Livestream: Tents are up at Occupy Austin (Updated)

[Fire Walk With Me]

Last edited Mon Feb 4, 2013, 12:20 PM - Edit history (1)

Anonymous ?@YourAnonNews

Livestream of Occupy Austin reoccupation. Tents up.

http://bit.ly/X7J0Vt #OATX #OWS
Retweeted by Stop The Wars v

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OccupyAustin ?@OccupyAustin

Love & #solidarity RT @KXLBlockade: Solidarity from #Blockadia to reoccupied #Austin City Hall! pic.twitter.com/UqaIUuHK #OATX @OccupyAustin
Retweeted by Stop The Wars


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OccupyAustin ?@OccupyAustin

#solidarity and love to #oakland #oo #OATX #f3 RT @Occupythemob: Long Live @OccupyAustin and Fuck the police. #Occupy #Ohtx
Retweeted by Stop The Wars

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Update:

OccupyAustin ?@OccupyAustin

From the @Statesman: #OccupyAustin gathers at Austin City Hall to mark anniversary of eviction. http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/occupy-austin-returns-to-city-hall-on-anniversary-/nWFG7/ … #OATX #F3 #OWS


Occupy Austin returns to City Hall on anniversary of eviction

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/occupy-austin-returns-to-city-hall-on-anniversary-/nWFG7/

Occupy Austin returned to the City Hall plaza Sunday, the anniversary of a successful police effort to break up the group’s encampment.

Originally formed in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement to protest the growing income gap in America, the profits of large corporations and the influence of money in politics, the Occupy Austin group Sunday displayed many of the trappings of their four-month-long presence in front of City Hall: tents, protest signs, a megaphone, a food table and slogans written in chalk on the plaza.

Protesters would not say Sunday whether they planned to stay the night or how long they wished to remain there. An Austin Police spokesman said there were no plans to break up the group as long as they remained a “peaceful protest.”

“There was all sorts of craziness that occurred a year ago today,” said Azzurra Crispino, an Occupy Austin member. She called the police department’s move to clear out the encampment last year “fascist, illegal and immoral.”

(More at the link.)

[Lady Freedom Returns]

1. Hang in there guys!

Just checked the weather for the next ten days for them. They are lucky in the temps. But the 9th and 10th. looks rocky. Tie down good!!!

[rsmith6621]

2. Not Again...

What a waste of energy and resources. I wonder if this group has made a real difference in the Austin area?

I wonder how many members in that group have had a sit down with their local political figures and had a serious discussion about affecting change, I wonder how many have cell # of their elected officials. This persistent desire to camp and the wasted Police energy to evict is just plain nuts and proves nothing.

Our group has never camped and never blocked an intersection. Currently we have a couple members that are preparing to announce their candidacy for office.

Go help a family save their home do something then get evicted off of a public park. If this tactic worked I'm sure some group like Occupy Portland would still have their park.

I though Occupy had moved to another stage of activism, but I guess they are behind the times in Texas.

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Some things may only occur if people gather in numbers in a common area.

Only someone who hadn't been at a camp or visited would not already know this. The camps are a nexus for people to assemble in solidarity to address the problems that be. There is a definite feeling of unity not found elsewhere. There is a sense of empowerment not found elsewhere. There is the real accomplishment of the sense of beauty and power and potential when decisions are arrived at and acted upon. Those in need were provided for under the concept of Mutual Aid. The homeless, sheltered. The hungry, fed. Education and unity activities...a sense of belonging, an effort to overcome and educate regarding cultural boundaries. The camps are living symbols of the possibility of another world, one not corrupted beyond repair as are the top levels of the politics which are supposed to represent us yet allow banks (who nearly destroyed the economy) to continue to run rampant with zero punishment. It is the focal point of the voice of the People.

The People peaceably assembled to redress the government with grievances. And were beaten and jailed and reviled by corporate media and Congress member Peter King, member of the DHS (no conflict of interest there).

Which is why the 1% MUST send the cops to destroy it. Which is why "the commons" is a vanishing concept. Divide and conquer. When people cannot assemble and feel their power, their capacity to build a better world...they can't change the world as efficiently.

These are our cities. This is our country. Politics are merely representations of the will of the People. At the camps, it is directly participatory Democracy, as it should be. Occupy revealed the politicians to be complicit in the trouble facing our nation, our world. It's up to the will of the People, which is the root of the word "Democracy".

[rsmith6621]

4. The Camp could also be...

.......20...30..40 individuals showing up at city council, school board, meeting..congressional town halls and use the public comment time to speak what is on your mind,more people will hear you.

When you get evicted from a park 99.9% of the community just says......GOOD.

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Hasn't Occupy shown you that the power of the people is the answer, and that politics are the

problem? Why the hell should we spend a minute on people who send riot cops when we peacefully march? They have proven themselves obstacles, not representatives. Occupy itself is a form of voting. We vote "NO MORE" regarding the problems we've outlined.

Did the government respond to the will and voice of the people? Yes: 7400+ Occupiers arrested, some beaten bloody, FBI ransacking apartments, federal agents where Occupy plan to march...BULLSHIT.

You may not have noticed that wall street regulation, jailing banksters, reinstating Glass-Steagal, overtuning Citizens United were not on any of the ballots. Voting doesn't work if what concerns you isn't on any ballot. Occupy IS a vote, for the people and for a better world.

Thank you for your wish for Occupy to be effective outside the encampments, but remember that Occupy means to reclaim space and things, space and things lost to apathy and the greedy. We have shown that in big cities there are no more "commons" where citizens may peaceably assemble. We need to take that back.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

11. Depending on city charters.

Certain city charters/council rules make it hard to do that.

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. In Los Angeles, politically-minded people, living only walking distance from City Hall on Skid Row

joined the camp at City Hall, found shelter and belonging and meaning, were ACTIVATED. They found respite from the dangers of Skid Row, among other things. I obviously cannot speak for them but can share what they've told me and what I've seen and learned. They are the most motivated members of the LA activism scene alongside Occupy the Hood and LA Community Action Network.

Note that due to their involvement, the OLA encampment soon learned certain things:
-There is something called the "safer cities initiative" adding 50 police to Skid Row at a cost to taxpayers of $6 million a year.
-Homeless services receive $4.7 million per year, city-wide, not solely for Skid Row.
-It turns out there is a powerful business lobby in LA called the CCA who are attempting to drive out the homeless so they can gentrify the area (a previous effort on CCA's behalf is depicted in the true story "The Soloist".
-Due to the "sci" which CCA outspokenly support, it is a crime to have a tent up, even partially, during the hours of 6am and 9pm. You can be arrested for violating this ordinance. It's to criminalize the homeless and aid gentrification. LA Times report arrests and crime on Skid Row but do not specify that these crimes may not be drugs or violence, but simply nuisance arrests:

-LA Activist found that the head of the CCA had written an LA Times editorial hit piece against Skid Row and the homeless of downtown LA, under her own name. Brazen.

http://occupyobservations.blogspot.com/2012/06/carol-schatz-of-cca-and-their-outright.html

At the monthly Artwalk downtown, LA citizens found out the hard way that CCA control the city and city hall, and will have their way through hook or crook. Artwalk citizens, including only a small number of Occupiers, used =water-soluble= children's sidewalk chalk to do art and present varying messages, from Occupy slogans to "I (heart) LAPD". LAPD made multiple violent arrests and when citizens gathered in outrage, used tasers and rubber bullets and riot gear in response.

You see, CCA have listed in their future plans document that they will eliminate from LA, "intelligence-based graffiti". Search DU for that phrase; I've reported upon it. This obviously includes water-soluble children's chalk.

This is what their puppets the police chief and mayor had to say about citizens using water-soluble chalk in the downtown area. This after the LAPD violence.

O RLY?

Skid Row activists, LA CAN etc. are aware of LAPD spying through Special Order 11, which makes LAPD a tentacle of DHS:

http://occupyobservations.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-lapd-are-made-into-tentacle-of-dhs.html

Without the camp and the help of additional newshounds such as the superb LA Activist crew, these issues may not have been given the time and attention they deserve. They strike directly at the center of greed and city hall. These are the changes we need to make. I for one would probably never have learned of these things; this is a direct result of the encampment in LA. This is what happens when you bring together the people under a common cause.

[rsmith6621]

7. Again Public Comment Time At City Hall

...will get you the same results..... 50 Occupiers X 3 Minutes = 150 minutes of 2.5 hours that if you speak respectfully they must let you speak.... so think about 100 people... I know of an Occupy group on two occasions kept their City and County councils in chambers till 6am and beat them down and the change they asked happened within a month.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Please see a couple of my posts above...Los Angeles are run by a greedy business lobby

who hate Occupy and have vast power in city hall. OccupyLA, Occupy Skid Row, LA CAN, Occupy the Hood LA and other activism networks DO petition city hall, they have been in council chambers over and over, with zero effect. I hope it's better in your town. It's certainly not better at the national level: Obama signed HR347, making it a Federal crime with up to 10 years imprisonment, for protesting anywhere there is secret service present...then he signed permanent secret service protection for himself and W. Bush. DHS have LAPD targeting Occupy via the iWatch program (linked above). All we get is repression, as the repressors intend.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. It's the same in Oakland. The "city" of Oakland are attempting to hire the may responsible

for the SCI described above and its subsequent criminalization of the homeless in the interest of gentrification (former LAPD Bratton) to bring "stop and frisk" to the area. I've watched on Twitter as Oaklanders, hundreds of them, attempted to speak at the city hall meeting, but the city presented a pre-scripted dog and pony show of some religios who supported the Bratton proposal. Local mainstream news even took out of context an impassioned plea by one of Oakland's most noted Occupiers! She was expressing fear of the police, of her black child being a future victim of OPD; MSM took her purposely out of context.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. Livestream chat reports cops are massing n/t

"It's only for a day...we have no doubt they'll kick us out tonight. If not, let's see what we can start building long-term."

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. Livestream chat source for this revealed as a troll (account opened today).

Was also saying Occupy should spend time petitioning city hall.

Of course, begging favors from those who send the riot cops at us, simply because we are taking back our power, is phenomenally ludicrous.

[rsmith6621]

12. Its Over

..They went home.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

13. Check out their FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyAustinTx?fref=ts

[Lady Freedom Returns]

15. This is posted on their page.

Occupy Austin dispersed for the night. Remember to join us Monday for General Assembly at 7pm. Our assemblies have moved to the Texas State Capitol, south steps. -Kit