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
Oh, c’mon, Badaman. You are scratching for anything and everything to minimize, just as you do about climate change. If it is an insignificant movement, then how come it is getting so much press? As an attorney friend of mine likes to say, “If you think you’re too small to be effective, you’ve never been in the dark with a mosquito.”
For every single person camping out in the parks around the country and around the world, there are several thousand like myself who are with them in spirit. And I might add, willing to provide material support where possible, even if not there in person.
Lotta, I saw that on 60 min. Which begs the question should they be occupying Wall Street or Congress ?
O.S. one of the things I like to do when visiting an article or website is read and skim comments. One of the things I noticed that for a movement that has gone worldwide and has so much support that there are small numbers of comments at the main site for the movement. It appears this blog generates as much comments IMO than theirs. Could be lots of reasons for this. But if one of them is because everyone is in the street, even if you add those people, it still doesn’t add up to much. Again my opinion.
http://occupywallst.org/
If you Facebook put in Occupy Wall Street in the search bar and tell me what you come up with and how many likes there are.
I think what the mayors are going to discover is their efforts are going to be much like trying to nail Jello to the wall. The occupy groups are fluid and dynamic. This is not a fixed movement that is limited to only one space. The OWS protesters are learning from their mistakes. There are a lot of places that can be occupied that will be higher profile and a lot more attention grabbing than just camping out in the park. Also a lot of places will not necessarily be conducive to invasion by hundreds of body armored riot police and snipers on the roof.
I see that counterterrorism units are being deployed across the country in response to the OWS protests. You gotta be kidding me. Counterterroism uints? In response to a bunch of ordinary citizens who are fed up with the criminals cowering in their imposing edifices. Maybe if you are a criminal bankster or hedge fund manager they do look like terrorists. Repression of the citizenry really worked out well for the French government back in 1789. Oh, wait. It didn’t, did it?
Apparently everything is being destroyed according to Al Jazerra, 10 minutes notice to leave then the police moved in. The attempt to clean the park – the official story – is observed to be BS by the reporters sources; it is a raid to remove everyone and everything from the park.
Odd Tweet from the park on the twitter-feed ‘OMG the police are cutting down some trees WTF?’
Chaos is … chaotic.
The live feed from NY is showing a lot of police and possibly more coming- the crawl says reporters and media are being are being pushed away from the scene, many arrests and injuries. Not a good situation.
Dan Siegel was on Countdown Monday Night
Siegel appears at about 6:24 on the video.
Police raiding Zuccotti Park right now. Ongoing.
Bdaman, It looks like it’s legal for Congress-persons to use non-public info to trade on the stock market. Insider trading is legal for Congress. Congress made that legal. I think you’re energy would be better spent writing emails about that, or maybe joining a local protest, than getting so bent out of shape because protests are going on.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7388130n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox
I posted on another thread earlier that Siegel was on the tube earlier tonight stating that the Mayor was persuaded to send in the police this morning by hostility to the protesters by conservative members of the City Council and some members of the Chamber of Commerce. He also said she just couldn’t stand up to the hostility; I assume he meant pressure. This is shaping up like a significant day in Oakland history.
OS,
It is nice to see some officials in Oakland have some morals.
Latest from Occupy Oakland at 7:30 PM tonight:
http://www.mercurynews.com/occupy-oakland/ci_19331752
shano,
FWIW, I think there is merit in the fair notice argument against the arrests. However, given the hands that feed Manhattan DA Vance, I’m also willing to bet he’s willing to get overturned on appeal rather than drop what he must surely know to be flawed charges.
Some comic relief, but only true things are really funny:
More DFH in Brainerd, MN.
Ok legal minds, (what I come here for?) what is your opinion on this assertion that the arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge were unconstitutional because of “trap and arrest” and failure to give “fair notice”:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/brooklyn-bridge-mass-arrest-was-unconsitutional
If all these people have to go to court or pay a fine I think it will be a hardship for many of them.
Great link OS. They look so dangerous!
Best photo dairy of the day. May be slow opening, there are a lot of pictures. Just look at all those terrorists and dirty effing hippies. The last photo is a heart stopper and kind of says it all.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/14/1036490/-Photo-Diary-of-a-Police-State-Take-Off-Your-Riot-Gear,-We-Dont-See-No-Riot-Here!-|-OWS?via=siderecent
The police will eventually realize that they are part of the 99 per cent.
OS, yes, that is all true. The police have gotten a lot of new funding since 9-11 but have not had civic training in the Constitution or in how to deal with peaceful protests.
This sort of sabotage by law enforcement has a long history in America. Hoover infiltrated all the anti-war groups (even the Quakers- who are a big part of my local OWS group).during the 1960s protests.
We saw at the protests against the WTO and the IMF actual undercover police dressed as anarchists who were outed by protest leaders.
An undercover policeman was with one group of OWS protesters on the Bank Transfer Day, he created a huge scene inside the bank, and then arrested people outside the bank. It is disgusting.