Anti-Wall Street protesters vow to keep up fight

[Dave]

Of the many protest we hear about over the course of any given year, the Wall Street protest are possibly the dumbest. It would be one thing if a majority of the protesters knew why they were actually there... many of them are doing it simply because they have nothing better to do apparently. Their reasons vary if you ask them why they are there... most will suggest they are striking out at corporate America, while they are chatting on their IPhones, IPads, Smartphones, laptops and whatever else they might use to talk to others. And of course they are hitting the local corporate owned restaurants to buy food and take poops. Many of these protesters are more liberal/progressive and feel they are striking out against the conservative/republican political machine... no one has told them apparentely that democrats get just as much money (if not more) from Wall Street as Republicans do. Then you throw in a few of the unions like SEIU (who we all know and love) that are lending their support to the protest.... regardless of the fact that without corporations, no one in unions would have jobs. In reality, many of these unions.. specially SEIU... are corporations in themselves which makes them look even dumber.

Anyhow, if there is one word I can use to describe the Wall Street protestors, it would be this:

MORONS

 

(Reuters) - Anti-Wall Street protesters vowed to keep up their fight on Sunday despite the arrests of more than 700 people the previous day for blocking traffic lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge in an unauthorized protest.

 

Police issued more than 700 summonses on Saturday to members of the Occupy Wall Street movement who, despite multiple warnings, took part in the march on the Brooklyn-bound lanes which snarled traffic in the area until the bridge was reopened hours later.

Most of the protesters who were arrested were issued summonses and released.

"In an hour or two, we'll be somewhere else protesting," said Patrick Bruner, an English major at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, who has been serving a spokesman for the protesters.

He added that the group had contingency plans in case the park where they have set up a makeshift camp was raided or they were forcibly removed.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which has garnered the support of celebrities such as filmmaker Michael Moore and actress Susan Sarandon, are protesting against home foreclosures, high unemployment and the 2008 bailouts.

In Los Angeles, more than 100 protesters camped out in front of City Hall overnight Saturday. Occupy Wall Street organizers say they hope to see such protests spread across the country.

Saturday's march in New York began at 3:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) from the protesters' camp in Zuccotti Park, which is private land open to the public, in downtown Manhattan near the former World Trade Center.

The fire department said it has been to the camp to check for fire safety issues. Members of the anti-Wall Street group have vowed to stay at the camp through the winter.

"Our concern is cooking, the use of propane tanks and garbage piling up. All we're concerned about is that everybody is safe," said Frank Dwyer, a spokesman for the Fire Department of New York.

The park property is maintained by Brookfield Properties, a publicly traded corporation. In a statement issued last week the company said it was extremely concerned about the conditions that have been created in the park and was working with city officials to restore the park to its intended purpose.

During Saturday's protest on the bridge, police used orange mesh nets to surround the marchers in what witnesses described as chaotic scenes with protesters being handcuffed and taken off the bridge.

Warnings were given by the police to the protesters to stay on the pedestrian walkway.

"Some complied and took the walkway without being arrested. Others locked arms and proceeded on the Brooklyn-bound vehicular roadway and were arrested," a police spokesman said.

The arrests followed a peaceful march to police headquarters on Friday by more than 1,000 people to protest the arrest of 80 members of the Occupy Wall Street movement the previous week in the Union Square shopping district.

During that march a few women were doused with pepper spray which was captured on video and viewed widely on the Internet.

The group has garnered support from some union members including the United Federation of Teachers and the Transport Workers Union Local 100.

(Additional reporting by Mary Slosson, writing by Patricia Reaney, editing by Ellen Wulfhorst)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/03/us-usa-protests-wallstree...

[Dave]

Bingo!

[Marty Redman]



Can someone console these poor kids who have no more Harry Potter books coming out, no more new Star Wars episodes, and no more Lord of the Rings movies?

[Dave]

And it just gets sillier and sillier. The longer this 'protest' goes on, the less organized they seem to be and have absolutely no idea what their message really is. While they supposedly hate greed, they sure do seem to welcome those people that have plenty of wealth with open arms... even if those wealthy people like Russell Simmons are exactly the type of people they should be hating as Simmons owns a debit card company that apparently charges people extra fees. The conditions down at... well... might as well call it ground zero are starting to get deplorable... garbage everywhere, the smell coming from god knows what. There are photo's circulating of people going to the bathroom pretty much anywhere including one pic of a guy apparently trying to poop on a police car. I actually kind of hope they keep this thing going so more and more people can see how seriously stupid it is. Hopefully it also takes down any politician stupid enough to endorse it... dem, repub or whatever.

 

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Ladies and gentleman, Kanye West is in the building. Or in this case, outside of it.

The outspoken rapper paid a visit to the Occupy Wall Street protests Monday afternoon, led by rap mogul Russell Simmons. Simmons was there to appear on Reverend Al Sharpton's radio show, which the MSNBC primetime host was broadcasting live from the park.

This was the latest indication that the media spotlight on the movement has not faded and celebrity interest hasn't abated. Organization, however, is still lacking and political goals still need unpacking.

As the protests enter their fourth week, and copycat demonstrations proliferate as far as Fort Myers, Fla. -- population 48,000 and change -- media attention continues to grow. But that attention is often uncontrolled as the organization continues to find its footing.

"We are supposed to talk a lot more than we do," one organizer told TheWrap, speaking about the relationship between the movement's different bodies. "We're still organizing so much."

As one stands at the various stations of the movement's epicenter, there is a constant sense of organized chaos.

When TheWrap asked a girl distributing the "Occupy Wall Street Journal," the movement's, er, official publication, she couldn't explain how she came to be distributing it. She said she was simply handed copies and just started passing them out.

Though the movement has its own media team, a different group prints the "Occupy Wall Street Journal."

Is there coordination between the two? Yes. And no.

"We've been talking with them but not as much as we should," one press officer told TheWrap. "In general, every day we get closer to having a good network."

Closer being the operative word, because the media spotlight has been unrelenting.

As TheWrap made its inaugural trip to the protests' headquarters in Zucotti Park, various representatives of the movement related a ceaseless onslaught of cameras and interview requests.

The same press officer said he spends almost every moment he's there either being interviewed or arranging interviews, while a recent movement enrolee said she'd already lost track of how many times she'd spoken with the press.

Cameras greet "occupiers" as they wake up, even before they get the chance to grab a bite to eat or smoke their first cigarette of the day.

And that is why the likes of West, Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore trudge down here. The more attention the movement gets, the more opportunities it gets to spread its message and the more likely it is to have an impact.

But to have that impact, does it need more coordination in the form of, say, a political affiliation or association? Does it need to be the Tea Party of the left wing?

"The Tea Party wants to use the standard political channels to get candidates into office and really pressure the Republican Party with their presence," the press officer said.

"We're not targeting ourselves toward a specific political party. We're trying to create a social movement that will be independent and autonomous in our own objectives."

"No, this place is growing," another officer added later.

"Everybody keeps on saying that, but I sit here every day. It doesn't matter where I stand, I talk to new people. I talked to her randomly and look where she is. Look what I got her into."

Her name is Rose, the girl who was bombarded with interviews Sunday. She went from coming to see the scene to joining the organizational hierarchy in just one day.

There's that promise-problem dichotomy again.

As a movement still in its infancy, it holds a core ideology but no political aspirations. It has found a theme with endless potential for mainstream adoption -- anti-greed -- but has yet to turn that into concrete proposals.

Does it need them? For now, its representatives say no.

So how does the media respond? Do talking heads glorify the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon and its brazenness or do they point out the flaws and potential pitfalls?

At such an early juncture, it may be too early to render judgment, but damn it if the media does not try anyways. And at this point, securing that attention is half the battle.

http://news.yahoo.com/kanye-west-crashes-occupy-wall-street-0240039...

[Willy]

On a radio talk show they interviewed an unmarried 32 year old woman who had an 8 year old child. When asked why she was there she said because of the Wall st. corruption. When asked if she had a job she said she was a student at Columbia. When asked how she supported herself she said with student loans and unemployment. It's amazing that a person who is living off tax dollars and going to college while raising a child has the time and lack of brains to protest a system that is paying for her life style. I've come to the conlcusion that these are the off spring of the Baby Boomer hippies. They have taken their parents attitudes and brought them into the 21st century.

[Dave]

The reality is starting to sink in that these protest are not what they suppose to be. The general public is starting to see that most of these people attending don't have a clue or a care about Wall Street.. they are only there to party.. and not take showers.

 

What's not to like about Occupy Wall Street? Plenty, say the movement's critics. They accuse Occupiers of everything from poor hygiene to making threats of physical violence against corporate executives. They warn that the movement may be trying to foment a bank run and cyber-hack the New York Stock Exchange or some other bulwark of the establishment.

An article in the New York Post takes Occupiers to task for drug use, strewing litter and copulating in the out of doors. "Zuccotti Park," says the paper, smells "like an open sewer—with people urinating and defecating in public. "

ABC News reports that a faction of the computer hacker group Anonymous has threatened, in a gesture of sympathy with Occupy, to launch a cyber attack against the NYSE. In a YouTube video posted last weekend, a computer-generated voice warns, "Many people refuse to accept that Operation Invade Wall Street is a reality."

It goes on to say that while one faction of Anonymous is opposed to such an attack, another favors it. "Those who are going to be part of the attack," says the voice, "have a message to the NYSE: We don't like you. …We do not forgive. We do not forget. NYSE, expect those of us who plan to destroy you." Anonymous previously has claimed credit for hacks against Sony and Bank of America.

On Monday afternoon--the time of the threatened hack--the NYSE website twice slowed so significantly that it became all but unusable by visitors, according to monitoring group Keynote Systems in San Mateo, Calif.

Vincent Schiavone, founder and chairman of ListenLogic, a company that gives corporate clients advance warning of cyber attacks and of other threats circulating on the Internet, calls Occupy-related threats "alarming." His company monitors a wide variety of online sources—including Facebook and Twitter postings and even posted church sermons—to see what topics, issues and grievances are increasing in volume, meaning in intensity and in number on the Internet.

An online "Occupy Threat Center" created by ListenLogic says the company's analysis of "over one million social media posts" indicates a significant increases in all of the following:

-Social media activity from Occupy supporters and activists promoting physical destruction and violent action.

-Direct and specific threats from Occupy "hacktivist" groups against specific financial and law enforcement targets.

-Social media posts, videos and images targeting: financial institutions that issue mortgages and student loans and that initiate foreclosures; corporate entities that received bailout money or government subsidies; companies that pay high executive salaries or bonuses; and companies perceived to be paying extremely low taxes.

ListenLogic is detecting, he says, a change in the tone of discourse about the so-called 1 percent richest Americans.

There still are postings that talk about taxing the 1 percent more severely or even throwing them in jail. "But then," says Schiavone, "there's an increase in 'let's kill' them. We see 'eat the rich,' 'kill the wealthy.' There are images circulating of senior executives being decapitated, images of blood. Artists are releasing images of banks on fire."

Such extremism, he hastens to point out, is not representative of the objectives of most Occupiers. "Is that the movement? Absolutely not. They have been trying to be peaceful and respectful." But the movement harbors within it, he says, persons "a lot more radical."

Asked by ABCNews.com if his company is advising any of the companies that have been the focus of the protests, Schiavone said company policy prohibited him from making any comments about their clients. He did say that Listenlogic's clients included Fortune 500 companies covering finance, consumer package goods, healthcare, food and others.

ListenLogic, he says, only monitors: it makes no effort to distinguish between threats that are real and those that are false or merely bluster.

For example, ListenLogic is warning of a possible run on banks by flash-mob groups trying, en masse, to withdraw their savings from Bank America and other targeted banks. Schiavone says he is seeing an increase in web references to "run on the bank" and "bank transfer"--independent of any mention of Occupy.

One such posting, which so far has drawn 100,000 viewers, can be found on YouTube. It purports to show depositors in St. Louis being restrained by a police SWAT team from entering a Bank of American branch.

One small problem: The YouTube account isn't true.

There's no question that a protest of some kind took place outside a Bank of America branch in St. Louis. But it took place before the existence of the Occupy movement, and no source confirms that it was an effort by depositors to withdraw their money. A spokesman for Bank of America categorically refutes that the incident was a bank run or that depositors were at any time prevented from withdrawing funds. In fact Shtfplan.com, one of the websites that first reported the incident as a "run," has since recanted its account, admitting that the incident was "not a reflection of Occupy protests."

Schiavone shrugs off the distinction between truth and fiction, making the point that anything seen by 100,000 people has the power to inspire imitation, and, in this instance, to be a threat to banks or other financial institutions.

"Not everything people say on the web is true," he allows. "But social media postings don't have to be true to hurt."

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/occupy-wall-street-dark-side-hacking...