Dissatisfied with the country’s worsening economic troubles and displeased with proposed austerity measures, thousands of demonstrators clashed with police in Madrid Tuesday. The protesters formed a human chain around the parliament building while police fired bullets at and beat the most violent in the crowd with truncheons. At least 22 people were arrested while 32 were injured, including four policeman. The protest was timed to the new 2013 budget, which will be announced by the government Thursday and includes cuts in inflation-linked pensions, taxes on stock transactions, the implantation of green taxes, and the elimination of several tax breaks. The region of Catalonia, which is responsible for 20 percent of the national output, called for an early election on Nov. 25 that could lead to a referendum on secession.

Yves at Naked Capitalism has a good run down on the situation in Spain. And this Daily Kos diary does a pretty good job of showing the consequences of the banker control going on in Europe.

Dave Johnson at Seeing the Forest adds this:

The job of bankers is to assess risk. They are supposed to look at all the factors, and price a loan accordingly. If you have a credit card with very high risk, you might pay in the 20% range! This way the banks can lend out the money, and even if a large percentage of the borrowers default, they still do OK. They are expecting a certain default rate, they price accordingly, they do OK on the loan portfolio.

Same for when they lend to countries. They price loans according to the default risk, and over the lifetime of the loans they are supposed to get their money back plus some return, even with the expected defaults. If the banks screwed up and didn't price their loans correctly, this doesn't make the people of Greece lazy, etc. it makes the bankers incompetent.

OR the bankers did price correctly, and over the lifetimes of all of their loans they are getting their money back and a return, AND they are also taking advantage of the situation to get more, make a killing, force privatization, force wages down, get rid of that pesky democracy that has been in the way, etc.

So here we are again, with the elites in the position of being either stupid (incompetent) or evil. And with the people in misery as a result, while the elites do just fine for themselves. With the added bonus for the elites that the experiment of wresting control from the elites and to the people -- democracy -- ending.

Police in the California city of Anaheim, home of Disneyland, are facing allegations of murder and brutality after fatally shooting two Latino men and firing rubber bullets into crowds of protesters. Here is an interview with neighborhood children who were shot at with rubber bullets by police.

via Occupy Los Angeles:

On July 12th, participants in OccupyLA met to raise awareness for unlawful arrests of activists that had been targeting a lobby group with a stranglehold on power over local and state politics. The activists handed out chalk and shared the story of unlawful arrests and police repression. The LAPD responded by amassing in riot gear and issuing a tactical alert effectively shutting down the Downtown LA art walk and trapping many patrons inside of local businesses as a response to chalk art being drawn on the sidewalk. The mainstream media misrepresented the sequence of events, blaming occupiers for the near riot in Downtown LA even though the police were responsible for escalation.

The public, frustrated by the absurdity of police violence over 'sidewalk chalk', filled the streets demanding that the police cease their intimidation over what many consider a fundamental right to free speech and assembly. The law enforcement arm of the state saw fit to intervene violently in a peaceful expression of free speech and 'do it yourself' art, on behalf of the private interests that control the downtown space. They shot the crowd with the near lethal force of rubber bullets and foam grenades inciting fear and panic so that their violent intervention appears justified. In light of recent police murders in Anaheim, it is important we show that crowd control tactics taken against any who dare protest are not acceptable uses of force by any police state. More than that, these acts of terror by the police state will not deter us from assembling and seeking justice for our communities.

The political and financial elite cannot bear to see us assemble, cannot bear for us to share ideas and strategies or grow our vision and movement into revolution. We know that this is not about chalk. It is about whose interests are affected by our message, whose interests are protected when so-called public servants protect lifeless sidewalks from the messages of a frustrated populace. It is about censorship, political freedom and the merger of corporation and state working to silence the voice of the people. It is about the extrajudicial authority of the national security apparatus for the mere purpose of intimidating the masses into silence.

On August 9th, Occupy Los Angeles calls for you to fill your squares and take your streets and sidewalks with chalk. Call to all people everywhere to show that dissent is as simple as writing your grievances on the sidewalk, as accessible as hopscotch in the streets- reclaiming public space and engaging in public dialogue and expression. Join us (if you're close enough) for a day of solidarity and fun to celebrate the human spirit and chalk for our collective liberation. Together we will remake the art of public life in our alley ways, on the doorsteps of banks whose only allegiance is to profit, and in the streets built by our labor.

In solidarity, regardless of all nations and borders, we will engage in willful public expression against political repression.

SUBMIT CHALK PHOTOS HERE: http://chalkitout.tumblr.com/

NOTE: Be aware that your actions make evoke a police response and it is important all participants are familiar with local private and public property laws so that they can assess their own level of risk and make informed decisions.

While covering the Anaheim protests, Anaheim Police begin firing riot control impact weapons at journalists Tim Pool and Amber Lyon. Neither Tim nor Amber were hurt. During the initial firing shown in the above video, Pool holds up his press credentials, and puts his arms in the air, but apparently neither holds any meaning when dealing with these *cough* "peace keepers."

Take a close listen to all the helicopters flying above, at one point last night there were at least seven. Then hear the sounds of the various "non-lethal" weapons being shot off. It sounds like a war zone.

Amber Lyon was pinned between two trucks at one point, and Tim was fired at multiple times after this video but is unscathed. Aside from being brutal, it seems the Anaheim police are really, really bad shots, thank goodness!

Broadcasting live with Ustream

At this moment, all I know is that this violence going on now in Anaheim is related to protests about the recent shooting death of a young man there. The community is protesting the police killing of Manuel Diaz in Anaheim over the weekend.

Massive police presence in the area, and police are firing into any crowd with bean bags, pepper balls, and rubber bullets. I just saw one young woman with three horrible marks from rubber bullets on one of her legs.

There have also been bottles and rocks tossed at police, and Tim Pool just missed being hit by a rock. Media is being kept behind the police line, and at this moment there are 7 helicopters overhead, not certain if they are media, police, or possibly medical? Dumpster fire in the road right now.

This is a bad situation, with the livestreamers not able to see the protesters or what's happening to them.

Tweets and observations from the livestream:

"A couple cops fired at me!" says @Timcast in #Anaheim. "Press pass, hands in the air. They still fired at me."

@TimCast - "Car just fired on...literally just ricocheted 2 feet from my head" #Anaheim

"They aren't giving warnings, they're just firing indiscriminately."

A woman with two babies is walking around like normal with shooting going on every which way, wtf?

Via Twitter, it seems that all media personnel have been fired on by police.

Guest at Disney being kept inside the park, fire department responds to fires allegedly related to the protest.

Windows at a Starbucks smashed...

Follow @timcast for new developments.

By the way, You can donate to @TimCast here: https://www.wepay.com/donate/timcastTV
Every little bit helps.

It seems that in Los Angeles, California, it isn't chalking that's illegal. It's the message. Participants of Chalk Walk Respond to Mayor’s Statement & Selective Enforcement here.

You can't arrest an idea.

This episode of the show reports on the Guitarmy March to New York from Philly and OWS Week correspondent Paul Talbot's violent arrest. OWS Week also covers events over in LA, the Chalk Walk event which was stormed by LAPD with many arrests and rubber bullet injuries. Also on this edition of the show we report on Fort Manning's continued demonstrations with Lee Camp's comic relief input, and Mitt Romney got it at Koch's plush beach house.

[Via]

More videos surfaced online on Sunday of the LAPD violence at Thursday’s Downtown LA Art Walk.

Many helicopters hover above the streets. Full riot gear was worn by some officers during the ordeal. Rubber bullets and other projectiles were in use. The police were very aggressive. All this over chalk painting on the sidewalk?

In the video above at 4:49, you can see a man in a white t-shirt shot at very close range with a projectile weapon. He falls to the ground and is clearly incapacitated. After the man stumbles to the ground, two Occupiers come to his aid but police move in, chase the occupiers off, 14 officers surround the man, while one officers kicks the man in the face, then other officers smash his face into the pavement, and violently arrested him.

This next video shows the incident from ground level:

Continue reading »

Blood flows down the face of an injured protester who was injured during clashes between supporters of Spanish coal miners and riot police as they ended a "Marcha Negra" (Black March) near the Industry Ministry in Madrid July 11, 2012 (Reuters/Paul Hanna)

At least 76 people have been injured in Madrid as clashes flared up between protesters and police, the latter using rubber bullets. Thousands of Spaniards turned out against new cuts introduced by the government.

Those injured include 33 police officers and 43 protesters – miners and their supporters.

Minor arrests have been made so far, with eight people being detained. Three of those arrested reportedly threw bricks at police, local El Pais newspaper reported. The police have confirmed that there were no miners among the arrested.
...

Witnesses and demonstrators claim that police started the attack without any warning.
...

Protesters disagree with a 63 per cent cut in subsidies to coal mining companies, major contributors to the Spanish energy market. Unions say the plan threatens 30,000 jobs and could destroy their livelihoods.

Miners, who were hiking from the north of the country for the past two weeks, have been joined by tens of thousands of Spaniards also protesting against Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s tax hike.

The prime minister announced his decision to raise VAT by 3 per cent as part of the plan to trim the public budget by 65 billion euro over the next two-and-a-half years. Rajoy also declared a 3.5-billion-euro cut to local government spending.

Many protesters marched more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) from mines in northern Spain.

As protesters call for more demonstrations to make their voices heard journalist and writer Miguel-Anxo Murado told RT that the government seems to underestimate the protests.

Much more at RT.com

"Shouts in the Sky" is a documentary film about the civil movement born in May, 2011, in Barcelona, Spain. Through an occupation of the main square, Plaça de Catalunya, which remained occupied for months to demand direct democracy and rethinking of economical and political structures, the movement created a new space that challenged the passivity of society. As the uprising grew, the state and the media used many ways to try to discredit and stop the movement violently - sound familiar? - but the movement was determined to peacefully resist, despite being fired upon by police brandishing rubber bullets.

"In the film we follow many dialogues between people, police, ideologies, political and economical forces and the state," the filmmakers said.