested in protecting the non-violent protesters. They ignore potential hotspots but have attacked and arrested people doing such terroristic activities as praying in the Interfaith tent.
I think it’s the whole West Coast Bron
I guess the phrase that comes to mind is, it’s better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it.
OS if you watch the videos I posted you would understand. There are violent people imbedded in these groups. You always use an overwhelming force in a combative operation.
You may want to revisit this story above, 3 men claiming to be Occupy Portland protesters arrested in Marion County for possession of explosives.
Bdaman:
arent Oakland, CA and Portland, OR cities with liberal or progressive governments?
shano:
“I saw them write off a perfectly healthy 1.2 million dollar yearling TB purchase because they needed a tax break one year.”
you can start a business and write of toilet paper for your office. The problem is that more people dont take advantage of the laws we have on the books to help people start businesses. They allow these deductions because of the tax and regulatory environment.
We should get rid of the progressive income tax and tax everyone a flat rate with no deductions except write offs for R&D, I would say 15% on all income of any kind. Make it simple to start a business and sit back and count the money.
It happened in the 80’s, as Carville and Begala said in their book – Reagan was responsible for the largest tax increase in history.
Bdaman, if the movement is not as big as you say, why did the officials in the Bay Area muster about a thousand heavily armed police in riot gear to deal with a “small” movement. Also, I notice public officials like Mayor Quan have yet to refer it to its proper name. They are referring to OWS as a “commune” and “camping out.” Somebody is advising them on how to frame the message to the media. One name comes to mind; one man who specializes in that kind of linguistic framing: Dr. Frank Luntz. He wears the dubious distinction of being the Goebbels of our time, the GOP Minister of Propaganda.
Latest from Oakland and the musician who has lost use of his right arm. He was the designated OWS-Oakland American Sign Language interpreter. Witnesses are saying the police appear to have specifically singled him out for a beating, and the beating clearly targeted his right arm and shoulder.
I do not ordinarily wear a tinfoil hat, but there are just too many coincidences.
Shano you might be right Bloomberg is quoted in the article
Bloomberg has gone back and forth between criticizing Occupy Wall Street and defending it, saying recently that protesters were largely law-abiding and did not bother anyone.
“If you go one block away from this park, you would never know it exists,” he said last week. “It’s just literally — in any direction, one block away — there’s just nothing.”
If that is true then that means it’s not as big as a movement as people are led to believe.
I will say that Joan Walsh has written a very good article about the Oakland Camp. They did not immediately try to kick the people prone to violence out, because of the history of the Oakland PD.
When a PD has such a terrible reputation, I can see why they may hesitate. It was a mistake that other camps will learn from.
Except Bdaman, the Occupy camp in Manhattan has restricted the hours for drumming to two hours a day. During the afternoon. I was down there a couple of times, and I never smelled any urine anywhere! Good god, this is a bunch of nonsense. They get more noise from the World Trade Center construction site. And thats the truth. You might go there and check it out yourself, because in my experience, these reports are way off the mark.
As for Portland, the city stole all those peoples private property. they should have to pay for it or return it. I do not believe a thing that city officials are saying. Because I have been to the camps (three of them) and I dont see what they are reporting. It is just the Dept. of Fear working its way with the media.
The motive is to discredit the camps and keep people afraid so they do not examine the issues the people are protesting or jion with them in agreement.
Occupy Portland: Parks employees get first look at deserted Chapman and Lownsdale squares
Downing said about 70 dump truck loads of trash and debris were hauled from the camps over the weekend. He said about 30 city employees worked Sunday to clear the parks.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/11/occupy_portland_parks_employee.html
Here come the counter revolution
Angry Residents, Businesses Plan Anti-Occupy Wall Street Protest
Downtown residents and business owners angry that their neighborhood has been occupied for two months by the Wall Street demonstration are staging a protest of the protest Monday, declaring that City Hall has let it get out of control.
Angry over all-day drumming, people urinating and defecating on the streets and verbal attacks from protesters, organizers say they will rally at City Hall Monday to send officials a message.
“Laws are clearly being violated and we simply want them enforced,” Lower Manhattan resident Linda Gertsman told NBC New York.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Occupy-Wall-Street-Protest-of-the-Protest-Businesses-Residents-City-Hall-133796083.html
OS,
Things are fast becoming terrible in terms of over reactive response. This attack and its severity were completely unjustified. I can only conclude that some of the 1% are scared stiff and well they should be. There is a perfect storm coming about in that we have a frightened elite, police who are used to being obeyed and a primarily passive but determined resistance. It seems all entrenched power feels helpless when it is exposed and responds irrationally.
Were I the 1%, I’d ignore OWS and let it die out from lack of publicity and engagement. Instead, indignant and frightened by the “presumption” of what they deem the lesser classes, they respond with violence, that only heightens resistance and captures notoriety. Back in the 60’s they were able to sell an “us versus those ungrateful kids” meme. All they are now selling is “us versus the people” and it won’t fly. The effects of this disastrous economy has touched too many of us personally. .
Bulletin from OWS Portland. Musician beaten by police, has lost use of his right arm and is now in critical condition in ICU. These attacks are looking more and more coordinated. Who is pulling the strings?
The peripatetic Horace Boothroyd III is on top of the story as usual. With video:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/14/1036342/-Updated:Occupy-Portland:Musician-Loses-Use-of-Right-Arm
You also know most people who identify with the Occupy movement want to completely end the global War on Drugs? This would save billions of dollars and improve countless lives if we went to a medical model to deal with drug abuse.
So, why aren’t simple solutions like opening the market to industrial hemp ever seriously debated? Because it would wreck the profits of the 1%, the tree pulp corps, the paper corps, the single use plastic corps, the cotton lobby, etc, et al.
They have protected monopolies they do not want to give up, and the MSM frames the debate for them every single time.