Tag: occupy

4:50 pm

Frank reports that about 200 protesters and lots of police are still in the Civic Center Plaza, and right now the protesters are discussing what comes next for the encampment.

There is one tent and a food table still standing in the plaza and police have agreed to leave them in place as a symbol of the Occupy Movement. HOWEVER, they will not be allowed to have sleeping bags or to sleep in the plaza.

Anyone having additional information is encouraged to comment!

6:40 pm

Frank reports that police are allowing protesters to sleep in the plaza, TONIGHT ONLY.

This morning, October 14th, San Diego Police made one arrest as they cleared tents and other personal property from the Civic Center Plaza where Occupy San Diego protesters have been camped out since last Saturday.

The arrest was of one demonstrator who resisted arrest.

Police had delivered the ultimatum Thursday afternoon, ordering all tents and other equipment to be removed by midnight last night. Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in the late evening, a dozen or so camped out amidst about six tents set up in the middle of the Plaza. Others linked arms and surrounded those willing to be arrested in protest of the removal of their tents. Earlier there had been as many as 100 tents at the site.

Frank has been downtown all day with OccupySD. He just called to let me know (and to let you know) that it appears that arrests may be imminent in the Civic Center Concourse.

From what he can ascertain, there is to be a large dance event in the concourse on Saturday that is scheduled to go from 3pm to midnight. The police want the plaza cleared so the plaza can be cleaned for this event (sounds familiar… I think something similar happened in Seattle and is now an issue in New York). Some protesters are willing to remove their tents for the event, but don’t want to leave the encampment.

UPDATES INSIDE

By Naomi Klein / The Nation

I was honored to be invited to speak at Occupy Wall Street on Thursday night. Since amplification is (disgracefully) banned, and everything I say will have to be repeated by hundreds of people so others can hear (a?k?a “the human microphone”), what I actually say at Liberty Plaza will have to be very short. With that in mind, here is the longer, uncut version of the speech.

I love you.

And I didn’t just say that so that hundreds of you would shout “I love you” back, though that is obviously a bonus feature of the human microphone. Say unto others what you would have them say unto you, only way louder.

So everyone’s been weighing in on the Occupy protests lately. I’ve done a few lightweight “just the facts, ma’am,” pieces on my other site, but I feel like what I’ve really got is commentary, reaction, and editorializing. In one of my day jobs I’m a reporter of straight news, in the other I’m a real estate and mortgage broker, which probably qualifies me as a 1%er (and not in the HA kinda way) and worthy of lynching. But I’m bringing the unqualified opinions that follow home to the OB Rag, the place where I cut my pseudo-journalistic chops.

The point of my rant today is the official Facebook page of the Occupy SD movement.

By arodb / DaliyKos.com

This diary will be short on commentary, showing three video interviews I made that give some idea of the range of activity at this smaller venue. It reflects the goals and current state of organization of this small local manifestation of the much larger movement.

First there was this interview with Larry Garcia, who had been a residential mortgage broker, and was in the media booth. The caption of this interview is response to my question about the clout of entrenched powerful corporations, “We’re collecting a different type of capital here, it’s called votes.”

See inside for videos…

By Brad Johnson / ThinkProgress.org

In one of the largest mass arrests in recent Boston history, the Boston Police Department cleared a park of over 100 activists with the 99 Percent Movement in the early hours of Tuesday morning, dismantling and destroying tents that had been set up on Monday. Startling footage shot by an onlooker shows members of Veterans for Peace, an organization of U.S. military veterans who oppose war, being arrested by members of the Boston Police Department, their flags — including the American flag — being thrown to the ground…

See video inside…

By Charlie Grapski / MyFiregodlake.com / October 9, 2011

The following photograph taken by opednews.com shows a confrontation in the lobby of the National Air and Space Museum between two individuals and an officer shortly before video shows officers with the Museum’s security forces rush outside indiscriminately pepper-spraying numerous individuals.

It appears that one of the two in the confrontation with the security officer is Patrick Howley, Assistant Editor of The American Spectator.

I had already reached the conclusion intellectually, but it didn’t get to my gut until late last night. I was sitting on the wide steps in Civic Center Plaza amidst a heated discussion among about a dozen occupiers. Even with the electricity of our discussion coupled with all that had been put up during the occupation, something new and wonderfully addicting was being born. We were creating the beginnings of a new society right here in the shadow of City Hall, right here in the windy, cold corridors of San Diego power.

As you walk among the nearly 90 tents set up in the Plaza, and observe what the occupiers are actually doing, you can sense that a small town, a small village, has been created right in the bowels of our large city, right in the heart of its civic government. A village born in the middle of a city.

Originally posted Oct. 7, 2011

It’s been a long, short week, if that makes any sense at all… I haven’t slept much in the last few days, the wheels in my head have been spinning constantly, a mantra in the near reaches of my conscious thoughts, we, are, the 99%…

After 4 hours of sleep last night, an early morning meeting with the Better San Diego Coalition about the upcoming Mayoral Debate (more on that in the next few days) and tending to family matters most of the afternoon I grabbed a couple of chicken burritos from our neighborhood mexican grill and hopped on the trolley to downtown hoping to meet up with Frank and a multitude of friends, old and new, in the Civic Center to begin the Occupation of San Diego.

Update: Day #21 of Occupy America – the movement that began on September 17th at Wall Street.

The following is a summary of very recent Occupy actions around the country, over the last 24 hours. We counted 74 arrests from around the country of demonstrators by police.

Tonight, just back from the General Assembly of Occupy San Diego, we can report that a site has been chosen for the initial location of the occupation, and it is the very Children’s Museum Park that the group has been meeting since they started.

Here’s the general plan for Friday, October 7th:

• 3:30 ish pm – We’ll form up at Children’s Museum Park, First and Island

• Roughly 4:00 we’ll march through the Gaslamp up to Civic Center Plaza, 1200 Third Avenue, next to City Hall;

• Arrive at the Civic Center Plaza roughly 4:30