Occupy Wall Street live General Assembly meeting

[Riot]

Nashville has been cracking down hard on Occupy Nashville protesters, instituting a sudden $65 "protest" fee, and holding mass arrests for trespassing. Yesterday the local judge chastized the Tennessee Highway Patrol police, telling them they had no right to arrest the protesters, and releasing all of them.

Why? You can't tax, legislate, control, require permits, or dictate free speech in the United States. It's ... free, any time or public place Americans want.

Yay for this judge! Ron Paul would be proud!

As a local official continues to dismiss arrest warrants, the state of Tennessee is losing ground in its effort to evict Occupy Nashville.

Last Thursday, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam's administration set new curfew and permit rules on the park where Occupy Nashville had been camping for three weeks ....

( snip )

Preparing to evict the Occupy Nashville protesters, the Haslam administration banned public demonstrations at Legislative Plaza without a permit today and imposed a 10 p.m. curfew on all the Capitol grounds. State officials vowed to enforce the new policy beginning tomorrow.

( snip )

The new policy will force Occupy Nashville to ask for permits from state government each day to demonstrate. Protests will be allowed only between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Additionally, the new rules require a $65 daily fee for permits, making protest pay-to-play at the Tennessee state capitol.

In an attempt to use the new rules to shut down Occupy Nashville, the Tennessee state police conducted mass arrests on both Thursday and Friday. According to The Tennessean, nearly fifty arrests were made over the two nights, including two reporters [ this was the famous arrest of a reporter while he was reporting, and videotaping his own arrest ]

( snip )

However, the state's vindictive actions quickly ran into legal roadblocks. Tennessee law requires a local judicial commissioner to approve arrest warrants, and after both mass arrests local Night Court Magistrate Tom Nelson argued the state was overstepping its authority. Nelson refused to grant approval, and the protesters were quickly released.

Explaining his decision, Nelson sent out a sharp rebuke to the state for instituting new laws in order to clear out an established protest:

Early today, Night Court Magistrate Tom Nelson sent an email to Davidson County’s General Sessions judges explaining why he refused the THP’s request to sign criminal trespassing warrants against Occupy Nashville protesters.

Nelson said “until the new rules and regulations were promulgated there was no crime of Criminal Trespass pertaining to this group of persons for the past 3 weeks.’’

He noted “It is of particular consternation that the rules and curfew were enacted after a protest movement and occupation of Legislative Plaza had been tolerated for just over 3 weeks, with no notice that the group members were involved in criminal activity.’

After failing to secure any arrests on Thursday or Friday, the Tennessee Highway Patrol did not even show up at Occupy Nashville for the past two nights.

On Saturday afternoon, the protesters held a march in honor of Nelson.

Further, the protesters are now the ones on the legal offensive. With the help of the ACLU, they have filed a lawsuit against the Haslam administration. The name of the lawsuit is Occupy Nashville vs. Haslam.

For ongoing updates on the events in Nashville, visit The Tennessean and follow @OccupyNashville on Twitter.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1...via=siderecent

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Riot

Why? You can't tax, legislate, control, require permits, or dictate free speech in the United States. It's ... free, any time or public place Americans want.

Yay for this judge! Ron Paul would be proud!

unless of course a curfew/closing time is in place like Chicago's Grant Park

But I agree with the judge on this one, Ron Paul being proud, and hope the Nashville protesters welcome and feed the homeless rather than tagging and shunning them.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

unless of course a curfew/closing time is in place like Chicago's Grant Park

But I agree with the judge on this one, Ron Paul being proud, and hope the Nashville protesters welcome and feed the homeless rather than tagging and shunning them.

Zucotti Park, today, is still feeding the homeless, as they have from day one. Get a more reliable source.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Riot

Get a more reliable source.

Than a person on the ground, in the park? A new york based newspaper?

[dellinger63]

and still organic fare, free range chickens etc or is the paper and source right and it's beans and rice?

[Riot]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

Than a person on the ground, in the park? A new york based newspaper?

Yes. A more reliable source than a tabloid rag. Like a first-hand account rather than something made up out of thin air. Like OccupyWallStreet.com itself. Read the General Assembly meeting minutes yourself, where the people involved actually discuss this.

Of course, that would take actual thinking on your part.

Or, do some more investigation:

There’s a bombshell allegation buried in this story from Sunday’s Daily News: The NYPD is reportedly telling drunks to hang out in Zuccotti Park, apparently as a way to undermine the credibility of Occupy Wall Street.

Harry Siegel reports:

But while officers may be in a no-win situation, at the mercy of orders carried on shifting political winds and locked into conflict with a so-far almost entirely non-violent protest movement eager to frame the force as a symbol of the oppressive system they’re fighting, the NYPD seems to have crossed a line in recent days, as the park has taken on a darker tone with unsteady and unstable types suddenly seeming to emerge from the woodwork. Two different drunks I spoke with last week told me they’d been encouraged to “take it to Zuccotti” by officers who’d found them drinking in other parks, and members of the community affairs working group related several similar stories they’d heard while talking with intoxicated or aggressive new arrivals.
…
“He’s got a right to express himself, you’ve got a right to express yourself,” I heard three cops repeat in recent days, using nearly identical language, when asked to intervene with troublemakers inside the park, including a clearly disturbed man screaming and singing wildly at 3 a.m. for the second straight night.

Emphasis mine. Siegel added on Twitter that he has sourcing for the story beyond the two drunks cited above, though he did not elaborate.

The NYPD did not comment to the Daily News. I’ve asked them for a response to the allegations and I will update this post if I hear back.

http://www.salon.com/2011/10/31/repo...y_wall_street/

[clyde]

Rita Brains or Monkey Brains?


I think I'll have the Monkey Brains with rice and 'mater sauce.

The Rita Brains dish is for dieters and I'm hungry.

[dellinger63]

Originally Posted by Riot

Yes. A more reliable source than a tabloid rag. Like a first-hand account rather than something made up out of thin air. Like OccupyWallStreet.com itself. Read the General Assembly meeting minutes yourself, where the people involved actually discuss this.

Of course, that would take actual thinking on your part.

Or, do some more investigation:

Are you kidding me? You are going to cite a writer from politico who was then quoted by Salon about what two unnamed 'drunks' (as he calls them) told him? In comparison/response to a story in the NY Post quoting Nick Hommen, 29, a volunteer from Salem, Ore.

Only in the world of Riot does the word of two unnamed drunks outweigh a named volunteer.

Not quite as good as your dismissal of abuse of young women, all over the world, forced into arranged marriages because of your talk with two muslim grad students, living in KY, but in the ballpark.

You know when you typed, "Of course, that would take actual thinking on your part," were you looking in a mirror?

[Riot]

Originally Posted by dellinger63

Are you kidding me? You are going to cite a writer from politico who was then quoted by Salon about what two unnamed 'drunks' (as he calls them) told him? In comparison/response to a story in the NY Post quoting Nick Hommen, 29, a volunteer from Salem, Ore.

Only in the world of Riot does the word of two unnamed drunks outweigh a named volunteer.

Not quite as good as your dismissal of abuse of young women, all over the world, forced into arranged marriages because of your talk with two muslim grad students, living in KY, but in the ballpark.

You know when you typed, "Of course, that would take actual thinking on your part," were you looking in a mirror?

Seriously - do your thoughts hurt you, the way they bounce around all crazy in your head until they fall, completely jumbled and nonsensical, out of your mouth?