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10/27/2011
Meet the 0.1 Percent: The War Profiteers
MEET The 0.1 Percent: The War Profiteers
While the Occupy movement targets the 1 Percent, we want to introduce you to the elite among the gang of superrich: the war profiteers. War industry CEOs make tens of millions of dollars a year, putting them in the top 0.1 percent of income earners in the U.S., and they use their corporations’ massive lobbying dollars to keep their job-killing gravy train rolling. We’ve got to stop them.
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Video: Jon Stewart Asks "What The [Bleep] Happened In Oakland?"
Godzilla would warrant such a strong police responseLast night, Occupy Wall Street protesters marched in solidarity with protesters injured at Occupy Oakland this week. And while things were calm for the most part here, people are still trying to make heads-and-tails out of what happened in Oakland, where police fired tear gas, rubber bullets, flash-bangs and bean bag projectiles at OccupyOakland protesters. Jon Stewart was particularly flummoxed by the extreme police response: "Seems a little heavy handed. Unless, was one of the protesters Godzilla? That would justify an attack." Watch below:
Although police complained of a public safety threat, Stewart points out that the "ruffian" protesters who were tear gased included flanneled teens, dull professors and a dude in a wheelchair. He argues there must have been a less violent way of resolving the public space dispute, and getting protesters to leave that particular space across from City Hall and occupy Oakland Coliseum, or somewhere not being used. And then he ends things with a slightly underwhelming pee joke about Oakland Raiders fans, the "Mad Max re-enactors club," as one should always end pointed critical analyses.
Police Attack Oakland Solidarity March - NYC October 26th, 2011/Call To Action Nov.2nd 2011
via youtube
GENERAL STRIKE & MASS DAY OF ACTION – NOVEMBER 2 - Occupy Oakland
Below is the proposal passed by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on Wednesday October 26, 2011 in reclaimed Oscar Grant Plaza. 1607 people voted. 1484 voted in favor of the resolution, 77 abstained and 46 voted against it, passing the proposal at 96.9%. The General Assembly operates on a modified consensus process that passes proposals with 90% in favor and with abstaining votes removed from the final count.
PROPOSAL:
We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%.
We propose a city wide general strike and we propose we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city.
All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them.
While we are calling for a general strike, we are also calling for much more. People who organize out of their neighborhoods, schools, community organizations, affinity groups, workplaces and families are encouraged to self organize in a way that allows them to participate in shutting down the city in whatever manner they are comfortable with and capable of.
The whole world is watching Oakland. Let’s show them what is possible.
The Strike Coordinating Council will begin meeting everyday at 5pm in Oscar Grant Plaza before the daily General Assembly at 7pm. All strike participants are invited. Stay tuned for much more information and see you next Wednesday.
Occupy protesters rally around wounded veteran
Veering around police barricades, anti-Wall Street protesters held a late-night march through Oakland streets, a day after one of their number — an Iraq War veteran — was left in critical condition with a fractured skull following a clash with police.
An exchange of opinions between a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street protests, right, and passersby attracts attention at Zuccotti Park in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in the park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
A protester holds a sign asking for donations for pets at the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
A protester post a sign about the cost of war, reflecting the range of issues found among participants of the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011 in New York. Some businesses and residents are losing patience with the protesters in Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
An Occupy Oakland protester spraypaints the side of a building during a march on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011, in Oakland, Calif. Except for a couple incidents of graffiti and minor confrontations with police officers, the protesters, who numbered about 1000, remained lawful. (Photo/Noah Berger)
The show of force in Oakland along with SWAT arrests in Atlanta have sent chills among some anti-Wall Street demonstrators.
But another showdown between police and protesters in Oakland appeared to be averted late Wednesday night as several hundred filed out of a plaza declared off-limits for overnight use and marched through nearby streets.
An AP photographer on the scene said police erected barricades to prevent the marchers from reaching a freeway, sending the group down side streets en masse.
Small contingents of officers could be seen following behind but there were no signs of any confrontations or arrests. The march tapered off after about an hour, with most of the protesters apparently dispersing.
On Tuesday, an Iraq War veteran marching with Oakland demonstrators suffered a cracked skull in the chaos between officers and protesters, further raising concern among some in the movement.
Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine veteran, was in critical condition Wednesday after he had been struck, said a spokesman for Highland Hospital in Oakland.
It was not clear exactly what type of object hit the veteran or who might have thrown it, though the group Iraq Veterans Against the War said it was lodged by officers.
Police Chief Howard Jordan said at a news conference that the events leading up to Olsen's injury would be investigated as vigorously as a fatal police shooting.
"It's unfortunate it happened. I wish that it didn't happen. Our goal, obviously, isn't to cause injury to anyone," the chief said.
While demonstrators in other cities have built a working relationship with police and city leaders, they wondered on Wednesday how long the good spirit would last and whether they could be next.
Will they have to face riot gear-clad officers and tear gas that their counterparts in Oakland, Calif., faced Tuesday? Or will they be handcuffed and hauled away in the middle of the night like protesters in Atlanta?
"Yes, we're afraid. Is this the night they're going to sneak in?" said activist William Buster of Occupy Wall Street, where the movement began last month to protest what they see as corporate greed.
"Is this the night they might use unreasonable force?" he asked.
The message from officials in cities where other encampments have sprung up was simple: We'll keep working with you. Just respect your neighbors and keep the camps clean and safe.
Business owners and residents have complained in recent weeks about assaults, drunken fights and sanitation problems. Officials are trying to balance their rights and uphold the law while honoring protesters' free speech rights.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday that the Occupy LA encampment outside City Hall "cannot continue indefinitely."
Villaraigosa told the Los Angeles Times that he respects the protesters right to peacefully assemble and express their views, but they must respect city laws and regulations.
San Francisco police have already cleared two encampments. Most recently, police estimated at least five protesters were arrested and several others injured in a clash Tuesday evening.
Some cities, such as Providence, R.I., are moving ahead with plans to evict activists. But from Tampa, Fla., to Boston, police and city leaders say they will continue to try to work with protesters to address problems in the camps.
In Oakland, officials initially supported the protests, with Mayor Jean Quan saying that sometimes "democracy is messy."
But tensions reached a boiling point after a sexual assault, a severe beating and a fire were reported and paramedics were denied access to the camp, according to city officials. They also cited concerns about rats, fire hazards and public urination.
Demonstrators disputed the city's claims, saying that volunteers collect garbage and recycling every six hours, that water is boiled before being used to wash dishes and that rats have long infested the park.
When riot gear-clad police moved in early Tuesday, they were pelted with rocks, bottles and utensils from people in the camp's kitchen area. They emptied the camp near city hall of people, and barricaded the plaza.
Protesters were taken away in plastic handcuffs, most of them arrested on suspicion of illegal lodging.
Demonstrators returned later in the day to march and retake the plaza. They were met by police officers in riot gear. Several small skirmishes broke out and officers cleared the area by firing tear gas.
The scene repeated itself several times just a few blocks away in front of the plaza.
Tensions would build as protesters edged ever closer to the police line and reach a breaking point with a demonstrator hurling a bottle or rock, prompting police to respond with another round of gas.
The chemical haze hung in the air for hours, new blasts clouding the air before the previous fog could dissipate.
The number of protesters diminished with each round of tear gas. Police estimated that there were roughly 1,000 demonstrators at the first clash following the march. About 100 were arrested.
On Wednesday, Oakland officials allowed protesters back into the plaza but said people would be prohibiting from spending the night, potentially bringing another clash with police.
About 1,000 people quickly filled the area, but later many of them filed out and began their march. By early Thursday, about 50 people were left at the site and few police could be seen.
In Atlanta, police in riot gear and SWAT teams arrested 53 people in Woodruff Park, many of whom had camped out there for weeks as part of a widespread movement that is protesting the wealth disparity between the rich and everyone else.
Mayor Kasim Reed had been supportive of the protests, twice issuing an executive order allowing them to remain.
Reed said on Wednesday that he had no choice to arrest them because he believed things were headed in a direction that was no longer peaceful. He cited a man seen walking the park with an AK-47 assault rifle.
"There were some who wanted to continue along the peaceful lines, and some who thought that their path should be more radical," Reed said. "As mayor, I couldn't wait for them to finish that debate."
Reed said authorities could not determine whether the rifle was loaded, and were unable to get additional information.
An Associated Press reporter talked to the man with the gun earlier Tuesday.
He wouldn't give his name — identifying himself only as "Porch," an out-of-work accountant who doesn't agree with the protesters' views — but said that he was there, armed, because he wanted to protect the rights of people to protest.
In Portland, Ore., the protest seems to be at a crossroads. Organizers have been dealing with public drunkenness, fighting and drug abuse for weeks, especially among the homeless who are also in the camp.
Some are floating the idea of relocating it, possibly indoors. Others see that as capitulation.
"I don't know if it would be a good idea. Part of the effectiveness of what's going on here is visibility," protester Justin Neff said. "Though I'd do it if there's a possibility that we'd get seen and noticed. I don't know how that would work indoors."
City officials haven't said what would cause them to forcibly evict the protesters. They said they evaluate the camp daily.
In Baltimore, protesters like Casey McKeel, a member of Occupy Baltimore's legal committee, said he wasn't sure aren't sure what to expect from city officials, noting that some cities have arrested protesters in recent weeks.
"Across the country we're seeing a wide range of reactions," he said. "For now we're hoping the city will work with us."
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she is willing to work with them, but they should realize that they are camping out in a city park and that was not its intended use.
"I have absolutely no interest in a violent exchange," she said. "It's not about pitching a tent. It's about getting the work done."
Police brutality against Occupy Wall Street protesters worse than in Iraq says US marine
10/26/2011
AMERICA TODAY: Heartbreaking Pictures From New Jersey's Homeless 'Tent City'
Doug Hardman wakes up every morning with a song in his head—a vague memory of his days on stage.Inside his tepee in the woods outside Lakewood, NJ, at the homeless Tent City, the roosters wake early and the mornings are already cooler. A musician who lost his Florida home in the housing crisis, Hardman says he floats in and out of Tent City, that he's proud of his kids, and misses the life he no longer has.
He has a lot of company out here.
Click here for the pictures and story >
Tent City made the news recently and while community leader Steven Brigham says the media attention brought in greater donations, it also brought unwanted attention from the local politicians.
After battling with the city for years to have access to the public land here, Brigham found a New Jersey lawyer to represent his case pro bono.
The attorney, Jeff Wild, argued that the homeless population are part of the public and should therefore have access to public lands. Rather than take the case to court, Lakewood City Council settled, and Brigham signed an agreement to put up no more shelters and allow no more than 70 people to stay.
But last winter the community put up three wooden structures to house everyone and keep them warm.
"We didn't lose anybody last year," Brigham says, "and nobody got sick."
This year could be different. After City Council members saw the shelters on TV, they sent demolition crews in. The walls were torn down around whatever was inside, and meager furnishings were left to the elements.
This year, the tent city's residents will have to put wood-stoves in tents and plastic shanties, increasing fire risk. Brigham says the town is making it impossible to survive there, hoping to get the homeless out, and he's concerned it will end up killing people this year.
More than 700,000 people are currently homeless in the U.S. and the number has grown 20 percent from 2007 to 2010.
A recent UN report says the way the U.S. denies its citizens access to water, basic sanitation, and criminalizes homelessness is a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Brigham can relate. He started the camp five years ago and more people show up every year. Some stay, some find part-time work where they can, move on, and wind up coming back.
"There's a real glut of low-skilled manual labor in the area," he says. "There's just nothing for people to do."
Brigham works as a high-voltage electrical contractor on the bridges and tunnels around New York, but his mission is here in the Lakewood forest.
"I found this spot that had no underbrush, which is very unusual," he says, "and this community's become a living protest."
I ask him what he means, and he says, "We're protesting the insincerity of the political system. It's supposed to be for the people and its not."
(Reverend Steve Brigham can be reached at P.O. Box 326, Lakewood, NJ 08701)
Outside the town of Lakewood New Jersey, across from this intersection...
Image: Robert Johnson
70 people live at this homeless camp in the woods
Image: Robert Johnson
Some people have lived here for years and consider it their home
Image: Robert Johnson
The camp is run by Reverend Steven Brigham and welcomes residents from all walks of life
Image: Robert Johnson
Food comes in sporadically, like these baked goods from a local grocery store
Image: Robert Johnson
Nina is from Poland and according to Steve, moved into camp when her husband kicked her out (she's eating borscht)
Image: Robert Johnson
This is Nina's shanty
Image: Robert Johnson
She has family in Poland that she misses very much
Image: Robert Johnson
She has car batteries rigged up for power
Image: Robert Johnson
This is musician Doug Hardman who plays piano for the church services -- watch a video of him playing below
Video of Doug Hardman playing piano.Image: Robert Johnson
Doug lives in this tee-pee
Image: Robert Johnson
Even with all the rain from Irene the inside is dry and smells like old smoke
Image: Robert Johnson
Daily essentials
Image: Robert Johnson
Elwood Hyers lives here and decorated the outside of his shanty with stuff he found behind a Dollar Store
Image: Robert Johnson
Elwood caught a felony drug charge and with a record he's has been unable to get on his feet
Image: Robert Johnson
Elwood lives with Cynthia Vellinga who decorated the inside
Image: Robert Johnson
This woman and her boyfriend didn't want their kids to recognize them online
Image: Robert Johnson
But they live here and allowed me inside
Image: Robert Johnson
The living room
Image: Robert Johnson
Walls insulated with old sleeping bags, the firewood supply, and a litter box filled with sand
Image: Robert Johnson
Their bedroom
Image: Robert Johnson
The vanity mirror and toilet in the background
Image: Robert Johnson
The chimney design to keep the place from burning down in the winter
Image: Robert Johnson
Marilyn and Mike lost their NYC jobs in the recession - ran down their savings and had nowhere else to go
Image: Robert Johnson
They raise chickens and rehabilitate birds -- they have a tent and the chickens have a tent
Image: Robert Johnson
This is their kitchen under a tarp and Marilyn is filtering a cup of coffee
Image: Robert Johnson
There are public facilities like toilets
Image: Robert Johnson
A wash house
Image: Robert Johnson
With a shower and water heated by an electric oven coil
Image: Robert Johnson
A washer and dryer
Image: Robert Johnson
A mirror and washtub
Image: Robert Johnson
And a basket of toiletries by the door
Image: Robert Johnson
There's also a kitchen
Image: Robert Johnson
Currently filled with food from a wedding and donated by the party house
Image: Robert Johnson
The chef lives here
Image: Robert Johnson
There's a chicken crossing sign painted by Marilyn
Image: Robert Johnson
Chickens are everywhere -- the eggs hatch and the birds never get slaughtered -- they keep down the number of bugs
Clover
Image: Robert Johnson
Rabbits are also supposed to be abundant
Image: Robert Johnson
But the only one I saw was in a cage
Image: Robert Johnson
There's a public garden named for a young girl who died from cancer
Image: Robert Johnson
A food storage shed
Image: Robert Johnson
A bell/empty oxygen cylinder - calls people to church - listen to it ring below
Video of Steve ringing the cylinder with a monkey wrench.Image: Robert Johnson
A church that was torn down
Image: Robert Johnson
A group of Mormon missionaries were there Saturday helping chop wood for winter
Image: Robert Johnson
The camp will go through a stack this size, every day, all winter long
Image: Robert Johnson
Fires are not unheard of
Image: Robert Johnson
Which is why community sleep houses like this were put up - to keep everyone warm and safe in the winter
Image: Robert Johnson
But the town came in and tore them all down
Image: Robert Johnson
Leaving a mess and a winter filled with wood-burning fires inside everyone's tents and shanties
Image: Robert Johnson
Despite their situation, people here still love their country
Image: Robert Johnson
Even if there's no place for them and the people on Main Street want them gone
Image: Robert Johnson
To the Occupy movement – the occupiers of Tahrir Square are with you | Comrades from Cairo
Occupy Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park, New York. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty ImagesTo all those across the world currently occupying parks, squares and other spaces, your comrades in Cairo are watching you in solidarity. Having received so much advice from you about transitioning to democracy, we thought it's our turn to pass on some advice.
Indeed, we are now in many ways involved in the same struggle. What most pundits call "the Arab spring" has its roots in the demonstrations, riots, strikes and occupations taking place all around the world, its foundations lie in years-long struggles by people and popular movements. The moment that we find ourselves in is nothing new, as we in Egypt and others have been fighting against systems of repression, disenfranchisement and the unchecked ravages of global capitalism (yes, we said it, capitalism): a system that has made a world that is dangerous and cruel to its inhabitants. As the interests of government increasingly cater to the interests and comforts of private, transnational capital, our cities and homes have become progressively more abstract and violent places, subject to the casual ravages of the next economic development or urban renewal scheme.
An entire generation across the globe has grown up realising, rationally and emotionally, that we have no future in the current order of things. Living under structural adjustment policies and the supposed expertise of international organisations like the World Bank and IMF, we watched as our resources, industries and public services were sold off and dismantled as the "free market" pushed an addiction to foreign goods, to foreign food even. The profits and benefits of those freed markets went elsewhere, while Egypt and other countries in the south found their immiseration reinforced by a massive increase in police repression and torture.
The current crisis in America and western Europe has begun to bring this reality home to you as well: that as things stand we will all work ourselves raw, our backs broken by personal debt and public austerity. Not content with carving out the remnants of the public sphere and the welfare state, capitalism and the austerity state now even attack the private realm and people's right to decent dwelling as thousands of foreclosed-upon homeowners find themselves both homeless and indebted to the banks who have forced them on to the streets.
So we stand with you not just in your attempts to bring down the old but to experiment with the new. We are not protesting. Who is there to protest to? What could we ask them for that they could grant? We are occupying. We are reclaiming those same spaces of public practice that have been commodified, privatised and locked into the hands of faceless bureaucracy, real estate portfolios and police "protection". Hold on to these spaces, nurture them and let the boundaries of your occupations grow. After all, who built these parks, these plazas, these buildings? Whose labour made them real and livable?
Why should it seem so natural that they should be withheld from us, policed and disciplined? Reclaiming these spaces and managing them justly and collectively is proof enough of our legitimacy.
In our own occupations of Tahrir, we encountered people entering the square every day in tears because it was the first time they had walked through those streets and spaces without being harassed by police; it is not just the ideas that are important, these spaces are fundamental to the possibility of a new world. These are public spaces. Spaces for gathering, leisure, meeting and interacting – these spaces should be the reason we live in cities. Where the state and the interests of owners have made them inaccessible, exclusive or dangerous, it is up to us to make sure that they are safe, inclusive and just. We have and must continue to open them to anyone that wants to build a better world, particularly for the marginalised, the excluded and those groups who have suffered the worst.
What you do in these spaces is neither as grandiose and abstract nor as quotidian as "real democracy"; the nascent forms of praxis and social engagement being made in the occupations avoid the empty ideals and stale parliamentarianism that the term democracy has come to represent. And so the occupations must continue, because there is no one left to ask for reform. They must continue because we are creating what we can no longer wait for.
But the ideologies of property and propriety will manifest themselves again. Whether through the overt opposition of property owners or municipalities to your encampments or the more subtle attempts to control space through traffic regulations, anti-camping laws or health and safety rules. There is a direct conflict between what we seek to make of our cities and our spaces and what the law and the systems of policing standing behind it would have us do.
We faced such direct and indirect violence, and continue to face it. Those who said that the Egyptian revolution was peaceful did not see the horrors that police visited upon us, nor did they see the resistance and even force that revolutionaries used against the police to defend their tentative occupations and spaces: by the government's own admission, 99 police stations were put to the torch, thousands of police cars were destroyed and all of the ruling party's offices around Egypt were burned down. Barricades were erected, officers were beaten back and pelted with rocks even as they fired tear gas and live ammunition on us. But at the end of the day on 28 January they retreated, and we had won our cities.
It is not our desire to participate in violence, but it is even less our desire to lose. If we do not resist, actively, when they come to take what we have won back, then we will surely lose. Do not confuse the tactics that we used when we shouted "peaceful" with fetishising nonviolence; if the state had given up immediately we would have been overjoyed, but as they sought to abuse us, beat us, kill us, we knew that there was no other option than to fight back. Had we laid down and allowed ourselves to be arrested, tortured and martyred to "make a point", we would be no less bloodied, beaten and dead. Be prepared to defend these things you have occupied, that you are building, because, after everything else has been taken from us, these reclaimed spaces are so very precious.
By way of concluding, then, our only real advice to you is to continue, keep going and do not stop. Occupy more, find each other, build larger and larger networks and keep discovering new ways to experiment with social life, consensus and democracy. Discover new ways to use these spaces, discover new ways to hold on to them and never give them up again. Resist fiercely when you are under attack, but otherwise take pleasure in what you are doing, let it be easy, fun even. We are all watching one another now, and from Cairo we want to say that we are in solidarity with you, and we love you all for what you are doing.
10/25/2011
BREAKING: Oakland Police Use Rubber Bullets, Flash Grenades, And Smoke Bombs To Evict Occupy Oakland
Late last night, Oakland police, under orders from the city, began surrounding the Occupy Oakland encampment in preparation to oust the protesters from Frank Ogawa Plaza.
Approximately an hour ago, hundreds of Oakland police officers raided the camp. Dressed in riot gear, the police used rubber bullets, flash grenades, and gas canisters to forcibly evict and/or arrest the demonstrators who remained in the plaza. The Occupy Oakland Twitter account live-tweeted the raid:
One protester at the scene captured an image of the riot police using smoke bombs:
If you have any video of the raid on Occupy Oakland, feel free to send it to ThinkProgress.
Update
One protester interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle remained upbeat. “People are going to keep coming back. What are they going to do, send cops in every night and waste taxpayer dollars?” asked Gabe Meyers. “The cops are the 99 percent, but they’re doing the work of the 1 percent. Wall Street is proud of them every time they clear out an encampment.”
Update
One protester captured video under the punkboyinsf UStream account. At 11:40, protesters began chanting, “You are the 99 percent!” to police moving in on the camp. At 17:30 in the following video you can see the police utilizing gas weapons. As the camp is raided, the protester says into the camera, “Sorry guys I can’t be any closer this stuff is going to make me sick,” referring to tear gas. The videographer also claims to have seen a sound cannon being used by the police:
Cops Defy Orders to Arrest Hundreds of Occupy Albany Protesters
ALBANY -- In a tense battle of wills, state troopers and Albany police held off making arrests of dozens of protesters near the Capitol over the weekend even as Albany's mayor, under pressure from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration, had urged his police chief to enforce a city curfew.
The situation intensified late Friday evening when Jennings, who has cultivated a strong relationship with Cuomo, directed his department to arrest protesters who refused to leave the city-owned portion of a large park that's across Washington Avenue from the Capitol and City Hall.
At the Capitol, in anticipation of possibly dozens of arrests, a State Police civil disturbance unit was quietly activated, according to officials briefed on the matter but not authorized to comment publicly. But as the curfew neared, the group of protesters estimated at several hundred moved across an invisible line in the park from state land onto city property.
"We were ready to make arrests if needed, but these people complied with our orders," a State Police official said. However, he added that State Police supported the defiant posture of Albany police leaders to hold off making arrests for the low-level offense of trespassing, in part because of concern it could incite a riot or draw thousands of protesters in a backlash that could endanger police and the public.
"We don't have those resources, and these people were not causing trouble," the official said. "The bottom line is the police know policing, not the governor and not the mayor."
A city police source said his department also was reluctant to damage what he considers to be good community relations that have taken years to rebuild. In addition, the crowd included elderly people and many others who brought their children with them.
"There was a lot of discussion about how it would look if we started pulling people away from their kids and arresting them ... and then what do we do with the children?" one officer said.
Around midnight Friday, police leaders reported that the protesters were confined to city sidewalks and therefore they were not in violation of the city's curfew governing park land. But in truth, the protesters had set up tents in the park and several dozen slept there.
Meanwhile, Albany County District Attorney David Soares on Sunday said that over the weekend he had conversations with Jennings, Albany Police Chief Steven Krokoff and State Police officials about his concerns regarding prosecution of "peaceful protesters."
Soares said protests at the state Capitol are common, and historically anyone arrested for trespassing generally faces a low-level charge that's later dismissed.
"Our official policy with peaceful protesters is that unless there is property damage or injuries to law enforcement, we don't prosecute people protesting," Soares said. "If law enforcement engaged in a pre-emptive strike and started arresting people I believe it would lead to calamitous results, and the people protesting so far are peaceful."
Soares said another concern discussed by law enforcement officials was whether arrests could trigger an influx of young adults from Albany's significant college community.
Joshua Vlasto, a spokesman for Cuomo, did not respond directly to questions about contact between Cuomo's secretary, Larry Schwartz, and Jennings. "The state is working collaboratively with the city to enforce the curfew," Vlasto said in a statement Friday evening.
Late Friday afternoon, after his contact with the governor's office, Jennings took a hard-line stance and indicated he had instructed his police force to enforce the city's curfew. He declined to talk about his conversations with Schwartz, saying: "It's not important."
Inside police circles, there was speculation by some officials that the pressure from the governor's office to enforce the curfew was about political perception. They noted that some critics had questioned New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's handling of a similar protest in lower Manhattan that has become an organized fixture, with medical supplies, food and even donated office space supporting the protesters.
Jennings and Krokoff could not be reached for comment on Sunday afternoon. About 30 tents remained as the sun rose Sunday morning, and protesters who stayed the night remained commited to staying in the park as long as their message had not yet affected change.
"I think this has to go on indefinitely," said Chris Scully, 23, an engineer from Troy, as he wrote "Our Way Of Life is Dying" on a sign.
Local media outlets captured a small fight on video that happened during the Saturday night protest, a scuffle that apparently involved a passer-by trying to take a sign away from someone. But police made no arrests. The protest, called Occupy Albany, is an offshoot of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City that participants say aim to eradicate economic inequality. The protests have taken place across the country and spread overseas, including London.
The police strategy in Albany was evident early Friday. Krokoff issued a departmentwide memo instructing officers "to be continually aware of the possibility that a small element may intentionally seek to draw us into conflict," according to a copy obtained by the Times Union. "At this time I have no intention of assigning officers to monitor, watch, videotape or influence any behavior that is conducted by our citizens peacefully demonstrating in Academy Park. ... In the event we are required to respond to a crime in progress or a reported crime, we will do so in the same manner that we do on a daily basis."
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