Susie passed this article from The Atlantic on to me that highlights many of the documented instances of police misconduct cited in the 8 month study and investigation undertaken by law clinics at NYU, Fordham, Harvard, and Stanford, "Suppressing Protest: Human Rights Violations in the U.S. Response to Occupy Wall Street." I wrote my own summary of the report here, but only highlighted two of the documented cases of misconduct involving police treatment of occupy protesters.

These are all worthy of noting, and I received the above Youtube video this morning from a reader that seems like a perfect accompaniment:

A café employee at work near Union Square heard a passing Occupy march, went outside, and decided to begin filming after seeing police using what he felt was excessive force on protesters. Video evidence shows a white-shirted police officer pushing the café employee, camera in hand. It appears that the employee then began speaking to the officer while holding both hands in the air as the officer approached him. In an interview, the employee stated that he asked the officer why he was pushing and told the officer, "I'm just taking pictures." Video then shows the officer grabbing the employee by the wrist, and flipping him hard to the ground face-first, in what was described as a "judo-flip." The employee stated that he was subsequently charged with "blocking traffic" and "obstructing justice."

Video shows that an officer drove a scooter at a crowd of people, including journalists and legal observers. The video then shows a legal observer lying on the ground screaming, his foot under the scooter. A second video shows the observer on the ground with his foot under the scooter. A third video shows that the observer kicked the scooter off or away from his leg, at which point officers dragged the observer several feet and began to cuff him. While he was being cuffed, an officer pushed the observer's face into the pavement by pressing his baton across the back of the observer's neck.

A member of the Research Team observed an officer push and then throw a male protester into the air for no apparent reason as he walked, with many other protesters, near parked police scooters. The protester fell hard to the ground and was not arrested.

A journalist stated that when he asked a non-uniformed officer for his name at a march, the officer pushed the journalist against a wall and held him there, threatening him that if he kept asking questions, he would get "his f-cking ass beat." The journalist recorded interviews with two bystanders immediately after the incident. One bystander stated that he witnessed the officer using abusive language toward the journalist. He then told the journalist that the officer "put his chest in your face and pushed you around." The other bystander told the journalist that the officer "[got] up in your face and [shouted] at you. He pressed you against the wall of the supermarket."

More at The Atlantic, or click on the link above to read the report directly.

It's Friday the 13th, and this Peregrine Financial Group CEO seems to be having terrible luck. Russell Wasendorf Sr. was arrested today for making false statements to regulators from 2010 to July 2012, according to the agency. The statements concerned his Iowa-based company, Peregrine Financial, that filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday. The CFTC and the National Futures Association have accused Wasendorf of misappropriating over $200 million in customer funds. These allegations were brought to light after Wasendorf tried to kill himself on Monday in the parking lot of Peregrine headquarters. He is set to appear in federal court later today.

Via:

Wasendorf had been hospitalized at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics after attempting suicide outside the company's headquarters in Cedar Falls on Monday by hooking up a tube to his car's tailpipe.

His company filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, the same day the industry's top regulator filed civil fraud charges alleging the firm misused customer money and falsely claimed a bank account contained more than $220 million when it actually had about $5 million. The money in that account belonged to customers, and was supposed to be kept separate from Peregrine's own money.
...
An affidavit by FBI agent William Langdon, made public with the criminal complaint, says authorities found Wasendorf unresponsive Monday in his vehicle, along with a suicide note addressed to his wife and a signed statement in which he detailed his fraud.

"Through a scheme of using false bank statements I have been able to embezzle millions of dollars from customer accounts at Peregrine Financial Group, Inc. The forgeries started nearly twenty years ago and have gone undetected until now. I was able to conceal my crime of forgery by being the sole individual with access to the US Bank accounts held by PFG," he wrote in the note, according to court documents.

Wasendorf said that he faced "a difficult decision" when his access to capital was limited earlier in his career.

"Should I go out of business or cheat? I guess my ego was too big to admit failure," he wrote. "So I cheated, I falsified the very core of the financial documents of PFG, the bank statements."

It's difficult to feel any sympathy for the man, he did know exactly what he was getting into and how wrong it was. I do feel badly for his family. They'll no doubt carry the shame that Wasendorf should have felt.

Wells Fargo, the nation's largest mortgage lender, agreed to settle with the Justice Department Thursday to resolve allegations that it steered blacks and Hispanic borrowers into subprime loans when similarly qualified white borrowers received mortgages with lower rates.

The settlement, which must be approved by a judge, requires Wells Fargo to provide $125 million to borrowers, $50 million in down-payment assistance in hard-hit regions where Justice found evidence of discrimination, and additional compensation to blacks and Hispanics who were wrongly placed into subprime loans.

[Via]

Britain’s highest court ruled by a 5-2 vote on Wednesday that WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, should be deported to Sweden to face allegations of sexual abuse there, the culmination of an 18-month legal battle.

The Guardian:

But lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder were given two weeks to decide whether to challenge one of the points made in the judgment, and Assange's extradition will be stayed at least until then. Dinah Rose QC, for Assange, said that the justices had made their decision based on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties - but the provisions of that convention had not been raised during the hearing.

Legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg said this meant there was "everything to play for still", and it would be "very embarrassing" if the supreme court had to reopen the case on the basis that "they might have considered something which they gave the parties no opportunity to argue".

In brief, the judges ruled that the the UK had signed up to the European framework on extradition in order to help create a single system for surrendering accused people, and that it was always intended that the11 EU member states that allow prosecutors to issue extradition orders – as Sweden, but not the UK, does – would be able to continue doing so.

Lord Mance, one of two dissenting justices, said the wording of the framework decision was ambiguous and so it was appropriate to consider what ministers said at the time, which was that it would be a judge, court or magistrate that issued the order.

Mr. Assange -- who was not present in court -- was granted a two-week stay of extradition while he and his lawyers consider making the application to re-open the case.

Here is the judgement in full (pdf).