Paramilitary Policing of Occupy Wall Street: Excessive Use of Force amidst the New Military Urbanism

We host a discussion on policing and the Occupy Wall Street movement with Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which helped organize calls among police chiefs on how to respond to the Occupy protests, and with Norm Stamper, the former police chief of Seattle, who recently wrote an article for The Nation magazine titled "Paramilitary Policing from Seattle to Occupy Wall Street." "Trust me, the police do not want to be put in this position. And cities really need to ask themselves, is there another way to handle this kind of conflict?" Wexler says. Stamper notes, "There are many compassionate, decent, competent police officers who do a terrific job day in and day out. There are others who are, quote, 'bad apples.' What both of them have in common is that they 'occupy,' as it were, a system, a structure that itself is rotten. And I am talking about the paramilitary bureaucracy." We are also joined by Stephen Graham, author of "Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism," and by retired New York Supreme Court Judge Karen Smith, who worked as a legal observer Tuesday morning in New York after the police raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment. "I was there to take down the names of people who were arrested... As I’m standing there, some African-American woman goes up to a police officer and says, 'I need to get in. My daughter's there. I want to know if she’s OK.’ And he said, 'Move on, lady.' And they kept pushing with their sticks, pushing back. And she was crying. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he throws her to the ground and starts hitting her in the head," says Smith. "I walk over, and I say, 'Look, cuff her if she's done something, but you don’t need to do that.’ And he said, 'Lady, do you want to get arrested?' And I said, 'Do you see my hat? I'm here as a legal observer.’ He said, 'You want to get arrested?' And he pushed me up against the wall."

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Occupy Wall Street’s National Day of Action Launches with Protest at NY Stock Exchange

Today is a national day of action to mark the start of the third month of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Here in New York, organizers have been distributing posters reading "Shut Down Wall Street! Occupy the Subways! Take the Square!" As we broadcast protesters marched in various parts of the Financial District in an attempt to block the New York Stock Exchange from opening at 9:30 a.m. Labor organizers are planning protests at dozens of bridges across the country today as part of a campaign to highlight the need for increased spending on the nation’s infrastructure. In Portland, protesters are planning to occupy the Steel Bridge. In Seattle, an action will target the Montlake Bridge. In Washington, D.C., protesters will march on the Key Bridge. In New York, a 5 p.m. action is set at the Brooklyn Bridge. The protests come just two days after New York police raided Occupy Wall Street at Liberty Plaza and destroyed the encampment. Protesters have been allowed to return to the park, but without sleeping bags, tents or musical instruments. Democracy Now!'s Ryan Devereaux reports live from Wall Street, where protesters, with help from New York police, blockaded all streets leading to the Stock Exchange. "The plan is for sort of a three-pronged blitz on the Financial District, marches coming from all different directions, and trying to basically swarm the area with people," Devereaux says. "The NYPD's response has been equally robust. There are police vehicles, officers and barricades on every single street."

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The Commons: Down with inequality, up with the price of cheese

The Scene. It began with a rousing cheer for Nycole Turmel. The official opposition was perhaps behooved to loudly endorse their interim leader after a Conservative backbencher had used the House’s preceding minute to read aloud some scripted bit about how disgraceful Turmel had behaved on some matter or another.

“Mr. Speaker, over the past few months we have witnessed a protest movement on a scale never seen before,” she ventured. “The Occupy movement is denouncing economic disparity.”

There were grumbles and groans from the government side.

“People are fed up and they decided to act,” Ms. Turmel continued. “The parks might be cleaned up, people may have to go home, but the economic problems will not go away. Unemployment is too high, especially for youth. The economic gap is growing. Has the Prime Minister heard the cry for help?”

The Prime Minister didn’t much like this question and so he substituted his own. “The real question, Mr. Speaker, is whether the NDP has heard any such cry,” Mr. Harper sighed.

Who’s afraid of the Occupation?

When the city hit Occupy Toronto with eviction notices this week, officials said one reason they decided to take action was because the encampment in St. James Park is hurting surrounding businesses.

But while there’s no doubt profits are down for many businesses bordering the park, there is hardly unanimous pressure coming from shop-owners to shut down the occupation. In fact, some say it’s been a pleasure having them in the neighbourhood.

Occupy Toronto has since won a temporary injunction against the eviction, but on Tuesday morning as bylaw officers and police moved through the park, employees and managers at nearby stores had varying responses when asked if they would be happy to see the protesters pack up camp.

An employee at a hair salon on King Street said the month-old occupation has had no effect on business there. Fred Yee, who owns an organic restaurant at Jarvis and King, also said he’s seen no change in profits, as did an employee at the Arts on King craft store.

Martha Rebelo, manager of high-end tile outlet Savoia, said she was glad the city was moving to clear the park, but admitted that the protesters haven’t hurt sales much.

Adam Giambrone: Colour-coding civic power

Our city’s diversity is no longer reflected on council’s agencies and boards

Most of us would agree that we should strive to include people from every background in our civic institutions.

But a troubling trend is emerging when it comes to citizen appointees to the boards of directors of over 120 city agencies, boards, commissions, corporations and special-purpose bodies, like the Toronto Arts Council, the Library Board, Exhibition Place, the Toronto Atmospheric Fund board, etc.

If the current process continues as is, we’ll have one of the least representative groups of appointees in the last 20 years.

Bill would make wearing masks during riots a crime

A private member's bill set for debate Thursday in Ottawa would make it a crime to cover your face with a mask or other means during a riot.

The bill by Conservative MP Blake Richards was introduced in the House of Commons last month and is set to be debated for the first time. It seeks to amend the Criminal Code to make it an offence to wear a mask, or otherwise disguise or conceal one’s identity during riots or unlawful assemblies.

“When trouble starts, people intent on criminal activity depend on being able to 'mask up' to conceal their faces with bandanas, balaclavas or other means to avoid being identified and being held accountable for their actions,” Richards said in a statement last month when the bill was tabled. “Wearing a mask in these circumstances is an aggravating factor for their behaviour that should be reflected in the law."

Top economist warns Canada against two-tiered health care

Canada should remain committed to publicly funded health care, and not open the door to two-tier medicine, says a new report by a top economist.

Governments can improve efficiencies in the system, including changing the way doctors are compensated, without allowing patients to pay for some services, Don Drummond, former chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank said in the report released on Thursday.

“A great deal can be done to improve efficiency in the system before privatization is considered,” Mr. Drummond says in the report prepared for the C.D. Howe Institute. “It seems best to simply leave this issue aside for the moment.”

The report, titled Therapy or Surgery? A Prescription for Canada’s Health System, amounts to a staunch defence of Canada’s public health-care system that guarantees universal coverage for many services, including hospital care and prescription drugs for the elderly.

Occupy may have a good case to stay

Whether Occupy Toronto protesters should keep their long johns handy begins with a single question.

Is pitching a tent in a public space a constitutionally protected activity?

While it’s unlikely a lone Torontonian unconnected to a protest could set up camp in St. James Park without running afoul of a city bylaw or provincial trespassing statute, the occupiers may be on more secure legal ground.

When the City of Toronto served them with an eviction notice Tuesday, five of the protesters invoked the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, arguing their rights to freedom of expression, conscience, peaceful assembly and association are violated by prohibiting them from setting up tents or using the park between 12:01 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.

Ranjan Agarwal, a Toronto lawyer with expertise in public and constitutional law, believes they have a good chance of success on Friday because the Supreme Court of Canada has extended a high degree of protection to political speech and because public encampment is a key component of their message.

Peter King: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Are 'Losers'

GOP Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) had some choice words on Wednesday for Occupy Wall Street protesters.

In an interview on Bloomberg Television's "In The Loop," the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee was asked if he had an obligation to hear out what the protesters are saying. He slammed the cause, pointing to crimes taking place within Occupy encampments.

"First of all, you try to listen to them and they make almost no sense," King said. "These are people who were living in dirt, these were people who were involved with drugs, there was violence, there was rape. You're talking about a small number of people -- you could probably get more people in a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday than you've got in Zuccotti Park."

King went on to criticize the direction of the movement, questioning the methods employed by the protesters.

"I mean, what is their position?" King asked. "They're mad that other people are making money? They're mad that there are no jobs in this country? Or not enough jobs? All of us believe that. We're trying to find a way to do it. You don't do it by living in dirt. You don't do it by carrying out rapes. You don't do it by carrying out anti-American slogans."

Does Capitalism Have to Promote Child Abuse?

If we're such a "family values"-friendly nation, why are we so willing to let our kids be abused for the sake of making money?

According to the allegations in the Penn State scandal, a pedophile was allowed to brutally assault/molest numerous young boys because no one dared to upset the very lucrative apple cart that is college sports. And, as commentator Frank DeFord speculated on NPR today, perhaps there was also some reluctance to sully our noble national pastime of oversized brutes battering each other in pursuit of a pigskin.

And now comes word that Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee have torpedoed the USDA's attempts to reduce the amount of pizza, french fries and salt that our kids consume at school. Why? Because the frozen pizza companies, the salt industry and potato growers asked them to. Really. It's that simple.

The USDA wasn't looking to ban any of these foods, but rather to increase the ratio of non-starchy vegetables and whole grains. This would be a step in the right direction, instead of using our resources to make our kids sicker and fatter. But such a shift would also make a dent in some very lucrative government contracts. So, no go.

Farewell to the Occupation: How OWS Achieved its Goal Despite Not Having One

The NYPD, 1,000-strong and in military formation, cleared out Zuccotti Park overnight, effectively ending Occupy Wall Street, the two-month-old protest movement which had caught fire across the world. And this morning Occupy Toronto got its own visit from the municipal authorities as officers marched into St. James Park with eviction notices in hand.

Other cities had already started kettling the protests, from Oakland's violent police raid and Portland's peaceful one to threats of imminent eviction in Vancouver, Calgary and elsewhere across North America. No matter what happens at the hundreds of other Occupy sites, this encampment stage of the movement has reached its conclusion with the loss of its spiritual home on Wall Street.

But that's cool.

The protests started way too late in the season and it's far more effective for the movement to be dramatically driven out by a riot police than to trickle away in dribs and drabs as winter rolls in. Not to mention that the few unfortunate drug overdoses and deaths had given right-wing critics unnecessary ammunition to dismiss the legitimate concerns raised by Occupy.

When I was at Zuccotti Park last month, it felt like the fringes of a multiday music festival -- yes, there were neo-hippies on hand, but also union workers and senior citizens and curious tourists drawn to the site to see for themselves what it was all about. A few people may have worn the infamous Guy Fawkes masks from the dystopian drama V for Vendetta, but OWS felt optimistic not cynical. Even the cops seemed chill and relaxed.

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Occupy Movement: Vincent Mosco, Queen's University Professor, Calls Movement Most Important In Generations

TORONTO - The Occupy protest is the most important democratic social movement of the last two generations and demonstrators who have taken over parks and other public spaces should be left alone, an expert in social movements said Wednesday.

As civic authorities across Canada and the U.S. move to end the various occupations, Vincent Mosco, professor emeritus of sociology at Queen's University, said the "extraordinary" movement had created a rarely seen coalition.

"When you see trade unionists, students, minority groups and others coming together, locking arms across sites in North America, what we have here is something unprecedented — at least in recent memory," Mosco said from Ottawa.

"It's everywhere — not just in large cities, but in small towns throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and elsewhere."

Mosco's study of social movements began outside the Pentagon in 1967 when 100,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters began changing the course of history.

MacKay dismisses ‘apocryphal’ talk of U.S. fighter-jet woes

Peter MacKay says it’s premature to speculate about the future of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program given Canada isn’t planning to receive its first new jet for another five years.

The Defence Minister’s comments to reporters Wednesday were his first since U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned Congress the fighter program could be scrapped if Democrats and Republicans fail to reach a compromise on how to cut $1.2-trillion in government spending over 10 years.

A so-called super committee – made up of senators and members of the House of Representatives – has until Nov. 23 to reach a deal. Failure would mean across the board cuts to federal departments and Mr. Panetta’s warnings were an effort to pressure the committee by outlining what some of the more drastic cuts might look like.

Will Stephen Harper Destroy Canada?

The Harper government’s announcement that it will change the laws regarding capital gains taxes to encourage more charitable giving strikes an ominous note for the country’s political culture.  Harper is mimicking the Conservatives in Britain who are trying to pull the same trick with what they call the Big Society initiative promoting the provision of social services through increased private giving.  Both efforts smack of social engineering from the right.

When Harper stated that he we would not recognize the country after he was through, this is what he was talking about.

Ideology is meaning in the service of power and the Conservative government, libertarian to its core, intends to create the appearance of an increasingly volunteer society as it systematically guts the social and cultural role of government. Harper hopes to justify massive cuts to programs (and in general the role of the federal government, period) by shifting responsibility to charities and foundations. This is the Americanization of Canada – remaking the country in the image of the minimalist government of the US. The problem is that there is very weak tradition of foundations and corporate giving in this country, so it has to be engineered, too.

The notion of social engineering was one of the most popular concepts on the political right in the past (when it was out of power).  The phrase is intended to describe a process by which  liberals and the left (read the Liberals, the NDP) “engineer” society – that is,  set out to remake it by implementing government programs, intervening in the economy, and redistributing wealth to create a measure of economic equity. The implication is that these changes were undemocratic and thus illegitimate – imposed by politicians, intellectuals and bureaucrats.

Netanyahu is now the last hope for Israeli democracy

Netanyahu is liable to find himself very quickly in a situation in which he won't be able to stop the weakening of Israeli democracy

Benjamin Netanyahu is a democrat, though of course there are people who are more democratic than he. He is imbued, from his youth, with a dangerous ambition to destroy Israel's "old elites," but he doesn't claim to want to destroy its democracy. Let's give him credit for that.

Likud's prime ministers before him knew how to inflame passions - Menachem Begin in the street, and Ariel Sharon in the party central committee - but somehow they also knew how to preserve the democratic framework.

Netanyahu, who in some ways is stronger than they were (since he has no significant opposition within his party, or outside it ) but who has a weaker personality than they did, is taking this game too far.