(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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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.

When: Tuesday, December 11 @ 4:30pm
Where: Harold Pratt House, 58 East 68th Street, New York, New York 10065
RSVP on Facebook

Just weeks after the massive demonstration of the #WalmartStrikers Black Friday day of action, Walmart CEO Mike Duke is visiting NYC on Tuesday, Dec. 11 to give a speech for the Council on Foreign Relations entitled "The Responsibility to Lead" - talking about women's economic empowerment, food security & the global middle class.

That's ironic, since Walmart represents the epitome of corporate greed: from use of sweatshop labor, to the poverty wages it pays associates, to discrimination, to illegal retaliation against workers who organize. Mike Duke has no right to speak about the "global middle class", and IT'S TIME WE TAUGHT HIM THE MEANING OF RESPONSIBILITY.

Join ALIGN, 99 Pickets, Walmart Free NYC, Occupy Bergen County, Retail Action Project, MoneyOut/VotersIn, and allies for an afternoon of action -- picket lines, street theater, and more.

Text "@pickets" to 23559 for day-of text message alerts.

We will publicly hold Mike Duke accountable for:

The deaths of 120 workers from a fire at Bangladeshi sweatshop producing clothing for Walmart in incredibly unsafe conditions.

Paying Walmart workers poverty wages, forcing many to file for public assistance, and for retaliating against workers when they began to organize and speak out about working conditions.

Mistreatment of workers across Walmart's supply chain, especially warehouse workers and immigrant workers at Walmart suppliers.

Crazy things start to happen when the cops stop arresting, beating, and pepper-spraying members of Occupy Wall Street. Communities in need start to see help, and even the crime rate can drop.

The New York Post reported Wednesday night:

"In the first two weeks after Sandy, residents in Red Hook didn’t have power or electricity -- but they didn’t have to worry about lootings at their businesses, being mugged for their smartphones, or an attack by a sexual predator in the darkness of the blackout."

"Despite desperate conditions in the Red Hook housing development and residences nearby, there was virtually no crime -- and no storm-related deaths. Other neighborhoods like Breezy Point and Coney Island haven’t been as lucky."

"Police sources have credited the drop in crime to an unlikely coalition that included the NYPD, Occupy Wall Street activists, and local nonprofits working together to keep storm victims safe." Said one of these unnamed sources, "This crisis allowed us all to remove the politics and differences we had to do our job, and come to the aid of the people. We all rose to the occasion."

But will this camaraderie last? And will the NYPD finally reimburse OWS for the stolen pop and pizza?

[Note: This is the full-length documentary.]

"This documentary is an invitation to you to participate in positive change," reads one of the title cards in "American Autumn: an Occudoc," which was shot on the front lines and meeting spaces of the Occupy Movement in New York, Boston and Washington, DC, from its earliest days through the end of January 2012. ​ With interviews and insight from key organizers, thinkers and activists including Medea Benjamin, David Degraw, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Lee Camp, Naomi Klein, Nathan Schneider, Ashley Sanders, Vlad Teichberg, Sgt. Shamar Thomas, Dr. Cornel West, Kevin Zeese and many more, writer and director Dennis Trainor, Jr weaves commentary and a fearless style that often puts the viewer right between the police and the protesters.

The film includes an original score by Goldi, a member of the OWS Guitarmy, and the legendary punk band FUGAZI supplied additional songs.

On May 22, 2012, an ongoing student strike, involving hundreds of thousands of university students in Quebec, reached its 100th day. In New York, hundreds of students, teachers, and Occupy Wall Street participants marched in solidarity with the students of Quebec.

Occupy Wall Street continues to march every night at 8pm EST, in Montreal, in New York, and in dozens of other cities. Everyone welcome. Bang your pots at 8pm every night! "Show your indignation for corruption, undemocratic practices, and debt slavery!"

[Via]

After the past weekend in Chicago at the NATO summit where nearly 100 protesters were arrested, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! speaks to National Lawyers Guild attorney Sarah Gelsomino who is representing on of the five activists charged with terror-related crimes. Two are accused of attempted possession of explosives or incendiary devices, and three more are accused of conspiracy to commit terrorism, material support for terrorism and possession of explosives.

While many have been impressed by what is viewed as restraint on the part of the Chicago police department as far as violence towards occupy protesters goes, the #NoNATO protests may well be unparalleled in the abuse of legal authority and flagrant disregard for constitutional rights by law enforcement.

Gelsomino says the so-called "NATO Three" were set up by government informants who planted the explosives. "Our clients who are facing the most serious charges of terrorism are actually in solitary confinement right now, we just learned," Gelsomino says. "A very top priority this week is to get them out of that extremely punitive and extremely dangerous condition that they’re in right now."

Rush Transcript:

AMY GOODMAN: We turn to the protesters detained during the NATO summit. According to the Chicago Police Department, nearly a hundred people were arrested over the course of the week. Five of them stand accused of terrorism-related offenses. Two men were arrested over the weekend for allegedly engaging in threatening behavior before the NATO summit. Sebastian Senakiewicz was charged with falsely making a terrorist threat, and Mark Neiweem was accused of attempted possession of explosives or incendiary devices.

Before the weekend began, three activists were arrested on terror charges for an alleged plot to attack President Obama’s campaign headquarters and other sites around Chicago during the NATO summit. Jared Chase, Brent Betterly and Brian Jacob Church are accused of conspiracy to commit terrorism, material support for terrorism and possession of explosives. Police say they recovered materials for making Molotov cocktails in a raid last week. But attorneys for the so-called "NATO Three" say they were set up by government informants who planted the explosives. Supporters also say police seized equipment that was used for brewing homemade beer.

Michael Deutsch, an attorney for the protesters with the National Lawyers Guild, accused Chicago police of entrapment.

MICHAEL DEUTSCH: Obviously, we don’t have access to all the information that the state has. But what we do know is, is that there were police—undercover police officers that ingratiated themselves with people who come from out of town. And from our information, these so-called incendiary devices and the plans to attack police stations, attack the mayor’s office, is all coming from the mind of the police informants and are not coming from our clients, who are nonviolent protesters. They are not anarchists. They don’t belong to a Black Bloc organization. They’re involved with nonviolent protest. And what we believe is, is that this is a way to stir up prejudice against the people who are exercising their First Amendment rights.

AMY GOODMAN: To discuss the implications of these charges, we’re going to Chicago to speak with Sarah Gelsomino, an attorney with the People’s Law Office and the National Lawyers Guild. She’s representing one of the protesters facing terror charges from the summit.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Sarah.

SARAH GELSOMINO: Thank you, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about exactly what happened.

SARAH GELSOMINO: Well, last Wednesday night at around 11:30 at night, the Chicago police executed a midnight raid on a house in the Bridgeport area in the Near South Side in Chicago, and they entered three different—excuse me, four apartment buildings in that house. In one of those apartments, they arrested nine people. In the other three, they, without warrant or consent, detained the individuals who lived in those building—in those apartments, interrogated them about their political beliefs and about their knowledge of the people who lived in that apartment where they arrested the nine people and searched their apartments. They also entered that fourth apartment, again without showing a warrant and without any consent. And there is where they eventually arrested the nine people. They arrested two additional people down the street. Six of those people have since been released without charges. As you know, the NATO Three are facing very serious terrorism threats—or terrorism charges. And the other two are who we now believe to be police informants.

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Imagine a day in without work, school, housework, or shopping. Imagine a day in which you did whatever you wanted. What does it look like?

[H/T Marisa Holmes]

President Obama headed to New Hampshire to promote the next prong of his jobs initiative with voters there. At the very beginning of his speech, he's mic checked by a group of OccupyWallStreet protesters.

Compare and contrast his response to them with Newt Gingrich. Or Karl Rove.

Instead of mocking them or villifying them, he tells them "they're the reason he ran for office in the first place."

If you've been watching the live stream today, you know things are moving fast and furious in New York, LA and elsewhere. Police in riot gear are doing their best to shut down the press and the protesters, and aren't very discriminating about who they hit.

Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller is no fan of the Occupy Movement, but that might change after today's police assault on their videographer and reporter:

While covering Occupy Wall Street’s “Day of Action” Thursday morning, Daily Caller reporter Michelle Fields and videographer Direna Cousins were struck by NYPD officers as police tried to clear Wall Street of protesters.

“The police officers were beating the protesters with batons, and were also beating the media,” Fields told TheDC. “They hit Direna and me with batons. They hit other members of the press in order to get them to move out of the street.”

Both were struck, but neither sustained injuries that required hospitalization.

Clear indications that Fields and Cousins were members of the press didn’t stop the NYPD beating.

“Direna had a camera in her hand and I had a microphone, and we were being hit,” she said. “When I fell to the ground I said at one point, ‘I’m just covering this! I’m covering this!’ And the officer just said, ‘Come on, get up, get up,’ before pulling me up by my jacket.’”

“The protesters came up to me right away and asked if I needed any medical assistance. They were actually very kind and helpful. It was the police officers who were very aggressive,” Fields added.

It's shameful to see these thuggish police actions against the press and public in this country. As much as I dislike the Daily Caller, I certainly don't think there was any cause for police to throw them to the ground and hit them like that. Perhaps they will reconsider the harsh treatment they've given the Occupy movement in light of what these two went through.

[h/t ThinkProgress]