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Occupy LA says they'll stay despite deadline
In this Nov. 2, 2011, photo, a Los Angeles police officer looks at tents set up outside Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles. / File,AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
LOS ANGELES - Despite a fast-approaching deadline set by the mayor and police chief, very few of the anti-Wall Street protesters from Occupy Los Angeles had begun breaking down their tents Saturday on the City Hall lawn — and most said they didn't intend to.
The Occupy LA encampment was abuzz with activity, but nearly all of it was aimed at how to deal with authorities come Monday's 12:01 a.m. deadline.
Some handed out signs mocked up to look like the city's notices to vacate, advertising a Monday morning "eviction block party."
Dozens attended a teach-in on resistance tactics, including how stay safe in the face of rubber bullets, tear gas canisters and pepper spray.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Friday that despite his sympathy for the protesters' cause, it was time for the camp of nearly 500 tents to leave for the sake of public health and safety.
Mayor: Occupy LA must leave camp Monday
The mayor said the movement is at a "crossroads," and it must "move from holding a particular patch of park to spreading the message of economic justice."
But occupiers did not intend to give up their patch of park too easily.
Will Picard, who sat Saturday in a tent amid his artwork with a "notice of eviction" sign posted outside, said the main organizers and most occupiers he knows intend to stay.
"Their plan is to resist the closure of this encampment and if that means getting arrested so be it," Picard said. "I think they just want to make the police tear it down rather than tear it down themselves."
But some agreed with the mayor that the protest had run its course.
"I'm going," said Luke Hagerman, who sat looking sad and resigned in the tent he's stayed in for a month. "I wish we could have got more done."
Villaraigosa expressed pride that Los Angeles has lacked the tension, confrontation and violence seen at similar protests in other cities. But that peace was likely to get its biggest test on Monday.
Police gave few specifics about what tactics they would use for those who had no intention of leaving.
Chief Charlie Beck said at Friday's news conference that officers would definitely not be sweeping through the camp and arresting everyone just after midnight.
But in an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, Beck said that despite the lack of confrontations in the camp's two-month run, he was realistic about what must happen.
"I have no illusions that everybody is going to leave," Beck said in an interview with the Times. "We anticipate that we will have to make arrests."
But he added, "We certainly will not be the first ones to apply force."
Ue Daniels, 21, said as an artist he's "as nonviolent as they come" but he planned on resisting removal any way he could.
"I think we'll comply as far as putting our tents on the sidewalk maybe, that's something that's been going around."
But as far as leaving altogether?
"They would probably have to drag me away," he said.
He also suspected that though the general consensus among campers is to stay, he expects many will change their mind once police arrive. "I don't know who's going to stay, you can say something, but you never know until you're in the situation how you're going to react."
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Nonetheless, the fact that hundreds of clearly employed middle class adults have been gathering for demonstrations in places like Walnut Creek, CA is symptomatic of a much more widespread dissatisfaction with the way our government operates that is being reported. Ignoring or disparaging those middle class people and failing to make systemic changes to the way our government operates could eventually lead to our country experiencing something similar to what has been happening in Egypt.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19088904
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-11-20/news/30424076_1_tent-city-protests-camping
The city of Los Angeles' actions, will prove to the world that they really are (under the palm) of our federal government, which is in turn under multi-national corporations' control. The feds are no doubt working in concert with city officials across the USA.
OccupyLA was just an experiment for them (our Federal government). Giving the occupation more time, and even counter offers of office space or acreage helped them score points, to put up (a public face) for the rest of the world that is still mesmerized by the television set, and willing to be brainwashed by anything that comes across as being fair to the Occupy movement, when in reality: the movement occupying the Los Angeles City Hall grounds IS the message to democracy and that the problem IS the current political system, and any conditional compensation the city offers to the occupation within the confines of the current system is a moot point.
The police representatives and the Mayors' representative if they want to help the movement, will have to step down from their current positions and refuse to order any number of individuals below them in rank to take any action against the occupation. (we know that won't happen even though the mask they wear is that of: being oh so kind, and I'm so sorry we have to do this.
Do not be fooled. They have made their choice, probably out of fear of losing their jobs. And as human beings, they are missing the very conscious idea, what we, in the movement already know, and are sworn to - in our hearts and minds - and that is: the horizontal way of living - helping our fellow man, no-longer letting the multinational corporation destroy families and the environment. Any conscious human with the empathy gene (our greatest trait) knows this to be fact.
There is no man alive that will ever defeat the core idea in this movement. It is now on the playing field. It dominates my thinking now. (as you can read)
Empathy toward the fellow human being and respect for the environment must triumph over that of greed and profits.
We know that corporations and war and environmental destruction are at the core of this - profit and greed, that manipulates and beholdens incumbents and candidates.
Until those chains are removed from our poisoned politicians, there must be no end to the Occupy movement.
The Eviction coming will become our very first victory. Our battle has just begun. Lets make ourselves heard in this broken system, lets shout out to our allies at OWS.
From the Wiks...
"The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, anti-consumerist, pro-environment[1] organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia. The foundation describes itself as "a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age."[2]
Characterized by some as anti-capitalist or opposed to capitalism[3], it publishes the reader-supported, advertising-free Adbusters, an activist magazine with an international circulation of 120,000[4] devoted to challenging consumerism.
...
Adbusters has launched numerous international campaigns, including Buy Nothing Day, TV Turnoff Week and Occupy Wall Street, and is known for their "subvertisements" that spoof popular advertisements."
What have they got to say? Who holds them accountable for the mess they created in our country?
Supporters of tyrants, such as you are also opposed to Freedom of The Press.
Demonstrators are NOT "anti-capitalists". They are opposed to crooks, crooked politicians and abuse of power.
Suppression of First Amendment rights is tyrannical and UN-AMERICAN.
Your "thinking" is perverted.