New York – Last night, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg sent a massive police force to evict members of the public from Liberty Square – home of Occupy Wall Street for the past two months. People who were part of a dynamic civic process were beaten and pepper-sprayed, their personal property destroyed.
Supporters of this rapidly growing movement were mobilized in the middle of the night, and this morning, the OWS movement briefly re-occupied Liberty Square (a/k/a Zuccotti Park), only to be re-evicted. As the OWS went to press, protesters were gathering at a new location in downtown Manhattan.
Tulsa – After the Tulsa City Council denied occupiers request for a permit, six protesters went to jail and four others received citations as the Occupy Tulsa movement returned to a strategy of civil disobedience Sunday night. Just under three dozen officers moved in and formed ranks shortly after the 11:00 pm curfew. The ten protesters who had volunteered for civil disobedience sat and waited as officers approached and took them into custody one at a time. Some of the protesters went limp, forcing officers to physically carry them to a waiting van for transport to the David L. Moss Correctional Center.
When asked how she would answer critics who take the Occupy Tulsa movement to task for wasting taxpayer money, organizer Stephanie Lewis said, They’re missing the point,” according to Tulsa radio station KRMG. “If people say that, I’m like aren’t you more worried that we do not have the right to assemble? I mean, this is something that should be permitted to happen. People are kind of missing that fact because of a city’s budget. This is still just grass that they’re protecting. It is still just a park. It is people that are petitioning their government for the right to assemble.” She watched as another arrestee was led away by police. “I find that disturbing as an American. Blows my mind.”