occupy everywhere

Occupy Movements Nationwide Facing Crackdowns

Occupy Portland. Photo: Natalie Behring/Getty Images


Oakland mayor Jean Quan allowed protesters to return to their City Hall encampment late last month after multiple tear gas battles between police and protesters, including one that critically wounded Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen. Olsen suffered a fractured skull, but was released from the hospital last week. A shooting in the vicinity of the camp last week has again ignited demands that the group leave the area. “Oakland is not afraid. We’re not afraid of our tents being taken away, of the movement being stymied,” said one media team member in California.

In Portland, police really did move in, arresting dozens while swinging nightsticks and warning protesters over a loudspeaker that they “may also be subject to chemical agents and impact weapons.” Protesters chanted, “We are a peaceful protest,” but Mayor Adams warned, “This is not a game.” Twenty-four protesters were also arrested over the weekend at Occupy Albany for ignoring a park curfew, while nineteen were arrested Saturday in Salt Lake City.

The original encampment at Zuccotti Park has been comparatively tranquil since some flashes of darkness late last week, and the weekend’s biggest story was a union:

In front of about a dozen friends and onlookers, Emery Abdel-Latif, 24, and Micha Balon, 19, held a traditional Muslim wedding on Trinity Place and Liberty Street, perched on a small bench next to the park’s famous sculpture of a seated man with a briefcase.




Update: Police have indeed moved in on the Oakland camp in Monday’s early morning hours. But they got a wedding, too!

Occupy Movements Nationwide Facing Crackdowns