Occupy activist facing seven years in jail was 'promoter of non-violence' | World news An Occupy Wall Street activist charged with assaulting a police officer is a “promoter of non-violence” who wandered into a tussle with law enforcement while celebrating St Patrick’s Day, her lawyers plan to argue in court this week. Jury selection began on Monday morning in the trial of Cecily McMillan, who denies assaulting Officer Grantley Bovell as he arrested protesters from the anti-capitalist movement in New York’s Zuccotti Park on 17 March 2012. “An innocent woman is being accused of something that could send her to prison for seven years,” McMillan’s attorney, Martin Stolar, told reporters outside the state supreme courtroom in lower Manhattan. “She was leaving the park pursuant to the police department’s orders when she was brutally assaulted by a police officer and subsequently accused of assaulting that police officer.” McMillan told a small group of supporters: “Thank you for being here today.”
How to be a citizen journalist with Brown Moses | Guardian Masterclasses Citizen journalists are outperforming the mainstream media, breaking new ground and untouchable stories in countries such as China, Kenya and Brazil. But thanks to the vast repositories of video footage, satellite images and eyewitness reports posted on social media, it is possible to report from the world's most dangerous territories without setting foot in them. Founder of the famous Brown Moses blog, Eliot Higgins research into the Syrian conflict has inspired questions in parliament, major stories in the Guardian and New York Times, and praise from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. During this large-scale seminar, Eliot reveals the tools and techniques for tracking down sources of new footage and information, verifying facts, spotting fakes and accurately geolocating material. This course offers a unique opportunity to learn from a recognised pioneer in the field, whose work at the vanguard of social media forensics is prized by news outlets, NGOs and governments alike.
FBI Documents Show Plot to Kill Occupy Leaders Redacted FBI Documents Show Plot to Kill Occupy Leaders If ‘Deemed Necessary’ Posted on Jun 29, 2013 “Did the FBI ignore, or even abet, a plot to assassinate Occupy Houston leaders?” A Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Washington, D.C. Here’s what the document said, according to WhoWhatWhy: An identified [DELETED] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors (sic) in Houston, Texas if deemed necessary. Paul Kennedy of the National Lawyers Guild in Houston and an attorney for a number of Occupy Houston activists arrested during the protests said he did not hear of the sniper plot and expressed discontent with the FBI’s failure to share knowledge of the plan with the public. “[I]f it is something law enforcement was planning,” Kennedy said, “then nothing would have been done. Texas law officials have a history of extreme and inappropriate violence. —Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly. More Below the Ad New and Improved Comments
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request. Verheyden-Hilliard points out the close partnering of banks, the New York Stock Exchange and at least one local Federal Reserve with the FBI and DHS, and calls it "police-statism":
FBI Investigated 'Occupy' As Possible 'Terrorism' Threat, Internal Documents Show According to internal documents newly released by the FBI, the agency spearheaded a nationwide law enforcement effort to investigate and monitor the Occupy Wall Street movement. In certain documents, divisions of the FBI refer to the Occupy Wall Street protests as a "criminal activity" or even "domestic terrorism." The internal papers were obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice fund via a Freedom of Information Act Request. The fund, a legal nonprofit that focuses on civil rights, says it believes the 112 pages of documents, available for public viewing on its website, are only "the tip of the iceberg." "This production ... is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement," wrote Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the fund's executive director, in a press release Saturday. The FBI did not immediately respond to The Huffington Post's requests for comment Sunday. Also on HuffPost:
Public manipulation by the mainstream media One week has passed since a small protest took place during a Remembrance Day ceremony outside of Old City Hall in Toronto. On this day, two Afghan-Canadian peace activists, Laila Rashidie and Suraia Sahar, were in attendance with a banner to remember Afghans killed by Canadian troops. These two women did not attend the ceremony with an intent to cause a disruption. I contacted one of the women involved and asked Laila several questions about the incident. Laila and Suraia with their banner outside Nathan Phillips Square. It is important to note that there were two other small protest groups in attendance. Police initially became aggressive with the anti-fascism group and confiscated their banner. Derek Soberall was standing next to the protest groups and began filming the confrontation with his cell phone. Several men attending the ceremony then approached the protesters. White haired man and Logan (from Paris, Ontario) assaulting a protester.
3 Occupy Wall Street Protesters Win $50K Settlement Over "Thought Crime" Arrest The city has settled a lawsuit brought by three Occupy Wall Street protestors who accused the NYPD of arresting them without cause, detaining them for almost 24 hours, and forcing them through a humiliating strip search. On November 17th 2011, 20-year-old Kira Moyer-Sims was buying coffee on the Lower East Side while three friends waited in a nearby car. Suddenly 30 police officers swooped in and arrested them, and later drilled them on their relationship with the movement while they were in custody. “I felt like I had been arrested for a thought crime,” Moyer-Sims said at the time. According to the settlement, the city will pay $50,000 total to Moyer-Sims, Angela Richino, and Matthew Vrvilo. "They were arrested on the belief that they were about to go to a protest," their attorney Vijayant Pawar tells us. Pawar says his clients are satisfied with the settlement, but that it doesn't make up for the NYPD's actions.
Welcome to Canada’s ‘wageless recovery’ The Harper government likes to remind Canadians that we’ve done better than most developed nations in bouncing back from the global economic crisis. But digging into the data shows why many people might be having trouble cheering this news: wages have not kept pace with inflation, and new hires are making 40 per cent less than the average worker. Tiff Macklem, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, recently brought home the official storyline: The level of employment is now higher than it was before the crisis; jobs are mostly being created in the private sector, most are full-time and are emerging in industries that pay above-average wages. These are upbeat metrics, but they are irrelevant to the one thing that matters most to Canadian households and a sustained, broad-based recovery: how much people get paid. On that count, the data reveal that purchasing power is falling for most Canadians since the recovery began. Don't be fooled by job creation stats.
How did Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary make his fortune? Kevin O’Leary plays the villain on Shark Tank, and that’s the way he likes it. He likes to be stopped on the street and called names. He likes to say cryptic and sinister things about how he would cut staff to improve efficiency in a company he’s thinking about making a controlling investment in. He wants to be to entrepreneurs what Simon Cowell is to singers. But, Simon Cowell isn’t just rude, he is often also right; so, his caustic criticism can cut through conventional niceties and get down to the hard truths about one’s realistic prospects. The Greater Fool theory of investing states that what matters in an investment is not whether it generates real value but whether it can be sold at a profit to the next fool who is eager to get a piece of the action. As he tells his story, O’Leary’s (or “Mr. According to a profile of O’Leary in Rob Magazine of the Toronto Globe and Mail, O’Leary’s backstory is a little more complicated than that mythology.
Greg Smith On Occupy Wall Street: 'They Didn't Know What They Were Protesting' Greg Smith wrote the essay that echoed across Wall Street like a thunderclap. Smith was a vice president at Goldman Sachs until March. He announced his departure from the investment bank with a blistering essay in The New York Times, accusing Goldman of routinely deceiving clients and relentlessly pursuing profit at the expense of morality. And he struck a nerve. Goldman Sachs denies Smith's allegations about deceiving clients. Smith's book, "Why I Left Goldman Sachs," is being released Monday. What Smith hopes to do, he says, is educate people about how Wall Street works, and fuel a public conversation about what went wrong ethically, and how to fix it. Smith, 33, gave his first text interview to The Associated Press. Q: Tell us about March 14, the day you left Goldman. A: I get up at 6 a.m., and I type a very heartfelt email to nine people in Europe, including the CEO of Goldman Europe, and express in very personal terms why I'm leaving. Q: What did the bank do? Also on HuffPost:
Sun News says the KKK has the right to march « eclipsenews By Evan Zenobia OTTAWA – A terrorist organization marching in the streets of Montréal? Violent religious extremists in uniform parading through Toronto? According to Sun News, these are virtues that Canada is missing out on. In an October 9th Arena feature, Sun News star pundit Michael Coren, who previously defended the jailing of Russian anti-Putin dissident, invited Sun News regular Ryan Doyle to attack Canada’s crippling lack of free speech compared to the United States. Said Doyle: “I believe in free speech. While it’s standard Sun News practice to blab about just how crappy Canada is compared to the US, the station showed its colours (white) when it endorsed the right of a terrorist organization to march. “I think the Ku Klux Klan walking through the streets, I detest their message, but they should have the right to display it.” The KKK is not a free speech issue, of course. So why the hell does Sun News hold up the most atrocious and vile terrorists as a free speech issue? Like this:
Gap between rich and poor is the defining issue of our time: Broadbent Institute A year after the Occupy movement set up camps in cities around the world to protest economic disparities, the institute founded by former NDP leader Ed Broadbent has conducted a study that says income inequality is the defining issue of our time. “Reasonable people can differ over what income and wealth differences are needed to provide incentives and appropriate motivation in a market economy,” said the report released Tuesday. “But extreme economic inequality clearly undermines equal developmental opportunities and individual freedom since unequal economic resources give rise to significant imbalances of power.” The policy report is the first to be released by the Broadbent Institute which was founded last year to promote social democratic issues across Canada. In the new report, Mr. It is a view that is more easily espoused by a left-wing think tank than a party vying for political power.
poormansmedia : Best I can do considering the... #D12 Gulf Port 7: Undercover Austin Narcotics Detective Enabled Houston Felonies The Houston Fire Department places an inflatable red tent over protesters using lockbox devices built by Austin Police Department Detective Shannon G. Dowell (Photo: December 12, 2011 at the Port of Houston by Kit O'Connell) Update Why did undercover Austin Police Department Detective Shannon G. That’s the question I want answered after speaking with Ronnie Garza, a member of Occupy Austin who faces felony charges resulting from actions at the Port of Houston on December 12, 2011. But it turns out that a secret undercover agent with the police department had infiltrated the activist group, and he is the person who acquired the materials and built the “lockboxes” for this action. In addition to Garza, other members of the Gulf Port 7 include Iraq veteran Eric Marquez, who has been stuck in jail since December and Remington Alessi, a Green Party candidate for Houston sheriff. Occupiers pose with the lockboxes Dowell built on December 12 at Houston's Tranquility Park.