MEDIA ROOTS- Despite sweeping arrests and police brutality, the occupation of Wall St. continues and is now spreading across the country. Photographer Kelley McCarthy went out to cover NYC’s Occupy Wall Street for Media Roots over the weekend. Her photography captures some of the activist spirit and energy of revolt that the corporate media is trying so hard to stifle.
All photos by Kelley McCarthy, see more of her work at http://mccarthy.viewbook.com/
MEDIA ROOTS- The First
Amendment prohibits Congress from making any law “abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and
to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” A redress is a
means to set right, to remedy or rectify; or a satisfaction for wrong done.
On Sept 17, the US Day of Rage has planned peaceable assemblies for people in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. We call on the rest of the nation to join us to Occupy Wall Street.
Why?
Wall Street is a huge contributor to the political machine, which in turns enables the corporate plundering of our nation. Both the Democratic and Republican parties set the bankster agenda because of the MONEY they are given. When we at US Day of Rage speak of ‘taking the money out of politics’, we have no choice but to focus on the sources of where the money comes from. Because politicians are bought by bribes, greedy and wasteful interests have usurped our nation’s civil and military power which has spawned a host of threats to the liberty and national security of this country. We demand satisfaction for the wrongs done to our nation and its people.
The Plan
US Day of Rage has a plan that will overcome even the most totalitarian attempts to suppress the First Amendment. We are taking the high ground on the public sidewalks. Citizens have been prevented from exercising their right to peaceable assembly in New York City because the force established to ‘serve and protect’ civil society, the NYPD, has turned into a Counter-Intel paramilitary force.
CIA training has turned their operations into one of the “most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies”. Recently, the New York’s police commissioner confirmed that a CIA officer is even working out of police headquarters. We do not need the NYPD to protect us from the First Amendment. We need First Amendment protection from the NYPD.
The Tactics
1. Find space on a PUBLIC SIDEWALK in NYC on Wall Street (or in your respective city) or as close to Wall Street as possible. If the street is occupied or blocked, move to the next possible block. According to a 2000 federal court ruling, the use of “public sleeping as a means of symbolic expression” is allowed on public sidewalks in New York City as long as you do not block pedestrians. See METROPOLITAN COUNCIL, INC., Plaintiff, -against-HOWARD SAFIR, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department, et al., June 12, 2000 [99 F. Supp. 2d 438; 2000 U.S. Dist.]
2. Camping, however, is prohibited. DO NOT SET UP A TENT.
3. Keep in mind that permits are legally required for assemblies of more than 20 or more people within the confines of NYC public parks, which close at 10pm. YOU DO NOT NEED A PERMIT TO OCCUPY OR PEACEABLY ASSEMBLE ON PUBLIC SIDEWALKS.
4. Once you have found a available space on a public sidewalk, form or join a block assembly. An assembly is a group of two or more people on a public sidewalk in NYC.
5. Establish rules of order and rotating roles for each block’s assembly. Roles like facilitator, secretary, and time-keeper should rotate regularly. See suggested rules of order for assemblies.
6. First order of business, decide on a back up block location should the assembly be illegally disbanded by the NYPD police or other government agents.
7. Once assemblies are formed, we suggest that they establish specific demands for the block occupation by consensus, for instance: ‘One citizen. One dollar. One vote’.
8. Send the block location in the subject line of an email and your groups’ demands to [email protected], or post your location and demands on a block assembly’s twitter profile using twit longer with the hash-tag #usdor, a Facebook Page established for the assembly, or on meetup.com.
9. If your assembly is dispersed or disbanded, reform at the backup location or join another available one.
10. The assemblies are a way to empower ordinary citizens to have their voices heard. US Day of Rage will collate each assemblies’ demands and publish them on our web site to foster wider discussion across the nation.
This Land is OUR Land
New York City is the financial capital of the world. We consider the entire island of Manhattan and even the Citicorp building in Long Island City, Queens to be ‘Wall Street‘. The NYPD may kettle or blockade Wall Street, but they cannot kettle or blockade all of Manhattan.
If they shut us down, we will re-establish our assemblies at the nearest possible block up, down, east, or west. If the NYPD kettle or blockades every public street in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, or the Bronx, they will only reveal what we at US Day of Rage already know: our government is corrupt, and its power is in the hands of treasonous and tyrannical forces. We the people, together, will prevail.
The American Revolution is alive and well: it’s a group of non-violent citizens who believe in the radical notion that Americans have a right to freedom of speech and the right to peaceable assembly, the right to engage in politics through free and fair elections unsullied by disloyal special interests that are destroying our democratic republic and preying upon the resources and spirits of its citizens.
Conclusions
Together we can build assemblies of people along every street of lower Manhattan from Wall Street to Washington Heights; and on every street in every town in every state. US Day of Rage is fighting a war for the soul of our nation and its people. Stand and be counted at 2:00 PM EST on any public sidewalk across America. Post your pictures on Twitter or YouTube with the hashtag #usdor or tag US Day of Rage on Facebook.
In a democracy: progressives; unions; conservatives; tea party members; and unaffiliated Americans can govern and work things out with each other. In a kleptocracy, controlled by the banksters, we cannot. We must stop the bankers’ influence, motives, and their tricks from continuing to destroy our republic.
US Day of Rage demands that money be removed from the buying of politicians who feed the Wall Street beast. We demand that the resources of our nation no longer be used to benefit the interests of bankers and their minions. We demand that the US Government diligently reign in the parasitic destruction wreaked by the Wall Street. We demand that our nation no longer be held hostage to ‘too big to fail’ banks. We demand that solutions be found that stop the Federal Reserve from stealing our future.
More on local actions and the main event in NYC go to http://usdayofrage.org/
The above is a press release from US Day of Rage.
