Via OccupyWallStreet.net:

Date:
Sunday, March 24, 2013 - 3:00pm to 5:00pm

Address:
55th St. and Church Ave.
Brooklyn New York 11203
United States

People in New York: Support Kimani Gray's community and all communities of color besieged by police violence, by coming out for a MASS MARCH SUNDAY THE 24TH. 3 pm, from the site of Kiki's vigil at 55th and Church, marching to the 67th precinct.

WEDNESDAY the 20th, there is a Stop and Frisk Town Hall Meeting (Co-Sponsored by Council Member Williams) 5:30 PM-7:30 PM, 833 Marcy Ave (Concord Baptist Church)

Jose Lasalle of Stop Stop and Frisk has asked people to make this Town Hall about police brutality, not violence amongst kids. There may be a speak-out and planning meeting for the Sunday march as well (for location, check: goo.gl/XjveK).

You have also been invited to come every day at 7 pm to show your support for East Flatbush in its fight against police brutality (55th and Church). Check the WE WANT JUSTICE FOR KIMANI GRAY Facebook page for updates.

Keep in mind that people from outside the neighborhood should come as supporters and take a back seat.
Here are some tips on how to show respect when you arrive (these are tips from OWS, not asked of us by community members):

Do not mic check at these demonstrations. That's for East Flatbush residents and march Organizers to take the lead on. If you do so, and you are not a resident or long-time Organizer in the area, we will know you are not with Occupy Wall Street.

If you choose to take photographs, ask people's permission. Feel free to livestream or film police activity: http://www.livestream.com/userguide/index.php?title=Broadcast_live

When asked whether people from outside the neighborhood should be coming by, a longtime Organizer had this advice to give: "Come, yes. But don't come if you are not internally organized. Come. Come if you can take a back seat. Come if you plan to develop real relationships and maintain them over the long-haul."

In Oakland there will be a solidarity rally, March 21st at 5pm #OaklandProtest in #solidarity w/ #BrooklynProtest

#KimaniGray
#OaklandProtest
#jailkillercops
#Justice4KimaniGray
#Justice4AlanBlueford

Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 2pm
Eastside Arts Alliance, 2277 International Blvd.
Oakland, CA

On Saturday, February 2nd, Strike Debt Bay Area will host Oakland’s first Debtors’ Assembly.

As individuals, families, and communities, most of us are drowning in debt for the basic things we need to live, including housing, education, and health care. Even those of us who do not have personal debt are affected by predatory lending. Our essential public services are cut because our cities and towns are held hostage by the same big banks that have been bailed out by our government. All of us are outraged that big banks don’t have to pay their debts, but we do.

Debt keeps us isolated, ashamed, and afraid—of becoming homeless, of going hungry, of being crippled or killed by treatable illness, or of being trapped in poverty-level jobs. Those facing foreclosure, medical debt, student debt, or credit card debt feel alone, hounded by debt collectors, and forced into unrewarding work to keep up with payments.

Strike Debt is building a movement to challenge this system while creating alternatives and supporting each other. At the Debtors’ Assembly we will come together as a community and begin to rethink debt, not as an issue of individual shame, but as a political platform for collective resistance and action. Come to the Assembly to learn about tools for escaping the closing walls of debt, to share resources and skills, and to magnify our assembled energy. As we share our experiences we can begin to take back from the financiers what they have taken from us: our freedom and our future.

Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits.

ORGANIZATION INFO: Strike Debt Bay Area is the local chapter of Strike Debt, an international movement of groups working to build popular resistance to all forms of unjust debt. Strike Debt has organized the Rolling Jubilee, the ]Debt Resistors Operations Manual](http://strikedebt.org), and local debtors’ assemblies. Strike Debt supports the creation of just and sustainable economies, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence. We owe the financial institutions nothing. It is to our friends, families and community that we owe everything.

[Via OccupyWallSt.org]

Jodie Randolph tells the story of the struggle to keep her home.

Jodie Randolph is a small-business owner in Alameda, California. She is also a breast-cancer survivor, and is in treatment for colon cancer.

Jodie has been fighting to stay in her home for years. Companies affiliated with Morgan
Stanley shuttled the loan around from one subsidiary to the other until they foreclosed on her. Morgan Stanley’s tactics have included:

• Pushing her into a predatory refinance
• Moving her loan around from company to company so she couldn’t get a fix on who to negotiate with
• Removing the lawyer for Morgan Stanley who was actually negotiating with Jodie when they were
close to reaching a mutually acceptable plan.
• Stunningly, breaking in and changing the locks to her house while she was at a chemotherapy
session.

Supported by a delegation of her family, friends, neighbors, the Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and other foreclosure activists, Jodie has staved off eviction from her home since November 2012.

In a terrific initial victory for people’s action and home defense, Jodie was able to meet Monday, with Morgan Stanley. In November, when Jodie came to Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense, she had no prospect of a bank meeting, and all negotiations and legal actions seemed over and done.

She and her allies sat down fairly amicably with bank representatives, including a lawyer flown in from Southern California, and presented her proposal for how the foreclosure could be lifted and a fair loan modification could be put in place. Morgan Stanley is ‘considering’ her proposal.

In the meantime, the home defense continues as everyone hopes and waits.

A Bay area filmmaker is seeking donations to help complete a documentary chronicling the Occupy movement in the streets of Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco.

Via:

Help us to finish this important documentary that chronicles the events and pivotal moments of the OCCUPY MOVEMENT in the San Francisco Bay Area. As the movement continues to unfold, it is a story that is an inspiration to activists throughout the world and merits a place in the public record for future generations to understand.

We have a rough-cut and need your help with finishing funds for the fine-cut, audio mix, titles and original animation featuring our own rendition of the Monopoly Man. We've already invested $10,000 of our own money for shooting and editing but cannot complete this important work without your help. Please consider making your contribution to history by donating to the completion of this important work.

For more information you can reach us via our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LongMemoryProductions

For those considering larger contributions we'd be happy to send you a copy of the rough-cut upon request.

More information about the film at the link.

Video footage of Occupy Oakland protest on 11-2-11 and beating of Kayvan Sabeghi by Oakland police officer.

An Army veteran who was beaten with a night stick by Oakland police during an Occupy protest and suffered a lacerated spleen, has filed a lawsuit against the Alameda County sheriff's office for allegedly denying him medical care and mocking him during 18 painful hours in a county jail.

Via:

Sabeghi, 33, of Oakland, a businessman who was an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he had taken part in a nonviolent Occupy Oakland protest on Nov. 2, 2011, and was trying to walk home when he was stopped by police. One officer was videotaped repeatedly hitting him with a nightstick. He was arrested on suspicion of remaining at the scene of a riot but was never charged, his lawyers said.

At the Glenn Dyer Jail in downtown Oakland, the suit said, deputies initially refused to examine Sabeghi or take him to a doctor. One officer saw him lying on the floor throwing up and told him to stop using heroin, and another deputy recorded his sufferings on video to humiliate him, the suit said.

A medical staffer finally took his blood pressure and reported, inaccurately, that he was a diabetic and an alcoholic, the suit said. After friends posted bail, Sabeghi, who had briefly blacked out and was unable to walk, was taken to Highland General Hospital, where he underwent surgery and remained for five days.

Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a sheriff's spokesman, denies the allegations and said that Sabeghi received prompt assistance upon arrival, and that an ambulance was called when his condition worsened.

No word as yet on when the case may come to trial.

Occupy activist Scott Olsen, an Iraq War veteran critically injured during a heavy-handed eviction by Oakland police during last year's protests, speaks about his experiences with Occupy and where it stands today. The movement that swept the globe in 2011 has not seen as much success in 2012. What obstacles has it faced in its efforts to maintain momentum? And what can it do to bring people back into the streets?

On a side note, if you watched any of Occupy Oakland's anniversary march last week, you may have caught a glimpse of Scott either walking with a cane or being pushed in a wheel chair. It seems he was hit by a car recently as he was crossing a street. I don't have any other information on his injuries, but he seemed in good spirits during the march, and was able to attend all of the anniversary festivities at Oscar Grant Plaza.

Streaming video by Ustream

Update: 11:15pm -- Some guy ran screaming straight into the Oakland Police, he was "detained" by the OPD, and possibly arrested. It seems the protesters have cleared out any belongings, and just a few people are hanging around outside the plaza. The park is closed. One person was discovered sleeping in a tree, police shook their heads and walked away. Still what seems to be a rather small group of police in the area, some are security guards, and now they're headed back to the guy in the tree.

Occupiers are estimating over 400 people occupied the plaza and participated in the march that was nearly completely peaceful. Security is now bribing the guy in the tree with free pizza, and a twenty-dollar bill, but he doesn't seem to be going for it, per livestream.

And it looks like tree man is climbing down from his branch. OPD gave him the pizza, two water bottles and $25...not a bad deal. He has taken his pizza, and gone into the subway. Interesting evening, Occupy Oakland. I'm signing off for the night.

Update: 11:00pm -- Via Twitter:

Slide show presentation still going on in Oscar Grant Plaza, Oakland Police coming in trying to close the park, after Mayor Quan allegedly said the Occupiers could spend the night(Via Twitter, no confirmation). Only one arrest so far, a man who hit a police officer with a rock, was not with the occupy group, and occupiers say he was from out of town.

Susie Cagle ‏@susie_c

#O25 #OO history tour (minus Traveler's Aid failure): strange & self-obsessed. Curious if they'll spend night but less curious than before.

Susie Cagle ‏@susie_c

Remembering talking to #OO ppl last Nov & Dec about actions moving beyond the plaza occupation. Those ppl weren't there tonight. #O25

Update: 9:15pm -- Occupy Oakland march has ended, all are back at Oscar Grant Plaze...will they spend the night?

Update: 7:44pm -- The street lights in the area where the protesters are marching have all been shut off. If this is intentional, not sure what the point would be.

Update: 6:41pm -- Scott Olsen is being interviewed now on the livestream from Oakland. Businesses in the area have vowed to stay open during their normal hours, but many have covered their windows with plywood ahead of the Occupy march.

Members of Occupy Oakland have begun to gather at Oscar Grant Plaza this afternoon. The march is set for 7:00 p.m. PST, and then they plan to return to the Plaza to re-establish their former encampment. City officials and police have said they will not allow that to happen. The park "closes" at 10 p.m., so arrests are anticipated, if not violence as well.

Occupy Oakland will begin gathering today at 3:00 p.m. PST outside City Hall on Oscar Grant Plaza in preparation for a march marking the anniversary of their eviction from the park last year. After the announced 7:00 p.m. march, they plan to return to the plaza where they intend to re-establish their encampment.

Via:

The announcement urged supporters to bring "tents, warm clothes, shields, a defensive attitude and hella friends."

A few hundred protesters are expected to participate.

The city released a statement Tuesday pledging to protect free-speech rights, while also expressing zero tolerance for overnight camping at the plaza or vandalism, which has marred several prior Occupy protests.

Downtown businesses and restaurants, including frequent vandal targets Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe and Sears, said they would not close early on Thursday. The most notable exception is the Downtown Oakland YMCA, which will close at 6 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.

Sources already in Oakland tell me that there is a very large police presence already today outside the plaza ahead of the Occupy gathering. Hopefully OPD will not continue their policy of placing officers with histories of using deadly force on the frontlines during Occupy Oakland protests.

I'll have a live stream up later, and will update as more information becomes available.

Via Occupy Oakland:

On October 25 of last year, the Oakland Commune at Oscar Grant Plaza was raided with enough brutal force to gain international attention. Since then, continuous state repression and police brutality have sought to divide Oakland and keep its residents from reclaiming public space in a time of local, national and global austerity.

The Oakland Commune served as a socio/political refuge for Oakland residents. It was open and free to all and provided a space where people could traverse race and class divides in order to share food, discussion and visions of a more just world. During this time, it was reported that crime within the beat that contained Oscar Grant Plaza went down 19 percent, which highlights the social efficacy of the community when allowed to come together and care for itself.

This Thursday October 25, Occupy Oakland will take back Oscar Grant Plaza with the intention of reclaiming the commons and the right of the people to organize in City Centers. This is a call out to all those who either experienced or were intrigued by the power of the Oakland Commune to come and contribute to the evening’s planned discussions on racism, patriarchy, state repression, and bridges to building a mass movement. A pot luck, community forum and general assembly are scheduled to begin at 4:00pm, followed by a march at 7:00pm. Films will be shown in the evening.

Come gather with us in the commons!

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

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said today that he wants to discipline 44 of his officers for misconduct in their handling of Occupy Oakland protesters at three major demonstrations in the past year. Jordan said at a briefing at City Hall that his Internal Affairs division has received 1,127 complaints about alleged officer misconduct at Occupy Oakland protests in the past year.

Jordan also revealed that one of his officers - not an officer from an outside agency - fired a beanbag that critically injured Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen on Oct. 25, an incident that galvanized the Occupy movement.

Via:

A scathing report released Friday by the Oakland, Calif., police department came down hard on certain Oakland officers for their part in three Occupy protests on the streets of Oakland last year.

It also said for the first time that it was an Oakland police officer who fired the bean bag shot that hit and critically injured an Iraq war veteran. That officer, according to Chief Howard Jordan, is also the subject of a criminal investigation connected to the injury to Scott Olsen.

The city's official report followed an unprecedented 1,127 complaints by citizens against officers during those protests that happened on Oct. 25 and Nov. 2 of 2011, and Jan. 28 of 2012.

They were part of the Occupy movement that brought tens of thousands of people to Oakland for a series of demonstrations that turned violent.

Chief Jordan said he wants to fire two officers, demote another, suspend or give a written reprimand to over a dozen for their actions during the violent protests. Another 23 will receive written reprimands and 3 others will receive counseling and additional training.

You can read the full report here( pdf).