Welcome to Day 178 of #OWS.

A sign installed at Grand Circus Park

I finally feel ready to write about some of the events following where I left off.

Today is Day 178 of #OccupyWallStreet. Lots of things have happened since I first arrived on Day 16. Unemployment is still rampant, #NDAA passed, war with Iran is escalating, there are more attempts than ever at censoring free speech and the internet than ever, the Bradley Manning hearings have begun, Tahrir Square was set aflame, Time Magazine censored the US edition from the global revolution and then followed by making “the protester” person of the year, the US has begun using unmanned drones against its citizens, austerity has caused riots to erupt across Europe, #Occupy lives on, and America is busy being distracted by the ruse we call “the Presidential Election” as if we would see any sort of positive change from any possible outcome of the election in November that would reverse any of those things.

But even though six months have passed, I remember arriving on Day 16 like it was yesterday. I remember watching innocent women being beaten in the streets of New York by NYPD on Day 19 just as vividly. I remember the wash of fear as I was grabbed by an officer on Day 67 while livestreaming after arriving on the scene moments after he made a false arrest, and the feeling of incredible luck that followed as his grip turned into a violent shove into the street while he shouted expletives at myself and my camera; lucky only that I wasn’t also falsely arrested or unjustly pepper sprayed like the street medic who had gotten there before me. I remember the force of the blunt end of a police baton slamming into my ribs on Day 27, and into my stomach on Day 69. I remember the aware but naive impression I had of the police state I possessed before Day 16. For me, the issue of the police/security/surveillance state is as pressing as any other issue brought up by the #Occupy movement. Before all things, how can we prosper if we are not free?

Occupied Pingree Statue at Grand Circus Park

#OccupyDetroit
Nathanael and I arrived at #OccupyDetroit the day after we returned from #OWS. By then, they had been occupying Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit for over a week. I could write dozens more posts on the successes and failures of #OccupyDetroit, but the fact is we are here, and we are trying to make a difference in a city where change seems almost hopeless. I won’t recount the daily events as I did #OWS, partly because I was writing about #OccupyDetroit a bit as I wrote about my time at #OWS, and partly because #OD is still figuring out how it can fit into impacting the local community the way #OWS has affected the national and global communities. Mostly though, because this blog is about the profound changes I went through as an Occupier, rather than the larger narrative, and having Occupied Wall St. first, I have no choice but to view #OcccupyDetroit through the lens of #OccupyWallStreet.

Labor lends its #solidarity to #OccupyDetroit

Between the time I left #OWS and returned, I spent about six weeks working for #OccupyDetroit every day. In that time, we stood in solidarity with #OWS on multiple days, marching here and there, shutting down this and that. We struggled with theft, violence, racism, and classism. We debated the concept of hierarchies and the nature of the #Occupy movement in a city with an inextricable history of activism and labor unions. It was all fine and good, but there was a larger narrative we were ignoring in those early days of #OD. After a few weeks, it became apparent that none of these things mattered. Police worked with us because lots of them supported us. To this day, Detroit Police have yet to arrest a single person at an #OccupyDetroit event. The police confrontation just isn’t an issue here in Detroit. I would like to say they have better things to do, like solve all the murders that happen in the city, but they seem more content raiding parties and making easy money. That’s for another post though.

The first hint of #OccupyDetroit's possible eviction

#OD eventually packed up camp and left Grand Circus Park to turn to bigger, better things. Like actually Occupying Detroit, or keeping it occupied (#EvictionDefense). Since October, we’ve successfully defended multiple homeowners from unfair evictions by their corrupt banks. This is the part where the Bizarro 99ers shout “But they probably didn’t pay their mortgage! What happened to personal accountability!?”. Plug into this, my friends! The majority of homes we’ve defended have been situations where the banks have broken their own contracts, not the homeowners!

#OccupyDetroit #GA discusses eviction threat

Those six weeks were an incredible challenge, yet fulfilling. Nathanael and I arrived with intent to carry on our media work from #OWS, but when we arrived, we found ourselves filling in for greater needs. Nathanael ended up forming an affinity group based out of Ann Arbor that facilitates inter-Occupy coordination in Michigan, and I ended up becoming a General Assembly facilitator and educator on consensus process. Somewhere in there, I started this blog, and as I wrote it, I realized that despite the advances we were making here at home, I felt like my work was uncomplete.

Then, on November 15th, #OWS was turned on its head with a sudden and violent eviction. A few days later, I found myself on a bus to NYC again, this time alone, and this time, it would be one of the most challenging experiences of my life.

Time to Leave.

Washington Square Park GA, 10/15

We decided to head to Washington Square Park. While many Occupiers were concerned with holding Times Square, who could resist the possibility of another Occupation? #LibertySquare was becoming crowded, and constantly under the growing threat of eviction. We arrived to a gigantic General Assembly, full of thousands of fresh faces. This GA was right next door to NYU’s campus, and it would be their Occupation if they chose to take it. After long deliberation, the GA decided this was not the time nor place. I may be biased, but I suspect the fleet of modified school buses and army of riot cops who showed up during the assembly may have influenced that decision. As the crowd dissipated, a number of people stayed behind to make their statement and were led out by groups of police that outnumbered them at least 40 to 1. Marches started back to #LibertySquare, and Nathanael and I watched from across the street (next to Chris Hedges!) as people were violently herded into the crowd by NYPD.

It's not about rich people, it's about corrupt rich people with power.

Nathanael and I made it back to Zuccotti. Having no idea where David was, we decided that neither of us would sleep that night. We were about to leave a place that over the last two and a half weeks that had become our home. Riding the subway back and forth, we found ourselves in Times Square once again, but now it was 4am, and practically empty. Save for one handmade sign hanging from a scaffolding, the city had already done it’s best to erase any trace that anything unusual had happened there.

The last trace of Occupy Times Square

We returned to #LibertySquare as the sun rose, and I spent the morning chatting with new neighbors who had moved into my neighborhood, new Occupiers, and a student journalist team, one of which gave me an entire pack of cigarettes, thanking me for being there as he forced me to take it. The generosity of people I met in that park still amazes me even now, months later.

After saying goodbye to the neighbors who I had become very close with, I packed all of my sleeping gear into my bin and dragged it towards the Comfort station. I smiled, knowing this would be the last time I would see my sleeping bag, my favorite sleeping bag; green with a black and white racing stripe, I’d owned it since high school. I’d taken it on tour across the country multiple times, it kept me warm on cold nights living out of my car, and was the only blanket I owned when I lived in the southwest, protecting me from the cold floor of my lonely apartment. Now it was time for it to keep someone else warm, winter was about to arrive, maybe it would even save someone’s life.

Open Forum, 10/16

Sue’s voice suddenly appeared over the crowd, calling my name over and over. I had texted her hours ago, trying to get ahold of her to say goodbye. I felt like I held on to her forever in that crowd of thousands of people. So beautiful. So smart. So radical. I didn’t know a girl like that existed before I arrived in #LibertySquare and I thought I might not see her before I left, maybe not ever again. Then she was gone, and I was left lost for a moment in the memories of the last few weeks, staring off into the distance as the roar of the General Assembly echoed through the canyon of skyscrapers. “Sue’s a good note to leave on.” Nathanael said, breaking through the wall of thoughts that had taken over me. I nodded, and we made our way through the Open Forum discussion happening at the other end of the park and onto the subway. Our first Occupy journey had ended.

We Are Conservatives In This Sense…

“Those people in this plaza, those people carrying out these protests, in the true sort of definition of the political spectrum, are conservatives in this sense: they call for the rule of law. They call for the restoration of the rule of law. And what’s happened is that the real radicals have seized power. And they are decimating all legal impediments to the creation of a neo-feudalistic corporate state.” -Chris Hedges

If I had to boil down the #Occupy movement into one simple sentiment, it would echo Chris Hedges’ statement on the #ows Livestream that it’s about calling for the restoration of the rule of law. Many facets of the #Occupy movement fall in line behind this; prosecute bankers for their illegal actions leading to the financial crisis – restore the rule of law; prosecute bankers for their actions leading to hundreds of thousands of illegal foreclosures – restore the rule of law; prosecute government officials responsible for illegal wars – restore the rule of law; separate corporate and government interests such as the mass privatization of military and domestic security forces and perpetuation of the military-industrial complex – restore the rule of law; separate corporate and government interests for committing illegal actions such as warrantless wiretapping and then retroactive immunity for telecom corporations  - restore the rule of law; end extrajudicial punishments for whistleblowers exposing massive amounts of corruption and illegal actions such as WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning – restore the rule of law; dissolve massive post-9/11 powers granted to the executive branch such as the extrajudicial killing of US citizens – restore the rule of law, and so forth.

A few days ago, the Senate voted to keep provisions (Sections 1031/1032) in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act which essentially declares US Territory a “battlefield” and allows the military to invade US homes and detain US citizens indefinitely without trial, effectively suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus. As stated in Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution:

The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

( – restore the rule of law.)

As if the reference to the seating arrangement of the 18th-Century French Parliament was ever relevant in the American political dichotomy* spectrum, the “left”-”right” paradigm has most certainly died in post-9/11 America as both sides have eroded the rule of law more and more as time goes by. During the Bush era, many Democrats called for the restoration of the rule of law in light of many of the illegal actions perpetrated by the Bush administration which make up the majority of items mentioned in the first paragraph. It’s interesting to note that in the post-Bush administration era, these provisions of the National Defense Authoritarian Authorization Act were passed by a Democrat-controlled Senate. A petition calling for the impeachment of all Senators approving this bill on the grounds of Treason has been started and as of this writing has 11,400+ signatures. The White House has threatened to veto this bill, but their response seems to imply that it is partly because it removes post-9/11 powers granted to the executive branch (i.e. they wish to continue to commit egregious acts such as their extrajudicial killing of US citizens). It’s also interesting to note that the Obama administration has seized the executive powers expanded by the Bush administration and used them to perpetrate illegal wars, expand questionable surveillance tactics, crush free speech in America, and launch many other assaults on domestic civil liberties with very little outcry from Congressional Democrats and the so-called “liberal media”. Considering the behavior of the past two administrations, it’s no wonder that the #Occupy movement refuses to even entertain the thought of a party affiliation despite the Democratic party’s best efforts to co-opt the movement (which is a laughable thought, Obama has also received more money from Wall Street than any politician in the last two decades).

The media and members of the “right” have labeled the #Occupy movement as a radical leftist movement, but as Chris Hedges said best, we “are conservatives in this sense: [we] call for the rule of law”.

_{*We do not technically have a two-party system, the US Constitution contains no language supporting such an idea. The dominance of two parties arose after the ratification of the Constitution where Hamiltonians, supporters of Alexander Hamilton’s ideas of a strong, centralized government united under the Federalist party, and Jeffersonians & Anti-Federalists, those who supported Thomas Jefferson’s ideas of an agrarian society and limited federal government united under the Democratic-Republican party in opposition to the Federalists. It is here that the two currently dominant parties were born. The Democratic-Republican party split during the contentious election of 1824 where those supporting Andrew Jackson formed the modern Democratic party and supporters of John Quincy Adams formed the National Republican party, which is distinct from the modern Republican party. In 1854, the Democratic party supported and passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act which repealed the Missouri Compromise, an act that previously banned slavery in new territories. As a result, the Democratic and Whig parties split, and anti-slavery activists from both parties organized under the modern Republican party, leading to the Civil War.}

Scott Olsen Speaks

#OccupyTimesSquare

A couple days ago, one of my longest-running friends left a comment on here criticizing the movement and my involvement. While I was shocked that the first communication between us in months would involve him leaving an insult on my blog, I certainly don’t hold it against him. Other friends have blocked me from friendlists and done much more verbal damage than simply calling me “sad” due to my involvement at #OccupyWallStreet (I don’t hold that against them either). He pointed out both here and on another site that sleeping in a closed bank and occupying McDonalds accomplishes nothing. This comment prompted an addendum to the post which describes some of the related accomplishments of the #Occupy movement regarding banks.

Throughout my writing of my first time at #OccupyWallStreet in this blog, I’ve remained (mostly) purposely silent on my involvement in certain activities; my time spent in working groups, my involvement in planning or participating in daily direct actions, how I would follow around police officers with a camera recording their actions and badge numbers to hold them accountable for their actions, and so forth. I have chosen to not write about some of these experiences not because we were doing anything illegal (our only “illegal” actions are simple nonviolent civil disobedience which is really simply exercising our very legal 1st amendment rights) or secret (the #Occupy movement believes and practices complete transparency) but because I believe that these actions are but a small piece of the puzzle to the group actions of #OccupyWallStreet, and speak for themselves. In these group actions, the collective idea or action is more important than the individual. These group actions have also received the bulk of media coverage through our own indie media and the occasional accurate coverage from corporate media outlets. Rather, this blog has been so far dedicated to the individual experience of an Occupier, which I feel has been overlooked. Those small personal details such as the hours I spent discussing collective-anarchism with my one-night neighbor Phil, the first practicing collectivist-anarchist I’d ever met, or the multiple near-violent encounters I had with homeless and mentally-ill Anthony, also a first, mean nothing in the larger narrative of the #Occupy movement, but they have made an impact on me that will last a lifetime.

Times Square, Occupied! 10/15

In the days leading up to October 15th, I was part of the group that planned #OccupyWallStreet’s part in the 15O Global Day of Action. We began meeting several days before the event, hammering out details for multiple actions ranging from anti-war protests to illegal foreclosure protests across the city, which would then all convene on Times Square during the evening. I actually entered the first meeting by accident, I was looking for an Internet Working Group meeting, but decided to stay when I realized I was in a room full of experienced activists planning a huge day of action. As the days went by leading up to the event, I grew more excited about it. Nathanael and I had discussed heading home earlier to be there for the birth of #OccupyDetroit, but we both decided to stay once the plans for 10/15 began solidifying and decided to leave the day after. This was going to be huge!

The morning of the 15th, Nathanael and I bought our bus tickets home from a Brooklyn loft whose owner hosted us for the evening. The host was an amazing man, and upon our arrival the night before, we were surprised to find that we were not his only guests, but that he was hosting multiple people from multiple countries as well as a couple other Occupiers including one of the co-authors of the Declaration of the Occupation. We discussed several topics that night with our host and his guests, most memorable was a conversation with a man from Serbia who pointed out that many of the world’s problems are about “rich countries vs. poor countries”. As I listened to him talk, I realized that this would be the last night I would spend in New York meeting amazing people and sharing big ideas.

Since we were planning on leaving the next day, I had some loose ends to tie up and was unable to attend any of the direct actions around the city on the 15th (nope, not even the one I helped plan). I heard they were massive and successful though. Several solidarity marches planned by groups other than #OccupyWallStreet met up here and there, banks were occupied, there were anti-war teach-ins and rallies, students organized a General Assembly and rally, and more. At the same time around the globe, almost 2 million people took to the streets.

The NYC National Lawyers Guild number

Later in the day, we reconvened at the Port Authority terminal with David, a friend we had made in Liberty Plaza from northern Michigan who would accompany us home. As Nathanael and I waited for him outside the Greyhound station, we took a moment to snap a photo of our arms, freshly inscribed with the NLG number. David joined us as we reviewed the picture on my phone, ticket home in hand. “Okay, we have tickets home. Now we really can’t get arrested.” “Let’s go!”. We didn’t know what to expect outside the building. We had taken the subway into the Port Authority and would be exiting around the corner from Times Square right as people were supposed to start arriving from all over the city.

The sidewalk outside the Port Authority building was crowded, but not much more than usual. Then we turned the corner. Massive amounts of people filled the sidewalks! Tourists looked around helplessly and New Yorkers shoved rudely past us as the familiar chants of the Occupation could be heard faintly in the distance in every direction. We slowly began making our way towards Times Square, shouting out chants to locate other groups of Occupiers whom we merged with as we continued down the street. As we got closer, the familiar barricades started appearing on the sidewalk. Each cross street was shut down, and we ended up stuck across the street from the majority crowd of Occupiers across the street from the ABC news ticket. A loud cheer erupted from the crowd as “Occupy Wall Street Movement Goes Global” appeared on the ticker. Confused pedestrians tried to find pathways through, but were denied by the NYPD. “I was just at the other street, they told me to come here!” shouted one man. One particularly well-dressed and indescribably beautiful woman was allowed passage by a male officer however, claiming that she worked across the street. I’m not sure whether to attribute this to the sentiments of the NYPD serving the private elite or sexism, but either way, they let her through while several others were denied before and after her including others who claimed to be trying to get to work. “You’re annoying!” shouted a passerby towards our group. I didn’t have time to explain to her that we have to be.

There’s a tweet being passed around on Twitter that says something to the effect of “We occupy because we can’t afford advertising, we can’t afford politicians, so we camp.”. Part of the reason we occupy spaces and participate in mass civil disobedience actions is to draw attention to our message. For example, if we shut down Times Square for a couple hours, people are forced to listen. They are forced to engage with us in discussion, or at least be aware of our presence. For some, this is the only way we can ever connect with them. (Actually just yesterday, I spoke to someone who had never heard of the #Occupy movement.) If we weren’t disruptive, then these people whom we wish to open a discourse with would go about their daily lives passively uninformed. And since we have no power over the media, which has actively worked to marginalize us, and we have no power over politicians, who have used militarized police and violence in an attempt to silence us, occupying really is our only choice to engage with the public.

I’m not sure how long our group stood in Times Square, it must have been a couple hours. We spent our time talking to people who would stop and ask us questions, or making friends with those around us. Randomly I would point at the New Year’s Eve ball and count down loudly to get a few laughs out of people passing by. We even were the first interview subjects of a new blog that a young couple next to us decided to start after coming down to check out the event which was also their first experience with #Occupy. As our side was not the one where the majority of Occupiers were at, the crowd started to dissipate after a while, and we had to make a decision. Stay for the #Occupy party in Times Square, or head to Washington Square Park where a new occupation was to be attempted?

*some names have been changed for privacy and shit

Tomorrow We Clean Up Wall Street

On November 15th, the city of New York initiated a raid of Liberty Plaza to clear out Occupy Wall Street from Zucotti Park under the pretext of “unsanitary conditions”. This same pretext had been used to clear out Bloombergville some months before, as well as similar protests throughout the world. About 20 minutes before the eviction, Occupiers were issued flyers informing them to collect their belongings and leave. Many attempted to bring items out of the park and were denied exit with their possessions, or denied re-entry during this window. During the raid, police allegedly violently attacked the medical tent, cutting into it with a knife while patients were still being treated inside. A tent containing two puppies was destroyed, the puppies were never found and are assumed dead. Over 5,000 books in the People’s Library were tossed into DSNY dumpsters, only less than 1,000 of which were recovered. Members of the press were barred from the area during the eviction and some were arrested along with City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez who was apparently also beaten by NYPD. An estimated $80,000-$120,000 in property damage was caused that night. Much (if not all) of the property was not vouchered by police, and many Occupiers have been unable to claim their seized property due to it being destroyed or barred entry to the DSNY garage where it is being held, prompting questioning by the New York State Senate. But this was not the first time the Bloomberg administration had declared “unsanitary conditions” in Liberty Plaza.

One of the many sanitation-related signs on 10/13.

“Unsanitary Conditions, Round One”
The eviction notice from Brookfield didn’t appear so at first glance. Rather it was written as an offer to clean the park, and then let us return after the cleaning, with one caveat, we must abide by the “normal rules of the park” which were attached to the sanitation notice. A quick look over the rules on the second page revealed several new unposted rules, making it clear that the new rules were targeted specifically at #ows and we would not be able to continue our protest there. Several meetings sprang up. “They did this to Bloombergville!” someone shouted. I found myself underneath the red structure waiting for the Occupiers Meeting to begin. “This meeting is specifically regarding the subject of the possibility of police infiltration!” yelled the facilitator over the People’s Mic. Tensions were high that morning, we had less than 24 hours to figure out what we were going to do. Other Occupiers brought up concerns trivial in contrast to the looming eviction. “This meeting is specifically regarding the subject of the possibility of police infiltration!” yelled the facilitator again and again becoming visibly more frustrated each time. “Tom Morello is coming and we need this space for the People’s Stage” someone interrupted. “This meeting is specifically regarding the subject of the possibility of police infiltration!” The meeting eventually dissolved with no resolution on a course of action. That was okay, we still had an emergency General Assembly at noon and then the real one later that evening. I was confident we would figure it out.

Tom Morello as The Nightwatchman, 10/13

I hadn’t planned on seeing Tom Morello that day. After missing a variety of speakers and musicians who had visited the park, I didn’t expect to be anywhere near close enough to hear him play unamplified and was more concerned about the eviction. Then, the People’s Stage, a rug dragged by Occupiers up the stairs, appeared at my feet. Well shit, he IS one of my favorite guitarists, I thought. I decided to stay. We still had time. A huge crowd gathered, and dozens of cameras were pointed in our direction as I stood next to him. Good thing, my phone had died just minutes before he appeared on the sidewalk! At the end of his set, he announced “Emergency GA, right here, right now!”. I’m not sure, but I believe he had cut his set short to make sure that the GA started on time at noon. Unfortunately due to the chaos of him being there, the GA didn’t start until 1:30pm.

The Sanitation Station

An amazing thing happened at that GA. We decided to utilize Brookfield’s strategy of cleaning the park in thirds, but do it ourselves. Up to that point, the Sanitation Working Group had done an amazing job keeping the park clean, almost to the point of obsessive compulsiveness as they would sometimes hover next to you while you finished a cigarette so they could sweep up your cigarette butt. Calls to action went out on Twitter; we needed cleaning supplies, gardening supplies, mops, brooms, and as many plastic bags as we could get our hands on. Bags of soil and new flowers were brought in, professional landscapers and botanists offered advice on how to best care for the various plants in the park. The call of “More water!” echoed through the canyon of buildings as the concrete was scrubbed time and time again.

An Occupier replaces trampled flowers in Liberty Plaza

The atmosphere of Liberty Plaza that day was one of strong community that day. The possibility of eviction had motivated everyone to get to work and help clean up the park. Even those who were not directly involved in the protest and had just been there because we offered free meals and a place to stay were busy sweeping or handing out plastic bags. During the GA, someone had brought up that we should be prepared to lose all of our belongings in what might end up being a police raid similar to the one we had seen in Boston a few days before. We discussed the possibility of removing everything from the park, and sleeping standing up or leaning on each other to comply with the new rules. We decided to clear as many items out of the park as possible. All of our belongings were bagged, tagged, and moved to our storage facility down the street on Broadway. A parade of Occupiers wandered down the street for hours carrying bins and bags of supplies while curious onlookers watched. Inside the park, everyone went to work. The concrete floor of the park ended up being scrubbed five or six times, the pink marble gleaming underneath the cloudy sky. Dozens of Occupiers dug up the trampled flowers from the flowerbeds we had been so protective of, replacing them with new ones.

"Today we clean up our community. Tomorrow we clean up Wall Street!"

A call went out on Twitter after the evening GA. Come stand with us! The park cleaning was scheduled at 7am, so we asked for anyone available to come be with us in the park by 5am. Markers were passed around and Occupiers hastily scribbled the National Lawyers Guild phone number on their arms in preparation for what may come the next morning. Then, I made a poor decision. I decided to grab a couple hours of rest on a friend’s couch in Brooklyn. Setting my alarm for 4:30am so I could have enough time to make it back to the park, I drifted off into a deep sleep for the first time in almost two weeks. My friend’s alarm went off at 6:30am and I woke startled, thinking it was earlier. Hastily getting dressed, I looked at the clock. Shit! “Sorry man, you looked so comfortable I didn’t want to wake you.” Disappointed that I had missed whatever happened, I smiled, thanking him. I did feel much better. I said goodbye and sprinted to the subway station.

Occupiers cheer as they get the word that cleaning has been postponed.

Checking my phone as I exited the subway, I noticed several missed texts from Nathanael. “Are you here? This is incredible!”. It was almost exactly 7am. What was waiting for me around the corner of the Brookfield building? I turned the corner to find Liberty Plaza intact and full of people. Well over a thousand people, maybe more, had showed up before the sun rose to support us that morning and minutes before I arrived, Brookfield had announced that they would postpone the cleaning. Liberty Plaza was safe! For now.

*some names have been changed for privacy and shit

Occupy Bank of America

Soulless former Steven J. Baum employees mocking victims of foreclosures.

One of the many facets of the #Occupy movement is drawing attention to illegal foreclosures. Last year and in recent months, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and many other large financial institutions falsified hundreds of thousands of documents and in turn caused many innocent families to lose their homes. This included thousands of active-duty servicemembers. This process is carried out by the banks or their subsidaries engaging in a practice known as “Robo-Signing”, where foreclosures are bundled and approved without being legally acquired, certified, or in some cases without the original documents verifying the loan. This kind of carelessness and lack of compassion is perhaps best illustrated by the Steven J. Baum firm, a foreclosure mill who was exposed last month for throwing annual Halloween parties where employees dress up mockingly as foreclosed-on homeowners.

In several instances, banks were signing over documents from lenders that no longer exist. For example, one Bank of America executive “signed a mortgage assignment on July 29 of this year that purported to transfer ownership of a mortgage from New Century Mortgage Corp. to a trustee, Deutsche Bank.” However, “New Century, a subprime lender, went bankrupt in 2007; and the Deutsche Bank trust that purported to hold the loan was created for a securitization completed in 2006 — about five years before Juarez signed it over to the trust.”
-“Outrage: Big Banks Still Use “Robo-Signing” To Fake Documents And Foreclose on Borrowers” Alternet.org 

Rev. Billy Talen and the Church of Earthalujah occupies Bank of America

In protest, some direct actions by the #Occupy movement have included Banks Take a Haircut Day, supporting Bank Transfer Day, occupytheboardroom.org, or even occupying Bank of America. In October in Detroit, #OccupyDetroit successfully rallied with Moratorium Now to save a local homeowner from foreclosure, resulting in a refinancing of his mortgage rather than eviction. The national #Occupy movement has now turned their attention to this same cause, starting with a national Day of Action on December 6th. Speaking of occupying Bank of America, this past (Black) Friday, Rev. Billy Talen and his Church of Earthalujah occupied a Manhattan Bank of America branch and recreated the living room of a woman’s house the branch had foreclosed on. During week 4 of #OccupyWallStreet, I had my own experience occupying Bank of America.

(In a separate victory, Bank of America also dropped their $5 debit card fee partly in response to opposition from #ows)

(Update: This afternoon, the State of Massachusetts filed the first major lawsuit regarding robo-signing. Link Here)

“Welcome to Bank of America!”
“Pretty soon they’re all going to be fucking Jewish.”

My eyebrows wrinkled as I overheard the police officers walking by, talking to one another about the sukkahs. Although it was a pretty offensive thing for him to say out loud (the side of their cars read “Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect” (ha!)), I have to admit that Mr. Jerkass Police Officer was right, I was thinking about converting to Judaism for the week as I wrapped my belongings in plastic, preparing for the rain coming in that night. Luckily I had somehow acquired two tarps, which allowed me to use what had become the standard method for Occupiers to stay dry; lay down one tarp on the cement, put down cardboard or a sleeping mat, get in your sleeping bag, roll yourself up in the other tarp like a burrito, and hope for the best. I awoke an hour later, completely soaked. Debating on whether or not I should change into my last set of clean clothes, I instead opted to head for Joe’s and sit in my drenched clothes sipping hot tea as I tried to warm up. It wasn’t working. I said goodbye to the owner and she smiled sympathetically at me.

Occupy Bank of America, 10/13

I wandered around the park several times, wondering what to do. Sleep was now out of the question, and the rain was still coming down. Then I spotted it. Several Occupiers huddled in the Bank of America branch across the street from the park! We were occupying Bank of America! Like many bank branches in NYC, the lobby of this branch is open 24 hours, but only if you have a debit card which you must swipe for entry. My grin was met with others in return as I knocked on the door. “Welcome to Bank of America!” shouted an Occupier as I entered. “Thank you!” I shouted in return, taking a seat in the corner on the ground. There were 15 or so of us inside, and more filtered in through the night. At one point, two Occupiers had harmonicas and would welcome the occasional Bank of America customer entering the lobby to use the ATM with more gleeful shouts of “Welcome to Bank of America!” accompanied by song and dance each time. All but one of us was awake, the single sleeping Occupier curled up into a ball under the counter by the door. After about an hour, exhaustion overtook me and I succumbed to sleep on the floor. I was awoken a couple hours later by several sharp jabs from a nightstick into my ribcage. ”GET UP! GET UP!” screamed an officer at what seemed like the top of his lungs. I think that was the fastest I’ve ever gotten up!

Brookfield Eviction Notice, 10/13

We reconvened at the McDonald’s next door. “I was just saying to Sam about you and that other guy, ya’ll are the real Occupiers!” said an Occupier to me as I joined him and Sam from the Medic team at a table. “Occupy Bank of America!” I answered drowsily. We all sat in silence for a while after that, our group exhausted from the night. Ironically, the McDonald’s across from Zucotti Park had become an unofficial supporter of #ows, often letting us use their space for meetings, shelter from harsh weather, or being one of the most frequented public restrooms for Occupiers. At night, a significant amount of homeless people can usually be found warming up or dozing off at tables. The management there is clearly compassionate and Occupiers were generally appreciative of their hospitality. Critics of the movement reading this might point out that it’s antithetical for us to be there, but I contend that the movement cannot be drawn in such black-and-white terms as simply anti-corporate or anti-capitalistic (though I cannot readily argue anti-consumerist). And for those who do possess those sentiments fully, occupying McDonald’s is simply another direct action victory to claim. I don’t remember when I left McDonald’s that morning, the lack of sleep from the last couple weeks was really beginning to wear on me. But I do remember re-entering the park to find a line of Brookfield employees winding their way through the crowd accompanied by several NYPD. One shoved a packet of paper in my face and I took it. My eyes widened as they hastily scanned across the page. We were about to be evicted.

*some names have been changed for privacy and shit 

Tarp City, USA

The original tents of Occupy Wall Street

The beginning of the tent city in Liberty Plaza started on October 12th, but this was not the first tent to go up in Zucotti Park. During the first week of #OccupyWallStreet, musician Lupe Fiasco donated several tents to the Occupation. He gave them to #ows under the condition that when we were done with them, they be donated to the homeless. NYPD made us break this promise, coming and stealing them almost immediately. Afterward in the camp, the use of tarps or sometimes even having possessions in a bag were challenged. The NYPD later relaxed on this stance, but any “structure” remained unallowed; if you set up a couple chairs and put a tarp over it, it would provoke an immediate response from NYPD and your structure would be torn down. I witnessed this multiple times as various people would attempt to construct structures out of cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and anything else that would provide shelter from the rain. Other certain items were also banned. During one evening, someone brought a loveseat into the park, which was immediately seized and thrown into a garbage compactor. But on one particular Wednesday morning, someone had a brilliant idea.

A loveseat brought into Zucotti Park is seized and thrown into a trash compactor.

Occupy Sukkot
Maybe it was because I had fallen asleep worried about her, but I dreamt of Chloe that night. A hand gently shook me awake the next morning, her voice fading from a dream into reality. I opened my eyes and smiled, Chloe’s face hovering above mine. But before I could speak, she was gone. A brief warning about the oncoming rain faded with her into the crowd huddled in rain ponchos and tarps across the path. I sat up and looked around. Gray clouds sat ominously in the sky and a feeling of panic took hold of me as I reached into my pocket for my phone to check the time. Gone. I looked around helplessly. There would be no finding it if it were stolen. A couple nights before we had ejected a young man named Ralph from the park who was suspected of stealing several phones. The week before, he had attempted to befriend me, trading a couple cigarettes for some time spent listening to music through my headphones off the streaming radio on my phone. Music other than the endless drone of the drum circle was tough to come by so I agreed but was hesitant to trust him, he gave off a very bad vibe. Had he been casing me?

I began packing away my gear and reached into my bag for a new pair of socks. Reaching in, I felt a hard shape wrapped in plastic. Relief washed over me. I forgot that I had packed my phone away in case of rain. Phew. 8:30am. It was definitely later than I thought. I remember looking around that morning at the sea of blue tarps that had appeared, becoming reminiscent of the past several days. So much had changed so quickly. I now lived adjacent to the sign-making area. I would smirk each time I approached my camp, thinking of all my years in the commercial sign industry. Fitting that someone would choose the spot next to me for making signs. The park now hosted at least twice as many people as it had when I arrived. New neighbors had come and left. Byron had been gone almost a week. Mark had taken his art and headed home. The gorgeous redheaded girl who offered me a blanket a couple nights before and whom I shared hours of conversation with that night was now gone. I never learned her name. I thought of Phil, the collectivist-anarchist who had stayed for a night with his daughter and the hours of amazing debate he and I shared with our neighbors. I never got to wish him luck with the commune he spoke of starting. That one night in Zucotti Park must have been a small slice of paradise for him. I wondered how much this place had changed the people who stayed here. The magic of Liberty Plaza had certainly left it’s mark on me.

Liberty Plaza after the rain. 10/12

I made my way to Trinity Church to use the restroom and brush my teeth and found fellow Occupier Doug outside. By random chance, Doug had been near the subway a couple days ago and gave me a dollar to get on the subway so I could get to my bank, not knowing that the other was an Occupier. I found him later that day at Liberty Plaza and gave him two dollars. “200% return on investment!” I exclaimed as I handed it to him “That’s the best deal on Wall Street!”. This morning Doug had a favor to ask of me, asking me to watch his stuff for him as he ran inside. As I sat there, an elementary class walked by. I wondered what these young children thought of what was happening just across the street from their school. Did they know? What did they think of us? I smiled as they passed, trying to leave a good impression on our future. Doug soon returned, and I was on my way to meet with Direct Action.

Walking up the path to the morning meeting, a woman stood several feet away, raising her camera. “No pictures!” someone shouted from the working group. I laughed to myself, thinking of how I had been misrepresented in a newspaper a few days before about the Direct Action working group. After the interview was over, the reporter had asked me where he could find Direct Action. I refused to tell him, only saying that they meet in a new undisclosed location each day, and that they play it close to the chest to keep the Actions effective (guess what he quoted me on). I was late, and sat down in the middle of a discussion about erecting a tent in the middle of the park. “Basically I’m volunteering myself to get arrested.” said a member of the working group. He went on to talk about the legitimate concerns about us not having tents and how this small challenge to the city may help us avoid hypothermia and other problems brought on by not allowing us to have structures. As the conversation went on, I learned of the Jewish holiday, Sukkot. This was how the Occupier was planning on challenging the use of tents in Zucotti Park. Brilliant!

Occupy Sukkot!

The Sukkot ceremony in Liberty Plaza began later that day and the first sukkah (tent) was erected. The event was wonderful, several musicians played traditional Jewish songs while Occupiers sang along and bread was broken and passed around. A young woman who was passing out Sukkot flyers named Tara passed me a piece, and I smiled, taking it. It was delicious! Much better than the stale bagels I had been surviving on from the kitchen! I held my camera up unsteadily, my neck craned towards the phalanx of police officers standing across the street watching silently. Would they challenge this religious ceremony?

A Tarp, A Box, A Home

As the ceremony ended, many of the Jews who had come to celebrate made their way to the northwest end of the park and began setting up their own structures out of cardboard boxes and tarps, unchallenged by the NYPD. The direct action was a success! I smirked as I looked beyond the sukkahs to see a non-Jewish Occupier tying a tarp to one of the handrails next to the stairs on the northwest corner. We had taken one more small step.

*some names have been changed for privacy and shit 

The People’s Library

The People’s Library was probably one of the best stations set up at #ows, or at least, it was my favorite. Anyone could donate a book, check one out, or even take them to keep. I felt guilty as I exited the park my final day with two books I had taken from the People’s Library; reading material for the bus ride home, and my only souvenirs to remember the trip by. “I should leave these here for others to learn from and enjoy.” I thought as I closed the zipper on my backpack. Little did I know I at the time that I was actually saving them from their destruction a couple nights ago. Since I’m planning on returning now, perhaps I’ll bring them back! Take that, Bloomberg!

A #ows Occupier I’m friends with on Facebook posted this to her Facebook wall earlier today. With her permission, I’m reblogging it. Er, regular blogging it.

The following is a series of pictures that will show you the development of our library as only we have been able to witness it:

The Beginning
Like the Liberty Plaza city itself, the library was not started intentionally. It appeared, then developed into an organized effort.

Eventually we needed more than a single shelf.

Then we began to outgrow the two shelf and box system.

Several tables were brought in next to act as extra shelves. Chairs were brought in for readers to relax in. We even developed a children’s section.

The weather was becoming a real concern and a tent was donated. The official People’s Library building appeared.
This was the incarnation of the library that was trashed and tossed away.

Within 5 minutes of being allowed back into Liberty Plaza, the People’s Library began again in its old corner just as humbly as it had started.

As I was writing this post, I found out that police were raiding the library again. The speed of #ows media is incredible, there are already videos online. How many NYPD does it take to remove a few dozen books? Um. A few dozen, apparently.

Before the raid on Occupy Wall Street the other night, the People’s Library contained over 5,000 books, most of which were destroyed during the raid and thrown into garbage compactors. During her report of the raid, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now rescued a copy of Brave New World Revisited from the rubble, so that’s at least one book saved. Yesterday, some photos appeared from the sanitation dept. garage where what’s left of the destroyed property is being held.

Where are the rest of them, NYPD???

End Illegal Foreclosures on Tents!

Two nights ago, I got a text from a friend still in Liberty Plaza. “We need people to come to the park and peacefully surround it! Eviction in progress!”. A chill ran down my spine as I typed in the URL to the Livestream. What was waiting for me to see on the other end? The stream loaded, and images of friends that I made while out there appeared on my screen. They were amongst police violence, destruction, and chaos. The camera panned over to piles of destroyed property being carelessly tossed into a trash compactor and back. My friend Drew stood silently, holding his phone pointed at a police officer while the person next to the cameraman screamed at a cop, “You’re smiling!? How can you be fucking smiling!?”. The sounds of flashbangs going off in the park echoed in the background. I can’t describe how helpless I felt.

The Streisand Effect
I have a hard time comprehending the police’s response to the #occupy movement. Nationwide, millions of dollars have been spent on thousands of arrests related to the #occupy movement, the vast majority of which have been nonviolent protestors for civil disobedience. Not for violently rioting in the streets like the Penn State riot I wrote about in my last post (STILL no arrests!). There have been legitimate safety issues, but these have all been isolated incidents within each Occupation. Criminals exist in our society, and to blame their existence and isolated crimes, societal problems, which occur everywhere every day, on the Occupations, which are large gatherings of all kinds of people that in public urban areas where crime rates are statistically higher, seems like it’s reaching a bit too far. Sorry, run-on sentence. Of course, the cities and police realize this, which is why the raids have all mostly happened under the arbitrary pretext of being a fire hazard, or unsanitary. The vast majority of Occupations are both safe and completely peaceful. Not to mention, each police action has strengthened the #occupy movement. Each time police violently overreact, even more peaceful people show up to protest nonviolently. Counterproductive?

Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, after being pepper-sprayed at Occupy Seattle - Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO / SEATTLEPI.COM

I’ll at least give the cities who have evicted Occupations under those pretexts some credit though. At least they’re not trying to subvert the Constitution directly. Some have simply been declared “unlawful gatherings”. Is there such a thing? The Occupy movement has reminded people about that last part which people often forgot about prior to a couple months ago; “Congress shall make no law…abridging…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”. These “gatherings” are declared “unlawful” because they haven’t applied for permits, but should you need a permit to gather? Shouldn’t the concept of applying for a permit to peacefully gather in a public area, or any other area for that matter, be illegal in itself?

How about this: The First Amendment is our permit!

#OWS watches as #occupyboston is torn apart, 10/10/11

Clam Chowder and Pepper (Spray)
“Incredible!” I paused in silence for a moment as the implication washed over me. I was standing inside the media center, the heart of the camp, talking to Gary, a member of my unofficial working group which was a thinktank for dreaming up technological solutions to improve communications at the park. We had discussed such ideas as scrolling LED message boards accessible from the web that would spit out Tweets, headlines, and news from Occupiers inside and out of the park, or text blasts to notify people of a possible eviction (someone else actually executed this!). The topic tonight though, was using mass conference calling tools to replace the People’s Mic at the GA, which would effectively cut the time of the GA by 60%. “We could set one phone to send-only, and the rest to receive, and then we could even have the receivers on speaker phone, in effect, creating our own PA system without “amplification”. The only problem is latency between devices making it sound washed out.” Gary stared into his phone as if an answer was in it. “But the human latency with the people’s mic is probably much worse, not to mention different pronunciations of vowel sounds and rate of speaking between people” I pointed out as I read a new post that popped up on the projection screen which had been running the Vibe app since the GA ended.

“HEY!” someone ran up next to us. “Plug this laptop in! Occupy Boston’s getting raided!”. “My friend’s in the park! I’ve got him on the phone!” someone else shouted from behind us with his phone pressed to his ear “They’re beating the shit out of Veterans for Peace and tearing down tents!”.  The area around the media center fell quiet as the new computer was plugged into the projector and the image of the violent police raid came onto the screen, the first major eviction issued to any Occupation. “I’ve got a phone number!” someone else shouted running up. Someone opened a new window on the laptop and displayed phone numbers for the mayor’s office and Boston PD next to the livestream. Everyone immediately grabbed their phones. I dialed three numbers and got nothing but busy signals. “Yes! I would like to protest against the violent police action your department is taking on a peaceful protest!” announced the man next to me. He had gotten through! “This infringes on our first amendment rights. Did you know there’s a live video stream and thousands of people are watching? No, I’m not in Boston but I’d still like to register a complaint!” he continued, “Hello? I think they hung up on me.”

“Reports of possible raids in Austin, Dallas, Seattle and St. Louis on Twitter!” someone exclaimed from inside the media center. “I think it would be naive to believe that this wasn’t a coordinated action” Gary said quietly leaning towards me. I nodded in agreement and walked towards a woman hunched over a laptop in front of the projector deep in conversation with another Occupier, her screen on some random website. “Ma’am, can you look up a livestream of those other cities?” The woman turned to look at me and I realized it wasn’t a woman, but conspiracy theorist guy! The side of his pencil-thin moustache twitched. “Oh man, I’m sorry! Your long hair confused me, and-” I stammered. “Hey, that’s okay!” he interrupted “That means my hair’s in good condition! So anyway…” he turned away and continued to discuss his conspiracy theories with the man he was talking to. Conspiracy theorists…!

While the Boston raid was very real, it turned out that the others were either false alarms or police backed down, presumably in light of the flood of phone calls to Boston’s various public departments. Gary turned to me, “I have to leave soon, can you tear down this projector for me?”. He told me where the various pieces of the projection screen and projector were to be stored and disappeared into the night. After about an hour, it appeared that the raid was over, and the other cities were safe. As I packed away the final piece of equipment into the media center’s lockbox, another Occupier ran up. “Can we get the projector back up? There’s going to be another raid!”. I rushed to set everything back up, only to tear it down again a few minutes later. False alarm. I sighed heavily as I walked back to my area on the other side of the park. It was almost 5am. “Where’s Chloe?” I wondered as I unpacked my gear from my green bin. Her stuff was all still on top of mine. I carefully moved her bag aside and pulled out my sleeping mat to find that my sleeping bag was gone. Shit!

The night before I had spotted someone across the park in a green sleeping bag with black and white stripes, identical to mine. Wondering if it was mine, I darted back to my bin to find it wasn’t. As this scene played back in my memory, I realized that my sleeping bag was right in front of me, a man curled up inside it. “Hey man,” I said shaking him awake. “Sorry, but you’re in my sleeping bag.” “What? I thought this was the one I had last night.” he said rubbing the sleep and confusion out of his eyes. “Yeah, sorry, I brought this one with me, I wouldn’t make a big deal of it but I’ve had this one for years, we’ve been on a lot of trips together. I’ll go get you another from Comfort though.”. I walked across the path to the Comfort station before he could respond, and was handed a blue sleeping bag that looked strikingly similar to Byron’s which I think he actually left behind. “Here you go, man.” I said handing it to my new neighbor, still in my sleeping bag. He looked at me with bewildered gratitude, and crawled out.

A slight feeling of disgust washed over me as I climbed into my sleeping bag, still warm from the confused Occupier I had just chased out of it. I was too tired to care. The streetlights and drone of early morning traffic faded into sleep.

*some names have been changed for privacy and shit