Occupy California Circumvents Prohibition Against Raising Tents

. . . by floating them. (Image from @abc7newsBayArea.)

A Murmuration of Starlings

Context for the emerging OWS movement.

Homeland Security Coordinated 18-City Crackdown on OWS Camps

Per Washington's Blog, quoting Wonkette:

Remember when people were freaking out over the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and all this other conveniently ready-to-go post-9/11 police state stuff, because it would obviously be just a matter of time before the whole apparatus was turned against non-Muslim Americans when they started getting complain-y about the social injustice and economic injustice and income inequality and endless recession and permanent unemployment? That day is now . . . .

Additional info and sources at Washington's Blog.

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald agrees, "the U.S. has para-militarized its police forces is precisely to control this type of domestic unrest" (at Salon.com).

Another N17 Projection, Visible from Brooklyn Bridge:

Photo from This Is The Right One (thanks!) (Click on the image for a larger version.) Per the UK Guardian:

A massive projection is being displayed on the Verizon building . . . . In a series of shots it reads, "We are the 99%, Look around, you are a part of a global uprising...We are unstoppable, another world is possible...We are a cry from the heart of the world...It is the beginning of the beginning." The projection then goes on to display the names of occupations around the country in rapid-fire succession with the final name reading, "Occupy Earth." With a chorus of honking cars in the background, the crowd erupts in cheers and reads the display in unison as they pass."

UPDATE: Good interview with creator of the projection here.

Estimated 36,000 OWS-er's Converge in New York

The November 17 march began at Liberty Square (f.k.a. Zuccotti Park); proceeded to Union Square where it picked up striking NYU and other students; and then to Foley Square, where it picked up the unions. From there, they proceeded to Brooklyn Bridge.

The police presence has been massive, but they seem to have limited themselves mainly to trying to split up and divert the marchers.

Bloomberg reportedly stated he only expected 1,000 people. Maybe he just meant cops.

Best coverage today has been via TheOther99 on ustream – that's their Channel 1 (w/ Tim Pool); Channel 2 is here (w/ Henry James Ferry {sp?}) – two guys with cell phones, leaving the corp. media in the dust. (Support TheOther99 here!)

The first two window grabs are from the stream from Union Square earlier today.

The third is from near Brooklyn Bridge, at 7:04PM Eastern time; projected onto the building wall is, "99%." The fourth is from the pedestrian way on the bridge (where the cars below were honking their support).

Today was the second monthly anniversary of the beginning of OWS.

PS: Tim Pool has a documentary project, "The Occumentary," that will probably be worth checking out.

PPS: More, "real" photos here.

Came across a nice gif today:

From Agent 23, who explains, "I copied it from an NYPD chat forum. This is the sort of thing some police officers dream of doing to 'protesters,' apparently."

Prosecutions for Bank Fraud Fall

OWS New York Evicted; NYPD in Contempt of Court

At 1AM last night, police cleared Zuccotti Park, allegedly violently – again, after clearing out the media ("for their own safety"). Reports are that the occupiers' computers and other hardware, as well as their tents, were dumped into garbage trucks and hauled off.

At 7-something this morning, a NY court issued an injunction ordering that the protesters must be allowed back into the park pending a fuller hearing at 11:30AM today. Mayor Bloomberg was reportedly informed, and the protesters have one or more copies of the court order, which they showed to the NYPD.

The protesters then returned to Zuccotti, to find it still barricaded.

All times stated in this post are Eastern time.

UPDATE: Per CNN and HuffPo as of 3:33PM: the NY S. Ct. has ruled in favor of OWS.

Further update: That report proved false, at least in part. The ruling was that the protesters should be re-admitted to the park but would no longer be allowed to camp there in violation of rules imposed after the occupation began.

It would be interesting to know the source of the earlier report. {It turns out the confusion arose when CNN belatedly reported the issuance of the TRO some 6 hrs. after it issued and 1.5 hrs. after the subsequent hearing was to have begun, and OWS-er's assumed that this was the decision based on the hearing.}

To fill in a few more details: After the eviction, a temporary restraining order was issued by Judge Lucy Billings holding that OWS must be allowed back into Zuccotti pending the results of a hearing to be held later in the day. This order was issued at 6:30AM and, one source says, was served on Mayor Bloomberg by 7:50AM. The protesters returned to the park to re-occupy the park, but police had blockaded it off and refused to let them in notwithstanding the court order. For reasons as yet unclear, prior to the scheduled hearing, the case was transferred to Judge Michael Stallman. That judge held in favor of the City at approximately 4:30PM.

So for nearly nine hours, Mayor Bloomberg and the police – all of whom had no doubt sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws – were in contempt of court.

Further FURTHER update: The Guardian reports that not only did NYC authorities clear the media from the park grounds before commencing the eviction . . .

. . . the city closed airspace in lower Manhattan to prevent news helicopters taking aerial shots of the scene. Vans were used to obscure views of the park and a police cordon effectively blocked accredited media from reaching the site. Some of those members of the press who were in the park or were able to get there say they were arrested, pepper sprayed or treated aggressively.

One of the few reporters on the scene when the police moved in was Josh Harkinson, a writer for Mother Jones magazine. As police used tear gas to remove the last protesters from the park Harkinson identified himself as a member of the media and was physically dragged out of the park. He was told that reporters had to stay in a "press pen".

Reporters tweeted their frustration using the hashtag #mediablackout and said police were ignoring and even confiscating press passes.

A New York Post reporter was "roughed up" according to the New York Times' Brian Stelter. Lindsey Christ, of local cable-news channel NY1, said on-air this morning that "the police took over, they kept everybody out and they wouldn't let media in. It was very planned."

(Emphasis supplied.)