Tag Archives: Occupy Camp

“Dissenter” blog: Detroit needs the Occupy movement

  February 9, 2012 - 3:15 am | , ,
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Empty space, once a Detroit neighorhood

At its peak around 1950, Detroit  housed two million people within its city limits. Today, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population is around 714,000.

Seventy-two thousand homes, or nearly a quarter of the city’s housing, is vacant. It is the poorest large city in the country; more than 35 percent of the city’s population lived in poverty in 2009. Given those statistics, one might expect the Occupy movement would thrive here.

I met with a couple of Occupy Detroit organizers (Kevin and Sarah) while I was on a tour of occupations in the Great Lakes region of the United States. They spoke to me about how Occupy Detroit started, what it was like to maintain an encampment, when they ended their encampment, and what plans they had for Detroit now.

On October 11, Occupy Detroit members marched from the city hall “Spirit of Detroit” statue to Grand Circus Park. The march followed a large General Assembly, held in a church parking lot because there were too many people to fit in the pews.

At the Occupy Detroit camp, they set up tents and, like other Occupy sites, reorganized the camp multiple times adding medical, comfort, and media tents, and making the kitchen more functional.

[Kevin Gosztola Tuesday January 31, 2012 1:40 pm

peecharrific:
LOS ANGELES –  Hundreds of Los Angeles protesters prepared for what they believe to be an imminent police raid on their weeks-old encampment Tuesday night as demonstrators with the movement in Philadelphia began marching through the streets following officers’ orders for them to leave their encampment.
live video from NBC LA
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa first announced that by 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 21, occupiers would have to leave the encampment they have called home for two months. However, the deadline came and went without a police raid. The eviction deadline did lead half of the encampment to fold up their tents and exit the lawn. He later told the Los Angeles Times he decided to officially pulled the trigger after learning there were children living in the tent city. “The chaos out there could produce something awful,” he told the Times.
The police have to look at how severe the crime is and choose how strictly to enforce municipal codes. Is there a threat to a citizen’s life in the balance? Does this encampment obstruct a required thoroughfare? Perhaps the city can provide an alternate location which would serve the needs? Very few cities have approached Occupy movements with a level head enabling their citizens the right to protest. The movement needs to sit in presence during city hearings and proceedings, demanding to see justice for all is properly served – this is in the CONSTITUTION and we have a BILL OF RIGHTS. These are worth reading by every citizen. How come new citizens know these rights better than naturally born citizens? Because they study them and don’t assume to know them! The view of domestic terrorism keeps coming up – but these people aren’t demanding anything that is counter-productive, and they aren’t endangering lives. Occupy movements are not an assault on rights or freedoms. They are inconvenient for those who choose to follow existing government and corporate agendas, people whom are sometimes referred colloquially as “sheeple”. The 99% are staging a unifying rally in their ranks to regain rights, thought, choice which have been disallowed through neglect and acceptance of the status quo. It is an awakening of the masses.

Link

  November 30, 2011 - 9:11 am |
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‘Occupy Los Angeles’ Protesters Brace for Eviction

peecharrific:
LOS ANGELES –  Hundreds of Los Angeles protesters prepared for what they believe to be an imminent police raid on their weeks-old encampment Tuesday night as demonstrators with the movement in Philadelphia began marching through the streets following officers’ orders for them to leave their encampment.
live video from NBC LA
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa first announced that by 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 21, occupiers would have to leave the encampment they have called home for two months. However, the deadline came and went without a police raid. The eviction deadline did lead half of the encampment to fold up their tents and exit the lawn. He later told the Los Angeles Times he decided to officially pulled the trigger after learning there were children living in the tent city. “The chaos out there could produce something awful,” he told the Times.
The police have to look at how severe the crime is and choose how strictly to enforce municipal codes. Is there a threat to a citizen’s life in the balance? Does this encampment obstruct a required thoroughfare? Perhaps the city can provide an alternate location which would serve the needs? Very few cities have approached Occupy movements with a level head enabling their citizens the right to protest. The movement needs to sit in presence during city hearings and proceedings, demanding to see justice for all is properly served – this is in the CONSTITUTION and we have a BILL OF RIGHTS. These are worth reading by every citizen. How come new citizens know these rights better than naturally born citizens? Because they study them and don’t assume to know them! The view of domestic terrorism keeps coming up – but these people aren’t demanding anything that is counter-productive, and they aren’t endangering lives. Occupy movements are not an assault on rights or freedoms. They are inconvenient for those who choose to follow existing government and corporate agendas, people whom are sometimes referred colloquially as “sheeple”. The 99% are staging a unifying rally in their ranks to regain rights, thought, choice which have been disallowed through neglect and acceptance of the status quo. It is an awakening of the masses.

Link

  November 30, 2011 - 9:11 am |
Leave a comment

‘Occupy Los Angeles’ Protesters Brace for Eviction