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.

Yesterday, after a weekend training in nonviolent civil disobedience, protesters from the Tar Sands Blockade jubilantly swarmed the Keystone XL pipeline's construction site in Winnsboro, Texas. Keystone XL pipeline opponents have tried petitioning the government, filing lawsuits, and bringing their issues to the media's attention, but with Obama's recent endorsement of the southern leg of the pipeline, the Tar Sands Blockade feels justified to resort to civil disobedience.

Here, protesters emerge from a “sit-in” 70 feet in the air, in trees which stood in an area already cleared to make way for the pipeline. Protesters holler and cheer as they flood into the construction site, scrawling “blood for oil” on the machinery and holding up a banner that read: “All pipelines leak, all markets peak”. Some people locked themselves to pieces of equipment and others stood, defiantly, in the way of the dirty oil machines.

Eight were arrested yesterday but six of those were released from jail today on charges of criminal trespass. The two who chained themselves to Keystone XL machinery will be in court today.

Luke's Global Revolution TV is livestreaming police brutality protests going on now in Montreal, Canada, as well as Occupy Oakland's sit-in and concert for education at Lakeview Elementary School.

Concerned citizens and members of FtheBanks.org deliver a letter to New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on May 4th, demanding that he hold a public hearing regarding the federal bank fraud investigation he co-chairs. The NYPD arrive and naturally all are arrested.

[H/T to MountainMan23]