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    • The OB Media Rundown for 4/17/12

    April 17th, 2012 · · Daily Media Rundown Comments Off on The OB Media Rundown for 4/17/12

    Trans Activist: Boston Police Abusive at Protest

    A transgender activist says she was abused by a Tea Party member and a police officer while protesting a Tea Party rally in Boston Sunday and that fellow protesters were received rough treatment as well.

    The Tea Party’s Patriots’ Day rally on Boston Common featured antigay speakers such as minister Scott Lively, MassResistance director Brian Camenker, and former Boston Herald columnist Don Feder, along with some focusing on economic and other issues. At least five groups demonstrated in opposition to the Tea Party message, including Occupy Boston’s Queer/Trans Direct Action Working Group, the website Back2Stonewall reports.

    An altercation developed after Tea Party members grabbed a banner carried by one of the other opposition groups, Antifa, and protesters from Occupy Boston and others came to Antifa’s defense, a trans activist with Occupy Boston (pictured) told Back2Stonewall. Two of her group’s members were arrested, and as she followed them, a Tea Partyer knocked her wig off, claiming his hand slipped. Then, she said, a police officer came up and shoved her and said, “OK, take your shit and get out of here.” (The Advocate)

    http://tinyurl.com/cfb888s

    Boston patrolman photographed with hand around protester’s throat

    A photo of a Boston police officer with his hand around a protester’s neck sparked outrage on the Internet and prompted an investigation by city officials yesterday.

    A picture snapped by photographer Paul Weiskel during the Massachusetts Tea Party Coalition’s “Patriots Day Rally” on Sunday shows a Boston patrolman grabbing a masked individual by the throat. The alleged victim was part of a counterprotest.

    “I was taking pictures of two kids in handcuffs and turned around to see this one cop with his hands around this kid’s neck,” Weiskel said, recalling Sunday’s rallies downtown. (Boston Metro)

    http://tinyurl.com/ck9r7xf

    Photos of Police Officer ‘Choking’ Counter-Protester Create Controversy

    The photos, snapped by a UMass Boston junior, depict a Boston police officer with his hand on the neck of a man protesting the inclusion of anti-gay speakers at a Tea Party Tax Day Rally over the weekend. (South End Patch)

    http://tinyurl.com/835egzq
    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 4/17/12” »

    BPD Assaults Occupy Boston Activist

    April 16th, 2012 · · News and Announcements 2 comments
    At yesterday’s Mass Tea Party Patriot’s rally on the Boston Common, a Boston police officer choked a member of Occupy Boston, who was there as part of a counter-protest organized by Occupy Boston’s Queer / Trans Direct Action Working Group and a loose coalition of LGBT and Anti-Fascist groups.  Occupy Boston condemns this assault on one of our own and the First Amendment. We demand that Police Commissioner Evans suspend this officer while a full review is conducted to determine further disciplinary action.  We are outraged that a member of the Boston Police Department would assist the Tea Party and Scott Lively by actively working to silence someone who was there to peacefully challenge their virulent anti-LBGT agenda.For a complete first person account by the trans activist who was attacked, please visit http://www.back2stonewall.com/2012/04/occupy-boston-trans-activist.html.

    For more on the Mass Tea Party Patriot’s Rally, please visit http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/16/1083675/-MA-Tea-Party-Patriots-We-will-not-be-silenced-by-faggots-.

    Photo courtesy of  Paul Weiskel.  To see more of Paul’s photos from the protest, please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/31167233@N08/sets/72157629461002076/with/6935577808.

    Raise Taxes on the 1% Tax Day Rally and March

    April 16th, 2012 · · News and Announcements Comments Off on Raise Taxes on the 1% Tax Day Rally and March

    On April 17th, Occupy Boston will participate, along with many other groups, in a protest against the unfairness of the current tax regime, where people such as Mitt Romney pay at rates far lower than those earning far less, and Warren Buffet’s now-famous secretary pays at a higher rate than Warren Buffet.  The Rally and March will begin at 5:30pm at Dewey Square (South Station) and the march will begin at 6pm and proceed through the city streets, pass by several notorious corporate tax dodgers, and end at Post Office Square. Things to bring:  yourself (most important), signs, noise-making stuff (pots, pans, kazoos, whatever).

    Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-16-12

    April 16th, 2012 · · Daily Digest Comments Off on Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-16-12

    Good Morning from Occupy Boston!

    Stories of the Day: Blame the victim: Anu Bhagwati, a former company commander in the Marines and executive director of Service Women’s Action Network, a veterans advocacy group, says she sees a pattern of the military using psychiatric diagnoses to get rid of women who report sexual assaults. CNN has interviewed women in all branches of the armed forces, including the Coast Guard, who tell stories that follow a similar pattern — [they suffer] a sexual assault, [then face] a command dismissive of the allegations and a psychiatric discharge. For more info, click here. And here’s an interesting opinion piece that posits that Either Way, Motherhood Is a Dismal Financial Decision for American Women. And here’s an article on How Mitt Romney Ruined Countless Lives And Helped Create The Welfare State, which includes a 3-minute video by Robert Reich explaining in simple terms how private equity firms help the 1% and hurt the 99%. And here is coverage of the rally by farmworkers, Fair Food allies, and members of Occupy Boston who called on Stop & Shop to join the Fair Food Program.

    Other Occupies/Protests: Here’s an artistic way to protest: Lite Brite Activism meets The Peoples’ Movement of Wisconsin with the Overpass Light Brigade. Article with photos here; brief video here.

    “It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” Benjamin Franklin

    Upcoming Events:

    • Raise Taxes on the 1% Tax Day Rally and March, Tuesday, April 17, 5:30PM, Dewey Square (South Station). Occupy JP and Occupy Boston will participate, along with many other groups, in a protest against the unfairness of the current tax regime, where people such as Mitt Romney pay at rates far lower than those earning far less, and Warren Buffet’s now-famous secretary pays at a higher rate than Warren Buffet.  The Rally and March will begin at 5:30pm at Dewey Square (South Station) and the march will begin at 6pm and proceed through the city streets, pass by several notorious corporate tax dodgers, and end at Post Office Square. Things to bring:  yourself (most important), signs, noise-making stuff (pots, pans, kazoos, whatever). For a list of co-sponsoring organizations visit http://www.taxdayboston.org.
    • A public hearing on the third and latest risk assessment for the NEIDL (the Boston University bioweapons lab) has been scheduled for Thursday, April 19, 2012, from 6:30-9:30 PM at Roxbury Community College,  Media Arts Building, 1234 Columbus Avenue, Boston. The closest T stop is Roxbury Crossing. 

For almost 10 years, the Safety Net (a Roxbury-based community group) and the Stop the BU Bioterror Lab Coalition have successfully fought to prevent this dangerous high containment  biological laboratory from being opened in the densely populated Roxbury/South End neighborhood.  High-level containment laboratories do research on pathogens that can cause severe illness and death. The highest level (BSL-4) labs study lethal diseases that can be transmitted by air and for which there are no vaccines or treatments.  The lab is located in an Environmental Justice neighborhood which already faces significant health and environmental hazards.

 Two previous risk assessments have been severely criticized by the courts and by a National Research Council panel of experts.   This latest 1700-page effort can be viewed at http://nihblueribbonpanel-bumc-neidl.od.nih.gov/,   The National Institutes of Health have scheduled the April 19th hearing because they are required to offer  community members and other concerned citizens an opportunity to comment on the risk assessment. We must make it clear to BU, NIH, and the political establishment that this lab is not acceptable to us.   It is essential that we turn out in large numbers. Please plan to attend! A large turn-out could have an impact on the final disposition of the research done in this lab. For more information, please contact Ridgely Fuller, ridgelyfuller@gmail.com.
    • What is Occupy Wall Street? A film screening. Occupy HCC (Holyoke Community College) is hosting a film screening of short films produced by Occupy Wall Street in the Forum at HCC, April 27, 3pm-5pm. Come and find out about the Occupy Movement that started on Wall St. and has spread across the globe! There will be a Q&A session following the films with activists from different Occupy groups across the Northeast. This event is sponsored by the Holyoke Community College Student Senate.
    • MA Unite Against the War on Women Rally, April 28, 10am-2pm, at City Hall Plaza. Help defend women’s rights and pursuit of equality. Join Americans all across the United States as we come together as one to tell members of Congress in Washington DC and legislators in all 50 states, “Enough is enough!” All Americans have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, including contraception, without interference from government, business or religious institutions. Please join us as we gather together and show both state and federal legislative bodies that we won’t stand silently by as they propose and pass laws that will impact women’s choices, health, and wellbeing. We need everyone’s voice! These decisions affect all genders, races, and socio-economic statuses!
    • May 1 General Strike! A Day Without the 99%. NO WORK – NO SCHOOL – NO SHOPPING – NO BANKING – NO TRADING. GENERAL STRIKE AND BOYCOTT CALLED! 7am-11am: Financial District Block Party! (corner of Federal and Franklin Streets). Bring a friend and let’s party! Bring whistles, drums, noise makers. Bring street theater ! 12:00pm: Boston City Hall Rally. Can’t make it to Boston City Hall at Noon? Well how about: The Chelsea City Hall? – Gather at Noon – March at 2pm (For More information please contact La Colaborativa (617) 889-6097). 2pm: LoPresti Park Rally/March (Blue Line: Maverick Square) (For more information contact Dominic at City life/Vida Urbana (617) 710-7176). 4pm: Everett – Glendale Park (For more information please contact La Comunidad (617) 387-9996). 7pm: Death of Capitalism Boston Funeral March (Copley Square). We invite people to participate in this piece of street theater which includes puppets, a marching band, and other creative surprises. People will begin gathering at 7pm at Copley Square Park (by the steps of Trinity Church) to put on costumes, puppets and face-paint and get info on their respective role in the funeral procession. We ask that people participate as: mourners (dressed in black), celebrators (wearing neon/bright colors/glow stuff), skeleton block (bring your own skeleton costume). The funeral procession will leave Copley Square Park at 8pm and will travel through areas of wealth and commerce.
    • Occupy New England – M12 Day of Action and Regional Gathering. May 12: Come join Occupy groups from all around New England as we converge in Worcester for a day of action and networking! At Worcester City Hall and Common. More information to be announced.

    Continue reading “Occupy Boston Daily Digest for 4-16-12” »

    The OB Media Rundown for 4/16/12

    April 15th, 2012 · · Daily Media Rundown Comments Off on The OB Media Rundown for 4/16/12

    Ask Not Who’s Co-Opting You, Ask Whom You Can Co-Opt

    In plenty of situations, the Occupy movement has known to stay on the offensive when it comes to co-option, not the defensive. The planning process for May Day in New York is a great example of that. By getting labor and community organizers in on the ground floor, and demanding that they follow Occupy rules, Occupiers have managed to draw these rigidly hierarchical institutions into an anarchist-style spokescouncil meeting format, and they’ve ensured that a massive march of labor and immigrant groups will coincide with the movement’s agitation for a general strike.

    As for the 99% Spring. Of course these organizations and their Democratic Party allies would love to take advantage of the movement for their own ends – which include everything from reelecting Barack Obama to victories on environmental and labor issues. Who can blame them for trying? But it’s not like they were training 100,000 in nonviolent direct action last year, or in 2008, or on behalf of John Kerry. They’re doing it because the Wisconsin Uprising, and Tar Sands Action, and Occupy Wall Street all changed their sense of what is politically possible in this country, and they want to get in on it however they can.

    Maybe it would be different if the Occupy movement itself were training 100,000 people in direct action right now, too. But it’s not. Tens of thousands people who’ve never done activism or civil disobedience are taking baby steps toward doing so, and Occupy can count that as a big victory – which it needs right now, since many of the occupations themselves have dwindled and most Americans seem to think that the movement is over.

    http://tinyurl.com/cazuhw3

    If 25,000 people rally in midtown, is that a story?

    Absent the tent communities, shut down when cities barred Occupiers from sleeping in parks, it’s an open question whether most of the press outlets will be willing to provide substantive coverage of the issues raised by the protesters. It will be disappointing but not surprising if major press outlets provide coverage only when there is a police angle – that is, when there are mass arrests or injuries at one of the protests. Without decisions by editors to cover all aspects of protests and not just the arrests, it is likely that, once again, the substance and message of the various actions will be ignored or muffled.

    Over the last few months, mainstream news outlets such as The New York Times and Washington Post generally adopted the story line that the Occupy movement was fading. The Times, for example, in its April 1 edition, all but pronounced the movement as being on life support in an article written by Michael S. Schmidt, a national reporter in the paper’s Washington bureau.

    http://tinyurl.com/d6yqv3a

    Media report: ‘99% Spring is the 2012 version of Occupy Wall Street’

    When the 2012 version of “Occupy Wall Street” emerges from hibernation, it will be after having been to school.

    A coalition of liberal, union, and progressive organizations hoping to capitalize on the success of last year’s Occupy movement held a series of “99% Spring Action Training” sessions in the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas Saturday.

    http://tinyurl.com/bqdckqe

    Continue reading “The OB Media Rundown for 4/16/12” »

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