How To Occupy (Chapter One Continued)

Occupy Boston (Lindo, 2011)

Continued....Occupiers have shown up in almost every country on earth. People saying they are protesting in solidarity with those who protest lack of regulation and consumer protection. These Occupiers journey to find each other and then take the time necessary to find the right questions to ask, that's really the most interesting part. It seems they find it not by taking someone else's answer, or even someone else's question, but by thinking for themselves. So as a policy geek, we have to applaud any medium that so clearly carries their crafted messages. 

"This makeshift city is a vortex of creation: To think for oneself is not merely to take sides on the same old issues that come up generation after generation, it is to bring forth the issues that make a difference. Occupy is a machine of bringing forth." ~~ Normi The Chef (Donald Trump's celebrity chef who came by with amazing meals for the warriors at Occupy LA)

"How can I matter?" That question led me to this opportunity to take a stand and leads me everyday to knowing the moments on which to act, to see decisive moments in which to make things happen. Things are actually happening here." ~~ Nick At Night, Occupy Wall Street.

Occupy Baltimore (Lindo, 2011)

"Everyday thinking and questioning people can, at times, demonstrate a remarkable demand for a domain of possibility- a context - in which individual lives can make a difference. And that is empowering even to the point of restoring hope." ~~ Prentiss, Occupy Baltimore

Occupy Maui (Lindo, 2011)

There is one other question on almost all Occupiers minds. With all the doom and gloom pouring out of main stream media, (which most of these sign holders definitely say they despise) there is a 2012 End-Of-Days drama to many conversations. 'Will we survive?' People say it about their families and their businesses.  Kids say it because they worry about recent nuclear accidents. The anti-war protestors say it about drones.

"In my generation's lifetime it really feels like we are in fact destroying ourselves economically and environmentally. A more useful question is, "What if we do survive all this mess, then what?" Then you have to say,  "How can I make a difference" If you ask yourself, I'm willing to bet you do. Because you made it here. To listen and self educate is living in the presence of making a difference by simply sharing self education. When we switch from "Can I make a difference?" to "I am making a difference!" that's what Occupy is all about." ~~ Drenda Herrera, Occupy Wall Street

Occupy LA (Lindo, 2011)

In all honesty, not much makes a difference. That's the reality. So where is the difference making?  Questions are much more powerful than answers, so these Occupiers tend to spend each day devoted to knowing whether or not there is a way to ask questions that make a difference?

The kind of human being that shows up in the presence of something is different than the people who live in the vicious cycle of corporate greed. These Occupiers don't know if the answer is yes, or no. They tend to think, from our travels, that they probably don't make a difference. They are not aware that simply being who they are they make a difference. Around the heating sources, they'll say the media has no idea what's been happening at one Occupy or another, they think no one is noticing they're there. In reality, by taking a stand and honestly looking at our problems, the closer they get to the facts of the matter, the more patriotic they are. These people are shouting about what is really true for them. They aren't showing up to make a profit.

Occupy Oakland (Lindo, 2011)

Occupiers for the most part are showing up to fight for civil rights and that common human courtesy be reflected in the law. Yet they tend to feel like the process is meaningless and difficult and time consuming when you talk over walks to the closest bathrooms. They are fighting being evicted and food issues and weather issues and security issues. If they were just allowed to be the populist think tanks they strive to be, perhaps we might find new domains that we might have not seen before in our government's commitments to preconceived answers, answers that are consistently paid for by the Koch Brothers. Yeah, that's another consistent message from all the different cities. We are here as witnesses to say that there are indeed new domains that open the possibility where things show up, where the future can show up, where the things that are missing begin to show up. When you take a stand in the clearing in the place where new ideas show up, things can truly get accomplished.  So our cameras and our recorders and eyes are there.

While all this is going on, it's hard not to flash on how things are back inside the beltway. Cocktail party floating in our nation's capitol is alot like being on a train ride. Inside the train people are having a fairly good time. There's music and food and the scenery is terrific as the countryside roles by. Then somebody looks out the window and notices where the train is going, and sees that the tracks lead to a disaster, maybe a Senator or a Congressman, or maybe a pundit. Now people who pretend to represent the rest of us start to organize the train." Listen" they say, "what we all have to do is get on the left-side-of-the-train. Hurry" So everybody moves over to the left side, and maybe we all try left-side-of-the-train thinking and doing for awhile, and then someone looking out the window of the train sees where we are going and sees, OMG, there is still a disaster ahead and yells, "this isn't working, we are still headed toward disaster!" Everybody knows what to do then and they announce: "Get over on the right side of the train, quickly. Everybody!" So everybody moves over to the right side. They give each other enormous numbers of promises that getting on the proper side of the train is what is going to make a difference. But it doesn't.

Occupy Baltimore (Lindo, 2011)

People who are looking out the window of the train now can see the disaster coming. The Occupy people are using twitter and all kinds of social media to share info and stay in touch, and Americans are starting to wake up to the fact that it is totally unrealistic to think that the side you are on is going to make any difference as to where the train goes. What we want to do here, is to prevent disaster. What we have been doing, is still leading us to disaster. The drama of these Occupations playing out on a national stage gives us an opportunity to get out in front of the train and lay some new tracks. That seems to be the only realistic practical thing to do. It seems to us to be wholly unpractical to keep trying the same old worn-out ways, just exchanging them in 30 year periods, generation for generation, or exchanging them from one administration to another administration or one Party to another Party. But doing otherwise, requires us, each of us, to think for ourselves and not take sides on issues. Candidates think taking sides on an issue is thinking for yourself. No. To think for oneself is to bring forth the issues that are important. Not to take a side. We're not saying people shouldn't take sides, but in reality, taking a side has nothing to do with thinking for oneself.  And these goose-bumped issue chewers are on the front lines of this different way of bubbling up answers, here as an example to the powers that be, in the absence of their proper use of power. And it's awe inspiring.

Occupy LA (Lindo, 2011)

This window has opened in our history, to build an alternative future. A domain in which a difference can be made, the exercise of future building. With care. With acceptance. With responsibility. Consensus is about opening up possibilities. Not about being committed to anything that claims rights over inalienable citizens rights. They are willing to take a stand with no proof, just naked courage. It's been an honor to document this movement. It requires courage to go down a road with no path to follow. Anyone can walk a path once shown it. Here, the path is made by the walking. So we walk with them, and take some pictures along the way.

UPDATE  At this time, we've never been at an Occupy during a violent event.  But there are reports. And there are calls for a National General Assembly to happen in Philadelphia summer 2012...

Lisa, The Policy Geek
(Inspired by The Network Review, 1983)

How To Occupy (Chapter One)

Occupy Baltimore (Lindo, 2011)

Reports from the ground: Recent violent episodes have forced us to leak part of my upcoming book, Occupy Everything: Messages From The Movement avec slices of some of my favorite interviews these last few months. We've seen, and listened to, and videoed Occupy meet ups and conference calls from Wall Street to Maui, HI, from Los Angeles to Washington DC. We've surfed YouTube and trolled on twitter for photos and livestream updates and blogs. Having mashed that all together and run it through the old looking glass, a mosaic of the movement has started to definitely piece together. And now, in an effort to project a general understanding of the movement and its goals, we document some of our findings here including valuable links in hopes that you might find it enlightening and worth sharing. Peace.

Introduction: The Occupy Movement meet ups, wherever they've been, wherever we've seen them, and walked through, and ate with, all have similar themes and consistently the activated inhabitants (from far reaching parts of the United States) form a melody worth paying attention to. But it isn't the actual messages of the movement we are most impressed with. Those issues will change over time. It's their method that we've have found most inspiring.

(explaining the setup...) "Those committees that meet during each General Assembly, well, they have specific conversations about detailed concerns, local and national, and how best to remedy those concerns. So their mechanism of consensus has its positives and negatives, just like some of our State Legislators, but for the most part, y'all can all agree to be ruled by those rules and we Occupiers can agree to play by the rules we occupiers have created for Occupy." ~~ Jeff Stiles, Occupier Boston

These "take a stand" warriors are all sick and tired and not gonna take it anymore, and that's a concensus that's common in each city, from Oakland to Baltimore. It's in the way they arrived there. It's in what drew them out, and the jeux de vive of this movement is in the way they work towards change for the better. After bubbling up problems, they share solutions through music, art, speeches, and film.

Occupy Los Angeles (Lindo, 2011)

"What I am most impressed with, about the Occupiers, is that they all exist in this same alternative brain trust universe: Living in the Question of things, instead of being committed to a preconceived answer." ~~ Dee Lincomb, Facilitator and Occupier Wall Street

Taking A Stand is not the same as choosing sides, it would appear, or forming resolutions, or collecting evidence for one position or another. From the initial calls to meet up that were put out by Yes We Camp and others to Occupy Wall Street starting last September and following the action up until the 'Occupy' mention in the President's State of the Union this last February 2, 2012, Occupiers worldwide have shown a spotlight on issue after issue by simply standing still and talking about it. And the objects of their conversations have started to take notice.

Downtown Baltimore (Lindo, 2011)

Bank of America found out right away when it was targeted for planning to up ATM fees.The backlash from the announcement triggered the creation of Bank Transfer Day which officially took place Nov. 5, 2011. Occupiers upset by new and changing bank fees, helped push the movement as it caught fire across the country, with most of the largest national commercial banks also becoming the focus of the frustration. According to ABC News, in October 2011 alone, Credit Unions around the country gained 650,000 new customers and $4.5 billion was moved out of major banks. This action has grown since then, and is showing no sign of slowing down. When the not so invisible hands of the protesters reached into the marketplace and took out all of their money from the big bank system to move to credit unions, Bank of America, along with the other big banks who had planned to start charging the same fees, got the message and canceled their planned additional money grab. So, are they effectual? Yes.

Occupy Wall St (TedLabs, 2011)

What then makes the work of these Occupiers as powerful as it has proven to be in our national discourse? These people across the board are searching for the questions to ask so as to live a more worthwhile life. Some do it with yelling, some with art, some with dance, some with conflict resolution. That's a mouthful, but it's true. Late nights in solar powered tents have lead us to that generalization. Early mornings waking up to skid row crazies descending on the previously considered free speech zone tend to solidify the overall theme these campsites give off.

"We never thought we'd live in a country that created Free Speech 'Zones'." ~~ Police Officer Seaton, Occupy Los Angeles

Occupy Baltimore (Lindo, 2011)

These people don't have the answers. They aren't even sure exactly what's caused the problems. One universal theme amongst the fairly organized din, and there are many, is a general dislike for the current status of our two party system. According to these rather interested and inspired 99%ers, the two party system is, by its very nature, dysfunctional in American politics and from the wide spectrum of people who attend Occupy General Assemblies, the general tenants of this dislike are manifested in lots of different ways. No matter what direction they come from, they all have a problem with the entrenched two party system that dominates our political discourse and it goes a little something like this:

"Both Parties are letting us down. Republicans specifically seem to be 'of money' that has talked them into believing they are the OPPOSITION PARTY. That if there are two parties, one must be right and one must be wrong, so that the only way the Republicans can be right is IF we are wrong, if the President is wrong, if the liberals are wrong, only then can they be right. Everyone else needs to be wrong for them to be right." ~~ Joseph Sattano, Occupy Los Angeles

"This way of thinking is now a prerequisite with the way money has twisted the system. So they (the GOP) spend EVERY WAKING SECOND talking about how wrong we are. Not methodically working to solve problems at all. Unless they are the problems of those who have the money, like lowering taxes and loosening regulations, not being forced to offer health care as an employer, etc. etc" ~~ Melissa Balin, StayOccupied

"Right-left, on-off, correct-wrong, this will never work in a Working Congress. The two party system has to be rethought. In the upcoming elections, I for one will be looking for the people who are talking about this sort of thing in their stump speeches. I want a one HOPE country. My entrenched Democratic friends may disagree, and I'm sorry, but if one party thinks its number one goal is to DESTROY THE OTHER PARTY, something has gone terribly wrong. We need a win-win every day in every way. Not a win-lose system of government. I am looking for those win-win candidates." ~~ Anonymous Member, Occupy Wall Street

Occupy LA (Lindo, 2011

So each day these 21st Century warriors huddle together across thousands of miles to try and figure out where to start. They set up libraries and reading lists and numbered in the 30s in Maui, the Occupier numbers peak in cities like Los Angeles and DC in the thousands. (How To Occupy, Chapter One continued in next blog post.)

Lisa, The Policy Geek

Bully Pulpit on Bull Connors or The Tactics of DeHumanization

(Moore, 2011)

If the hose fits....

When does the national conversation change? What is the trim tab that adds a new word to the general lexicon, one that was only being whispered in private. Is it a photo? A video? A speech?

In 1963, images printed in Life Magazine told the story. Systemic arrests and harassments by local officials in Birmingham, Alabama were nothing new, but self awareness is a hell of a thing. And now young people were starting to march led by a young preacher named Martin Luther King. Not yet a doctor but already a Reverend, he had a vision of change and a way of getting others to believe in that change. 

Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King
on the Mall (Lindo, 2011)

So peaceful clean cut kids, with intelligent messages and a need to have their voices heard, were protesting the Jim Crow state of affairs in the area. Birmingham and its Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connors, wasn't having any of that. There were laws enforcing segregation. On a hundred degree day, the simple relief of a swimming pool in a public park could not be enjoyed by people whose skin was considered too dark to be human. You want to swim to cool off now, $1.50 will take that 103 degree day in D.C. into a manageable zone at one of many public park pools.  In that summer of 1963 in Alabama, they were experiencing 110 degrees in the shade. It's not dry heat, it's not humid heat, it's some other kind of heat that beats down on you. A person of a pale complexion would have their neck turn bright red in that heat rather quick.

Walter Gadsden being attacked by dogs.
(Hudson, 2011)

So Bull and his buddies thought some bullying was in order. And they took out the hoses. And the dogs. DOGS. On a hot 110 degree day.

In 1968, 5 years later, they came again. Bunch of really smart kids calling themselves "Yippies" took over a park, wanted to the change the world, or at the very least, that national conversation. Just like they are now down on Wall Street in the not so bargain basement district of New York. They were getting together peacefully to listen to music and have a few free drugs and some free love back then. Oh yeah, and to protest outside the Democratic National Convention about the seemingly endless Vietnam War. That war lasted 19 years in all. Truth. It officially began on November 1955 and dragged on 19 years and 180 days. The people in THAT park from THAT time who were sick of war and calling for peace got hit with much worse then just hoses and dogs. Much, much worse. Like Bunker Hill worse. (Go to your local DVD rental portal and rent Chicago 10 to have all your questions on that one answered if you want to know more.)

(Hoffman, 2011)

So we've got kids hit with hoses in 63, and kids hit with hoses and batons and dogs and tear gas in 68, and the stories of the Bonus Army who camped in front of the White House only to be burned and beaten out of their makeshift village, and now we have Occupy. Only this time, its everywhere. When they try to close one location, there are literally hundreds of other cities still answering the call. And don't think the kids are just kids. We are talking all ages, married, single, homeless, with jobs, without jobs, but mostly engaged citizens that are extremely dedicated and heard the sirens call again. No one there has a sign about guns and no one there is threatening to come back with bullets next time. There are some of the most excited yet clear individuals racially spread out across the spectrum that we've ever met being well fed by constant donations and neighborhood support. Worldwide support sent with messages attached like, "We can't be with you, but we can send you a pizza. Bon appetite!" It's a beautiful thing.

OWS in shadow of Liberty Tower
(Lindo, 2011)

Our first night at Occupy Wall Street was spent huddled in one tent after another meeting people, listening to their stories of why they were there. Yesterday, was the first great elemental test of their metal as the slightly cold temperatures dropped and turned into a record breaking Noreaster for the month of October in the history of Octobers. Yesterday 3 inches coated everyone, but it did it sideways and came with wind and mixed with painful sleet type rain which kept up for like 20 hours. Today, if you want to walk down to Broadway and Cedar you won't find a trace of any snow storm at all. Nothing. Resilient protesters all. There must have been 300 people gathered in the General Assembly, another 30 or so watching the Open Mike area, a handful watching a film being projected onto a sheet in the rather large library area, and another hundred keeping warm in their tents, waiting in line for the free grub, or deep in discussion off in one corner or another. This is an active community of people who feel it is not only their right, but their duty to protest the gross man made distortions to our economic and ecological sustainability on this planet. A real pressure cooker for the bubbling up of solutions is being built and it's being patchworked together by Solutionaries from all over the U.S. with all sorts of backgrounds, all sorts of complaints and concerns. It's a revolution of thought and process. Because self awareness is a hellofa thing.

Occupy Wall Street (Lindo, 2011)

This time, the people have had some casualties already as well. The young marine, a veteran with a full time job in Oakland that had been sleeping with the protesters there at night to keep the peace, has had his skull fractured, by a canister launched from an officer while they were teargassing a milling crowd of thoughtful caring patriotic civilians. Will that be our trim tab? Will the video of his fall, or the explosion into the crowd that was trying to help him, also caught on video, make the statement that needs to be made about the right to freedom of assembly? Will the photos of those hit with rubber bullets and covered with welts open the eyes of the sleeping? There is an argument to be made the mission has already been accomplished.

This last week, Friday, Saturday there were reports on NPR and CNN et al saying that "the national debate has been fundamentally changed when talking about economic inequality." A "watershed" moment is right in front of us. That was coming from main stream news talking heads. This revolution, apparently, will be televised. Don't you just love history in the making? All power to the people and the policy they invent.


Lisa, The Policy Geek

The Revolution Should Not Be PhotoShopped

(Adam Nelson, 2011)

One thing we know for sure.  

The picture above, of Charlie Chaplin and Errol Flynn wasn't PhotoShopped. Those people were there, with hats in hand, waving and cheering. It's a different day down at Wall Street now, especially in Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park.

(Wikimedia.org, 2011)

Here's a cool picture taken by the even cooler David Shankbone, another self proclaimed observer of life, who has 'driven motorcycles across Cuba and Portugal, camped in the Amazon, skydived over Italy, lost himself in Morocco and found himself in the Negev.' He goes around taking free use photos for Wikipedia.  This is one from September 17th, when things were just getting going in the moneyed districts of NYC. One interesting 21st century adaptation that took place to deal with the Big Apple's regulations, in lieu of a sound system, announcements are made and then repeated by the crowd, using the power of many to broadcast their messages without violating any sound ordinances. Ignore them, but they wil not go away.

Protesters Shut Down NYPD Precinct

It's a different day down at Wall Street now. Back when Chaplin climbed Errol to get a better look, there were happy faces all around. I have Manhattanite friends who have been down checking things out these last two weeks, tweeting, and well, some of what's coming out of there isn't what it seems to be. Most of what you hear IS true. People ARE chanting, cops HAVE been acting badly, cameras HAVE been destroyed, people HAVE been arrested, but mostly it's peaceful all the way around, and people are staying there, and staying put. 

Some of the protesters are trying to morph the "Occupation Of Wall Street" into something a little more reckless. Unfortunately, some aren't playing by all sorts of rules. They have agendas and complaints, but don't want to work within any system, especially when fighting a system that doesn't believe in rules. Throughout history Corporations have prefered to have the fewest rules imposed on them as possible (secretly the GOP are a bunch of Liberttarians if you ask me). So these natives are little more restless. These nonOccupation civil disobediants are mucking things up, but bringing attention to the cause nonetheless. Let's start with their propaganda problems. Here's their twitpic going around with the following messsage: "Think #OccupyWallStreet is only a few hunderd people? Check this pic out!" 

"Think #OccupyWallStreet is only a few hunderd people?"

As you can see it looks like a nice healthy crowd, and that maybe a couple of cabs and some other cars had gotten trapped in the masses. Interestingly, the reports I'm getting of 2500 - 3000 bodies on Friday would look like a lot fewer people, especially since much of them are under those trees. 2500 is nothing to sniff at. So let's check with reality. Here's the Google Earth Shot. And the actual link, just in case:  http://www.google.com/maps?ll=40.712899%2C-74.007667&spn=0.002082%2C0.005284&t=k&z=18&vpsrc=6
(better you know you are actually on google maps)

Notice the same cars? Same cars turning? So we have two photos, same cars, one with lots of people, one with much fewer people. Like a Google Earth shot was lifted and PhotoShopped. Now we can at least deal with some facts. When people do things like this, they sort of devalue the work that OccupyWallSt.org is trying to do. Not too sure what to make of that, but it is what it is, and that is a growing group of real people protesting in real time about real issues.

(OccupyNOLA,org, 2011)

American Citizens (and worldwide citizens of Earth) are PEACEFULLY ASSEMBLING to bring attention to those who, in full deception mode, have affected the economies of the entire world! Perfidy has continued to go unpunished, and now human beings everywhere, in solidarity, all over the planet, are going to point a metaphorical finger at those who do not act in the best interest of the average Citizen. Shining a verbal spotlight on those indictable predators who schedule a game, make a side bet that they will lose, use fake chips, have cards up their sleeves, and then take a dive for the money. In the old days, they called that The Sting and you could be hung for it. What the media is starting to understand is that this thing is not just happening down at Wall Street, and it is not about Occupying the Park Formerly Known As Liberty. It’s about 'player recognizin' player'; and it's going to happen in Madrid, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Athens, Sydney, Kansas City, Algiers, Tokyo, Amsterdam, London, and maybe even on The Brooklyn Bridge.

Nowadays you try to walk across a bridge (closely protected, of course, against acts of terrorism) and they'll arrest you (see video from You Tube). Not everyone likes to follow the sound ordinances; and some people like to play in traffic, so today, they arrested 700 American Citizens who did just that on The Brooklyn Bridge. Just bang some drums, and perhaps shut down a lane of traffic for a few hours of dancing, and "booooo!" they'll come arrest you. Even FOX News broke down and reported on what was going on, so let's put a rest to the "no news is covering this" meme, shall we? 

In fact, New York City police say about 700 protesters have been arrested after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down traffic TODAY. This offshoot from the financial district protest orchestrated an impromptu trek to Brooklyn this evening. "They walked in thick rows on the sidewalk up to the bridge, where some demonstrators spilled onto the roadway. Most of those arrested face disorderly conduct charges, while others were accused of resisting arrest after being told to stay on the pedestrian pathway" says an NYPD spokesman.

(Backs Photos, 2011)

The magazine The Nation has the organization and the concept behind this Occupation all broken down extremely well in a recent article.

Link: http://www.thenation.com/article/163719/occupy-wall-street-faq

Interestingly enough, The New York Transit Workers Union (TWU) voted to support the Wall Street Protesters at their meeting Wednesday night. A member of TWU Local 100 told a reporter that they planned to join the protest this last Friday. The Union has 114 autonomous locals representing over 200,000 members and retirees in 22 states around the country. And it's numbers like that that have caused the GOP to try to dissolve them. Unions back Dems, and there'll be no more of that. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-massive-union-just-voted-to-side-with-the-wall-street-protesters-2011-9#ixzz1ZNr9x6HF

(OccupyWallSt.org, 2011)

Occupy Wall Street has been picking up some decent support from other unions in the past few days. Wednesday we reported that the Teamsters Union declared their support for protesters.
Washington Current Reports: After more than a two weeks of protests in New York against major financial institutions and the role they played in the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent economic meltdown, more than 1,000 people were in Boston yesterday to march on the headquarters of Bank of America headquarters. The action in Boston was organized by The New Bottom Line, a nationwide coalition of 1,000 faith-based and community organizations that also seeks to hold Wall Street accountable. Link: http://www.thewashingtoncurrent.com/2011/09/wall-street-protesters-to-move-on-to.html

(Adam Nelson, 2011)

Per Daily Kos today, here is their first official list of demands:
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

• They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
• They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
• They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
• They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
• They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
• They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
• They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
• They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ health care and pay.
• They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
• They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
• They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
• They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
• They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
• They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
• They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
• They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
• They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
• They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
• They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
• They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
• They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
• They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
• They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone. To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal. Join us and make your voices heard! *These grievances are not all-inclusive.

Talking Points Memo has reported "that many of the events around the globe are being coordinated and listed by the website Occupy Together, which says that its creators were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street events and wanted to create a “hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity” with the movement. And in a merging of technologies old and new, infamous poignant prankster duo “The Yes Men,” previously best-known for posing as representatives from such companies as ExxonMobil and government agencies including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to critique their actions, launched a project on Kickstarter to raise money to publish an Occupy Wall Street Journal newspaper. The print-run is set for 50,000 copies for its inaugural issue. At the time of this posting, the project has already surpassed its requested $12,000 donations goal by about $5,000, and there are still nine days left to donate to the project."

Now, if anyone tells you that the people down on Wall Street are a bunch of disorganized homeless kids about to go home anyway, you can tell them that a little Policy Geek filled you in on the whole thing, and you don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon.  Who knows? All that seems to be abundantly obvious, is that at this rate we're gonna have to make a whole lot more popcorn.

Check back soon for more updates.

10/12/2011 ~ Bloomberg has given his blessing for the demonstrators to be in NY for as long as they like. Peaceful movements just get me every time. ;-) Interested in more? Drive by a meetup near you and get first hand glimpses at history. A world movement, in real time. www.occupytogether.org If this page stays current, you can check out how many occupiers there are at each site updated live here: http://www.meetup.com/occupytogether

Lisa Lindo

ThePolicyGeek

Dude, Where's My Camera?

What's not to love about New York City cops? They're brave and tough. They get there quickly and they take care of the city that doesn't sleep ~ keeping it safe from any possible additional terrorist attacks.

But there's a dark side to the American cop on the beat.

The Dark Side of The Men In Blue (OccupyWallSt.org, 2011)

It comes with the very nature of who applies to be a police officer in the USA. If you are the physical type, that enjoys a good ass kicking now and then, and you are searching for a career choice, it would seem that some sort of "protection services" might be the just the gig you're looking for. Unless you are planning on becoming a no-holds-bar-overseas-outside-the-justice-system-contract killer, and who wants all that travel anyway, you might find yourself attracted to joining The Force. Even the International Business News (UK) reports that, there are always a certain percentage, that come along with those who protect and serve and are compassionate, and they are the assholes, and the bigots, and the bullies.  And sometimes, they get to have their day.

But how many Rodney King's can we have? How many African Americans have needed to sit on a sidewalk next to their car for no reason? How many guards have gotten away with the slow torture of a human while doing time for a crime?

Michael Moore Late Night At Wall St (OccupyWallSt.Org, 2011)

NY Daily News has said that from 2007 to 2009 the number of officers with NYPD who received civilian complaints were up nearly 50%. Because of excessive force claims, in 2009 alone 315 of the 35,000 of officers were enrolled in a monitoring program created by the NYPD. Despite complaints of excessive force, many more incidents of go unreported because citizens are afraid. So the NYPD in Blue created a program to monitor these complaints back in 2007 and while keeping track of reports, they found that 90% of the reported cases where violent tactics were used the individual subjected to "use of force" was not even arrested. That kind of tells you everything you need to know right there. Many of those cases involved an officer drawing his weapon. In fact in four out of every five cases in which a weapon was pulled no arrest was made. In the vast majority of those cases involving a gun being drawn the officers justified that "use of force" because they suspected the individual possessed a weapon even when no weapon was actually found.

This isn't a new phenomenon, and last night Lawrence O'Donnell showed what shining a little spotlight on those who have crossed that line can do. According to all sources, the problem children where in fact the Men in White. 

Some Familiar Faces Visit To Support (OccupyWallStreet.org, 2011)

Reuters says that the Occupation Of Wall Street is evolving as a result. As of 3:00 p.m. Eastern today, they are claiming that The Occupy Wall Street movement was planning on Friday (tomorrow) an unauthorized demonstration on the streets outside the New York City police center of operations.

This evening at 8:00 PM, Senator Bernie Sanders addressed the protesters.

According to our friends over at PoliticsUSA, on Countdown With Keith Olbermann tonight, Sen. Bernie Sanders became the first US Senator to voice his support for Occupy Wall Street. (Video) Sanders said, “What I appreciate about what’s going on in New York right now is that there is a spotlight being focused on Wall Street. We desperately need that. If we are going to get out of this recession, if we’re going to create the millions of jobs we desperately need, we need real Wall Street reform"

Al Sharpton Lending His Name To Cause (OccupyWallSt.org)

We are gonna need some reform. The right thing to do now would be to get a consensus on how to word a petition and ask for Police Department Reform & Training, nationwide. You're thinking a petition takes time, it's a pain in the neck, etc.

Well, take a millisecond and check out this new link: www.whitehouse.gov/petition.

They have the coolest new feature over at The White House's website, and if you set up a petition on specific matter (really easy to do) and you pass it around to your friends (keyboard ready), and it gets 5,000 signatures, only 5,000, they promise to take the matter up.  Usually you would take months to create a petition and then run around getting 100,000 signatures before one of your Senator's assistants would answer your call.  Not anymore. You could start a petition to repeal the Citizen United decision while you are at it. Hard to complain to a true policy geek, 'cause she'll tell you exactly how to solve the problem right then and there. So ~ petitions, check, doable, check, timely, check.

Now go make a petition.  Not sure what to ask for? Google the word petition, and see what other people have asked for over time. Self educate. That's a fine trait of A Policy Geek.

You know we tend to fly south for the winter, right?  Wonk, wonk.

Lisa Lindo

The Coverage on Coverage

(OccupyWallSt.org, 2011)

It started slowly. One posting saying that no one was covering the Wall Street event. #OccupyWallStreet 

We had heard about it. Twitter people were headed down on Saturday. So there was tweeting and  blogging. Adbusters was live streaming.

Live streaming on Ad Busters
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet

and People For Political Change were (are) streaming it.

Sunday one activist friend pointed out that only 200 people showed up on Saturday, the first day of the Wall Street protests, and so CNN came and left. That didn't seem right.

YouTube hosted The Struggle Video Network's video, and it told sort of a different type of story. This looked like a lot more people than a couple hundred to me. Sort of sounds like more than 200 too. And much more fun to notice, there just happened to be some cocktail event on a 2nd floor balcony, where pearl draped women and well healed men in black tie and champagne looked down at the people flowing by, with nothing but flowering vines pouring down to the chanting crowds on the sidewalk below. They took pictures and smiled and toasted. Such a juxtaposition of money and revolution. Classic. Must see video (35,542 views at time of posting)

(Jeff Prager, 2011)

Sunday afternoon, a real live friend (one we've met in person) tweeted that he was getting a bite to eat, taking a shower, and going back down. Later he tweeted that 300 people had set up tents to spend the night. @TedLabs

Sunday night there were more FaceBook (FB) people complaining all firebaggery that no one would cover this, whining about a protest they couldn't be bothered to show up for, boggeled by a demonstration that tries to imply that Wall Street Corporations based in the U.S. should be taken to task in any way humanly possible. This steady stream of posts showing complete confusion over something quite simple. Wall Street is a man-made construct; therefore, anything we need to do to reshape it is theoretically possible. But there were the posts saying no one's covering the protest, as they armchair it through the economic downturn.

(OccupyWallSt.org, 2011)

Policy Geeks could find 8 or 9 videos on You Tube, and we posted the clearest of quality. A snipet there, a moment here. And yet, more people on FB and in social media were saying that no one was covering the protest. Well, we were. And so was CNN, and Salon covered it as well as the Washington Post, & Huffington Post. Oh yeah, and New York 1, ABC News, and CBS and FOX news, The New York Times, International Business Times, Wall Street Journal and Forbes. Waking up Monday morning, it certainly seemed like this thing was being covered.

Unless you listen to liberals who believe in media blackouts and conspiracy theory. But a policy geek is gonna be more interested in facts. The who-what-where of the whole thing. The kid at the end of this RT video pretty much got a handle on it. 

Democracy Now does a piece. Their take? There aren't any demands or requests being laid out for Wall Street. So what's it a all about, right? It doesn't take a genius to google or look up www.OccupyWallSt.org when that's what this entire event is called, "Occupy Wall Street".

The press think it's a march, but it's an Occupation, by artists and thinkers, and they laid out their demands clearly. (You can find it in our last blog entry.) Not that, as a wonk, we are saying that we agree with their demands, or that they are practical in nature. Simply, that there is a calling, a charter, and the press is having a little trouble finding it. Perhaps the concert TOMORROW, Saturday the 24th, will bring out some faces and some coverage.  Who knows?

Gotta go. Popcorn's ready. And I've got some You Tube to catch up on.

Lisa Lindo
www.thepolicygeek.com

And then there were thousands...

(OccupyWallStreet.org, 2011)

Well, today is Monday and now we have some pretty great footage of the weekend up on You Tube.  Hundreds did show up over the weekend to Occupy Zuccotti Park now re-named Liberty Plaza, on the corner of Liberty st. and Broadway claiming Food and Democracy are free. Reports from those on the ground claim that approximately 300 spent the night in a makeshift tent city Sunday night.  Here's some fun footage from the first March Saturday:

Saturday's March
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33xCHwT1dsY&NR=1

And on Sunday a small group worked as a megaphone for one man's call to join the protest on Monday:

People As Megaphone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEuGX0-VvjQ&feature=related

For more direct information, you can call for information:

The number is: (877) 881-3020

For general inquiries, please email the NYC organizers at: 9.17occupywallstreet@gmail.com,

and for General Assembly news and minutes go to nycga.net.

It also appears that Anonymous is supporting the whole "camp out on wall street" concept.

(https://occupywallst.org/, 2011)

The question is, is this our Tahrir moment? There shouldn't be any molotov cocktails, but there are people, and the numbers are growing.

As a policy geek, I want to know what are they really asking for?  It is clear that large Corporations grew out of a need for The People to have goods and services delivered bundled to keep down costs of basic living, and all the fun stuff we like to buy too. The companies that grew out of our Age of Industrialization became fatly fed over the whole consolidation concept, and began to think for themselves.  They no longer wanted to just service the people, they formed their own edicts: profits before all.


Now you can count on your average Joe to put himself first when making choices, so you know he cares about A Person. And maybe his relatives or close friends. They will come first. So you can count on Joe to care about A Few People. But a Corporation, they will never put people first. It just doesn't make economic sense. They will always put profits first. And by removing regulations over these Corporations, we are encouraging that kind of behavior. The few who manage the Corporations that America hosts, use the consolidated money and power to increase their ability to make profits to the detriment of those working for them, and those absorbing their products and services. We can use tax reform and regulatory action to curb those directives, and make it more profitable for Corporations to think of people first, but that hasn't happened yet, and shows no sign of starting to happen when he look to the horizon. Decisions like Citizens United have cemented their cash lust into protocol. Sad, but true. And as long as a very few people run Corporations like money sucking machines, we are going to continue the trend we have now of the top 2% in this country owning all the wealth. Bad model for growth. Horrible plan for any country, let alone The United States, whose charter begins with We The People.

The next logical question would be, Exactly what can be done to put people first? We need a check list. E Pluribus Unum.  Out of many, one. And right now, our motto has changed to Out of Many, Profit For the Few.  This is not sustainable.

The People of The Occupy Wall Street moment have formed their list of requests as follows:

This statement is ours, and for anyone who will get behind it. Representing ourselves, we bring this call for revolution.

We want freedom for all, without regards for identity, because we are all people, and because no other reason should be needed. However, this freedom has been largely taken from the people, and slowly made to trickle down, whenever we get angry.

Money, it has been said, has taken over politics. In truth, we say, money has always been part of the capitalist political system. A system based on the existence of have and have nots, where inequality is inherent to the system, will inevitably lead to a situation where the haves find a way to rule, whether by the sword or by the dollar.

We agree that we need to see election reform. However, the election reform proposed ignores the causes which allowed such a system to happen. Some will readily blame the federal reserve, but the political system has been beholden to political machinations of the wealthy well before its founding.

We need to address the core facts: these corporations, even if they were unable to compete in the electoral arena, would still remain control of society. They would retain economic control, which would allow them to retain political control. Term limits would, again, not solve this, as many in the political class already leave politics to find themselves as part of the corporate elites.

We need to retake the freedom that has been stolen from the people, altogether.

1. If you agree that freedom is the right to communicate, to live, to be, to go, to love, to do what you will without the impositions of others, then you might be one of us.
   
2. If you agree that a person is entitled to the sweat of their brows, that being talented at management should not entitle others to act like overseers and overlords, that all workers should have the right to engage in decisions, democratically, then you might be one of us.
   
3. If you agree that freedom for some is not the same as freedom for all, and that freedom for all is the only true freedom, then you might be one of us.
   
4. If you agree that power is not right, that life trumps property, then you might be one of us.
   
5. If you agree that state and corporation are merely two sides of the same oppressive power structure, if you realize how media distorts things to preserve it, how it pits the people against the people to remain in power, then you might be one of us.

 And so we call on people to act

1. We call for protests to remain active in the cities. Those already there, to grow, to organize, to raise consciousnesses, for those cities where there are no protests, for protests to organize and disrupt the system.
   
2. We call for workers to not only strike, but seize their workplaces collectively, and to organize them democratically. We call for students and teachers to act together, to teach democracy, not merely the teachers to the students, but the students to the teachers. To seize the classrooms and free minds together.
   
3. We call for the unemployed to volunteer, to learn, to teach, to use what skills they have to support themselves as part of the revolting people as a community.
   
4. We call for the organization of people's assemblies in every city, every public square, every township.
   
5. We call for the seizure and use of abandoned buildings, of abandoned land, of every property seized and abandoned by speculators, for the people, for every group that will organize them.
   

We call for a revolution of the mind as well as the body politic.

That's where we are today. If you follow twitter, use #libertyPlaza to follow or file reports. This shows no signs of slowing down, so grab your popcorn, tune in, and turn on.

Lisa Lindo
The Policy Geek