The Denver "Police" Department is on a harassment spree against Occupy Denver.

[backscatter712]

http://occupydenver.org/incident-on-31/

Incidents On 3/15

It is a shared sentiment among Occupy Denver that police efforts, including but not limited to, sending in mass amounts of police for petty offenses, concocting false felonies on Occupiers, and using informants and provocateurs to incite and create problems where there would otherwise be none, are being increased in order to systematically and purposely attempt to stamp out the movement. This is a brief synopsis of the events that transpired in and around Civic Center Park on Thursday March 15. There are still many questions surrounding the days incidents.

First Incident:
According to trusted sources that choose to remain anonymous, the persons involved with bringing an unspecified amount of marijuana to Marvin Booker Plaza (Civic Center Park) this morning were NOT with Occupy Denver and were using the marijuana for personal affairs. They were charged with possession of less than two ounces. All of the arrested were released later in that afternoon with misdemeanor charges.
25 police arrived including 10 SWAT members, as well as media arrived in synch almost immediately at the park.
Police maintained a barrier between Occupiers and the media to ensure only one side was told.
Why was it necessary to have dozens of officers and members of the SWAT team and local media to cover a petty marijuana bust?

Second Incident:

Denver Police Unjustly Harass and Arrest Occupiers from Tanner Spendley on Vimeo.

Around 8 p.m. an additional 4 occupiers were arrested near the bus station at the corner of Colfax and Broadway.
As of approximately midnight on March 16th 2012, the only information
Occupy Denver has received from the Denver Police Department is that
Kenny White, Caryn Sodaro, Daniel Newmann, James Stacy have been arrested.
As of currently they are being charged with robbery, each accompanied with a $10k bond. James Stacy is being charged with both a failure to appear ($130) and aggravated robbery ($50k bond).

Occupy Denver was given first hand account information from one Occupier that during the course of police actions:

“When I approached all three were being arrested without any proper answers from police officers despite frequent questioning of events. I asked and was told that charges were not public information and could not be shared.
After all three were placed into the car, they pointed out Caryn Sodaro whom was silent and peacefully observing on the steps of the Bus Station, immediately seven police officers barged up the steps and began to push people aside that were between them, including myself. They then preceded to grab her and rush her away without any information on why.
Shortly after Caryn Sodaro’s arrest I voiced many words of dissent. One of the police responded to me by stating ‘Take a shot at me then’. ”
The Denver Police have targeted Caryn Sodaro in the past and she was arrested while merely witnessing the arrests from a distance.

Third Incident:

Police arrested a homeless man, Michael Seymour, for allegedly having a knife in his possesion around the grounds of Marvin Booker Plaza (Civic Center Park) and Lincoln park. He was charged with Robbery, which carries a 10k bond.
Occupy Denver was offered this eye witness account of the incident from a man whom had been there:

Explanation of DPD randomly arresting houseless man sitting at a bus station. from Tanner Spendley on Vimeo.

Notice, that the accounts of what the Denver Police Department’s arresting officers initially claimed to be arresting Seymour for, and what he was eventually charged with are in wide difference. To similar end, this all came after 4 occupiers were arrested not 15 minutes before.

Shortly after the cops placed him in the car they formed a barrier of roughly twenty-five feet with ten police officers between the cruiser that Michael had been placed in and the protesters. The police then proceeded to threaten to mace anyone that came near the car.
Then a police officer approached an Occupier to within a foot of distance and yelled at an Occupier to ‘Hit Me’ and when the Occupier did not attack, proceeded to call the protester a ‘Pussy’.

Occupy Denver is currently looking further into information regarding the incident.

Over the past three weeks the Denver police department as well as several other agencies have stepped up their harassment of occupiers, especially those who are houseless. They have taken it beyond just arresting those associated with Occupy Denver, they are trying to create an atmosphere of fear at Civic Center Park. They know our numbers will grow as Spring arrives and they are doing what they can to scare people away and silence dissent.
“I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.” -Thomas Jefferson
Since that first quote didn’t come to fruition this other quote from him might be more fitting “Every generation needs a new revolution.”
There have been multiple arrests this week, including five last night, allegedly for "Robbery", which sounds to me like the cops are full of shit.

One particular occupier, Caryn Sodaro, has been targeted for harassment by the "cops" and subjected to repeated arrests.

Probably the most comprehensive place to get information and links to videos is Facebook...

https://www.facebook.com/occupydenver

Also check #occupydenver on Twitter

https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23occupydenver

I'll just say that the Denver Police Department is the most unprofessional and vindictive departments I've personally seen, though I've never been to Oakland, New York City or Maricopa County...

We need to get the word out. Nationwide. This kind of illegal police harassment is unacceptable.

[backscatter712]

1. I took the liberty of linking and quoting the Occupy Denver blog article.

As far as copyright issues go, if there's a problem, they can bring it up with me at GA.

[msongs]

2. dont ya know there are only 2 kinds of people - police and criminals. guess which we are? nt

[backscatter712]

3. They don't regard anyone without a badge as human beings. n/t

[otohara]

4. My Conversation w/ 2 Denver Cops @ Occupy

This was after the tear-down of the camp.

Cops referred to protestors as scum-bags, shit-bags, garbage, losers, and other choice names.
I asked why they felt it necessary to call them names...non-stop name calling.
Hey, you should hear the names they call us.

They were assholes, big tobacco chewing bullies.

John Hickenlooper is an asshole too.

[backscatter712]

5. I've had Denver cops personally call me a "pussy" at Occupy & related events.

Real fucking professional of them.

[saras]

7. That, like the n-word, indicates unprofessionalism that ought to result in immediate dismissal

[backscatter712]

9. If I were in charge, I'd fire cops using such slurs.

There's no excuse for uttering such words in uniform.

[backscatter712]

6. The DPD had also created a Twitter account specifically to troll #occupydenver...

and they were also caught badmouthing protesters in their patrol-car text-messaging system.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

8. And wouldn't you know it...

Michael Hancock, the mayor of Denver, CO, is a Democrat.



I'm so enthusiastic about the Nov. elections.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Tearing down OWS is party independent.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

11. It shouldn't be.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. In this sense it is...the political class is party independent.

Amd OWS is a threat to the political and economic elite.

I am all but shocked that it is, and don't even think it shouldn't be. It's the nature of it.

On the plus side dems will and have, reacted faster to OWS in a positive way than the GOP. That is where they are different. But mayors, governors and yes, POTUS, are under the same exact elite pressures to stamp this down from a threatened economic elite.

Come spring with all kinds of challenges becoming more obvious, politicos (on both parties actually) will tentatively take on the OWS banner. They are literally in a vise, and here is where voting, as one of a multiplicity of tactics, comes in.

Oh and goes without saying, some democratic mayors, and more than a few Republican ones, should face the boot at the polls.

But when you look objectively at what Denver PD (dem) and SDPD (R) have done...it is indistinguishable.

[starroute]

13. Who put the word out that Occupy was fair game?

I've been reading some of the accounts by European Occupiers of their activities, and it doesn't seem to be like this. The only countries where the repression is coming down this hard are the United States, Britain, Australia, and to some extent Canada. Am I missing something, or is there a concerted effort among the English-speaking nations to not let rebellion get even a toehold?

And how is it being coordinated within this country? You've got to know the police wouldn't be pulling this sort of crap unless they'd been assured they could get away with it. So where is the world coming from? And why are so many Democratic mayors complicit?

These are a lot of really nasty questions, and I'm afraid that the answers are even nastier. I can remember a little bit of what things were like during McCarthyism, and I've read a fair amount about the abuses of the Espionage and Sedition Acts and the Palmer Raids and what happened to the Wobblies. I know what this country can be like when anyone stands up to Wall Street and the warmongers -- and it makes my blood run cold to think about it happening again.

The only positive conclusion I can reach is that this kind of abuse has to be addressed now, as loudly and publicly as possible, because if people start to take it as normal and acceptable, it will only get worse.