OB Rag

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 / guardian.co.uk / November 25, 2011

US 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.

For most people, Thanksgiving Day is as much about the food as it is self reflection. The turkey cooked to a golden brown, mashed potatoes topped with gravy, salty stuffing, sweet cranberry sauce and a collection of pies for the tasting.

But for OBcean John Kenney, this Thanksgiving was spent sipping glasses of water and contemplating the state of politics.

Kenney has been on a hunger strike for 19 days.

He announced his intentions at the San Diego City Council meeting on Nov. 8 and has since only indulged in water and the occasional coffee. His hope is simple: to get the attention of the City Council members and begin a dialogue regarding the rights of San Diego occupiers to gather at the Civic Center.

Here’s a round-up of Occupation matters:

Police crackdowns on Occupy camps are the real threat

By Linda Lye / SFGate / November 23, 2011

Around California and all over the country, we have been told that Occupy encampments must come down because of “health and safety concerns.” But all around the country, we have seen the police take down these encampments with an overzealous use of pepper spray, tear gas and flash-bang grenades. The real “health threat” we should be concerned about is the threat to the health of our democracy when the government reacts to peaceful political expression with police violence. Go here for the remainder of this article.

San Diego Police on UC Davis Pepper Spraying: ‘We don’t want that here.’

By Danya Bacchus and Sarah Grieco / NBC San Diego / Nov 21, 2011

What happened at UC Davis has local law enforcement talking. San Diego Police officers have said they’ve had the tough job of balancing the first amendment rights of Occupy San Diego protesters and enforcing the law.

UPDATE:Biologists have finished their necropsy of a dead fin whale.Siri Hakala with NOAA said the necropsy on the dead 67-foot fin whale shows whale died from a ship strike. …….Marine Biologists To Perform Necropsy On Fin Whale

On Wednesday, November 23rd, San Diego Lifeguards are towing the dead fin whale that washed up on an isolated Point Loma beach out to sea and then over to Fiesta Island.

A boat is being used to tow the 67-foot whale carcass to the Mission Bay area where National Marine Fisheries Service scientists will perform an autopsy – necropsy – to figure out what killed it and its fetus.

Editor: It’s official: the City of San Diego and its Police Department have finally released figures on how much is being spent patrolling the Occupy San Diego protests. (Were they finally pressured to do so by our searing posts? See here.) The City has spent nearly $57,000 daily and a total of $2.4 million on the protests since they began on October 7th. This does not include costs for the County Sheriffs when they were used. Here’s the San Diego U-T coverage:

By Matthew T. Hall and Ashly McGlone / San Diego U-T / Nov. 22, 2011

The city’s police department said Tuesday it paid $143,918 in overtime costs for four major operations during the Occupy San Diego protests against corporate greed that began Oct. 7 at Civic Center Plaza.

PALM DESERT, CA. At a special banquet last night held at Rancho Las Palmas – one of Southern California’s most exclusive resorts – San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders was presented with one of the most coveted awards given out annually by the famous, billionaire Koch brothers.

Mayor Sanders was handed the “Golden Pluto” award by David Koch himself during the lavish banquet feast, which was attended by many big-city mayors, conservative politicians, pundits, and select press from all over the South West.

Sanders earned the sparkling “Golden Pluto” for the manner in which his office handled San Diego’s version of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. Early in their occupation of Civic Center Plaza in downtown San Diego, the demonstrators had their tents removed and were ordered upon threat of arrest to get rid of all sleeping bags and personal property.

Editor: Here is a brief report of Occupy San Diego’s day in court by Todd Cardiff, the attorney who argued the demonstrators’ case in Federal Court today.

By Todd T. Cardiff, Esq.

On November 22, 2011, the Occupy SD movement, represented by Plaintiffs Eugene Davidovich, Davina Lynch, and John Kenney, appeared in court seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the City from enforcing San Diego Municipal Code section 54.0110. Attorney Todd T. Cardiff represented the plaintiffs. Bryan Pease is the lead attorney on the case.

Plaintiffs argued that the ordinance prohibited people from placing any object on City property.

Calls for the resignation of UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi have not quieted down despite her public apology on Monday for pepper spraying by campus police of peaceful, non-violent student demonstrators last Friday, November 18th. In fact today – this afternoon – there will be a “town hall” meeting on the campus to discuss the incident, and she has been invited.

The UC Davis Faculty Association called for her resignation, as videos of the pepper spraying went viral. These calls have resonated with student leaders, who have also called on the Chancellor to step down. The campus police chief and two of the primary officers involved have all been placed on administrative leave with pay.

Today is the court hearing on Occupy San Diego’s application for a TRO (temporary restraining order) against the City of San Diego in enforcing Municipal Code section 54.0110. The hearing is in Federal Court at 2:30 pm with Judge William Hayes in Courtroom 4 (Fourth Floor). The court is located on 940 Front Street (between Broadway and F Street).

People are asked to attend the hearing, but also to abide by federal court rules, ie, no signs, slogans, T-shirts with slogans, video/still cameras, audio recorders allowed, and all cell phones must be off.

Read the court document filed by OSD attorney: Here is the Complaint.

The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Mexico in September 1992 “as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.” In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving, also called “Black Friday”, which is one of the 10 busiest shopping days in the United States. Outside North America and Israel, Buy Nothing Day is the following Saturday. Participation now includes more than 65 nations.

From AdBsuters

You’ve been sleeping on the streets for two months pleading peacefully for a new spirit in economics. And just as your camps are raided, your eyes pepper sprayed and your head’s knocked in, another group of people are preparing to camp-out. Only these people aren’t here to support occupy Wall Street, they’re here to secure their spot in line for a Black Friday bargain at Super Target and Macy’s.

Editor: A shortened version of the following article by Rebecca Solnit appeared on the Op-Ed page of today’s LA Times. We thought the entire piece is worthy of your read, so here it is.

By Rebecca Solnit / TomDispatch.com / November 22, 2011

Last Tuesday, I awoke in lower Manhattan to the whirring of helicopters overhead, a war-zone sound that persisted all day and then started up again that Thursday morning, the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street and a big day of demonstrations in New York City. It was one of the dozens of ways you could tell that the authorities take Occupy Wall Street seriously, even if they profoundly mistake what kind of danger it poses. If you ever doubted whether you were powerful or you mattered, just look at the reaction to people like you (or your children) camped out in parks from Oakland to Portland, Tucson to Manhattan.

Editor: Please note this was written 2 years ago. It’s now the 50th anniversary and we are running a series of articles. Here’s the first one. The 2nd on CNN joining the cover-up, and the 3rd “The Big Lie”.

November 22, 1963, – 48 years ago today – was one of the most terrible days in US history. It was the day that John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

No one yet has been successfully prosecuted for his murder. Yes, Lee Harvey Oswald was caught and then killed by Jack Ruby – but to this day – no one besides Oswald has been punished for the most despicable act in our lifetime.

Plenty of us boomers remember those days. I was 15 when it happened and I vividly recall that day at Point Loma High when we heard about the shooting. I felt sick and literally tossed my lunch into the garbage can at school. And I was sitting with my father a day later in our Point Loma home when we both witnessed Jack Ruby assassinate Oswald live on national television.