[NYPD arrests Occupy Wall Street protesters at the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, 2011]

Only two weeks into the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Brooklyn Bridge march and the arrests that followed marked one of the high-profile moments of the Occupy protests.While many said they felt they had been escorted by officers into the roadway to march, police officials strongly disagreed and insisted that marchers were warned not to proceed.

Via:

A prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney’s office told the judge that the man, Casey Diebold, had been among about 700 people who walked onto the Brooklyn Bridge roadway on Oct. 1 as part of an Occupy Wall Street protest.

Then the prosecutor, Michele Bayer, told Judge Ross that the district attorney’s office wanted to dismiss the summons issued to Mr. Diebold.

“We cannot prove this defendant’s specific conduct or location on the bridge beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ms. Bayer said. “Therefore, the people are moving to dismiss this case.”

Mr. Diebold shook the hand of his lawyer, Paul Keefe, and left the building a free man.

13 others saw their charges dropped and the judge ordered their records sealed. Of the 696 arrests that resulted in charges, so far 174 had their charges dismissed. Of those that resulted in summonses being issued, 155 dismissals out of 438 cases. Another 250 defendants agreed to conditional dismissals, with 33 cases not yet resolved.

If you use the social networking site, "Twitter," and have a smartphone, chances are your privacy has already taken yet another hit.

Via:

Twitter has admitted copying entire address books from smartphones and storing the data on its servers, often without customers' knowledge.

Also, Twitter isn't the only social networking site that's doing this

In a legal brief made public yesterday, the NYCLU argues that Brookfield Properties had no legal right to force Occupy Wall Street protesters out of Zuccotti Park on November 15th of last year. The civil liberties group intends to file an amicus brief in support of a protester named Ronnie Nunez, who was arrested when he refused to leave Zuccotti Park after the NYPD raid and eviction. According to the NYCLU, Brookfield had no legal authority to exclude people from the park, which Brookfield is legally required to keep open to the public at all times. . From the NYCLU filing:

City zoning law makes unambiguously clear that private owners must obtain the advance approval of the City Planning Commission (“CPC”) before enforcing any restrictions on public access to a privately owned public space [POPS]. The law also makes clear that before the CPC can authorize any restrictions, there must be strict compliance with important procedural protections that are designed to protect public access.

Since the creation of Zuccotti Park in 1968, the public has had a permanent license to be present. In lieu of CPC approval, Brookfield had no authority to exclude Mr. Nunez or anyone else from Zuccotti Park. Therefore, the accusatory instrument against Mr. Nunez is insufficient and Defendants’ motion to dismiss the information should be granted.

POPS are akin to “an easement held by the public on the owner’s property.” As spaces legally mandated to be open and accessible for the public’s benefit and use, POPS are subject to constitutional protections as traditional public fora under the First Amendment. Indeed, courts have acknowledged that when a space is explicitly designated for public use, like a POPS, it is clear that such areas are “inherently compatible” with First Amendment activity and subject to constitutional protections as traditional public fora.

Mr. Nunez is facing charges of trespassing, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct. His attorney tells the New York Times, "All of those charges have to start with a lawful order, otherwise the cops are just bouncers with badges."

[Occupy Oakland shuts down the ports on Dec. 12, 2011]

The following press release announces the settlement between ILWU Local 21 and the Export Grain Terminal (EGT).This announcement marks a significant victory for the labor movement in the US.

Via:

Longview, WA – On Friday, members of the ILWU and the labor community named the Occupy Movement as key to the settlement reached Thursday between ILWU Local 21 and the Export Grain Terminal (EGT). The contract finally provides for the use of ILWU labor in the grain terminal at the Port of Longview. After staging the December 12 port shutdowns in solidarity with Local 21, the West Coast Occupy Movement planned coordinated action together with labor allies for a land and water blockade of the EGT ship in Longview, should it attempt to use scab labor to load. Occupys in states where EGT’s parent company, Bunge, has its growth and operations were also planning actions against the company on the day of the arrival of the ship.

“This is a victory for Occupy in their involvement in forcing negotiations. Make no mistake – the solidarity and organization between the Occupy Movement and the Longshoremen won this contract,” said Jack Mulcahy, ILWU officer with Local 8. “The mobilization of the Occupy Movement across the country, particularly in Oakland, Portland, Seattle, and Longview were a critical element in bringing EGT to the bargaining table and forcing a settlement with ILWU local 21.”

“West Coast Occupys had already demonstrated their ability to stage such a blockade by shutting down ports along the West Coast on December 12th, as well as the Port of Oakland on November 2nd,” said Anthony Leviege, ILWU Local 10 in Oakland. The Occupy Movement shut down ports in order to express solidarity with port truckers and Local 21, as well as responding to a nationally-coordinated eviction campaign against Occupy.

Mayor Jean Quan said on Dec.11th that the unions weren't backing this effort, and even if that were true at the time, the unions are certainly full of praise for Occupy Oakland now.

Another in a series of 1-minute films that reveal the methods of the worst of the 1% who are using their wealth to exploit the 99%

From Brave New Films and Occupy the Boardroom.

Sad news from the Nation's Greg Mitchell...

Anthony Shadid, 43, perhaps the most respected U.S. reporter covering numerous wars and battles zones throughout the Middle East and North Afrida in the past dozen years, died today in Syria. He reportedly suffered an asthma attack. His body was then carried across the border to Turkey by his New York Times colleague, photographer Tyler Hicks.

Shadid won two Pulitizers for his coverage while with The Washington Post and had just been nominated for this year’s prize by the Times. HIs last article for the paper was on turmoil in Libya.

This is certain to be one of the biggest losses to journalism in years. Shadid, who spoke fluent Arabic, had long provided perhaps the most valuable coverage of the so-called “Arab streets.” He once said no story was worth dying for, but some were worth taking big risks for, and recently indicated that Syria was one such story.

He leaves a wife and two children behind. Condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.

I received this video from Syria just yesterday that shows thick black smoke billowing from a residential area of Homs during an attack on an oil pipeline that runs through the city. The United Nation's General Assembly today voted for a resolution backing an Arab League plan that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, and condemns human rights violations by his regime.

Poor Jamie Dimon, he can dish it out, but he certainly can't take it. The JPMorgan Chase CEO recently told Fox Business Network that he felt safer halfway around the world that October day when protesters occupied the sidewalk outside his Manhattan home.

"That particular day, I was in Lebanon, Beirut doing business over there and I was probably safer over there too," said Dimon.

Dimon began the interview railing against over regulation, and the policies coming out of Washington that he believes have led to a slower and more difficult recovery. But then, it wouldn't be Fox News without someone railing against a Democrat or Democratic policy, now would it?

Reuters:

Citigroup Inc has agreed to pay $158.3 million to settle U.S. civil claims that it defrauded the government into insuring thousands of risky home loans made by its CitiMortgage unit.

No jail. I know it's civil court. But, who else can tell the Department of Justice that they defrauded the government out of millions, and walk away a free man? Bankers aside, of course.

Want to see who's using their wealth to exploit the 99%? A new series of 1-minute videos reveals the methods of the worst of the 1%.

From Brave New Films.

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Keith Olbermann takes apart one of Andrew Breitbart's latest smears of the Occupy movement that we all sadly got a dose of the other night when he was screaming at the protesters outside of CPAC; that the movement is full of rapists.

Debunking Breitbart's "Occupy Rape List":

What you have not seen are the facts behind the transparently dishonest "list" with which Breitbart is trying to smear Occupy as rapists. Sadly, it appears his people's efforts consisted of finding stories in which both the word "Occupy" and some report of sexual misconduct.

It doesn't look like anybody bothered to read the links. Nearly every one of the stories shows Occupy participants were the victims and not the alleged perpetrators, or the incidents had nothing to do with Occupy.

You can read the entire list and the details in Keith's post at KOS, but here's the summation:

So. Seventeen stories Breitbart claims are cases of Rape at Occupy. Just reading the stories, googling the names of those identified, following up - this only took me about 70 minutes. The final result:

-- Two stories on the list were duplicates.
-- One story turns out to have been about consensual sex.
-- One case, in Scotland, led the Occupy group to disband for the sake of safety.
-- One case of an arrest for child porn, with Occupy immediately banning the alleged perpetrator.
-- One case of a girl disappearing -- ignoring the fact that she was home and unharmed a month later.
-- Four cases in which police said neither the victim nor the assailant were apparently even associated with Occupy.

That leaves seven others stories, all of which show police identifying Occupy participants as the victims, six of which show police identifying the alleged assailants as not being Occupy participants.

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