[Video:Occupy Albany's peaceful march on May 1st, 2012.]

In yet another victory for the Occupy movement, all charges were dismissed against 20 Occupy Albany protesters who were arrested on May Day after the District Attorney notified the court that he would not prosecute peaceful protesters.

Via:

A City Court judge has dismissed the cases of 20 Occupy Albany protesters arrested last week for violating the state curfew in Lafayette Park across from the Capitol.

Judge Thomas Keefe dismissed the trespassing and disorderly conduct charges — both noncriminal violations — Monday after District Attorney David Soares' office notified the court it would again decline to prosecute the offenses.

The protesters were arrested May 1 for staying in the park after an 11 p.m. curfew, the validity of which they refused to acknowledge.

Soares has refused to prosecute nonviolent protesters who are exercising their First Amendment rights without damaging property or injuring police — a stance he reiterated last week when Occupy Albany prepared to return to the downtown parks in force for the first time since December.

"I'm not going to be prosecuting peaceful protesters," Soares said last week. "So long as we have no damage to property or injury to police, I will continue to abide by the peaceful coexistence policy we implemented when the Occupy movement was here late last year."

A quick "Google" search, and you can see the pages upon pages of reports from across the country of "Charges Dropped" against Occupy protesters. As the lawsuits against individual cities and police departments roll in for wrongful arrests, and injuries received during arrests and protests it will bear watching to see if this begins to translate into a general acceptance of the movement's First Amendment right of free speech and an end to the brutal oppression by some police forces.

[Caution: Strong language NSFW.]

At an Occupy the Midwest gathering in St. Louis on Thursday, at least 14 occupiers were arrested by local police after being pepper-sprayed, and beaten bloody.

The above video was filmed Friday morning, as Michelle Witthaus with Occupy St. Louis gives her account on the Occupy protester arrests in Compton Hill Reservoir Park on Thursday evening.

The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune reports:

Several hundred people from around the country are in St. Louis for this week's Occupy the Midwest conference. About 150 protesters sought to set up an encampment Thursday at Compton Hill Reservoir Park, but were told by police they would be in violation of the park's 10 p.m. curfew.

At around 10:30 p.m., officers moved in, prompting a skirmish that left some protesters bloodied. Officers used pepper spray during the exchange. Two of the 14 arrested are expected to face resisting arrest charges in addition to curfew violation charges.

Note that in the video, Ms. Witthaus states that the occupy group had already decided to leave the park on their own, due to the people who had traveled to St. Louis from other states.The did not want to risk arrest.

In the news account, one of the organizers of Occupy the Midwest had this to say on Friday morning:

"City officials had indicated that park curfew would be enforced, but the actions taken tonight were unprovoked and without warning," A.J. Segneri, an organizer of the conference, said in a statement. "Tonight's shameful actions by the city of St. Louis should be a wake-up call around the region."

From the same article, a city official had this to say:

But Eddie Roth, director of public safety for the city, said the protesters provoked officers, showing aggression toward them and acting chaotically as officers moved in.

"It wasn't police chaos," Roth said. "It was demonstrator chaos — running into streets, yelling at officers."

In this next video, it's clear that the arrests did not happen at the park, as police are grabbing protesters off the sidewalk. The person filming this clip gets pepper sprayed as he is filming the arrests while standing on the sidewalk. I do hear people yelling at the police, but I believe that tends to happen when you're pepper sprayed for no apparent reason.

Continue reading »