November 18, 2011 - Occupy Philly Forcloses on Wells Fargo - the full uncensored version.

A jury acquitted a dozen Occupy Philadelphia demonstrators Tuesday -- and the judge shook their hands -- in their appeal of misdemeanor convictions stemming from 2011 arrests during a sit-in at a Wells Fargo Bank branch.

Philly.com:

They were charged with "defiant trespass."

But after a Common Pleas Court jury on Tuesday acquitted the 12 Occupy Philadelphia protesters arrested in a 2011 bank sit-in, the trial judge shook their hands and called them the "most affable group of defendants I've ever come across."

"I think what this really shows is that when the people of Philadelphia make a decision, they want someone accountable," said Aaron Troisi, a 26-year-old working toward a master's degree in education at Temple University. "Accountability and justice is not what they experienced with banks like Wells Fargo."

Troisi and 11 fellow Occupy demonstrators were acquitted of conspiracy and defiant trespass in the Nov. 18, 2011, sit-in inside a Wells Fargo Bank branch at 17th and Market Streets in Center City.

The jury of 10 women and two men had deliberated about 13 hours since Friday before it returned the verdict to a packed courtroom shortly before noon.

Afterward, Judge Nina N. Wright Padilla took the unusual step of coming down from the bench and asking all 12 to approach so she could shake their hands.

"I hope you continue your work in a law-abiding way," said Padilla.

Last year, Wells Fargo and four other major lenders reached a $25 billion settlement with attorneys general across the nation to end investigations into alleged foreclosure abuses.

A federal judge has approved a $1 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed by demonstrators who were pepper-sprayed during a protest at the University of California, Davis in 2011.

Via:

Under the settlement, UC agreed to pay $30,000 to each of the 21 plaintiffs, $100,000 to be split among 15 other individuals and $250,000 for their attorneys.

The Nov. 18, 2011, incident prompted national outrage, angry campus protests and calls for the resignation of Chancellor Linda Katehi after online videos shot by witnesses went viral.

Images of a police officer casually spraying orange pepper-spray in the faces of nonviolent protesters became a rallying symbol for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The settlement also calls for the University of California to set aside $100,000 to pay other individuals who can prove they were arrested or pepper-sprayed during the protest of tuition hikes and police brutality. The university would also give the ACLU up to $20,000 for its work reviewing free speech and protest policies at UC Davis.

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

Hundreds of demonstrators swarmed the Capitol Hill office of the National Rifle Association on Monday to denounce the powerful lobby and push for new gun controls in response to Friday’s killing of 27 people, including 20 elementary school children, in Newtown, Connecticut.

Chanting “Shame on the NRA,” the protesters marched from Spirit of Justice Park to the NRA offices on First Street near the Capitol. After observing a moment of silence, the protesters read off the names of the Sandy Hook Elementary School victims. They then read model responses from an NRA questionnaire given to politicians in order to grade them on their adherence to the NRA’s policies.

"We're here today because the NRA has blood on its hands," said Josh Nelson, who helped organize the protest for CREDO Action, a liberal activist group.

“I'm protesting the NRA’s lobbying efforts to keep assault rifles in the hands of the American public and also for their campaigning against any common sense gun control measures,” said Jason Gooljar, of Arlington, Va.

He said he was among about 10 people who protested in front of the building after the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., over the summer.

“I'm glad more people have shown up,” he said. “Unfortunately it takes an incident like this to get more people mobilized.”

“The National Rifle Association is a powerful lobby that purports to represent gun owners,” Becky Bond, political director of CREDO, said in a written statement. “But in reality, it represents the deadly interests of arms dealers and gun manufacturers. It’s time for the NRA’s top lobbyists to stand down and stop trying to prevent Congress from enacting sensible gun control laws that could save lives.”

President Obama announced on Wednesday that Vice President Biden would be leading the push for stricter gun laws. In a speech at the White House that coincided with some of the funerals for the victims of the Newtown school shooting, President Obama insisted that these attacks are “violence that we cannot accept as routine.” Obama said he would “urge Congress” to take on gun-control legislation no later than January, especially a return to the assault-weapons ban, which expired in 2004.

On Sunday, September 2, 2012, hundreds of demonstrators marched through Charlotte, NC to protest before the opening of the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Occupy Wall Street didn't just go to sleep on November 17th and wake up on May 1st. Since its triumphant trek across the Brooklyn Bridge, the movement has been marching, occupying, organizing—and training. Warm-ups at Zuccotti Park each Friday beginning in late March culminated in marches through the Financial District, where demonstrators kept the police on their toes.

This tongue-in-cheek '80s montage, produced by Waging Nonviolence, commemorates the run-up to May Day. Next up: : Summer Disobedience School.

Filmmakers: Waging Nonviolence

Sheriff's deputies tried twice this week to evict Occupy Minnesota supporters from a foreclosed home they were defending.

On Wednesday, aggressive efforts of Occupy Minnesota foiled a 4:00 PM sheriff's raid on the foreclosed home of the Cruz family. The deputies retreated.

On Friday they returned again at 4:00 AM, armed with battering rams, jack hammers and massive bolt cutters. There were about a dozen occupy volunteers sleeping at the house. All but two were ordered outside - the two couldn't find their shoes. The five people secured to the building were forcibly removed and arrested, currently held until Tuesday morning.

Again the sheriff's crew was driven back by the occupy volunteers who came up the alley and entered the back of the house. The deputies retreated with their prisoners leaving the home in shambles.

A rally in front of City hall at noon on May 25, featured the broken door and speeches by supporters including three members of the Minneapolis City Council. The door was then delivered to Sheriff Stanek's Office in City Hall. The sheriff declined to meet with the demonstrators. The broken door was left at the front door of his office. A major source of frustration was that the bank was working with the Cruz family to clear up the situation and renew the mortgage. The sheriff's actions cut across this progress and was seen as unnecessary and punitive by those close to the situation.

German police Wednesday have cleared the Occupy Frankfurt encampment that has been in place since October 2011, ahead of scheduled anti-capitalism protests this weekend.

Via:

German authorities on Wednesday cleared out a group of protesters who have camped for months in front of the European Central Bank, ahead of huge anti-capitalism protests expected at the weekend.

Some of the demonstrators hurled paint at police who were moving them on, after they ignored a request to leave voluntarily, said an AFP reporter at the scene. There were a dozen or so arrests, according to a police spokesman.

However, the clearing of the “Occupy Frankfurt” camp was largely peaceful, with around 50 demonstrators sitting stubbornly on the ground in a show of passive resistance.

The ban on the about 100 “indignants”, who have held vigil outside the ECB since October — the longest continuous protest in Europe — runs until Sunday.

Police expect 40,000 people from Thursday for demonstrations that are expected to climax on Saturday. They want to set up a security cordon around the ECB, meaning the camp has to be cleared.

Authorities have already banned several protest actions, fearing “public disorder” after violence at similar events.

Hopefully, Occupy Frankfurt will return to their regular spot after the end of the protests.

Just as Occupy Wall Street was getting some very positive reports in the media over their "sleepful protests," and the relationships being built within the community...anarchy. To what end? To make the residents of NYC fearful of protesters in general? To put an end to the good pr? To give the NYPD even less reason to treat Occupy protesters like human beings, so they can care even less how badly the next one their baton encounters is beaten?

Please already, enough with the "favors."

Village Voice:

The heat must be getting to a few peoples' heads. At around 9pm last night, a loose pack of around 50 to 60 protestors took to the streets, looting and vandalizing storefronts and property in the East Village. Their targets: the windows of the Starbucks on Astor and the newly opened 7/11 on St. Mark's.

Glass bottles were thrown at the sites while chants of 'NYPD! Go to hell!' rang out through the night. As the group headed back towards Alphabet City, the night culminated in the closing of Tompkins Square Park, where the group supposedly was congregating.

An hour later, at an after party for the Anarchist Book Fair at the Sixth Street Community Center, two attendees, who apparently had a little too much fun, were arrested for throwing bottles off the Community Center's roof. It has been reported that the events were unrelated but this still led the NYPD - a force of about 30 officers - to close East Sixth Street between Avenue B and C.

Using a tactic known as a 'black bloc,' the cavalcade that ran through the East Village dressed in all-black gear as a way to conceal their identity, promote solidarity and hide in the throngs of Saturday night party-goers if need be. This could explain why there were no reports of any of them getting caught.

A short while later, arrest reports rolled in.

NYDailyNews reports frightened customers taking cover underneath tables at Starbucks as windows were beaten with pipes and bats. Two NYPD officers were injured when they were attacked with pipes:

Nicholas Thommen, 30, and Eric Marchese, 24, were arrested outside Starbucks, and Occupy Wall St. attorney Alexander Penley, 41, was arrested later outside an E. Sixth St. community center, where clashes with police continued.

Penley, 41, of West End Avenue, and Thommen, 30, of Salem, Ore., were both charged with second-degree assault, criminal possession of a weapon, menacing, resisting arrest, inciting to riot, disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration, police said.

Marchese, 24, of Brentwood, L.I., was charged with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.

...

The three were part of a group of 25 people - some of them masked - carrying 8-feet-long galvanized metal pipes, using them to vandalize commercial properties, cops said.

The group carried on and marched against traffic into the streets near Washington Square Park after leaving the Fifth Annual New York City Anarchist Book Fair at Judson Church on Washington Square South, police said. They began chanting “F--- the NYPD”, “All pigs must die,” and “Cops are murderers’, officials said.

A larger group of around 150 people spray painted anarchist symbols on commercial property and tossed garbage cans while throwing pipes and bottles at responding officers, according to police.

Penley is an often quoted by the media member of Occupy Wall Street, so a reminder -- the movement is open to anyone, and in general this is not a bad thing.

An organizer for the Anarchist Book Fair stated that the group did not have anything to do with the evening's madness and mayhem.

Stay tuned as I'll keep you posted on any official reports of Sunday nights damage totals, or any official statement from Occupy Wall Street.

Mental health advocates and members of Occupy Chicago barricaded themselves inside a mental health clinic on Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago this morning demanding that Mayor Rahm Emanuel back off of plans to close the clinic at the end of April. Emanuel’s plan was to consolidate 12 city clinics into six.

CBS Chicago:

Demonstrators chanted and blocked the entrance to the clinic throughout the night. They put up barricades in front of the doors, made from steel gates, piping and quick-dry cement.

Police used a chainsaw to cut through the makeshift barricades.

“Chicago Police officers came with bull cutters, chainsaws and handcuffs to forcibly remove the folks who had said they really had no choice but to put their bodies on the line, and do whatever they could do to keep this clinic open,” said Tousannif Losier of the Mental Health Project, which is leading the protest.

Protesters insist on saving the clinic, which is one of four slated to close under city budget cuts. Two have already closed.

“Many of those people who are the most vulnerable people, who have been occupying this clinic tonight in the last stand to try and save what is ours, and have gotten nowhere in City Council; nowhere with our calls to aldermen,” said Sophia Kortchna, also of the Mental Health Movement.

Another demonstration is already planned to take place at the clinic on Saturday, April 14.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co-founders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream joined CNN's American Morning Monday to explain why they support the Occupy movement.

Cohen and Greenfield were also scheduled to appear at the National Press Club to discuss why and how they feel business leaders should work to reduce economic inequality, and to discuss their support the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrators.

In a statement of support on the Ben and Jerry website, the Board of Directors writes, "As a board and as a company we have actively been involved with these issues for years but your efforts have put them out front in a way we have not been able to do."