Democracy Now! continuously updates itself.
UPDATE: NOV 20, Portland arrests and attacks
UPDATE NOVEMBER 17--OWS 2-month anniversary--Day of Action
Overview on Day of Action in The Guardian includes video on New, York Los Angeles, Portland. Day of Action Overview Common Dreams
Los Angeles arrests at least 73 arrested
Portland, Oregon at least 20 arrested
New York: scores (at least 245) arrested CNN , Brooklyn Bridge Atlantic Wire, Sit-in in lower Manhatten CNN,
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UPDATE NOVEMBER 16
Dangerous 84-year old woman pepper sprayed.
Occupy San Francisco/Berkeley good photos and video -- at least 100 arrested
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UPDATE NOVEMBER 15
ARREST OF JOURNALISTS: While a media blackout occurred during the raid at Zuccotti Park on Tuesday early morning, journalists are being arrested. I'm reminded of the Iraq war. Not that occupy is a war zone. But efforts as I have never seen were used to keep the press away.
Here's one person doing research on keeping the press at a distance by arresting its members. Here's a another site on journalists with broader information. Here's a Tweets tracking journalists arrested at Occupy sites. I don't know it's reliability of this last site (based on its ad). Must do more research.
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On November 14: 234 people At Occupy Wall Street (NY--Zuccotti Park) arrested and go to court.
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UPDATE: NOVEMBER 12: Occupy Portland gets confronted and attacked by police. I guess the word from the city is "okay you made your point and had your fun. Now go home and obey conditions on Main Street."
Around 4 a.m., dozens of police formed a line across from demonstrators who had poured into the street. Protesters facing them appeared to be in festive spirits with some banging on drums and plastic pails, another clanging a cowbell while others danced in the streets as a man juggled nearby.
On Sunday at an impromptu news conference, the mayor defended his order to clear the park, saying it is his job to enforce the law and keep the peace. "This is not a game," Adams said.How many arrests have been made during Occupy protests? Should any arrests have been made? I'm conflicted. I think arrest, in general, is a knee-jerk reaction. It's an easy fix. A muscle response in problem solving. Where is it written that a man can't wear two pair of pants, said my father-in-law during a seizure of alzheimers? And yet, there he was in two pair of pants. No one at the retirement home liked it or what it suggested about aging. The protester was hurried off to his room to get out of one of his pairs, so he could return presentable, get in line, follow the rules of pants wearing. In short, his removal constituted a kind of arrest.
Surely there are other ways to solve problems than arresting people or pepper spraying them. I mean, for us to live up to our humanity. How much do such arrests stem from internalized confusion and hard-to-kick barbarism? How much from a misconception of entitlement? These arrests are at the very least manifestations of our quick fix culture and our over-use of muscle. These kinds of arrests make manifest the theme, cruelty in the guise of tradition, a theme frequently explored in modern stories. To really advance, shouldn't we start by making modifications in the way we handle dissent?
On November 7, Chris Hedges writes in "Finding Freedom in Handcuffs,"
Faces appeared to me moments before the New York City police arrested us Thursday in front of Goldman Sachs. They were not the faces of the smug Goldman Sachs employees, who peered at us through the revolving glass doors and lobby windows, a pathetic collection of middle-aged fraternity and sorority members. They were not the faces of the blue-uniformed police with their dangling cords of white and black plastic handcuffs, or the thuggish Goldman Sachs security personnel, whose buzz cuts and dead eyes reminded me of the East German secret police, the Stasi.According to Politicons, arrests topped 3,000 by November 2
Beginning Research on Arrests
New York: Nov. 6 (20 arrested): Nov. 5 (scores arrested); Oct. 16 (74 arrested);
Oakland: Nov. 3 (103 arrested); Nov. 3 (30 arrested at port); Oct. 26 (100 arrested); Oct. 25 (75 arrested);
Atlanta: Nov. 7 (5 arrested); Nov. 6: (20 arrested); Oct. 26 (53 arrested)
Denver: Oct. 30 (dozens of arrests)
Los Angeles: Oct 3 (100s arrested);
San Francisco: Oct 11 (11 arrested);
Oregon: Oct 30 (dozens arrested):
Texas: Oct 30 (dozens arrested);
Alaska: Nov. 6 (2 arrested);
Chicago: Oct. 23 (130 arrested);
Iowa: Oct. 10 (32 arrested);
San Jose: Oct. 23 (9 arrested);
Videos
March to Union Square one woman's arrest: Sept 24
One man's arrest: Sept. 24
Oakland's Mayhem: Oct. 27
San Francisco's Sleepover, Sept. 30
Two protesters threatened with arrest for trying to close BofA accounts in Santa Cruz Oct. 15
Compiled Statistics, Overviews & Patterns
According to Weasel Zippers, 2,200 arrests have been made as of October 23, 2011.
According to Politicons, arrests top 3,000 by November 2
Article on pattern of arrests as of October 14, Village Voice
Short Roundup on CNN: Atlanta, Honolulu, Oregon, Riverside, CA as of November 7
Extensive Roundup by RSN, Atlanta, Honolulu, Oakland, New York, San Francisco, and more as of November 6
Move Your Money Roundup from across the country, November 6
Roundup on Bay Area protests, Nov. 3, San Francisco Bay Guardian
16 comments:
Read this but I find it hopeful that the women are organizing:
http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/rape-tents-the-latest-proof-that-democrats-are-the-party-of-women/
I teach this short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," by Joyce Carol Oates
http://www.usfca.edu/jco/whereareyougoing/
because it offers a situation that woman have been dealing with since, well, no one has traced it back far enough. This story was written about the 60s, a time of rising new social gatherings, a quest for freedom, street life. The new social borders were just being shaped. Many of the dangers were still unknown or unformed as well. It was enough for music to bring two people together. With this new time came the predators of all types, sexual predators, of course, included. Women in particular were at risk. Rape is not a new phenomenon. Women are right to create camps. They should stick together in groups. Read this situation.
http://www.dnainfo.com/20111102/downtown/brooklyn-man-arrested-for-sex-assault-at-zuccotti-park
Juxtapose this account against Oates's story. Sound familiar?
From my understanding, the first woman who was raped went to the police and she was, as often happens, taunted or accused herself. She said she had not been treated decently by police. There you have it. Women vulnerable in the social arena and when raped treated with disrespect by the police. Same old story.
Here is something I expect based on our history.
When the WAR started, I wrote many left feminists about women in the middle east (Afghan and Iraq) urging we organize as feminists to aid their women's liberation even if it meant cooperation with the Bush Adm and the war machine. Rice had shelters and such going in those countries. I said women were a caste outside the patriarchal constructs. I said what goes around comes around. If we did not stand for women as a caste globally, our own rights in the US would erode. The answers I got enlightened me......
Now I urge you to actually write Naomi and Code Pink and Parenti and Chomsky and ask them if OWS women should report rape. Understand their answers in terms of the world they will create.
Yes, the system will rip up those who report rape -- I told you-- to be a feminist demands real courage -- not just in Afghanistan or Pakistan. It means telling truth to power. Feminists work for women's liberation regardless of political systems, secular or theocraticic. Different systems require different tactics. To work in the middle east for women requires guns -- I would use US soldliers. To work here still requires courage for they will destroy your life if not your body as well. It is not for everyone but the analysis should be understood and supported by all women.
But your comments above may mean you as well as the rest of the male left do not believe in reporting.
Then, I just conclude that institutional/systemic change means nothing to you. You cannot believe that women's liberation is achieved by men's revolution.
Because it is obvious that we just trade masters.
As long as you are secure or could buy security you do not care about the gender as a caste outside of how to exploit it academically. I am not saying that is true of you but that is my emotional experience so far with you. That you do not feel for women. That you do not organize for women but respond emotionally in areas that touch you economically. I do too and I thought or think this should unite us.
So class consciousness would be fine as long as you do not sacrifice the liberation of women to economic change. That has been the historical reality, and you will also, as left and right men do, unless your anaysis extends to how to achieve freedom for women.
In my life I have tried for the systemic change for women, animals, and abused children, and have seen change. Not to what I want, but change. As soon as we stop organizing, the gains are lost. That is also true. Women lose sight of their own interests as they try to Mother Teresea the world. And naturally that does not really help anyone but the bosses. I support class warfare as well. And apply what I have learned about organizing to that struggle. The male left does not even do that well.
Hence the idea of constitutional conventions which is far from being raped, getting STDs and keeping my mouth shut so the boys can feel revolutionary.
"...because it offers a situation that woman have been dealing with since, well, no one has traced it back far enough."
"Ariadne" does but that was not sophisticated enough for you I guess............
Sometimes, .... I just have to laugh...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054674/Roman-Catholic-churchs-paedophile-investigator-jailed-possessing-thousnds-child-porn-images.html
Of course women should report rape. But they should also report the degrading treatment they receive by police and other forces that hold power over outcomes. I'm questioning the arrests of protesters in a democracy.
Continued: No one can trace the origins of rape back to its earliest beginnings. And certainly not a work of fiction. Although I would probably trust the imagination rather than "historical" suppositions on this issue. Does rape start with the patriarchy? Certainly most of us agree rape has been in existence as long as the patriarchy has existed. It's been a vicious entitlement within the patriarchy. But what about before the patriarchy? What do we know about the earliest wanderings of humankind? Were women ever safe from rape? Was rape ever not in the tool bag of the male? Did rape get invented at the roots of civilization? The roots of the patriarchy? The roots of sexual desire? These are important questions I don't have an answer for. Meanwhile, today women continue to get raped. Meanwhile, we have to act fast to help create safe environments within the unpredictable arenas of the OWS tents. Locks on tents. Deadbolts. Chastity locks.
My musings on the arrests of protesters had nothing to do with the rape of women or the silencing of rape, which I knew nothing about until your announcement.
A rapist is not a protester. Rape is not on the agenda of these protesters. But I'm glad you brought it up. If women are getting raped at the OWS camps, then of course it's essential to set up defense against such rapes. I'm not sure why you think I think rape should not be reported. But I'm glad you distorted my position. In this way, we can help bring to light a problem that demands immediate solutions.
I posted the Oates story because it fictionalizes those liminal moments in which the borders are hazy. The Oates story is important because it shows how unsafe women are in their attempts to individuate from the bonds of their family. Youth is a liminal period. I don't see it as a story to caution women to stay with their parents or wear a veil. It is a story that alerts women to guard against predators who want to take the place of the father and direct women's individuation, so it follows the male path and not the individual women's path. These predators take on personas that make them seem part of the group. In the story, it's the music and the clothes, the hair and the boots, and the romance, that make Connie, the main character, trust the predator. In the 60s, it was the be-ins and marches. At OWS, it's the tent arenas. Women grouping together in public spaces in which they are vulnerable is crucial to their safety. And I repeat, of course, the rapes should be brought to full light. It's heartbreaking to hear that they are not being broadcasted. The male in the video, you sent me, castigating women of OWS is a bit of a pig, wouldn't you say? And a dumb pig at that.
Rape can be and has been studied in primates - some species rape - others do not -- it seems it is the norms and customs that decide --just like there are the Jane Goodalls and Dian Fosseys as well as the Harry Harlows in our species. I think in "humans", of which there are many different species, rape came and went and came again. I am reading the Oats story today. I am glad you said what you think about it. I presume it is also fiction.
I used rape and the OWS tactic to illustrate the difference between what liberates women and all people as opposed to temporary catharsis and empty male self serving misogynist leftist dogma.
And you are correct. I want to discuss our divisions and find out what is real and what is just bitterness.
Lately I have been thinking about the subconscious, what it controlls, where it is located in the body. I must write about it soon or I will forget........
"But they should also report the degrading treatment they receive by police and other forces "
That is what we HAVE been doing for the last 20 years -- have you noticed? Are you aware of the changes in the laws that have resulted? Right now the issue is that the leftist "Councils" of OWS in NY and Oakland are using pressure to keep women from reporting.
I try not to use the word pig although it seems I am hard wired to use it and do it in my mind even when I do not say it. Because pigs are really wonderful and much like whales. Big brains, intelligence, communication,..... I think we should say boars although it does not have the same impact.
I read it and your writing about it made it better, more real than if I had not read what you wrote as well as Oates.
You will like this:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-i-stopped-worrying-and-learned-to-love-the-ows-protests-20111110
I think you are deeper than Oates -She was a good writer in the first part about the family dynamics but the stuff at the screen door is not my experience or anything I heard in CR groups - maybe it is real for other women. I thought it was just another "she asked for it" story.
It is a stretch to get what you said from what she wrote. But what you said is real to me -- father substitutes, boundary blurring, the dangers of rebellion along with necessity of leaving, et al,; yeah that happens - just not, for me, the way Oates said.
The way you said, yes. She should have written it more as you said. I do not think women sweat in terror, know enough to call police and then go with the threat -- it happens more as you said. Choosing while minimizing the threat. Denial, minimizing, avoiding, needing ....like that.
Yes, the whole gender thing is not always black and white but as you grow older and out of puberty, things get clearer. And all women are not the same and some exploit what others have died to gain -- Yes, the process of liberation is messy and so bound to the need to survive. It is interesting.
Uppity is not myth-tied but is usually feminist, more so than most other blogs assumed to be feminist because they self identify as such.
Uppity is one of the few blogs I deem feminist (others are: I Blame the the Patriarcy and Echidne of the Snakes and Phyllis Chesler)
Uppity is radical feminist except where her loyalty to Hillary or her friends blinds her and makes her sexist in a perverse way. She hates Obama for what he did to Hillary so criticizes Michelle Obama in sexist terms(MO looks and clothes)and ignores the good MO is doing with food deserts and nutrition. And Uppity cannot see how Hillary betrayed Afghani women or she prefers not to see...how Hillary does what she is told to do by her male leaders including negotiating with the Taliban after doing nothing program-wise to streghten the position of Afghani women (but make speeches). How Hillary's only action was to set up a global women's fund which imitates Bill's fund as her only program for women at the State Dept. (and she will not release the names of the fundees).
Hillary's words are so inspiring, Uppity ignores Hillary's lack of programs but this is exactly what she criticises Obama for - calls him an empty siut -- well so is Hillary an empty suit.
Someone on Uppity's blog said Hillary wrote an excellent analysis on the housing crises in an editorial but I have not found it and more words without programs....
But Uppity is usually right on and always funny ... so funny.. I laugh out loud. And Uppity saves animals. Really saves animals.
I still have to do that comparison you suggested of the Oates thing
So I keep thinking about the Oates story and in my mind it is the Adam, Eve and the Snake story all over again with Adam being the boy she went with the night before and The Garden/Eden being the constricting family. I never believed that one either. But now I see the power in it. But the attraction to the snake is from the need inside Eve for more, with no ticket to ride to more except for the snake.
All these stories do not get at the constriction of Eve's circumstances, in that she has no way to leave except with the Snake. Adam is more of the same, being someone's rib instead of your Self. That is the trap of the patriarchy.
The Amish say the kids are free to leave but of course they stop their education in the eighth grade. They beat you and curse you for 20 odd years and then they expect you to pick a career.
The Snake does not even have to lie very much. The male privilege. But it traps the snake too.
#@%**!#*&!!
http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/occupy-portland-if-you-see-a-rape-dont-report-it-to-the-police-shes-also-a-survivor-not-a-victim-now/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1BWETV75hU&feature=player_embedded
I actually started crying here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=fSgerVZe7Uc
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