Twelve celebrities and politicians are victims of a hacker who posted information about their finances online, including their Social Security numbers, credit-card information, and mortgage amounts. Michelle Obama, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Hillary Clinton, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Mel Gibson, Ashton Kutcher, and Joe Biden are among those who were hacked.

NBC News Los Angeles:

The site, which bore an internet suffix originally assigned to the Soviet Union, remained active Monday evening and had garnered nearly 70,000 hits, according to a ticker on the homepage.

It did not state how the information was obtained or why the 17 people targeted on the site were selected, describing the records only as "secret files."
...
Several of the pages, to which we are chosing not to link, featured unflattering pictures of the celebrities or government officials whose information was posted.

While government officials often have to disclose details on their finances – and celebrity divorces sometimes feature public financial data – the information posted online exceeds those disclosures.

The LAPD and FBI are both investigating the incident, according to TMZ.

View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

A bastion of the contemporary Occupy movement is no more. A foreclosed house dubbed Fort Hernandez was cleared out by sheriff's deputies early this morning, observers report.

The eviction after a four-month sit-in at the Hernandez family home in Van Nuys was reported about 4:30 a.m. The eviction of 18 people, including four to six family members and 12 occupiers, and 5 dogs went smoothly, with no arrests or injuries.

The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department carried out the eviction with armored vehicles and nearly 100 police personnel.

Dump trucks were brought in to break down the encampment.

“They were living in tents and hadn’t paid the mortgage for about 4 years,” according to L.A. Co. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.

Occupiers fed up with big-bank foreclosures, particularly in light of the federal bailout in 2008, upheld Fort Hernandez as a symbol since late August.

They say there are more empty homes in the same Van Nuys neighborhood than there are homeless.

A Bank of America spokesperson said, “We have made multiple attempts to offer Mr. Hernandez assistance since he stopped making payments in 2008. Prior to foreclosure, we requested financial documents over a 6-month period, but Mr. Hernandez never submitted the necessary documentation for us to complete our review.”

Hernandez said his only hope is to fight the bank in court.

On November 30th last year around 300 protesters were arrested at the Los Angeles City Hall after being camped out in the vicinity for over two months. An estimated 1,400 police officers showed up and blazed through the encampment in what protesters are now calling a "shock and awe" attack on their rights. The movement activists have now filed a class action lawsuit for the arrests and the protesters' treatment while in custody. RT's Ramon Galindo brings the latest from Los Angeles.

Although LAPD promised to arrest chalk vandals once again, a party atmosphere prevailed Thursday night at downtown Los Angeles' Art Walk.

Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Horace Frank, of the Central Division, said earlier in the day that his officers plan to enforce the law if they see it being broken.

"It's a violation of the law, it's vandalism, and we're going to make an arrest," he said, adding that he has received frequent emails from downtown property owners complaining about damage from chalk.

"My BlackBerry is burning up with pictures of businesses being vandalized," he said.

Odd that the LAPD hasn't shared any photographs of businesses that were vandalized with the water-soluable chalk.

Occupiers, of course, disagree that chalking is illegal and point out that other groups have gotten the city's permission to use chalk in the past. Not that the city's denial and threats could have done anything to stop their protest Thursday night. Supporters from the Bay Area, Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink were also on hand to lend their support.

At the July event, Occupy L.A. activists armed with chalk scrawled slogans and drawings on the sidewalks to to protest downtown gentrification, which has pushed out some of the area’s poorer residents. Hundreds of Los Angeles Police Department officers clashed with the protesters and fired "less-than-lethal" projectiles into the crowd. Four officers were hurt, and 15 people were arrested.

There were three members of Occupy Oakland detained, apparently because they drew the picture below with chalk:

Two of the Occupiers were released, and the other was held because of an outstanding warrant, according to Occupy sources on Twitter.

Other than that, it seems a good time was had by all, despite the heavy police presence in the area.

It seems that in Los Angeles, California, it isn't chalking that's illegal. It's the message. Participants of Chalk Walk Respond to Mayor’s Statement & Selective Enforcement here.

You can't arrest an idea.

More videos surfaced online on Sunday of the LAPD violence at Thursday’s Downtown LA Art Walk.

Many helicopters hover above the streets. Full riot gear was worn by some officers during the ordeal. Rubber bullets and other projectiles were in use. The police were very aggressive. All this over chalk painting on the sidewalk?

In the video above at 4:49, you can see a man in a white t-shirt shot at very close range with a projectile weapon. He falls to the ground and is clearly incapacitated. After the man stumbles to the ground, two Occupiers come to his aid but police move in, chase the occupiers off, 14 officers surround the man, while one officers kicks the man in the face, then other officers smash his face into the pavement, and violently arrested him.

This next video shows the incident from ground level:

Continue reading »

[Photo credit Emo Hawk via Flickr]

If you notice an alarming number of military troops, military trucks and helicopters in Los Angeles this week, "Don't be alarmed," says the LAPD, "it's only a drill." Joint military training exercises will be held this week through Thursday.

Officials say the training areas “have been carefully selected to ensure the event does not negatively impact the citizens of Los Angeles and their daily routine."

Via:

The training, which a department official said would involve helicopters, has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the training sites, police said.

Police said safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and military personnel involved.

The exercises are closed to the public, police said.

The exercises are designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements, police said.

That's right, nothing to see here. Just move along, everyone.

When the LA Youth Justice Coalition planned a community action project that involved cleaning an abandoned former Hyde Park Library, as well as hold workshops and distribute food within the community, they probably weren't prepared for the LAPD to threaten them with arrest while helicopters hovered above.

Via:

What should have been a warm 'n' fuzzy cleanup of the abandoned Hyde Park Library in South L.A. this morning went awry when responding LAPD officers reportedly mistook the Youth Justice Coalition for a faction of Occupy L.A.

Given the post-raid tension between cops and occupiers, the case of mistaken identity didn't bode well for the Inglewood youth group. "Despite the fact that this library has been abandoned since 2004, LAPD is here telling young people they have no right to access..."

... Tweeted blogger Maegan Ortiz. And she soon added: "Commander Green LAPD is giving young people at abandonded library 30 minutes to leave or be arrested with 5k bail."

Sound familiar? LAPD Officer Sara Faden told KPCC radio that cops believed the coalition planned to "occupy the building for demonstration purposes."

After problems arose with the police, negotiations were attempted but ended up with all of the coalition members giving up and leaving.

Hopefully the LAPD hasn't completely soured the children on community service actions altogether. We need more people who don''t solve all problems with weapons.

Via:

Arthur S. Rodriguez, the grandson of labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, was among the nearly 300 people arrested last week as authorities moved to shut down the Occupy L.A. encampment outside City Hall, according to his father, Arturo S. Rodriguez.
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The younger Rodriguez, reportedly a student at Santa Monica College, helped organize trash disposal and “arrange workshops for occupiers on environmental, labor and economic issues,” his father said.

On Nov. 30, Los Angeles police moved in to clear the encampment that had occupied green space outside City Hall for almost two months. The younger Rodriguez was among 291 people arrested. He was released Friday on $5,000 bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

[Photo credit Flickr]

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck's glowing review of police performance during last week's raid of Occupy LA hasn't convinced everyone.

Via:

The hacker group @CabinCr3w sent out a Twitter message Dec. 5 that police said provided information on officers' backgrounds, home addresses, campaign contributions, property records, and in some cases, the names of family members, including children.

Police initially said the list included 25 members of the LAPD, but a review by KPCC showed that 44 officers had information posted on them that ranged from minimal information such as an email address or their rank, to more personal details including family members names, a person's online resume, home values and phone number.
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"It all comes from those [LAPD] actions, and how the protesters are now being treated like criminals for practicing a fundamental right," the hacker tells KPCC.

LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith had this to say about the raid on Occupy LA, "There's always going to be one or two people who are upset about something, but gosh, we gave everybody a chance to disperse. We begged people to clear the Occupy area so we didn't have to arrest anybody." According to one of the arrested occupiers, Family Guy writer Patrick Meighan, gosh and golly that just wasn't the case.

The LA Weekly Blog also reports:

There's been an amusing back-and-forth this morning between @LAMurderCop and @MotormouthNews, which identifies itself as another @CabinCr3w account.

Here's a snippet from that Twitter exchange:

LaBarbera: "going to Work now u know job, employment, contributing to society. Man up. N call anytime."

Motormouth: "violating peoples right? police brutality? yeah good job, you know employment, taking away from society."

Also this note:

It should be said that all through the midnight raid, LaBarbera and a few of his buddies on the force (namely, Paul Vernon) were ridiculing and making fun of the arrested protesters on Twitter. We would know; we were completely glued to the conversation. Cop humor -- somehow even more fascinating in 140 characters or less!

Also worth noting that 40 LAPD officers - some of them retired - had absolutely nothing to do with the Occupy LA raid, according to both the LA Weekly and KPCC. I can't bring myself to be okay with any action that could potentially inflict any harm on completely innocent persons.