UPDATE!

From Rachel Rivera, the mom who started the petition to keep Sandy families from being evicted"

"My family and other families displaced by Sandy will sleep tight tonight knowing that, at least for the time being, we won’t be evicted from our hotels. This evening, just before the city’s arbitrary deadline to evict us, a Manhattan Supreme Court Judge ordered the city to extend the hotel program for families like mine for 15 days as a result of a lawsuit filed by Legal Aid. NYCC members will continue to fight to secure long term affordable housing for all families displaced by Sandy."

Read more about this great victory in the Wall Street Journal, click here.

Thanks to all who signed the petition!
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Six-months after Superstorm Sandy, shore towns are rebuilding, but recovery is slow. Remnants of Sandy's destruction are clearly visible. Towns are working hard to complete boardwalk projects to draw tourists back in time for summer, notes the Associated Press. But while the media wonders where tourists will spend the vacations, 600 families who fell victim to Sandy are wondering if the only place left for them to call "home" is the streets.

The following message is from Rachel Rivera and her petition pleading for the NYC Department of Homeless services not to throw her and her 7-year-old daughter out on the street.

Via CREDO, and New York Communities for Change:

Families who were displaced by Sandy and are living in hotels need long-term affordable housing, not to be thrown out into the streets for the second time since the storm. Extend the April 30th deadline until all displaced families are placed into apartments that they can afford.

Why is this important?

My seven year old daughter Marisol and I have called our room in the Holiday Inn Express on 29th Street home for the past six months since the roof in our apartment collapsed during Hurricane Sandy. But in a few days, we are going to lose our home again—this time because of an arbitrary deadline set by the Department of Homeless Services. No one wants to call a hotel home, but the only other option we’ve been given by the city is the streets.

My daughter and I are not alone. Hundreds of Sandy victims, living in hotels throughout New York City will be evicted from our rooms on Tuesday April 30th. Like Marisol and I, many of those families have nowhere else to go. The number of New Yorkers sleeping in homeless shelters is at an all-time high and families like mine are about to join them. We are victims of natural disaster and deserve to be treated with dignity.

Sign my petition demanding that DHS Commissioner Seth Diamond postpones the April 30th deadline to evict Sandy families living in hotels until there is a plan to find us all housing that we can afford for the long term.

Please sign Rachel's petition to the Department of Homeless services commissioner, Seth Diamond.

For more information about the impending eviction of 600 Sandy families, click here.

Via OccupyWallStreet.net:

16-year-old Kimani Gray was shot seven times – four times in the front of his body, and three times in the back – last Saturday. And for a third straight day demonstrators gathered in his neighborhood, East Flatbush, to protest New York Police Department brutality. After 100 people attended a candlelight vigil near Brooklyn's 67th Precinct, as many as 50 people were arrested as a demonstration spread throughout the neighborhood. Thereafter, according to a range of bloggers and social media activists, East Flatbush became a "frozen area," with media barred.

RT reports, "Brooklynites were heard shouting "murderers!" at the massive police presence Wednesday as officers prohibited people from even stepping onto the street in one of New York's poorer neighborhoods while police helicopters circled overhead." Ray Kelly himself, the Police Commissioner, did not characterize the demonstration as a riot, as some local newspapers did, but he did describe the assembly as disorderly.

Police mistrust runs deep in a neighborhood disproportionately targeted by the NYPD's deeply unpopular Stop and Frisk policy, widely regarded as a racist practice.

Franclot Graham told AP: "I'm not going to tell people don't be angry because we're all angry...It's OK to vent but you have to respect the family's wishes and be peaceful." Graham's teenage son, Ramarley Graham, was shot and killed after police chased him into his Bronx home last year. A New York police officer has since been charged with manslaughter in the death.

Gray's family maintains he wasn't armed. According to AP, a cousin of Kiki, Ray Charles, was still having trouble accepting the NYPD's official version of events: "My cousin was scared of guns...I honestly just want justice. They didn't need to shoot him like that...The real issue in Brooklyn is cops have been harassing us for a long time," he said. "It needs to stop."

ON-THE-SCENE REPORTING FROM OCCUPY WALL STREET

One Occupy activist on the scene, Austin Guest, observed:

At the invitation of a comrade from Flatbush, I went down for the second straight night tonight to the protests surrounding Kimani Gray's murder at 55th & Church. Out of a sea of over three hundred people, I was one of maybe a dozen white faces, most of them journalists. For the the first time in over a year spent organizing non-stop demonstrations on Wall Street, I was at a protest, but I was just along for the ride – firmly and gladly ensconced in the back seat. From that back-seat position, I witnessed one the most mind-blowing protests I have ever been to. I felt humbled and at times scared – in the presence of a deep, intense force surging up, demanding to be heard.

A few moments that stick in my head:

A crowd of protesters being pushed aggressively out of the street in front of the 67th precinct by riot cops, turning on a dime, sprinting in the opposite direction, finding and surrounding a cop car, shoving it and hitting its windows, dispersed only by a barrage of pepper spray to their faces from the terrified cop inside the car
A teenage girl staring down a line of riot cops and yelling "MURDERERS!" fearlessly at the top of her lungs into their stone cold faces
The look of panic on the driver of a police van's face after the rear window of his van was smashed, seemingly from nowhere
A crowd being pushed down a side street by scooter cops, followed minutes later by a shower of glass bottles flying from apartment buildings onto the heads of the scooter cops
A car by Kimani's memorial blasting Bob Marley's "War" and a mass of quiet, somber people pulsing and bobbing their heads in slowly growing rage."

Tensions were high, but according to Yoni Brombacher Miller, "I wasn't worried about getting arrested myself; it was clear they (the NYPD) weren't interested in the non-people of color, or adults. They were clearly going after the youth."

Brombacher Miller added, "How can we best amplify and strengthen their militant struggle for justice? Some, like Councilman Jumaane Williams argued that the 'youth should be controlled', and while he argues that they're right to be angry, he is also stifling their rage instead of agitating with them. The NYPD cannot and will not be part of the restorative process. The only steps that must be taken, are a demilitarized, reduced NYPD with expansion of social programs and services, which currently the NYPD is actively a part in preventing.

"I was roughly thrown over barricade by cops, but I'll be back tomorrow, and the night after and after, because this is truly historical, and Brooklyn's moment. The youth today were brave, and many more shall be inspired to join up."

To show solidarity with those arrested, call 311 and demand that everyone arrested at the Kimani Gray vigil be released from the NYPD 71st + 69th precincts in Brooklyn. Or call the precinct directly: 71st precinct (718) 735-0511, 69th precinct (718) 257-6211

[Editor's Note: Sources tell NY1 that two officers involved in the shooting of Brooklyn teen Kimani Gray last weekend were also involved in five separate cases for alleged civil rights violations, including stop-and-frisks, that were settled out of court. ]

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

Some updated information on the shooting death of Kilmani Gray, the 16-year-old who was killed in Brooklyn on Saturday night by two plainclothes police officers, was shot seven times: four in the front, three in the back.

The New York Times reports:

The report from the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not specify which of the seven bullets caused the death of the teenager, Kimani Gray; that determination awaits further investigation.

One bullet entered his left shoulder in the rear, exiting in the front; two other bullets struck the back of his thighs, one in the left thigh and one in the right. Two bullets struck from the front, hitting his right thigh; one bullet entered his left side, striking his lower rib cage; and the last bullet hit his left lower forearm.

The police said that two plainclothes officers fired at Mr. Gray after he pulled a .38-caliber revolver and pointed it at them; the officers then fired 11 shots, killing him. Mr. Gray’s revolver had four bullets in its chambers, the police said.

The autopsy did not establish the order in which the bullets struck Mr. Gray, or determine the path of the bullets, which might make it clearer if Mr. Gray had his back to the officers when he was shot, or if he had twisted away after being struck from the front. But the findings alone that several of the bullets entered his back appeared certain to fan the flames of a community already distrustful of the police and increasingly incensed about the shooting of the teenager.

Kimani Gray's death led to protests in his East Flatbush neighborhood, and a witness now claims she "had a “bird’s-eye view” of the fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Kimani (Kiki) Gray says the youth did not have a gun in his hand," according to the Daily News.

The NYPD cops who fired 11 shots at Kimani said that he was armed, and a loaded .38 caliber revolver was recovered at the scene.

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

Brooklyn teens held a protest Monday night -- that some reports say broke into a riot -- in response to the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Kimani Gray by NYPD officers, reports the Daily Mail.

The 16-year-old boy was hanging out with friends Saturday night when they were approached by undercover officers who allegedly asked him to show his hands. Authorities claim that it was only after Gray suspiciously reached for his waistband that an officer fired 11 rounds.

According to The Gothamist, “Gray was shot multiple times in the leg and stomach when he pointed a .357 revolver at the cops in East Flatbush just before 11:30 p.m. on Saturday. ‘The cops, they just jumped out of the car so fast, witness Devonte Brown said. ‘They started shooting him and he went down, he was bleeding, holding his side, screaming, ‘stop, stop,’ Brown said of Gray.”

Via Gawker:

"After the anti-crime sergeant and police officer told the suspect to show his hands, which was heard by witnesses, Gray produced a revolver and pointed it at the officers, who fired a total of 11 rounds, striking Gray several times," Paul J. Browne, the NYPD's chief spokesman, told the New York Times.

But as Think Progress notes, eyewitness accounts differ from the official police reports. One witness, Camille Johnson, told Pix 11 that Gray was "running for his life, telling the cops 'Stop.'" She went on, telling the news station,"They really are, seriously shooting little kids."

According to the Times, another witness told Gray's sister, Mahnefeh, that Gray was fixing his belt, not reaching for a gun, when he was shot. Mahnefeh, as well as Gray's mother, insisted that Gray didn't own a gun and that, even if he did, he would not have pointed it at police, telling the Wall Street Journal, "He has common sense...They killed my little brother for no reason."

Another witness, who lives across the street from where the shooting took place, told the Times that Gray pleaded with the officers, telling them, "Please don't let me die." The police reportedly responded by telling the wounded 16-year-old, "Stay down or we'll shoot you again."

According to NBC New York, there were roughly 70 protesters who marched to the 67th Precinct station in East Flatbush and threw garbage and empty bottles at the windows. No police were injured, and there were no damages to the building during the protest.

"Some angry kids were protesting the death of a friend," said witness Martin Williams. "They were marching through the street, yelling and protesting."

The protesters continued to march from Snyder Avenue and ended up at Church and East 57th Street where the protest continued. There were police in riot gear along the block with barricades, but there were no reports of arrests.

The two NYPD officers who shot Kimani Gray have been placed on administrative duty.

U.S. prosecutors confirmed on Thursday night that Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law has been indicted and has been taken to New York to be arraigned on Friday. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who appeared in videos representing al Qaeda after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has been charged with conspiracy to kill Americans. Abu Ghaith is the one of the highest-ranked al Qaeda officials to undergo a civilian trial in New York, where the courthouse is just blocks away from the World Trade Center. According to NBC News, Abu Ghaith was sent with a group of other al Qaeda operatives to Iran after the September 11th terrorist attacks, where they were promptly captured and detained. It's unclear how Abu Ghaith got to Turkey, where he was captured by the U.S.

Senator Lindsey Graham held a press conference on Thursday evening after news of Ghaith's capture and presence in New York was revealed, and made clear the the GOP wants Ghaith transferred to Gitmo. In the Associated Press video above, Graham also seems to be having a bit of a sad that the Obama administration had been -- you know, working -- and didn't make the GOP aware that the Democratic president was going to accomplish something...possibly making them look bad. C'est la vie.

ABC News:

Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, has been "cooperating" and has already revealed "key intelligence" about the current status, personnel and finances of al Qaeda even before he was secretly spirited to New York City, U.S. officials told ABC News today.

"It is huge," said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "This is a man who is in the inner circle of bin Laden's al Qaeda operations and now we have him alive and he's talking."

Ghaith was moved to New York sometime last week after being transferred to Jordanian custody following his capture in Turkey.

He is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate in New York City Friday, and faces charges including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, according to an indictment unsealed today.

The events in this video happened December 17th, 2011, as protesters, including clergy members, attempted to Occupy the unused, fenced off section of Duarte Square on the corner of Canal Street and 6th Avenue in New York City on the three-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street.

Activist and community organizer Michael Premo was found not guilty on all charges on Thursday in the first jury trial stemming from an Occupy Wall Street protest. Video evidence presented in Premo's defense contradicted claims by police and prosecutors.

Premo, who more recently has been an important figure in Occupy Sandy efforts, was arrested on December 17, 2011 during a protest in lower Manhattan when Occupy protesters attempted to start a new occupation in an empty lot on Duarte Square.

Village Voice:

In the police version of events, Premo charged the police like a linebacker, taking out a lieutenant and resisting arrest so forcefully that he fractured an officer's bone. That's the story prosecutors told in Premo's trial, and it's the general story his arresting officer testified to under oath as well.

But Premo, facing felony charges of assaulting an officer, maintained his innocence. His lawyers, Meghan Maurus and Rebecca Heinegg, set out to find video evidence to contradict it. Prosecutors told them that police TARU units, who filmed virtually every moment of Occupy street protests, didn't have any footage of the entire incident. But Maurus knew from video evidence she had received while representing another defendant arrested that day that there was at least one TARU officer with relevant footage. Reviewing video shot by a citizen-journalist livestreamer during Premo's arrest, she learned that a Democracy Now cameraman was right in the middle of the fray, and when she tracked him down, he showed her a video that so perfectly suited her needs it brought a tear to her eye.

For one thing, the video prominently shows a TARU cop named Bosco, holding up his camera, which is on, and pointing at the action around the kettle. When Premo's lawyers subpoenaed Bosco, they were told he was on a secret mission at "an undisclosed location," and couldn't respond to the subpoena. Judge Robert Mandelbaum didn't accept that, and Bosco ultimately had to testify, though he claimed, straining credibility, that though the camera is clearly on and he can be seen in the video pointing it as though to frame a shot, he didn't actually shoot any video that evening.

Even more importantly, the Democracy Now video also flipped the police version of events on its head. Far from showing Premo tackling a police officer, it shows cops tackling him as he attempted to get back on his feet.

After watching the video, the jury deliberated for several hours before returning a verdict of not guilty on all counts.

One of Premo's lawyers, Meghan Maurus, said after the trial that his case highlighted the importance of having the press, livestreamers and professional video journalists present during demonstrations, and that "without that evidence, this would have been a very different case."

"The biggest thing for me coming out of this," Premo told the Voice, "is not being discouraged by the attempts of New York City to quell dissent and prevent us from expressing our constitutional rights."

(F-bomb warning.)

Recently, (2/8/13) I was arrested in Brooklyn while driving a van outfitted with a projector. Long story short, it was pretty horrible; friends and fellow activists have encouraged me to set down precisely what happened and put it in the public record.

If you don’t know, there is a van with a heavy duty projector that comes out of the roof like a turret. It was created by an OWS offshoot with funding from Ben Cohen, and was named The Illuminator. Some months ago, ownership and control was passed on to a campaign called the Stamp Stampede, created by Ben Cohen, and was referred to as the Project-O-Van.

A month ago, Animal New York, a website that covers culture and politics, arranged to carry out a joint action with the Stampede campaign, using our van.. Together, we visited a number of locations throughout the city to project images highlighting the problem of money in politics corrupting our democracy. We visited the offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Trump Tower, some walls in Soho and the LES, and…. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s home on 79th Street.

It was exciting to get a picture of a ballot box being stuffed with money projected onto Bloomberg’s 3rd floor. As the residence is protected by police, our team was approached by cops who chatted with Animal New York folks and filmed our van. I stuck around for about one minute – just long enough to take a few photos.

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Via OWS:

Join us and pack the court on February 6 at 10:00 am, 40 Foley Square, Room 1005. This is a critical step in our case, Hedges v. Obama, and the stakes are high. We need your presence in court to show that Americans care about their civil rights.

Join us in solidarity and support of the named plaintiffs Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, Brigitta Jónsdóttir, Jennifer “Tangerine” Bolen, Kai Wargalla, and Alexa O’Brien who are challenging the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA, before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

The court is located on 40 Foley Square, NY, NY in room 1505 on the 15th floor. All are welcome.

Visit http://www.stopndaa.org/ for more info and all court filings.

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/123804614457311/

Occupy Wall Street "One People" flash mob.

From February 1st to the 3rd people from across the grassroots community--organizers, volunteers, activists and storm-impacted residents--will meet at The People’s Recovery Summit to address how we can rebuild a stronger, fairer and more sustainable New York City together.

How do we strengthen access to good public schools for our children? How do we rebuild sustainably and equitably? How can we best organize our relief networks before the next time we need them? How do we make our communities healthier places?

Join us this weekend to explore these questions and participate in workshops, listen to speeches, attend trainings, share meals, hear music and help draft a unified people’s recovery statement. Restore power to the people - a better future is in our hands!

--from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team

Occupy these Actions and Events

Saturday, February 2nd, 10:00am-1:00pm
Sandy Walk, Ends at Staten Island Community Hub, 1128 Olympia Blvd., Midland Beach
Join Staten Island resident Bill Johnsen for a walk on the first Saturday of the month leaving from Brighton St & Billopp Avenue, Tottenville, ending at St. Margaret Mary’s Church, The Occupy Sandy community hub in Staten Island. The walk is in support of Uniting the Victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Sunday, February 3rd, 1:00pm-4:00pm
Occupy the Ferry, St. George Staten Island Ferry Terminal
Staten Island, New York 10301 82nd Street-Jackson Heights / Roosevelt Avenue 7 Train
As outreach to the 99% and in support The WORKERS at Golden Farm in Kensington Brooklyn we will be Occupying the Subways beginning at 1pm and meeting the Boycott/Picket of Golden Farm at 2pm and staying there until 4pm.

Friday, February 1, 2013, 6:30pm-9:30pm
Occupy Beyond Sandy
The Atrium 60 Wall St.
Despite all the GREAT work of Occupy Sandy, the problems of both Sandy Victims and the 99% remain and will only get worse with the plans of the 1% to gentrify in the aftermath of Sandy. With the many issues that still remain before and after Sandy, it’s time we examine our work and continue to organize for the 99% to fight Wall Street and build the Occupy Movement. Please join us. We are involved in several continuous actions all around the city and attempting to build a mass movement

February 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
People's Recovery Summit
The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew, 520 Clinton Ave.
The People's Recovery Summit is a three day event of workshops, trainings, horizontally facilitated discussions, and evening entertainment. Residents, activists, organizers, volunteers, and all concerned citizens will unite to build a more equitable and sustainable New York City post-Hurricane Sandy. Come participate for any and all parts of the weekend and help ignite a people-powered recovery! Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner will be served.

Tuesday, February 5, 7pm
Divesting from Fossil Fuels
Cooper Union, The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street between 3rd & 4th Avenues.
America’s colleges and universities prepare the nation’s young people for their future. Yet those same institutions invest in the fossil fuel companies that are profiting enormously from the carbon that’s going to wreck the climate. Thousands of students are building a national movement demanding that university endowments divest from the fossil fuel industry.

Wednesday, February 6th, 9:45am
Flood the Court, 40 Centre St. (40 Foley Square)
The 2nd circuit court of appeals will be hearing oral arguments in the lawsuit against section 1021 of the NDAA. Your attendance will communicate that the public is invested in the outcome of this ruling and unwilling to sit idly by as due process rights are eroded. RSVP on Facebook.

[Via OccupyWallSt.org]

Restore Power to the People!

A free 3-day gathering of workshops, panels, concerts and performances to unite for a more equitable and sustainable rebuilding in Sandy's wake.

When: Feb 1-3
Where: Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew, Brooklyn

For more information or to register, see http://summit.peoplesrecovery.org/ and RSVP on Facebook.

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