BUMmer Rockybru aka Datuk Ahirudin Attan and Desi -- and that's me!:( -- sit on opposite sides of the political divide. However, as jpurnalists and bloggers in ever-changing orders, we sometimes meet at some unpredictable onfluence, then we say hello, maybe even tending towards a Kruschev bear hug -- yeah, we still remember the Cold War era! -- and after traversing our "common walk", we depart. It's aweways Adieu and Not GOoDbye.
Today in his blog he challenged Bloggers to post something about the US scene which he claims civil society and pro-Change bloggers ignore because it's more CONvenient that way. and somehow a civil society leader famous for leading the BERSIH2.0 protest rally crept into the picture. You go to rockybru's portal to read in full w'ile I reproduce that challenged piece in reply as acceptance of that challenge.......'
The Shocking Truth About the Crackdown on Occupy
The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality
By Naomi Wolf
November 26, 2011 "The Guardian" - - vUS citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park. But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."
In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.
To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.
I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.
Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks – under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop – awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response.
That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted.
The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.
The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.
No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.
For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time).
In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.
But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarised reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) – but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the "scandal" of presidential contender Newt Gingrich's having been paid $1.8m for a few hours' "consulting" to special interests. The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies' profitsis less widely known – and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating – a form of insider trading that sent Martha Stewart to jail.
Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware, before Occupy itself is, what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If legislating away lobbyists' privileges to earn boundless fees once they are close to the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can't suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally – and immensely – from their own legislation, are two beats away from the grasp of an electorally organised Occupy movement … well, you will call out the troops on stopping that advance.
So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.
Sadly, Americans this week have come one step closer to being true brothers and sisters of the protesters in Tahrir Square. Like them, our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us.
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And a news report from Reuters via the Malaysian Insider:)~~
Occupy LA camp grows as eviction threat looms
November 28, 2011
LOS ANGELES, Nov 28 ― Hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters who have camped outside Los Angeles City Hall for weeks braced yesterday for a midnight eviction deadline as supporters rallied to the scene in a show of solidarity.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has said that Occupy LA protesters would be given until just after midnight to dismantle their tents, pack up their belongings and clear out of the City Hall park, or face forcible removal.
Police, who had kept mostly out of sight during the day, began to make their presence known as the eviction deadline neared, and the mood of the protesters, which had remained calm and celebratory through the night, turned edgy and intense.
While throngs of campers continued to mill about, carrying signs, dancing, playing drums and chanting, “Whose street? Our Street!”, a group of demonstrators briefly blocked three lanes of traffic along a street running between City Hall and the Los Angeles Police Department across the street.
Most quickly retreated as police ordered them out of the street, but some protesters surged back into the road again.
Police Commander Andrew Smith said LAPD officers were prepared to make arrests if necessary but declined to disclose their tactical plans to reporters. Police estimated the overall crowd had grown to at least 2,000 by about 11:30pm.
Hours earlier, the mayor issued a statement saying the park “will officially close tonight” but said police would allow campers ample time to remove their belongings peacefully.
Exactly how much leeway the protesters would be given, and how much resistance they would offer, remained unclear. Many demonstrators spent the day in ad-hoc training sessions on civil disobedience.
Mood growing tense
“I wouldn’t leave if they tell me to leave,” said Jennifer Mawias, 24, who identified herself as a two-month veteran of the camp. Dressed in a black leather jacket with a black bandanna over her nose and mouth, Mawias said she was ready to be arrested even though she is due at work in the morning.
Another protester who identified himself only as David, 23, said, “I’m not a pacifist, I don’t believe in peace.” He added, “I have a gas mask.” Asked if he were willing to be arrested, he replied, “They have to catch me first.”
The Los Angeles encampment is among the oldest and largest on the US West Coast aligned with a national Occupy Wall Street movement protesting economic inequality, high unemployment and the excesses of the US financial system.
Staking its place since October 1 on the grounds surrounding City Hall, the compound had grown to roughly 400 tents and 700 to 800 people, organisers and municipal officials said. At least a third was believed to be homeless people.
By last night, the size of the crowd outside City Hall had swelled further as supporters from organised labor, clergy, civil rights and other groups streamed into the area, answering a call for an 11th-hour show of support with the campers.
“We owe it all to the people who have slept, often in the rain, often in the cold, often without adequate food, and all they have done in cities across this country,” said attorney Jim Lafferty, an advocate for the group and executive director of the National Lawyers Guild’s Los Angeles chapter.
Occupy LA campers spent much of the weekend removing and placing into storage their more valuable equipment to keep it from being damaged or confiscated, including an array of solar panels, power generators, computers and a makeshift library.
‘Come get us’
Organisers said they had also been on the phone to various community groups seeking alternate sites where protesters could relocate, at least temporarily.
Los Angeles has been relatively accommodating to its Occupy group compared to other major cities, with Villaraigosa at one point providing rain ponchos to campers. But after the collapse of negotiations aimed a voluntary relocation, the mayor said last week the encampment would have to go.
“It is time for Occupy LA to move from focusing their efforts to hold a particular patch of parkland to spreading the message of economic justice and restoration of balance to American society,” the mayor said yesterday.
Villaraigosa has ordered police to enforce an eviction if necessary but said he hoped to avoid violence that has erupted in other cities when officers used night sticks and tear gas to drive protesters from camps or keep them from returning.
Former US Marine Scott Olsen was critically injured in one such confrontation last month in Oakland, California, a clash that helped rally Occupy protests nationwide.
Tim Trepanier, 43, a welcome tent volunteer from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, said decisions on whether to obey the Los Angeles eviction order were being left to individuals, and that instructions in nonviolent civil disobedience were offered to those considering risking arrest.
An activity sign posted at the entrance to the camp’s media tent listed a final round of workshops on Saturday, with sessions titled: “Know your rights,” “LAPD spying and surveillance” and “Nonviolent tactical training.”
Diana Vance, 55, from Los Angeles, said protesters hoped to attract enough outside supporters to the site, perhaps in the thousands, to forestall attempts to forcibly close the camp.
While some occupiers were expected to invite arrest through tactics such as sitting on the ground and linking arms when police arrive, Trepanier said: “There are going to be a lot of people who are not going to be arrested.”
Vance said Occupy campers were committed to nonviolence but added: “I’m thinking the general mood is, ‘come get us.’” ― Reuters
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WHEN politicians go around with sourpuss faces, because they screwed things up and technocrats lead new governments, it’s a great week. In fact, whenever politicians are unhappy, it’s a sign that things are better.
