Neal Anderth wrote:I'm going to repeat myself by again sharing a bit of the Constitution:

First Amendment – "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Any action by the government or its agents to the contrary is invalid.

geojanes, the protesters are in D.C. too. Thanks for your additional comments regarding Liberty Plaza.

If it wasn't for the police interventions this whole thing would likely be over with already. When you tell people they can't do something they believe they should be free to do it gets them riled up.

danivon wrote:I think they see DC as the monkey to Wall St's organ grinder.

geojanes wrote:

danivon wrote:I think they see DC as the monkey to Wall St's organ grinder.

That's a great image. Thanks.

danivon wrote:After all those disputes, it came out that the 100 companies on the main FTSE index saw the remuneration for board-level executives go up 49% in a year, at a period when some comparator stats are:
Median private sector pay increase: 2.6%
FTSE change over 12 months: from 5675 to 5702 (+27, or less than 0.5%) - and it was some way lower until this week.

Neal Anderth wrote:ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The first financial report of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York City shows protesters have raised more than $454,000 and have spent slightly more than $50,000 in the movement's first five weeks, a person close to the movement said Friday.

Only in America, doesn't even count the value of donated occupies

City officials temporarily denied Occupy Madison a new street use permit Wednesday after protesters violated public health and safety conditions and failed to follow the correct processes to renew or amend a permit.

The permit, which expired Wednesday at noon, required Occupy Madison protesters to relocate from their current space at 30 West Mifflin Street, also called 30 on the Square.

A neighboring hotel's staff alleged voiced concerns about having to recently escort hotel employees to and from bus stops late at night due to inappropriate behavior, such as public masturbation, from street protesters.

In addition, officials agreed further occupation should not be allowed to continue without restrooms on site to avoid further public health violations.

A neighboring hotel's staff alleged voiced concerns about having to recently escort hotel employees to and from bus stops late at night due to inappropriate behavior, such as public masturbation, from street protesters.

rickyp wrote:When the Tea Party assembled and protested, liberals ran around with microphones and interviewed the quirkier elements and used those displays of (choose one or more) ignorance, intolerance, inananity to attempt to disqualify the central theme of the Tea Party.
Now, the conservatives attempt the same thing.

"We're asking people not to go to work and not to go to school that day," he said.

He said he was unsure of the timing of closing down the port.

The occupy protests in Oakland, which began Oct. 11, have resulted in more than 100 arrests and included a violent confrontation last week between protestors wielding bottles, rocks and firecrackers and police using tear gas.

The majority of protesters are peaceful, Anderson said. At a march Saturday night, some young men tried to rush the police line with homemade shields. Anderson said he and others stood between them and the police, shouting "peace" and telling them to calm down and not provoke retaliation.

Jordan Hunter, 40, of San Rafael, Calif., said she came from Occupy Marin to help rebuild the Oakland site after police removed it.

"It's kind of a big social experiment in living outside the expectations created by the economic structure we live in," she said.

Elsewhere:

•Police cleared out a plaza in Richmond, Va., early Monday that had been home to protesters, ordering out dozens of people who had encamped there since Oct. 17 and arresting those who refused to leave.

•Police in Portland, Ore., arrested about 30 anti-Wall Street protesters Sunday, dragging and carrying them to waiting vans, after they refused to leave a park in an affluent district.

• Dozens of protesters were arrested Sunday in Austin, where they clashed with police over food tables.

•In Nashville, about 50 demonstrators chanted "Whose plaza? Our plaza!" in defiance of an official curfew. As people danced to keep warm on a chilly Sunday morning, police monitored the activity but made no arrests.

DENVER (AP) - The simmering tension near the Colorado Capitol escalated dramatically Saturday with more than a dozen arrests, reports of skirmishes between police and protesters and authorities firing rounds of pellets filled with pepper spray at supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Officers in riot gear moved into a park late in the day where protesters were attempting to establish an encampment, hauling off demonstrators just hours after a standoff at the Capitol steps degenerated into a fight that ended in a cloud of Mace and pepper spray.

Denver police spokesman Matt Murray said 15 people were arrested in the evening confrontation, where authorities were moving to prevent protesters from setting up tents in the park, which are illegal. Officals say the demonstrators had been warned several times that the tents would not be allowed and those who attempted to stop police from dismantling the camp gear were arrested. Protesters have been staying in the park for weeks, but tents have repeatedly been removed.

Murray said that most of the protesters were peaceful but there was "just a die-hard group that didn't want to cooperate."

"We showed great restraint," he said. "We were calm. We went in and did what we had to do. There's a group of very committed people who believe in a cause, and then there are a few people who just want to cause trouble."

Earlier in the day about 2,000 protesters rallying against what they see as economic inequality and corporate greed marched downtown toward the Capitol, setting up the most intense moments of the Denver movement, which has lasted weeks.

A group of the marchers advanced toward the building and some tried to make their way up the steps. About eight officers scuffled with a group of protesters and police confirmed that they used Mace and fired pepper balls - hollow projectiles filled with the chemical irritant - to break up the crowd. Protesters told the paper at the time that they believed police used rubber bullets.

Murray said protesters kicked police and knocked one officer off his motorcycle. He said five protesters were arrested, including two for assault and one for disobedience.

Chantrell Smiley, 21, of Denver, said she has been protesting downtown for more than a week, sleeping on the ground in the park. She said she didn't see the officer get knocked from his motorcycle and didn't see any reason for the afternoon confrontation.

"It was just chaos. This wasn't necessary. My friend got hit with rubber bullets in the face. He was screaming and bleeding, then they Maced him. We're being peaceful. We don't want to be harmed. They came through and took everything down - our food, our blankets, everything's gone."

Mike Korzen, 25, told the Denver Post that he was among the group that police dispersed with rubber bullets and pepper spray and suggested that the police force was excessive.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Even anarchic movements like to have some legal protections: Occupy Wall Street's organizers have applied to trademark their movement's name.

In an application dated October 24, the unincorporated association "Occupy Wall Street" applied for the trademark to "Occupy Wall Street." The trademark application says the group would like to use the phrase on merchandise such as clothing and bags, in periodicals and newsletters, and on a website featuring "photographic, audio, video and prose presentations" about the Occupy movement.

The Occupy group has been screen-printing t-shirts and other items in Zuccotti Park, and plans to continue doing so once it has trademark protection, according to a representative.

"I hear your complaints," Bloomberg said. "Some of them are totally unfounded. It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp. Now, I'm not saying I'm sure that was terrible policy, because a lot of those people who got homes still have them and they wouldn't have gotten them without that.

"But they were the ones who pushed Fannie and Freddie to make a bunch of loans that were imprudent, if you will. They were the ones that pushed the banks to loan to everybody. And now we want to go vilify the banks because it's one target, it's easy to blame them and congress certainly isn't going to blame themselves. At the same time, Congress is trying to pressure banks to loosen their lending standards to make more loans. This is exactly the same speech they criticized them for."

Bloomberg went on to say it's "cathartic" and "entertaining" to blame people, but the important thing now is to fix the problem.

Doctor Fate wrote:We are not Greece.