“All Empire State Building Shooting Victims Were Shot by Police” – CNN

Bloomberg warns BDS will lead to ‘massacres’ as Park Slope Co-op holds initial vote on boycott tonight

MondoWeiss
Matthew Taylor

The Park Slope Food Co-op is set to vote tonight on whether to hold a referendum on boycotting Israeli goods and the New York Times has sunk to a preposterously inconceivable new low with this news report biased propaganda on the proposed Park Slope Co-Op Boycott of Israeli products. What's missing:

- not a single quote from anyone who supports the boycott

- not a single mention of what is motivating the boycott: Israel's human rights abuses, theft of land, oppression of Palestinians, and so on

- not a single statement of comparative contextual history, e.g., grassroots boycotts of South Africa that successfully contributed to the end of Apartheid policies

Instead of of neutrality, impartiality, facts, and context, what do we get? A megaphone for hateful, delusional scaremongering:

“I think it has nothing to do with the food,” Mayor Bloomberg said of the boycott. “The issue is there are people who want Israel to be torn apart and everybody to be massacred, and America is not going to let that happen.”

Excuse me? Supporters of nonviolent boycott want Israelis to be massacred?

Not to be outdone, Manhattan borough president Scott M. Stringer called the boycott “an anti-Semitic crusade.” And again, no chance for a response from any co-op members who support the boycott.
Memo to the new Jerusalem Bureau Chief Jodi Rudoren: I hope you read this. I hope you will read Falk and Friel's Israel-Palestine on the Record: How the New York Times Misreports Conflict in the Middle East. I hope you will turn over a new leaf in the newspaper of mis-record's coverage.

It's Official White House and DHS Behind #OWS Thug Crackdowns Nationwide

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Atlanticwire

Update (2:33 p.m. EST): NBC New York reports that the city has closed a garage where it was storing things police seized at Zuccotti Park Tuesday morning. Sanitation Department workers said broken glass amid the piles of belongings posed a safety hazard.

Update (2:24 p.m. EST): Ydanis Rodriguez, the New York City Council member arrested early Tuesday morning as part of the sweep of Zuccotti Park, is still in custody.* At a press conference to discuss his arrest, his council colleague Tish James said his legal team still hadn't been able to see him, tweets New York Times reporter Kate Taylor. Taylor also tweeted: "Ppl at @ydanis presser using human mic to report on proceedings in courtroom; report that "it looks positive," triggers twinkle fingers."

*Correction: This update initially said Rodriguez had been released from custody. He has not.

Update (2:03 p.m. EST): Primary document fans can take a look at the city's filing in response to the injunction against it courtesy of The New York Times posting on Document Cloud. In short, deputy mayor Cas Holloway argues in the document that the protest encampment represented a safety threat, and that protesters detracted from the neighborhood's quality of life.

Update (1:57 p.m. EST): On Twitter, the buzz from many sources is that a verdict in the injunction hearing is expected to come down by 3 p.m. Meanwhile, at Zuccotti Park, protesters mill around, drumming and cracking wise about the cops and private security (those in the green vests, someone told our live feed cameraman) who continue to guard the empty park:

Update (1:39 p.m. EST): The legal wrangling continues at Manhattan Supreme Court. City Hall News has some good updates on the arguments via its Twitter stream:

Update (1:29 p.m. EST): For a bit of background on Tuesday morning's legal wrangling, The Daily News's Celeste Katz posted both the letter from Brookfield requesting the eviction, and the temporary court order telling the city to allow protesters back into Zuccotti park.

Update (1:20 p.m.EST): Lawyers for the city are making their case before Judge Stallman, arguing that protesters in Zuccotti Park pose a safety threat. The New York Times tweets: "City tells court, "Protesters may have had significant number of items that could potentially be used as weapons." Incl. mace, knives. But lawyers for the occupation say "this isn't a camping case, like Brookfield is arguing, but a free speech case," according to City Hall News's Twitter. Furthermore, "OWS lawyer argues Brookfield created no camping rules in response to occupation. Determined response to free speech activity." Meanwhile, the live feed at UStream reports that a march from Duarte is starting to arrive at Zuccotti with as many as 500 people.

Update (12:38 p.m. EST): Judge Michael Stallman has been assigned to the hearing on a court order to allow protesters back into Zuccotti Park, tweets The New York Times. You can read his official profile here, for starters. Meanwhile, the actual location of the hearing seems to be causing a problem for those trying to attend. Tweets writer Nancy Scola:

Update (12:31 p.m.EST): Protesters who remained at Duarte have decided to march back to Zuccotti in anticipation of a court order they hope will allow them back in. A judge is expected to rule at any minute on whether the city had cause to evict the Zuccotti encampment.

Update (12:20 p.m. EST): Police have cleared Duarte Square entirely, Student Activism reports, sharing this photo:



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Bloomberg Unleashes Riot Police on Occupy Wall Street Zuccotti Park | Police Defy Court Order

    

NYC, NYC (Nov 15) – Mayor Bloomberg unleashed the NYC PD on peaceful protesters encamped at Zuccotti Park around 1 am local time today setting off a chain reaction of protests throughout the area. The news media was blacked out inclusive of an order to clear the airspace above the park by the mayor’s office.

Accordingly, a group of OWS NYC occupants at the camp peacefully resisted until the end eventually forcibly arrested and removed from the private park by police in full riot gear, some protesters left the area prior to the raid.

At least one local official was seriously injured and arrested during the initial wave of arrests that have top 200 so far.
Bloomberg had agreed to allow the protesters back into the park following cleanup operations at the park however, the NYCPD have the park ringed and barricaded from the crowds.

Meanwhile, the National Lawyers Guild had obtained a restraining order against the city from preventing OWS protesters to return, and camp at that location. The court has issued an 11:30am hearing for Bloomberg to appear in court to show probable cause for the actions.

Riot clad police destroyed thousands of dollars of personal property smashing camera equipment, laptops, tents, and what the OWS protesters describe as, their media tent.

Mayor Bloomberg’s Scorn for Occupy Wall Street

Editor's Note:  Get the impression you are distracted by theater?  Smells like professional wrestling.

Firedog Lake

Bloomberg holds imaginary glass of champagne

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his weekly appearance on “The John Gambling Show” on AM WOR710, addressed the persistence of those participating Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park.

It was an example of a member of the power elite voicing his or her contempt for protest. It was also clear that Gambling has scorn for the protest, too, as the discussion begins with the question, “How do you end that thing?”

Bloomberg answers:

The protesters are protesting against people who make $40-50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet. That’s the bottom line. These are the people that work on Wall Street in the finance sector. Most of these companies are no longer on Wall Street. We just use that as a catch-all term. And people in this day and age need support for their employers. We need the banks. If the banks don’t go out and make loans, we will not come out of our economic problems. We will not have jobs. So, anything we can do to responsibly help the banks do that encourages them to do that is what we need.

But, what about the systemic corruption of the financial services industry and the executives whose actions collapsed the economy in 2008?

I think we spend much too much time in this country worrying about why we got into problems as opposed to how we go forward. We are worried about why we had mortgage problems as opposed to worried about how we’re going to get more people to buy houses and take mortgages. Mortgage trades are at an all-time low and yet we don’t see a lot of new starts in housing, certainly not what we had before. And, also we always tend to blame the wrong people. We blame the banks. They were part of this but so was Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Congress and you and me and everybody.

This may be true of the population, but it is certainly not true of the power elite or establishment media. The Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi has feverishly worked to expose Goldman Sachs. He has examined financial services getting away with mortgage fraud while the media has, after cutting a few book deals on “what really happened” in 2008, gone back to mostly pretending all is well again.
 
And, in general, this is not true at all. When it comes to civil liberties, President Barack Obama & Congress have not been willing to investigate and prosecute torture. They have not been willing to hold any sort of truth commission. They have opposed “re-litigating” the past. There has been no debate about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how they are both illegal wars of aggression. There has been no serious look at how 9/11 was blowback, a result of America having military forces occupying land in the Middle East. So, it appears Bloomberg is upset that the American population is forcing him to address issues he would rather pretend are non-existent.

Gambling asks, “Will you let them stay as long as they want to stay or is there ultimately an endgame?” Gambling appears to want Bloomberg to divulge when the city will be sending forces in to disperse the occupiers.
Bloomberg replies:

We’ll see. It’s—You know, people have a right to protest. You know people have a right to protest but we also have to make sure that people who don’t want to protest can go down the streets unmolested. We have to make sure that while you have a right to say what you want to say, people who want to say something very different have a right to say that as well. That’s what’s great about this country.

With all the police on the scene, there is absolutely no way that any person is being molested or that New Yorkers are being obstructed in their effort to walk the sidewalk and get to where they need to go.

This is but another example of Bloomberg’s contempt for protest. What may be getting in New Yorkers’ way are the vehicles and equipment moved down to lower Manhattan to turn Wall Street into a “Green Zone” and protect the financial elite.

Bloomberg suggested there could be sanitation problems. A city sanitation representative has actually praised Occupy Wall Street for being clean.

Gambling chimed in, “It’s also a private park.” Bloomberg explained it is a private park but is open to the public. This affirms what the NYPD has said which is there is nothing they can do to shut it down. Brookfield Properties, which owns the park, can make regulations and establish codes for conduct but it is to be open 24/7.

Finally, Bloomberg decides to bring the history of Vietnam War protests on Wall Street into the mix to further disparage the protesters:

I remember in the Vietnam War there were enormous protests on Wall Street. And I’ve always thought one of the sad things was when the Vietnam veterans came back we didn’t treat them the way they deserved to be treated. Today our army’s are volunteers. Those days it was conscription. And they went over and some didn’t come back to protect the very freedoms that we have. And you can say whether you’re for or against the war, but I guess nobody’s in favor of a war. Whether you think it is necessary or not is a better way to phrase it. Our vets deserve respect when they got back. I just always thought that’s what America is about.

The occupation is in protest of Wall Street so it is fascinating that Bloomberg takes a pot shot at the occupiers by recounting his memory of protests during Vietnam that had to do with a war. This is a nice effort on Bloomberg’s part to make it seem like the occupiers are the kind of people who hold profound disrespect for veterans. Since Americans are to believe all who are down there are “dirty hippies” and not working or middle class Americans,  Bloomberg tries to score a political point here by exploiting veterans and reminding people in the Sixties these people were “disrespectful.” The only problem is there are, in fact, veterans down on Wall Street participating in the action.

Bloomberg appears to reflexively fall back on this right wing talking point, which is that people wouldn’t have the right to protest if soldiers didn’t go fight wars and so we should support the troops. That has little to do with why Wall Street should be protested but has everything to do with Americans’ understanding of dissent.

If anything, having soldiers deployed puts limits on dissent. Americans cannot speak up about wars of occupation if the powers that be deem them essential to American foreign policy. They cannot condemn the presence of more than 800 bases in countries all over the world. They cannot be allowed to unapologetically support Palestine and oppose Israel without propaganda or coercive measures being used to discredit and silence people. That is because if such criticisms gained traction the US might have to change its policies and then there would be global complications for the US.
 
The right to dissent is not ordained by the presence of the military in nations around the globe. That is what the power elite like Bloomberg and talking heads in the media like Gambling wish to believe.

The right is afforded to citizens by the government. It can be violated if the government chooses to violate that right. One’s right to dissent can be violated in a court of law. The police can also choose to brutalize Americans for protesting and say they had to control the crowd to justify their action.

The occupation has been going on for about two weeks now. Mayor Bloomberg can say, “We’ll see,” when asked if he will let the protests continue, but the reality is that a moment is upon New York City. That moment has spread across America. He may be able to run these people out of a public park but they will reappear in some other area. These people have had enough. And, Bloomberg’s bad memories of the Sixties won’t keep them from demonstrating.

Flashback: NYPD confirms CIA officer works at department

CBS

New York's police commissioner confirmed Thursday that a CIA officer is  working out of police headquarters there, after an Associated Press  investigation revealed an unusual partnership with the CIA that has  blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying. But he and the CIA  said the spy agency's role at the department is an advisory one.

Speaking  to reporters in New York, commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that  the CIA trains NYPD officers on "trade craft issues," meaning espionage  techniques, and advises police about events happening overseas. Kelly  also said he was unaware of any other U.S. police department with a  similar relationship with the CIA.

"They are involved in  providing us with information, usually coming from perhaps overseas and  providing it to us for, you know, just for our purposes," Kelly said.

CIA  spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said the agency does not spy inside the  United States and also described the relationship with the CIA as  collaborative.

"Our cooperation, in coordination with the Federal  Bureau of Investigation, is exactly what the American people deserve  and have come to expect following 9/11," she said.

A months-long  investigation by the AP, published Wednesday, revealed that the NYPD has  dispatched teams of undercover officers, known as "rakers," into  minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to  officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life  in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used  informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even when  there's no evidence of wrongdoing. NYPD officials have scrutinized imams  and gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs  often done by Muslims.

Many of the operations were built with  help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was  instrumental in transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit after the  September 2001 terror attacks.

The NYPD denied that it trolls  ethnic neighborhoods and said it only follows leads. The mayor on  Thursday defended the police department's efforts.

"In the end  the NYPD's first job is prevention, and I think they've done a very good  job of that," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said when asked  about the police practices. "The law is pretty clear about what's the  requirement, and I think they've followed the law."

The  disclosures about the NYPD's activities provoked exasperation in the  city's Muslim neighborhoods, where government officials have sought to  build relationships in Muslim communities and pledged to ensure that  Muslims aren't targeted for discrimination.

"The NYPD's  credibility is bankrupt in our communities," Fahd Ahmed, legal and  policy director of the Desis Rising Up & Moving group, said in a  statement Thursday. "We need accountability, transparency and an  overhaul of tactics and policies."

Government outreach programs  have operated in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Portland,  Ore., and Washington — all cities with large Muslim communities — even  as law enforcement around the country has stepped up investigative  efforts to stave off attacks.

Identified: NYPD Officer Who Maced Peaceful Protesters

Before It's News

(If you haven't seen the macing video go HERE)

A photographer has identified the cruel and cowardly NYPD supervisor who point blank maced a penned in group of young women and then slinks away Saturday at the Occupy Wall Street protests:
Deputy Inspector Anthony V. Bologna of the NYPD Patrol Borough Manhattan South.
TAKE ACTION
If you think Deputy Inspector Bologna should be fired and prosecuted for his abuse of power, file an on-line complaint with:

• Mayor Michael Bloomberg: www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html
• and, NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly: www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mailnypd.html
• and, the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board: www.nyc.gov/html/ccrb/html/complaint.html
   

UPDATED: The Guardian is reporting tonight that Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna also stands accused of false arrest and civil rights violations in a claim brought by a protester involved in the 2004 demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Then, 1,800 people were arrested during protests against the Iraq war and the policies of president George W Bush. Alan Levine, a civil rights lawyer representing a protester at the event, told the Guardian that he filed an action against Bologna and another officer in 2007. The case is expected to be heard next year.


Photo/ davidscameracraft.blogspot.com


MORE HERE

NYPD confirms CIA officer works at department

CBS

New York's police commissioner confirmed Thursday that a CIA officer is working out of police headquarters there, after an Associated Press investigation revealed an unusual partnership with the CIA that has blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying. But he and the CIA said the spy agency's role at the department is an advisory one.

Speaking to reporters in New York, commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that the CIA trains NYPD officers on "trade craft issues," meaning espionage techniques, and advises police about events happening overseas. Kelly also said he was unaware of any other U.S. police department with a similar relationship with the CIA.

"They are involved in providing us with information, usually coming from perhaps overseas and providing it to us for, you know, just for our purposes," Kelly said.

CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said the agency does not spy inside the United States and also described the relationship with the CIA as collaborative.

"Our cooperation, in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is exactly what the American people deserve and have come to expect following 9/11," she said.

A months-long investigation by the AP, published Wednesday, revealed that the NYPD has dispatched teams of undercover officers, known as "rakers," into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing. NYPD officials have scrutinized imams and gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs often done by Muslims.

Many of the operations were built with help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was instrumental in transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit after the September 2001 terror attacks.

The NYPD denied that it trolls ethnic neighborhoods and said it only follows leads. The mayor on Thursday defended the police department's efforts.

"In the end the NYPD's first job is prevention, and I think they've done a very good job of that," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said when asked about the police practices. "The law is pretty clear about what's the requirement, and I think they've followed the law."

The disclosures about the NYPD's activities provoked exasperation in the city's Muslim neighborhoods, where government officials have sought to build relationships in Muslim communities and pledged to ensure that Muslims aren't targeted for discrimination.

"The NYPD's credibility is bankrupt in our communities," Fahd Ahmed, legal and policy director of the Desis Rising Up & Moving group, said in a statement Thursday. "We need accountability, transparency and an overhaul of tactics and policies."

Government outreach programs have operated in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., and Washington — all cities with large Muslim communities — even as law enforcement around the country has stepped up investigative efforts to stave off attacks.