Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Occupy Portland Protesters Face Showdown With Police Over Eviction Order /Occupy Portland Protesters Face Showdown With Police Over Eviction Order /By JONATHAN J. COOPER and TERRENCE PETTY, The Associated Press

Occupy Portland Protesters Face Showdown With Police Over Eviction Order

Occupy Portland
First Posted: 11/13/11 08:25 AM ET Updated: 11/14/11 11:21 PM ET
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Several hundred protesters, some wearing goggles and gas masks, marched past authorities in a downtown street Sunday, hours after riot police forced Occupy Portland demonstrators out of a pair of weeks-old encampments in nearby parks.
Police moved in shortly before noon and drove protesters into the street after dozens remained in the camp in defiance city officials. Mayor Sam Adams had ordered that the camp shut down Saturday at midnight, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment's attraction of drug users and thieves.
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More than 50 protesters were arrested in the police action, but officers did not use tear gas, rubber bullets or other so-called non-lethal weapons, police said.
After the police raid, the number of demonstrators swelled throughout the afternoon. By early evening, dozens of officers brandishing nightsticks stood shoulder-to-shoulder to hold the protesters back. Authorities retreated and protesters broke the standoff by marching through the streets.
Demonstrators regrouped several blocks away, where they broke into small groups to discuss their future. Some advocated occupying foreclosed homes, others wanted to move onto the Portland State University campus or to the shores of the Willamette River.
In the hours after the midnight eviction deadline, the anti-Wall Street protesters and their supporters had flooded the park area even as authorities in other cities across the nation stepped up pressure against demonstrators, arresting dozens of people.
At one point overnight, the Portland crowd swelled to thousands. As dawn arrived, riot police had retreated and most of the crowds had gone home, but protesters who have been at the two parks since Oct. 6 were still there, prompting one organizer to declare the night a victory for the movement.
"We stood up to state power," Jim Oliver told The Associated Press.
It didn't last. Police moved in later as demonstrators held a midday "general assembly" meeting to discuss their next moves. An officer on a loudspeaker warned that anyone who resisted risked arrest and "may also be subject to chemical agents and impact weapons." Demonstrators chanted "we are a peaceful protest."
"We were talking about what we were going to do and then they just started hitting people. Seems like a waste of resources to me," protester Mike Swain, 27, told the AP.
One man was taken away on a stretcher; he was alert and talking to paramedics, and raised a peace sign to fellow protesters, who responded with cheers.
Choya Adkison, 30, said police moved in after giving demonstrators a false sense of calm. They thought they had time to rest, relax and regroup, she said
"Camp was completely vulnerable, completely defenseless" when police moved in, she said. "I'm disappointed that they created a sense of trust by walking away and then completely trampled it."
City officials erected temporary chain-link fences with barbed wire at the top around three adjacent downtown parks, choking off access for demonstrators as parks officials cleaned up.
Police Chief Mike Reese told KGW-TV it was his plan to take the parks in a peaceful manner and that's what happened.
"Our officers have performed exceptionally well," he said.
Even ahead of the police raid, the camp was a shadow of what it had been before Saturday. A large segment of campers were homeless people drawn to the free food and shelter offered by Occupy Portland. They are gone, after outreach workers went through the camp to help them find shelter elsewhere.
And as the Saturday midnight eviction deadline neared, protesters themselves began dismantling tents.
Around 4 a.m., dozens of police formed a line across from demonstrators who had poured into the street. Protesters facing them appeared to be in festive spirits with some banging on drums and plastic pails, another clanging a cowbell while others danced in the streets as a man juggled nearby.
On Sunday at an impromptu news conference, the mayor defended his order to clear the park, saying it is his job to enforce the law and keep the peace. "This is not a game," Adams said.
Officials said that one officer suffered minor injuries when he was hit by some kind of projectile in the leg. Police had prepared for a possible clash, warning that dozens of anarchists may be planning a confrontation with authorities. Officers seized pieces of cement blocks Friday, saying they were told some demonstrators had plans to use them as weapons against police. They said they believe some demonstrators were building shields and trying to collect gas masks.
And police seized incendiary devices, gas masks and marijuana on Sunday after stopping three men for speeding on Interstate 5 south of Portland. The men told police they had left Occupy Portland an hour earlier and were carrying the equipment in anticipation of a confrontation with authorities, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said.
Meanwhile in Oakland, Calif., friends confirmed Sunday that Scott Olsen, the Iraq War veteran who suffered a serious head injury during a police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment, has been released from the hospital. Olsen suffered a skull fracture during tear-gas filled clashes between police and demonstrators on Oct. 25.
Dottie Guy of Iraq Veterans Against the War said Sunday Olsen was released last week. He can now read and write, but still has trouble talking, she added.
"Considering what happened to him he's doing well," Guy said. "He does have a brain injury so there will be some kind of rehab and physical therapy needed."
Occupy Wall Street supporters nationwide have rallied around Olsen's plight.
Also Sunday, for the third time in three days, Oakland city officials warned protesters that they do not have the right to camp in the plaza in front of City Hall and face immediate arrest. Police did not respond to requests for comment on whether officers were preparing to forcibly clear the camp.
The eviction notices come as officials across the country urged an end to similar gatherings in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire. Demands for Oakland protesters to pack up increased after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the encampment site.
Police officials have said a preliminary investigation suggested the shooting resulted from a fight between two groups of men at or near the encampment. Investigators do not know if the men in the fight were associated with Occupy Oakland, but protesters said there was no connection between the shooting and the camp.
The shooting occurred the same day a 35-year-old military veteran apparently committed suicide in a tent at a Burlington, Vt., Occupy encampment. Police said a preliminary investigation showed the veteran fatally shot himself in the head. They said the death raised questions about whether the protest would be allowed to continue.
In other cities over the weekend:
_ In Salt Lake City, police arrested 19 people Saturday when protesters refused to leave a park a day after a man as found dead inside his tent at the encampment. The arrests came after police moved into the park early in the evening where protesters had been ordered to leave by the end of the day. About 150 people had been living in the camp there for weeks.
_ In Albany, N.Y., police arrested 24 Occupy Albany protesters after they defied an 11 p.m. curfew in a state-owned park. State police officials hauled away the protesters after warning them with megaphones that they were breaking the law in Lafayette Park. They were charged with trespassing.
_ In Denver, authorities forced protesters to leave a downtown encampment and arrested four people for interfering with officers who removed illegally pitched tents, said police spokesman Sonny Jackson.
_ In San Francisco, violence marked the protest Saturday where police said two demonstrators attacked two police officers in separate incidents during a march. Police spokesman Carlos Manfredi said a protester slashed an officer's hand with a pen knife while another protester shoved an officer, causing facial cuts. He said neither officer was seriously hurt, and the assailants couldn't be located.
___
Associated Press writers Terry Collins in Oakland, Josh Loftin in Salt Lake City, Jim Anderson in Denver and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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Keith Olbermann has been a devoted supporter of the Occupy movement, so it was not surprising that he took issue with Bloomberg's decision to clear the encampment in Lower Manhattan, arresting hundreds in the process.

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Via The San Francisco Chronicle:

Dozens of college students from around Northern California crammed into a branch of the Bank of America as part of an afternoon protest march through downtown San Francisco today and chanted "shame, shame" as about 100 of them were arrested over more than two hours.
The protesters denounced University of California regents, calling them rich people who are callous to the economic woes of public higher education.

Full story here.
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Check out the schedule here.
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HuffPost's Jason Cherkis reports:
Gov. Nikki Haley ordered the organization's removal from the capitol grounds this afternoon. Nineteen Occupy Columbia members were arrested for refusing to leave the space. HuffPost reached Jessica Smith, 29, an Occupy Columbia member who has lived at the now-defunct encampment basically since it started up. Tonight, though, she is at home.
"We have a contingency plan," Smith says. The plan: Occupy Columbia is possibly moving to Veterans Memorial Park. "That's what I'm hoping for." She thinks they can set up tents there.
Smith admits that she will miss her old spot. "We just really loved the fact that we were on the statehouse grounds," she says.
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The Partnership for Civil Justice sent out a press release this evening announcing the Freedom of Information Act Request which focuses on confirming whether or not federal agencies coordinated the recent sweeps of various occupy encampments. It states:


The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) and the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests today with the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Park Service (NPS) requesting that the agencies release information that they possess related to the involvement of federal agencies in the planning of a coordinated law enforcement crackdown that has taken places in multiple cities against the Occupy Movement in recent days and weeks.
The FOIA to the various federal law enforcement agencies states: “This request specifically encompasses disclosure of any documents or information pertaining to federal coordination of, or advice or consultation regarding, the police response to the Occupy movement, protests or encampments.”
The Occupy Movement has been confronted by a nearly simultaneous effort by local governments and local police agencies to evict and break up encampments in cities and towns throughout the country. It is now known that mayors and other local officials have met together on conference calls in recent weeks and developed a coordinated strategy to dislodge and break up the encampments using common talking points including a public pretextual rationale to justify police action.
Mara Veheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice and the co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild’s National Mass Defense Committee, states: “The severe crackdown on the occupation movement appears to be part of a national strategy to crush the movement. This multi-jurisdictional coordination shows that the crackdown is supremely political."
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According to the State, 19 members of Occupy Columbia were arrested this evening after Gov. Nikki Haley has refused to allow protests to continue on the capitol grounds beyond 6 p.m.:


Haley's press secretary issued a public letter quoting Haley as saying, "This is America. Anyone is free to protest about anything they want. I encourage people to find and use the power of their voices just as much when I do not agree with those voices as when I do agree with them."If these folks want to make their voices heard in an appropriate way, they can have at it. But it has to be done within the bounds of the law. They are not going to be allowed to disrespect the taxpayers or their property. No overnight stays on the taxpayer dime. No public urination. No destruction of property. This is not Oakland, California. This is not New York City. Protests are fine. But in South Carolina we believe in the rule of law, and the people of this state should never doubt that as governor, I will enforce it.”
Occupy Columbia protesters have been on the State House grounds since Oct. 15, usually numbering less than 100.
A mix of men and women of all ages, they said they were expressing solidarity with protests in New York City and other cities around the country. They opposed what they said was the concentration of wealth in a relatively few hands, corporate greed and the influence of big money in politics. In countries like Tunesia and Egypt, mass protests – far larger than the Occupy Wall Street movement – have toppled governments.
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Via HuffPost Los Angeles:
The San Fernando Valley porn company Pink Visual gets plenty of media attention - usually for ideas, comments or plans that seem specifically geared towards getting exactly that: attention from media outlets. And this week is no different. With occupiers getting shoved out of Zucotti Park in New York City and suggestions that LA's occupy camp could be threatened to shut down, Pink Visual has declared solidarity with the Occupy Movement and wants the world to know it.
As seen in the video below, they have stated: "In solidarity with the Occupy Movement, Pink Visual has slashed prices on over 99% of our diversified porn-folio" with titles such as 'I'm Mad As Hell And I'm Not Going To Suck It Anymore' and 'Freddie Macks Mae's Fannie.'
Full story here.
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Via HuffPost Los Angeles:
Violent protests erupted outside of the California State University Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday in Long Beach, where the board members voted 9 to 6 in favor of increasing annual tuition by 9%.
The violence occurred as police officers tried to close doors on protestors to keep them outside of the building. According to the Associated Press, "Demonstrators tried to keep the glass doors open and one finally shattered, cutting an officer's arm. It appeared that pepper spray was used because a choking vapor filled the air. Three people were quickly taken into custody."
The tuition increase is the ninth increase in nine years, and it leaves annual tuition at just under $6,000. Students, protestors and members of the group ReFund California, which largely planned the Long Beach protest, say this makes public higher education unaffordable to many Californians.
See the full story here.
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According to NBC Philadelphia on Twitter, City posts notice telling Occupy Philly protesters to leave the City Hall immediately.
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Despite disruptions by protesters, the California State University Board of Trustees decided to move forward with a 9 percent tuition increase behind closed doors.
The LA Times reports police used tear gas on protesters before arresting several. A glass door was also apparently shattered.
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As reported by HuffPost, New York Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez was arrested during Tuesday's raid on Zuccotti Park Tuesday.
At a press conference Wednesday, Rodriguez addressed what happened for the first time. He said he tried to identify himself as police officers pushed him back with batons.
"They kept pushing," Rodriguez said. 'The force was so strong when they were pushing me. Then suddenly a police officer jumped from the middle of the street. He threw his body in front of me and started hitting my head on the street. ... I was assaulted by NY police officers."That's a different account than the complaint filed in court against him by New York police. The complaint alleges Rodriguez walked up to metal barriers on the southeast corner of Maiden Lane and Broadway and declared he was going to go through. When an officer told him he could not proceed, he said he would anyway, and made contact with a female police officer--knocking her of balance.
An attorney for Rodriguez said "The criminal complaint is a fiction."
Jumaane D. Williams, a fellow councilmember, told HuffPost the events Tuesday were "disgusting."
"We as a country and as a society have supported protests, multiple protests, halfway around the world," Williams said, pointing out that some of them were violent while insisting New York remained peaceful. "We never once asked the question, 'Are they on public property when they're protesting?'"
Williams chastised New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the events that transpired.
"He's going to be associated with squashing a democratic voice," Williams said. "Thank god that you can't arrest a spirit and your can't arrest a movement."Rodriguez was not permitted to speak with legal representatives for 13 hours as police detained him Tuesday. It was reported he was bleeding from his head and on Wednesday he had a visibly bruised left eye.
Rodriguez also said he was left in a van alone for two hours. "Those are troubling, troubling questions, which we in the council, but more importantly, we as New Yorkers deserve to get answers to," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, referring to her attempts to find out from NYPD why Rodriguez was treated in that manner.Other NYC Councilmembers told HuffPost they received absolutely no warning from the city that the eviction would happen.
-- Tyler Kingkade
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Via HuffPost's Hayley Miller:
When Casey Neistat heard Zuccotti Park was being cleared Tuesday morning, he set off from his nearby office and filmed the raid for the next 18 hours. This video captures various scenes from the controversial shutdown set to Frank Sinatra's classic "New York, New York" including one scene in which an evicted protestor races through the barricade to plant an American flag in the newly-cleared Zuccotti Park.
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Spring Valley Patch in Columbia, S.C. is providing live coverage of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's press conference, where she is likely to announce the eviction of Occupy Columbia from the state capitol.
Follow the coverage here.
-- John Celock
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Via Denver Westword:

While driving downtown after the night's police raid on Occupy Denver, [Daniel Garcia] chose to publicly support the group by honking his horn. This, he would quickly learn, is technically illegal. Thanks to "either two or three honks," he says, Garcia was pulled over and ticketed by a police officer near 14th Street.
"A cop asked me if I was responding to an emergency situation, and I said no," Garcia says. "He asked me why I was honking, and I said I was supporting Occupy Denver. He told me there's a city ordinance against honking outside of an emergency situation and then stepped aside to search my car and trunk."

Read more here.
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Occupy Columbia, whose camp is located on the grounds of South Carolina's state capitol, has had very little if any conflict with law enforcement or government officials. The encampment's members had listened to authorities, making sure to keep their area clean and rotate where they set up their tents. HuffPost visited the site last week as part of a film project and found the space well organized.
But that hasn't stopped Gov. Nikki Haley from apparently threatening to evict the activists. She has scheduled a Wednesday afternoon press conference, where Occupy members suspect that she will announce her intentions to evict the group tonight. Melissa Harmon, a member of Occupy Columbia, says that they held an emergency general assembly to address the situation. "We have pretty good plans in place," she tells HuffPost. "We figured we can't control what they do. We can only control what we do."
Harmon says no matter what she is not leaving the site. "I have no intention of leaving," Harmon explains. "Even if the eviction notice comes, I do not plan to leave."
"I know some individuals that plan to rotate across the street and some some individuals like me who plan to stay on site. We came here to express our first amendment rights...and don't plan to walk away from our right of the first amendment," Harmon says.
--Jason Cherkis
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The San Jose Mercury News reports that a meditating protester arrested outside the Occupy Oakland camp has become an "iconic image":

Francisco "Pancho" Ramos Stierle could be deported, protesters and law enforcement officials say.
Federal agents put an immigration hold on the 36-year-old Oakland activist as he was detained in an Alameda County jail, said spokeswoman Virginia Kice of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ramos Stierle, originally from Mexico City, was smiling and calm when Oakland police officers arrested him shortly before dawn Monday at the Frank H. Ogawa Plaza amphitheater.

Read more here.
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SFGate reports:

Several people have been detained in a confrontation between police and demonstrators opposing a proposal to hike California State University tuition by 9 percent.
A struggle erupted Wednesday as police sought to force demonstrators out of the university trustees meeting in Long Beach.
A glass door shattered and an officer suffered cuts on a forearm. Three people have been taken into custody.

Read more here.
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Ravi Kumar describes the scene in Zuccotti Park in New York the morning after NYPD's raid in this report for OfftheBus.

Around 7 a.m., I saw a young girl waking up. She was sleeping on the bare ground using a bag of her clothing as a pillow. I heard her conversation in fragments. She started to speak to the person next to her and I heard the word: revolution. I moved closer to her. She was asking in a concerned voice if her friend had been arrested.
Suddenly the protesters in the park turned their heads responding to a "mic check." Someone yelled "two minutes to GA." Roughly 150 protesters quickly gathered for the General Assembly.
One of the speakers announced that bagels, bananas, coffee and juice were available for protesters. Shortly after, the speaker declared a plan of action: take back Zuccotti Park. And the crowd started to move.
As the protesters walked south toward City Hall, a man in his early 30s behind me shouted "Shame on Bloomberg!" Then the crowd behind me started to chant "We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!"
Roughly 50 cops stood on the road, making sure that no one left the sidewalk. As I reached Canal Street, I saw three helicopters hovering over. A man started to scream at the police. He was angry because one of the officers had apparently touched him.
When we reached Grand Street and Sixth Avenue, the pace of the march slowed. People gathered and someone called for the now famous "mic check" to start a general assembly to decide whether they should occupy an empty lot on the other side of a wooden wall from where they were.
...
The group was fragmented, and some protesters decided to climb the wooden wall separating the crowd from the adjacent empty lot. The speaker said the space belonged to Trinity Church. Some protesters started to bring stepstools in an effort to scale the wall but the NYPD quickly stopped them. These protesters had a Plan B. They broke the lock of the fence and went inside the lot.

Read more of Ravi's report and more citizen journalism from OfftheBus contributors. To submit your first-hand reports, photos or videos from OWS events, email offthebus@huffingtonpost.com.
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Myles Boisen sent OfftheBus the following photos and report from Occupy Cal Tuesday evening.

I attended the strike and day of action at UC Berkeley from 2:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday. Incidentally, the Haas School of Business - where there was a shooting Tuesday afternoon by a UCPD officer - was far from the hub of the evening's events at Sproul Plaza.
The day was filled with non-violent teach-ins, meetings and marches, culminating with a speech by UC professor and former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. I would estimate the size of the crowd for Reich at 5000 or more. There were at least 2000 in attendance at the earlier General Assembly.
A spirited march arrived from Occupy Oakland, which further swelled the ranks at historic Sproul Plaza.


To submit your first-hand reports, photos or videos from OWS events, email offthebus@huffingtonpost.com.
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@ C0d3Fr0sty : (pic) 84 yr old Dorli Rainey hit with pepper spray by Seattle police http://t.co/5gtE0rU4 #OccupySeattle


<p> on Twitpic
More details via HuffPost Biz:
A woman old enough to be a grandmother is quickly becoming the face of Occupy Seattle.
Dorli Rainey, the 84-year-old, pictured in the photo below, has been an activist since the 1960s and even ran for mayor of Seattle in 2009, according to the Atlantic Wire. She ultimately dropped out of the race saying, "I am old and should learn to be old, stay home, watch TV and sit still."
See the full story and a larger version of the photo here.
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11:09 AMToday
Occupy The Office?
Via Gawker:

It looks like at some Occupy Wall Street protesters are taking their organizing efforts into a boring old office space, after the NYPD dismantled their camp early yesterday morning. Welcome to office hell, 99 percenters.
A greeter's desk, low ceilings—even cubicles grace what one Occupy Wall Street twitter feed is calling the Occupied Office. The unveiling of an actual office space comes as protest supporters are increasingly calling for the movement to use the raid as an opportunity to pivot into more goal-oriented political action. The office certainly looks like your average campaign headquarters.

See pictures here.
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10:30 AMToday
Occupy Boston Ruling
@ BostonGlobe : BREAKING NEWS: Judge issues temporary restraining order barring eviction of #OccupyBoston protesters, slates a hearing for Dec. 1.
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CBS Atlanta reports:

The home base for Occupy Atlanta has tested positive for tuberculosis.
The Fulton County Health Department confirmed Wednesday that residents at the homeless shelter where protesters have been occupying have contracted the drug-resistant disease. WGCL reports that a health department spokeswoman said there is a possibility that both Occupy Atlanta protesters and the homeless people in the shelter may still be at risk since tuberculosis is contracted

Read full story here.
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Occupy New Hampshire leaders have indicated plans to protest the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary on January 10, Exeter Patch reports.
The group has posted plans on its website but has not detailed the exact nature of the protests. The posting did indicate that the protest would occur in several communities around the Granite State on primary day. The communities selected include some of New Hampshire's largest cities and several college towns.
Click here to read more.
-- John Celock
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Per Wendy K. Leigh of OfftheBus:

An Iraq War veteran serving as a volunteer media for participants in the Occupy Seattle movement alleges he was maced 23 times in the face by Seattle police while attempting to render aid to protestors during the November 2 protest at a downtown Chase Bank.
Chris Anderson was 18 years old when he joined the military and became a medic serving in Iraq. Following in the footsteps of his grandpa, who served on a PT boat in Vietnam, Anderson was fulfilling his lifelong dream of a career serving his country. Six months into his tour of duty, while helping to evacuate a building in Baghdad, it collapsed, sending Chris soaring through debris and chaos, then crashing to the ground three stories below. When he awoke in a hospital bed, his sergeant was holding discharge papers.
Now 24, with lifelong disabilities including synthetic bones and knee caps, he will never serve his country again on the battlefield. But that hasn't stopped his passion for the 'American Way. He now stands up for his fellow countrymen in a different way, as a medic in the "Occupy Seattle" camp. He was administering emergency care to dozens of protesters caught in a chaos reminiscent of places far from the streets of urban America, when he was himself assaulted by police attempting to control the situation.
Protesters from Occupy Seattle, had gathered at Chase Bank in Seattle, to continue their stand against corporate greed and its undue influence on American life.
"It was by far the worst day of the Occupy movement in Seattle," said Chris, standing in the drizzle this week near the tents where he and his comrades sleep on the grounds of Seattle Central Community College. His eyes were running, still sore and swollen from being sprayed multiple times with what he maintains was "bear mace" - the kind used to melt the fur of bears in order to penetrate the skin. The area around his mouth still bears chemical burns from direct sprays to his face and torso.

Read more about Chris Anderson's work at Occupy Seattle.
To share your own first-hand reports, photos or videos from Occupy Wall Street events, email offthebus@huffingtonpost.com.
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The San Francisco Chronicle reports that city police dismantled part of the Occupy encampment overnight, arresting seven:

Officers in riot gear approached the three locations of the Occupy camp at about 1:20 a.m. Police formed two lines, one blocking protesters camped on Justin Herman Plaza and another keeping back protesters camped in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco at 101 Market St.
Police also blocked off Mission and Steuart streets, isolating a small line of tents in front of the One Market restaurant. Officers then proceeded to take down those tents and arrest seven people on suspicion of unlawful camping, said police Cmdr. Richard Corriea. The protesters were cited and released.

Read more here.
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The AP reports:

London officials attached eviction notices to protest tents outside St. Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday, asking the demonstrators to remove them within a day or face legal action.
The notices posted by the City of London Corporation said the protest camp was "an unlawful obstruction" of a sidewalk, and asked protesters to take down "all tents and other structures" by 6 p.m. (1800 GMT, 1 p.m. EST) Thursday.

See the full story and photos here.
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San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee visited the Occupy SF encampment for the first time Tuesday and was "disappointed" by the conditions he saw, SFGate reports:

“They have increased the camp presence, and I think the level of cleanliness has decreased,’’ he said.
The mayor said he also is concerned about health risks, both to people and their pets.
The SPCA reported three cases of dogs from the Occupy SF encampment infected with parovirus, a highly contagious and often fatal disease. There also have been signs of kennel cough and Giardia, and reports of a flea infestation.

Read more here.
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Public Policy Polling finds equal opposition to both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.
New results note there has been shift as a month ago when 36 percent were opposed, compared to 45 percent opposed now. Only 33 percent say they are currently supportive of Occupy Wall Street currently. Respondents were also opposed to the Tea Party at the same level -- 45 percent.
There has also been a shift among independents, who now favor the Tea Party more than Occupy Wall Street.
The same poll seemed to find a general disapproval of everyone: voters were split among generic Republican and Democratic ballots, and they were disapproving of Congress, Speaker John Boehner, and the Republican House majority.
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More than 50 protesters were arrested in the police action, but officers did not use tear gas, rubber bullets or other so-called non-lethal weapons, police said.
After the police raid, the number of demonstrators swelled throughout the afternoon. By early evening, dozens of officers brandishing nightsticks stood shoulder-to-shoulder to hold the protesters back. Authorities retreated and protesters broke the standoff by marching through the streets.
Demonstrators regrouped several blocks away, where they broke into small groups to discuss their future. Some advocated occupying foreclosed homes, others wanted to move onto the Portland State University campus or to the shores of the Willamette River.
In the hours after the midnight eviction deadline, the anti-Wall Street protesters and their supporters had flooded the park area even as authorities in other cities across the nation stepped up pressure against demonstrators, arresting dozens of people.
At one point overnight, the Portland crowd swelled to thousands. As dawn arrived, riot police had retreated and most of the crowds had gone home, but protesters who have been at the two parks since Oct. 6 were still there, prompting one organizer to declare the night a victory for the movement.
"We stood up to state power," Jim Oliver told The Associated Press.
It didn't last. Police moved in later as demonstrators held a midday "general assembly" meeting to discuss their next moves. An officer on a loudspeaker warned that anyone who resisted risked arrest and "may also be subject to chemical agents and impact weapons." Demonstrators chanted "we are a peaceful protest."
"We were talking about what we were going to do and then they just started hitting people. Seems like a waste of resources to me," protester Mike Swain, 27, told the AP.
One man was taken away on a stretcher; he was alert and talking to paramedics, and raised a peace sign to fellow protesters, who responded with cheers.
Choya Adkison, 30, said police moved in after giving demonstrators a false sense of calm. They thought they had time to rest, relax and regroup, she said
"Camp was completely vulnerable, completely defenseless" when police moved in, she said. "I'm disappointed that they created a sense of trust by walking away and then completely trampled it."
City officials erected temporary chain-link fences with barbed wire at the top around three adjacent downtown parks, choking off access for demonstrators as parks officials cleaned up.
Police Chief Mike Reese told KGW-TV it was his plan to take the parks in a peaceful manner and that's what happened.
"Our officers have performed exceptionally well," he said.
Even ahead of the police raid, the camp was a shadow of what it had been before Saturday. A large segment of campers were homeless people drawn to the free food and shelter offered by Occupy Portland. They are gone, after outreach workers went through the camp to help them find shelter elsewhere.
And as the Saturday midnight eviction deadline neared, protesters themselves began dismantling tents.
Around 4 a.m., dozens of police formed a line across from demonstrators who had poured into the street. Protesters facing them appeared to be in festive spirits with some banging on drums and plastic pails, another clanging a cowbell while others danced in the streets as a man juggled nearby.
On Sunday at an impromptu news conference, the mayor defended his order to clear the park, saying it is his job to enforce the law and keep the peace. "This is not a game," Adams said.
Officials said that one officer suffered minor injuries when he was hit by some kind of projectile in the leg. Police had prepared for a possible clash, warning that dozens of anarchists may be planning a confrontation with authorities. Officers seized pieces of cement blocks Friday, saying they were told some demonstrators had plans to use them as weapons against police. They said they believe some demonstrators were building shields and trying to collect gas masks.
And police seized incendiary devices, gas masks and marijuana on Sunday after stopping three men for speeding on Interstate 5 south of Portland. The men told police they had left Occupy Portland an hour earlier and were carrying the equipment in anticipation of a confrontation with authorities, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said.
Meanwhile in Oakland, Calif., friends confirmed Sunday that Scott Olsen, the Iraq War veteran who suffered a serious head injury during a police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment, has been released from the hospital. Olsen suffered a skull fracture during tear-gas filled clashes between police and demonstrators on Oct. 25.
Dottie Guy of Iraq Veterans Against the War said Sunday Olsen was released last week. He can now read and write, but still has trouble talking, she added.
"Considering what happened to him he's doing well," Guy said. "He does have a brain injury so there will be some kind of rehab and physical therapy needed."
Occupy Wall Street supporters nationwide have rallied around Olsen's plight.
Also Sunday, for the third time in three days, Oakland city officials warned protesters that they do not have the right to camp in the plaza in front of City Hall and face immediate arrest. Police did not respond to requests for comment on whether officers were preparing to forcibly clear the camp.
The eviction notices come as officials across the country urged an end to similar gatherings in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire. Demands for Oakland protesters to pack up increased after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the encampment site.
Police officials have said a preliminary investigation suggested the shooting resulted from a fight between two groups of men at or near the encampment. Investigators do not know if the men in the fight were associated with Occupy Oakland, but protesters said there was no connection between the shooting and the camp.
The shooting occurred the same day a 35-year-old military veteran apparently committed suicide in a tent at a Burlington, Vt., Occupy encampment. Police said a preliminary investigation showed the veteran fatally shot himself in the head. They said the death raised questions about whether the protest would be allowed to continue.
In other cities over the weekend:
_ In Salt Lake City, police arrested 19 people Saturday when protesters refused to leave a park a day after a man as found dead inside his tent at the encampment. The arrests came after police moved into the park early in the evening where protesters had been ordered to leave by the end of the day. About 150 people had been living in the camp there for weeks.
_ In Albany, N.Y., police arrested 24 Occupy Albany protesters after they defied an 11 p.m. curfew in a state-owned park. State police officials hauled away the protesters after warning them with megaphones that they were breaking the law in Lafayette Park. They were charged with trespassing.
_ In Denver, authorities forced protesters to leave a downtown encampment and arrested four people for interfering with officers who removed illegally pitched tents, said police spokesman Sonny Jackson.
_ In San Francisco, violence marked the protest Saturday where police said two demonstrators attacked two police officers in separate incidents during a march. Police spokesman Carlos Manfredi said a protester slashed an officer's hand with a pen knife while another protester shoved an officer, causing facial cuts. He said neither officer was seriously hurt, and the assailants couldn't be located.
___
Associated Press writers Terry Collins in Oakland, Josh Loftin in Salt Lake City, Jim Anderson in Denver and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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By JONATHAN J. COOPER and TERRENCE PETTY, The Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. -- Several hundred protesters, some wearing goggles and gas masks, marched past authorities in a downtown street Sunday...
By JONATHAN J. COOPER and TERRENCE PETTY, The Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. -- Several hundred protesters, some wearing goggles and gas masks, marched past authorities in a downtown street Sunday...

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