At 1:46 a.m. Tuesday, November 1, 2011 Riverside County sheriff's deputies arrest protester and Los Angeles Free Press publisher Steven Finger, 56, of Palm Desert (on ground) and protester Ryan Cartwright, 21, of Palm Desert (background) and warn other protesters to get back after both men were accused of stepping on grass considered inside the boundaries of Civic Center Park in Palm Desert. Deputies swept the Occupy Coachella Valley encampment, which was set up in a small parking lot inside the park, and arrested nine people overnight. / Crystal Chatham, The Desert Sun
By Desert Sun staff / November 1, 2011
PALM DESERT — At least eight people were arrested overnight as Palm Desert police cleared the park where Occupy Coachella Valley protesters camped for a week.
“I saw a brigade of cops; it was unbelievable,” said protester Steven Finger, 56, of Palm Desert. “They were in two rows wearing gear and they were marching down the street.”
Five protesters and two other people not involved with Occupy Coachella Valley were arrested at Civic Center Park, Riverside County sheriff’s Lt. Bill Sullivan wrote in an email to The Desert Sun about 1:30 a.m. A Desert Sun photographer saw two more protesters arrested about 15 minutes later.
Eight unlawful assembly suspects arrested near the park were booked into the Riverside County jail in Indio, jail records show. Four of those people had been released by about 6:45 a.m.
Finger, who was in the second round of arrests, told The Desert Sun that protesters weren’t given any orders to disburse on Monday night.
“There was no order to disburse, no warning. They were just pointing at who to arrest and saying ‘that one, that one.’”
City officials last week granted temporary overnight permits during the camp’s first few days, but when it grew clear the protesters planned to stay indefinitely, the city refused to renew the permit on Friday.
Since then, police have visited the camp after the park’s 11 p.m. closing time at least twice to warn protesters to leave, or at least stand on the adjacent sidewalk instead.
“We have tried everything possible to accommodate (the protesters),” Sullivan said. “We gave warnings, letters.”
No one was hurt as the arrests were made, he said.
“My perception is that those who wanted to be arrested were arrested and those who didn’t moved to the sidewalk,” Sullivan said.
Police arrived at the park about 11:30 p.m., Sullivan said. The first wave of arrests was made at 12:15 a.m., according to jail records.
About 1:20 a.m., 13 people stayed on the sidewalk as four officers and two police cars remained on scene. Some of the protesters who weren’t arrested remained and shouted at officers.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
We will not be stopped, We will not be Silenced. We have the 1st amendment! We are the People, We are the 99%!
OCCUPY AMERICA..and Everywhere’s…in USA.: WE MUST WAKE UP AMERICA….OR ELSE….. Are we really afraid of being protectionists….or should we STOP IMPORTS….or slow it down…. or else we will loose everything we built after WWII….!!!
WHY IS THERE AN OCCUPY OF AMERICA…..!!!
BECAUSE ALL OUR AMERICAN JOBS EVAPORATED AND WERE SENT TO ASIA THE LAST 45 YEARS….!!!
OCCUPY AMERICA….!!!
Lets talk about Occupying America…. which I know best….!!!
Let me know how I can help…I live near the Sherman Oaks in CA…I am 78 years old and don’t do real big things anymore…but my old brain still wants to…like Occupy – Lake Balboa next…Long Beach and Los Angeles Ports etc….!!!
There is a lot more about it…. as I have analyzed America for the last 62 years as an adult…I came to America in 1949 after WWII….and started to work in Manhattan in 1951 right after I graduated from High School…yes I always thought then that I had come to the land of Milk & Honey…or someone told me so….now it has turned to be more about Democrats, Republicans, Corporations and Government …plus coffee drinking Tea Party folks….and Politics…!!!
I gave up on America some time ago…!!! but still am hunging in…!!!
Yes picketing Fashion Square in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles….should be next if you can get an Army to go there every day…covering all the entrance doors…….and explain with signs how Americans keep buying products made overseas and in the same breath eliminate American jobs by buying those products for the last 45 years…………all of our malls around America should be prime targets for sure… as they all Import….and you need to picket our 2 ports where 13,000 Container ships unloaded in Long Beach port alone in 2010…and I’m not not even counting the Los Angeles port….and many more along our 3 coasts…around the USA…so we have been loosing jobs to Imports since the Mid 1960’s…!!!! and nothing has been done about it…President Bush Jr signed & sealed our fate in 2006 with his NO QUOTA bill…the last Bill necessary that allowed Asia to dump goods at will beyong the means of our manufacturing base to recover……..and made our Chain Stores and Mass Merchandisers & Importers that started and finally killed our American’s Camel’s Back Economy for good and a final blow during that 45 years lapse………..and it made these Special Interest businesses and Corporations and Wall Street and banks rich & fat…rich and non-caring about our American work force………and now our Economy is lamenting every day…with no end in sight…!!!! and I am not surprised…!!!
I have been urging DC to listen and do something about it for since January 21st 2009…on the first day my Candidate Obama said he would be ready on Day 1….no instead…. he traveled to 21 countries to show off and even got a Nobel Prize for Peace….which he did not deserve….as we should not have invaded Iraq in the first place…yes Bush Jr and Obama should divide their shallow accomplishments…and get nothing each…!!!!! not even an ice Cream cone…!!!!
JK :o
Meanwhile we should only focuss on one issue…Jobs & our Econmy…
I wrote this last April….below….
…………………………
OCCUPY AMERICA..and Everywhere’s…in USA.: WE MUST WAKE UP AMERICA….OR ELSE….. Are we really afraid of being protectionists….or should we STOP IMPORTS….or slow it down…. or else we will loose everything we built after WWII….!!!
WAKE UP AMERICA…. WE MUST…..WAKE UP OR THE FUTURE WILL NOT BE VERY ROSY THIS CENTURY…..!!!!!!
Or else we will loose everything we built up after WWII….
Are we really afraid of being protectionists….or should we STOP IMPORTS….or slow it down a lot so our decimated industries can get back in the game and compete against Asia and other foreign countries……..
After 45 years of offering Exports to Asia it is no wonder we have no jobs at home in America……plus our richest companies now are Importers but do not have jobs for Americans at home…as we have finally hit the Wall…finally…I am not surprised as everything now is going up in price…it is called inflation for sure….that will be the final blow to America….
How about picketing all the US Malls who carry 95% of Imports like in my 2 industries….Manufacturers who are hanging on still and who are still in business but have been decimated or many others have gone out of business for the last 45 years because they could not compete with Foreign countries or American Importers either………..so “America” …. and at any store that sells Imports…Picket them…they will eventually get the message and sell American products eventually …….and say in your picket signs that WE WILL NOT BUY IMPORTS ANYMORE…and…SELL ONLY MADE IN THE USA PRODUCTS….those IMPORTS benefits all the Special Interest Folks who eliminated our Manufacturing bases over the last 45 years…with the help of our Government and with campaign financing which they offered to legislators to pass just the right bills for them in exchange……..I have seen it happen with my own eyes….IMPORTS are our long lost jobs mostly transferred in Asia…..picketing with signs will raise the ears of those Buyers who put Imports in our Retail Stores and who sell them willingly to naive consumers……consumers who have zero ideas that they are eliminating American Jobs….so…..!!!!!!
Also wondering why we have a 2% of rich folks who have as much money as the rest of the 98%…IMPORTS are full of benefits and profits…that is why our Retailers don’t buy American made products….as there less profits in buying or selling American products for sure….this issue Imports has contributed to our demise economically for a very long time….
Many of us are already Liberals….but Liberals & Conservatives and folks in the middle have all created this economic problem over the last 45 years……..and it has not helped in this century or the last one to have 2 parties that can’t work together in Washington or in our 50 States………as they don’t have common senses on how to fix America….how many times more am I going to vote out legislators and replace them with another while the problems get worse after I voted…….!!!!!
What do we have to be and do to overcome our present situation….???? START OVER…!!!
Here is one of my ideas to fix our economy first and get our jobs back…….STOP IMPORTS…!!!…and stop trading Boeing Airplanes for Sweat shirts with China……it won’t work well for us to Trade this stupid way……..Imports are Imports that have eliminated our jobs sources at home….!!!!
And is becoming protectionist necessary…..!!! YES
And can we overcome the world order that we impose on many countries…!!! YES if we don’t get involved unless someone attacks us….
And so on….and on…..and on…..!!!!
So… Stop Imports and slow down Asia or they will control all of our best markets….and Asia will have the jobs for their People and we won’t….it’s that simple.
Joel in LA 8-) at EMAIL: jasaguide@sbcglobal.net