#occupy denver

[wruith]

No charges for Denver cops who murdered 17 year-old Jessica Hernandez

All out in the streets tomorrow! (Tuesday, 6/9) 4pm Colfax and Broadway, we’ll hold the killer DPD accountable!

[gardenof-potential]

Denver Police Justify Violent Arrests After An Officer Dumps Their Motorcycle

The guy on the bike is getting charged with assaulting a police officer after being accused of “pushing him off his motorcycle” during a march against police brutality in downtown Denver. They used this incident to justify multiple violent arrests and to pepper spray others in the face for trying to protect people from the racist popo’s with nightsticks, paintball guns, rubber bullet guns, and bad attitudes .

SPREAD THIS VIDEO LIKE ITS WILDFIRE!

[angrbodic]

I am tired of this SJW crap

Does it go overboard? Yes, it can. When a website explains warbonnets aren't for people and are to be earned and the person receive death threats, yes, that is wrong.

But when something personal happens to you and you are actively apart of a social movement doesn't make you a bad person, yourself. Can we seriously ditch the phrase "social justice warrior"? Because I am not that.

I'm a fucking protester. Not an activist. A protester and a volunteer.

Yes, I reblog things that outrage me and are personal to me. But some of us folks go out there and do something about it. If you don't like being called on your bullshit, then shut up.

[angrbodic]

Just give me an excuse to use an airhorn if you start ticketing people again.

[angrbodic]

Business class should be fun this semester. My teacher is pretty staunchly conservative (he brought up the 47% thing) and believes natives are mooching off the government as well as a lot of people on welfare. And I'm an Occupy Wall Street activist. Given that I was the only one that knew about the dollar falling, austerity in Greece, and the GDP is, this will be fun lolololol. Shoot me now.

FOX NEWS IS NOT A CREDIBLE SOURCE.

[christimesteele]

Violent Police Action In Response To Peaceful Eviction Protest by Darren O'Connor

Below is an important article about the SWAT team eviction in Idaho Springs.  Darren O'Connor was at the eviction and witnessed the first hand account of violence and the dramatic display of police in tactical gear with automatic rifles.  Share this story far and wide.  

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Nearly 70 year old Fred Henrich of Colorado Foreclosure Resistance Coalition Being Detained By members of the Clear Creek County SWAT team.

October 30th saw the most violent police response to a peaceful eviction resistance seen in the entirety of the United States since the crash of the mortgage market in 2007. Since that time, in response to fraudulent actions by the same banks that the American people bailed out using public funds, a very few people have had the wherewithal to stand up to the injustice of such fraudulence—for which the biggest banks involved in the scandal have escaped any criminal charges by paying a paltry $25 billion penalty negotiated by the 50 states attorneys general. But a few have stood up to the abuse of the legal system, inviting foreclosure resistance activists to help them stand in the face of police enforced evictions. One such person is Sahara Donahue: a resident of Idaho Springs for a quarter century.

Ms. Donahue held on to her home by retaining an attorney and fighting for her home in civil court, a luxury few can afford. After a protracted legal effort, Ms. Donahue turned to the Colorado Foreclosure Resistance Coalition (CFRC) and Occupy Denver (OD) to help her stay in her home long enough to find an alternate residence and leave with dignity. She found a willing group of people ready to stand with her and attempt to save her home.

Ms. Donahue was asking only for a delay of her eviction so that she could find safe haven for the winter and to be allowed to leave with dignity. On her behalf, both OD and CFRC protested at the U.S. Bank office in Denver in an attempt to gain her a meeting with someone she could discuss her request with. Ms. Donahue was able to speak with a regional vice president due to the action that day, but they were only able to provide her a contact with someone at Vericrest financial in Dallas, TX Ms. Donahue called them and was told, “We're going to evict tomorrow, the weather will be real nice for it".

It was clear that on October 30th, the Georgetown Sheriff’s department intended to carry out the eviction. CFRC and OD members Darren O’Connor and Steve Bailey arrived at the sheriff’s office that morning hoping to speak with sheriff Don Krueger to petition him to delay the eviction. They were told that the sheriff was unavailable to see them. The two then spoke with the county clerk and recorder to request to speak to the judge who had been formally petitioned to stay the eviction. Failing to speak to the judge or the sheriff, the two sat in the lobby of the office in the hopes of speaking to any of the authorities. Eventually, a sheriff who knew Ms. Donahue, Rick Albers, passed through and did speak with them. They shared that Ms. Donahue’s case, like a preponderance of foreclosure cases in Colorado, had serious legal problems on the part of the bank, and asked if he could he not simply delay the eviction. Like so many other well intentioned but misguided law officers, Mr. Albers said that he had to do his job and evict Ms. Donahue at the local judge’s orders. What he and so few know is that the police, many of whom have also been hit by the financial crisis and suffered at the hands of banks and their questionable practices, have begun to stand up for their own. For example, there is the case of Atlanta Detective Jaqueline Barber, a cancer victim with whom both Occupy Atlanta and members of the Atlanta Police Department joined together to protest her eviction (see http://www.thenation.com/blog/170441/occupy-atlanta-joins-forces-police-save-retired-detectives-home#).

Mr. O’Connor then joined the group resisting the foreclosure at Ms. Donahue’s residence. There, the driveway had been filled with downed trees in an attempt to make the eviction as difficult as possible. The barricades, along with the presence of roughly 20 members of OD and CFRC, and with Ms. Donahue’s request for a stay of the eviction, was hoped to be enough to persuade whoever came to enforce the eviction to delay it. A small victory occurred at approximately 1:00 p.m. that day when a truck driver hauling a dumpster to be used to throw Ms. Donahue’s belongings into spoke with the activists and, upon hearing what was happening, shared with them that he had been foreclosed on a year or two prior. He called his boss and said that he did not want to be a part of evicting Ms. Donahue, and then drove off without leaving the dumpster behind.

This is what successful, peaceful, non-violent protest looks like. When the humanity of the situation is shared with the community, and those community members empathize with their neighbors, rather than a corporate entity bent on profit, the community wins.

During the day, Mr. O’Connor was livestreaming the activity via the Internet. At one point, he videoed one of the activists holding a BB gun pistol and, on the air, asked what they were doing with it. They shared that they were shooting at trees and that Ms. Donahue had told them they weren't allowed to shoot squirrels or any other wildlife. Mr. O’Connor, aware of the import of the presence of the BB gun, spoke clearly on air to say that the gun would not be present if the police showed up. Sergeant Spraley, interviewed on the Pete Santilli show, confirmed that the police learned of the BB gun through the live stream.

What occurred shortly afterwards is still beyond comprehension to those in attendance. The presence of a BB gun, which Clear Creek County Captain Bruce Snelling has repeatedly described only as a handgun seen in the waist of one of the activists, was given as the reason for what followed: the storming of Ms. Donahue’s property and home by over 20 sheriffs and Clear Creek County SWAT team members.

As reported in this paper, Snelling referred to the Plus One rule: due to the presence of a weapon on the property, the situation required a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funded Clear Creek County SWAT team response.

Prepared for a few sheriffs to arrive, the activists were astonished when van after van rolled up and 20 or more semi-automatic AR15 toting SWAT team members exited the vehicles. Mr. O’Connor watched with alarm as they came around both sides of the house pointing guns and shouting at people to get on the (expletive) ground. Still livestreaming as this happened, Mr. O’Connor went to the ground as soon as he was ordered to do so. But as you can hear in the video, he was confronted with an automatic rifle carrying, expletive shouting SWAT team member repeatedly yelling at him to get on the f***ing ground. The video is available at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/26551762 and is one of the most chilling and astonishing experiences he has witnessed. Exiting the property as directed, he then recognized sheriff Rick Albers and engaged him, asking him, “Can you talk to them (the people still in the house, including Ms. Donahue), they know you.”

Unfortunately for Ms. Donahue, instead of having the chance to talk with Rick, she was being screamed at to open the door or have it broken down. As she walked through the kitchen on her way to the door, the door was smashed open and she found herself facing Captain Bruce Snelling and a sheriff pointing his rifle at her. For those that cannot imagine what this looks like, these men were wearing gear that looked appropriate for a war zone in Afghanistan, not the home of a 63 year old woman and 25 year resident. Faced with Captain Snelling yelling at her and waiving a letter saying that her stay of eviction had been denied and a combat rifle pointed directly at her, Ms. Donahue found herself shocked, but also angry that someone would so unnecessarily point a gun at her in her home. She told him something to the effect of don’t point that thing at me, which enraged him.

What happened next should chill the blood of anyone reading. Faced with a 63 year old woman directing him to not point a gun at her and saying it was unnecessary, the SWAT team member picked Ms. Donahue up and threw her to the kitchen floor.

Ms. Donahue says that at that point she feared being kicked or otherwise beaten, and quickly tried to stand up. Shaken, she was then escorted out of the house, where she witnessed with surprise the large number of similarly equipped SWAT members outside. Her voice still shakes when she tells the story, and the shock and frustration that such a group would be called in to evict her continues.

Regarding the alleged handgun, on the nationally syndicated Pete Santilli show, Clear Creek County Sergeant Spraley stated that someone at Ms. Donahue’s was livestreaming and they learned of the gun through the broadcast. This, along with the very relevant fact that no handgun was found by the police in the eviction enforcement action, leads those involved in the eviction resistance to strongly question such an excuse to bring a heavily armed force to Ms. Donahue’s property. Members of Occupy Our Homes, a national coalition familiar with far more of these eviction resistances, has never seen such a heavily armed group respond to peaceful protest of an eviction. Resisters are often arrested, and for most of them the charges—usually trespassing—are dropped. But the DHS weaponized Clear Creek County SWAT team response is, to their knowledge, the first of its kind in the country.

CFRC, OD, and Occupy Our Homes members are concerned with the chilling effect this over the top and dangerously weaponized response could have on citizens considering similar peaceful resistance. When Federal government funded military weaponry is being used against activists, none of whom were arrested, the message is clear: stand up to the banks and you can expect the full might of the state in response.

CFRC looks forward to working with coalition partners to propose legislation, such as last year's House Bill 12-1156, to protect homeowners against fraudulent foreclosure. Because of House Bill 06-1387, passed before the market crash, Coloradans cannot use the fact that a lender has no proof they own the mortgage on their home in court without paying to fight in civil court. A review of foreclosures in San Francisco found that, “fully 84 percent of the foreclosure files contained at least one clear legal violation and more than 66 percent of the files contained multiple violations. Nearly 60 percent of documents were backdated in some fashion, which is significant in an environment in which documents are filed under penalty of perjury.” (See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philting/foreclosure-crisis-california_b_1297503.html). Shortly thereafter, the city of San Francisco passed a moratorium on foreclosures. It is time for Colorado lawmakers and law enforcement to reach the conclusion that those in San Francisco did: stop acting as goons for the predatory and criminal banks and begin defending homeowners against their abuses.

[angrbodic]

WANT A RIOT. I WANT TO GO UP TO A RIOT POLICE WITH AN OCCUPY DENVER BEANIE AND BE ALL "HOW DOES IT FEEL TO FINALLY WASTE YOUR ENERGY ON AN ACTUAL *RIOT*?" Because I'm a troll.

[christimesteele]

Struggles of the Past by Noam Chomsky and Chris Steele

I got co-authorship on Znet with the interview I got to do with Noam Chomsky.  We talked about Occupy Denver, provocateurs, theater, Fema camps, and the gash between public opinion and policy.  

Struggles of the Past

http://www.zcommunications.org/struggles-of-the-past-by-noam-chomsky