A Brooklyn man has filed papers to sue the city over an alleged hate crime committed by the NYPD. The Daily News reports that on Sunday night around 2:50 a.m., two officers came to Jabbar Campbell's Crown Heights apartment following a noise complaint. Campbell was hosting a gay pride party for about 80 people and some of the party-goers were dressed in drag. Those officers left after telling guests outside the apartment to keep it down, but about ten minutes later another group of officers arrived and rang the buzzer. Campbell saw an officer turn a security camera in his vestibule, and when he went downstairs, they were banging on his door with flashlights. "There was a sergeant, he yelled ‘get him!’ and that’s when I got attacked," Campbell told the Post. “They kept saying, ‘stop resisting’ but I wasn’t resisting. I didn’t have any time to respond.”

Campbell claims that two officers held his arms back while one pushed his head down, and another officer repeatedly punched him in the face. “They were yelling ‘you f---ing fag!’ and ‘homo!’” he said. “I couldn’t block the blows. I was fighting to stay conscious but I was blacking out because of the hits I was taking.” Campbell was left with a concussion, a black eye, a split lip, and a bloody mouth, and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

According to the NYPD's account, Campbell refused to "discontinue a party," pushed an officer, attempted to flee, and behaved "belligerently" while police tried to take him into custody. He was charged with resisting arrest, attempted assault, and pot possession. Campbell has released footage of the officer tampering with his surveillance camera. “They were trying to conceal the evidence by turning the camera away,” says his lawyer, Herb Subin. “They committed a hate crime inside a gay pride event.”

Alright Occupiers, trick or treat,

Let’s all go to Washington, DC, and have a Halloween night party!

Let’s celebrate the wonderful Coke/Pepsi presidential election now in progress … and the honest, feisty way our elected reps in Congress have conducted our nation’s business … pay tribute to the bold visions they’ve put forward.

At dusk on October 31, let’s gather on Capitol Hill, trick or treat Congress and party like we’ve never partied before.

Bring mask!

CJ HQ

PS And if you cannot make it to DC then party in front of the Bank of America in your community... outside your city hall... or in the squares.

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET
#OCCUPYMAINSTREET
#HALLOWEENPARTY

Tactical Briefing #38, #37 and #36.

Invite your friends via the Facebook event: #HALLOWEENPARTY

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.

Via the sparrow project:

At 4pm on July 8th, 2012 a diverse coalition of activists and occupiers from across New York will descend upon a fundraiser for presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the Southhampton home of billionaire David Koch. Citing the ever-growing and pervasive influence of Koch Industries’ money on our electoral system, organizers from Occupy Wall Street, The Long Island Progressive Coalition, Greenpeace, Move to Amend [Brookhaven], ALIGN NY, Art Not War, Strong For All, MoveOn.org, United New York, Occupy Storefront and Occupy Huntington, Long Island, have announced that they will take action to non-violently disrupt the fundraiser at David Koch’s shorefront estate located at 880 Meadow Lane in Southhampton.

While Romney plans on attending 3 fundraisers that day in the Hamptons the demonstrators have made it clear that the Koch Estate will remain their only target. The coalition of activists initially assembled by the End Corporatism Affinity Group of Occupy Wall Street will be taking a non-partisan stance, uniting around a unified message that corporate money is exponentially diluting and subverting our democratic process (a phenomenon not limited to one single party.) To the demonstrators, David and Charles Koch embody everything that is wrong with money in politics.

“The Long Island Progressive Coalition is busy coordinating a network of Long Island groups who won’t stand by while their backyard is used for Koch and Romney to fund a regressive political agenda,” says Lisa Tyson, director to the Long Island Progressive Coalition.

In 2011 Charles and David Koch announced their intentions to raise and spend $200,000,000 on whomever would run against President Obama. Also, in 2011 while on a retreat for supporters of Koch Industries and their political arm, American’s for Prosperity, Charles Koch was secretly recorded while addressing the group. “This is the mother of all wars we’ve got over the next 18 months. For the life or death of this country …if you want to kick in a billion, believe me,” says Koch “we’ll have especial seminar just for you.”

Continue reading »

Occupy DC invites you to party:

If there were ever an event that embodies what the Occupy movement stands against, this is it — this Saturday, January 28th, the country’s elite of the elite will gather, as they do secretly once every year, for an alcohol-fueled dinner at the Capital Hilton Hotel near McPherson Square. Known as the Alfalfa Club (because of the plant’s infamous thirst), a highly selective group of nearly 200 attendees, including CEOs, Supreme Court Justices, congressmen, and other extremely wealthy dignitaries will get drunk on booze and self-importance. On the 99th gathering of the Alfalfa Club, it is only fitting that the 99% non-violently crash the party and have a gala of their own outside of the hotel. Dress however the hell you want.

Fun facts: The Alfalfa Club’s meeting date is chosen to celebrate the birthday of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. African Americans were barred admittance until the 1970′s, and women weren’t allowed in until the 1990′s. In their annual mock election, they’ve correctly “predicted” numerous future presidents, such as Presidents Nixon, Reagan and George W. Bush.

Let’s kill their buzz. Party outside of the Capital Hilton Saturday night, and bring a friend. Be at McPherson Square by 5:15pm for preparations and festivities, and march at 6:00pm.

For more information on the Alfalfa Club and to see last year’s attendee’s program we’ve obtained, see this document.

No justice, no feast.

Live streaming by Ustream

The Occupy Wall Street movement is re-occupying Wall Street today, beginning at 12:00 noon at Canal St. and Sixth Ave. in New York City. There will also be a block party running all day long with great bands, great speeches, great food, and more.

The midnight deadline for Occupy Boston protesters to leave Dewey Square has passed.

A judge lifted a restraining order on Wednesday that could have prevented the city of Boston from evicting Occupy Boston members from their encampment.

There was a festive atmosphere as the deadline passed, with protesters chanting, “We are the 99 percent”. They even held a dance with a live band.

At about 12:45 a.m. protesters sat down in the middle of Atlantic Ave forcing traffic to come to a halt.

Some of the protesters began cleaning up their campsites and moving out Thursday, but the crowd just kept growing as midnight approached.

The protesters were prepared for police action, and many were wearing gas masks, protective goggles and practiced forming a human chain.

Although the protesters were planning for a raid, the Boston Police were not. Shortly after 1 a.m. Boston Police Superintendent William Evans walked through the camp telling protesters that police would not clear Dewey Square.

No one seems to be guessing what's next for Occupy Boston, as they seem quite content at the moment to enjoy the party and the relief that they aren't facing possible violent arrests. One thing is certain, what Boston's mayor saw as a relatively small 'problem' in Dewey Square has now grown substantially. They also have their own brass band, and they are quite good, actually.

[Photo credit: NYT]

The Steven J. Baum law firm, the New York foreclosure mill whose employees threw that appalling homeless-themed Halloween party, is shutting down just a month after pictures of the party were published by the New York Times.

"The firm has been under fire from federal agencies and the public, including members of the local “Occupy” movement, for its alleged business practices," reports BusinessFirst.

The firm's apparent history of cruel indifference towards homeowners seeking to work out repayment or obtain a modification to save their homes, had previously earned the firm nothing more than the proverbial "hand slap" in the way of a fine not large enough to make the firm blink as they sign the check for "operating in a parallel mortgage universe, unrelated to the real universe,” according to one New York State Supreme Court judge.

Last week, Steven J. Baum himself sent Joe Nocera, the Times columnist who first published the pictures, an email claiming that Nocera's column destroyed his firm: "There is blood on your hands for this one, Joe… I will never, ever forgive you for this."

Nocera's column certainly couldn't have helped bring the downfall of Baum's foreclosure mill firm without the questionable actions of Baum himself. The filing of "robo-signed" documents, and use of practices that one Long Island judge likened to something out of the "Twilight Zone." Baum paid a $2 million fine in October to settle a Federal case accusing the firm of filing misleading papers to rush through foreclosures. These things combined with the reputation those photographs revealing the soul-less beings that comprised Baum's foreclosure mill earned them brought on the firm's karmic end.