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NYPD estimates 32,500 protesters marched in 'day of action'. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062445/Taking-bridge-Thousand
s-cross-Brooklyn-Bridge-300-arrested-clashes-riot-police.html#ixzz1e52V4Pg8

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Arrests in the Occupy movement nationally have surpassed 1,000, with 177 being charged by the NYPD this Thursday in only the first few hours.

Now New York is admitting that journalists that they credentialed are among those that were cuffed by cops. In a statement to the press released from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office on Thursday, November 17, spokesperson Stu Loeser addressed the media about reports relating to the growing number of journalists who have been arrested by the NYPD during Occupy Wall Street protests, a now-international movement which began in Lower Manhattan two months to the day of Loeser’s memo.

“Like all of you, I’ve heard and read many reports of reporters who supposedly were wearing valid NYPD press credentials, yet allegedly encountered problems on the streets of New York,” writes the spokesman. Loeser goes on to direct recipients of the memo to a roster of reporters published by independent outlet The Awl that has chronicled the names and affiliations of journalists that have been arrested across the country so far, which as of this writing totals 26.

“Not being familiar with many of the media outlets for which The Awl says these reporters work, I had the list of ‘26 arrested reporters’ checked against the roster of reporters who hold valid NYPD press passes,” Loser adds. “You can imagine my surprise when we found that only five of the 26 arrested reporters actually have valid NYPD-issued press credentials.”

With that sentence alone, Loeser manages to shoot himself in the foot. Twice.

Given his statement, Bloomberg’s office has indeed confirmed that at least five members of the media that were accredited by the City’s own police force were arrested while doing their job, a job that the Police Department has acknowledged and authorized. Secondly, Loeser attempts to discredit the media while at the same time exposing that he didn’t do his homework himself.

Maybe the reason that only five of the 26 reporters had NYPD-issued credentials was because not all of those 26 arrests occurred in New York.

Loeser says he checked the list of arrested reporters, but in examining the roster of names published by the Awl, it would be hard to make sense of why someone like photojournalist Kristyna Wentz-Graff would have NYPD-issued credentials — given that her arrest occurred while covering an Occupy protest near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, roughly 900 miles from Manhattan. The same could be said about reporter Jonathan Meador, who was apprehended by cops in Nashville, Tennessee for reporting from a Music City occupation back in October.

It also opens up, of course, the argument of how free the free press actually is.

Yesterday in New York, officers within the NYPD were filmed setting up blockades on the sidewalks of Manhattan, demanding identification from citizens to have access to public streets. As thousands rallied against corporate greed, NYPD officers were filmed ironically demanding corporate-issued building passes from New York workers so that they could have permission to walk certain routes, resulting in many protesters proclaiming that the City has been transformed into a literal Police State. Now it is clear that the right to walk the streets of New York is being eradicated by the NYPD while at the same time the First Amendment’s right to report is being completely ignored by the Police Department while they keep journalists from reporting from one of the biggest news events in the world at the moment.

"American foreign correspondents routinely put themselves in harm's way to do their jobs, in some of the most brutal dictatorships in the world. And their NYC colleagues deserve the freedom to make the same choice," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in a statement earlier this month. "Zuccotti Park is not Tiananmen Square."

As Occupy events continue to escalate in intensity, however, it seems as if Bloomberg’s tyrannical rule over New York is becoming more and more evident. Reports of journalists arrested during Thursday’s Day of Action have been unconfirmed so far, though RT’s own Lucy Kafanov says that she was struck by a police baton while reporting from New York and independent journalist Luke Rudkowski claims a plain-clothes officer punched him in the face for filming a demonstration. Others told reporters that the NYPD refused their credentials during protests, claiming them invalid yet threatening to revoke them at the same time.

At a protest earlier in November, freelance radio journalist Julie Walker told the AP that cops ripped her recorder out of her hand. She was on assignment for National Public Radio at the time a few blocks from Zuccotti Park, the hub of the Occupy Wall Street on the East Coast. Doug Higginbotham from TV New Zealand added to the AP that he had his press ID stripped off him by the NYPD while covering protests this past Tuesday as well.

“Ten years. Never been arrested,” said Higginbotham.

“I covered 9/11.”

Retired New York Supreme Court Judge Karen Smith adds that on Thursday's Day of Action, she was threatened with arrest herself while volunteering as a legal observer during the protests and was nearly assaulted by the NYPD.

"I was there to take down the names of people who were arrested," Judge Smith tells Democracy Now on Friday. "As I’m standing there, some African-American woman goes up to a police officer and says, ‘I need to get in. My daughter’s there. I want to know if she’s OK.’ And he said, ‘Move on, lady.’ And they kept pushing with their sticks, pushing back. And she was crying. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he throws her to the ground and starts hitting her in the head,” says Smith. “I walk over, and I say, ‘Look, cuff her if she’s done something, but you don’t need to do that.’ And he said, ‘Lady, do you want to get arrested?’ And I said, ‘Do you see my hat? I’m here as a legal observer.’ He said, ‘You want to get arrested?’ And he pushed me up against the wall.

In Loeser’s statement from Thursday, he notes that of the five credentialed reporters arrested on Tuesday alone, two of them — Julie Walker of the AP and Patrick Hedlund of DNA Info — were charged with disorderly conduct for covering Occupy events. Walker writes that she was walking north on Broadway a few blocks from Zuccotti and recording street sounds when she was arrested.

“The plastic handcuffs were so tight, they cut off the circulation in my hands and left cuts and abrasions on my wrists,”

she tells The Root.

To Police Commissioner Ray Kelly though, these arrests were justified. Kind of.

To NY1 on Tuesday, Kelly said that reporters “didn't have a right to be there because there was confusion as to what they were allowed to do.” As it would be, however, Hedlund was actually arrested outside of the privately-owned Zuccotti Park, with an NYPD-issued pass.

For the dozens more that are “confused,” there are thousands of NYPD officers who likewise aren’t sure of how to handle the situation. Journalists continue to be arrested with charges often being dropped. As yesterday’s Day of Action events made clear, however, the Occupy movement is only getting bigger and journalists, whether the NYPD wants to or not, will continue to report from the scene — with or without credentials.

(And for those wondering how a reporter can obtain an official NYPD pass, The Observer notes that the qualifying factors require a journalist to prove that they covered six or more events in the city on separate days in the 24 months before asking for a pass — implying that in order to be valid in the eyes of the law, one must break it first.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/zuccotti-park-cleared-occupy-
wall-street_n_1094313.html won't like the source, but that doesn't change the facts reported. I'd find other sources which were more impartial, but THESE things aren't being reported by the MSM either.

Okay, after looking around I found a couple:

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A human rights office for the Americas on Thursday criticized the arrest and assault of journalists during Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and other U.S. cities in recent weeks.

The office alleged in a statement that at least three journalists have been assaulted since October by police officers, and two others by participants, in demonstrations in Nashville, Tennessee, and Oakland, California.

“In addition, at least a dozen journalists have reportedly been placed under temporary arrest while performing their professional duties,” the statement said.

The organization pointed to this week’s detentions of seven journalists as they covered the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. They are Julie Walker, a freelancer who does work for National Public Radio and The Associated Press; Patrick Hedlund and Paul Lomax of DNAinfo.com; Doug Higginbotham, freelance cameraman for TV New Zealand; Jared Malsin of The Local; Karen Matthews and Seth Wenig of The Associated Press, and Matthew Lysiak of the New York Daily News.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom, also complained about the treatment and detention of the journalists in New York. More at http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/human-rights-group-concerned-ov
er-journalists-arrests-at-occupy-wall-street/2011/11/17/gIQAZ0kNVN_story.html Sun/Times good enough?

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Journalists have been detained by police while covering Occupy Wall Street protests in New York.

Associated Press writer Karen Matthews was taken into custody Tuesday along with AP photographer Seth Wenig and Daily News reporter Matthew Lysiak.

When they were detained, they were covering protests at a property in lower Manhattan hours after police cleared a park of the main Occupy encampment.

Wall Street Journal reporter Alison Fox saw Matthews and Lysiak being placed in handcuffs. Another AP reporter later saw Matthews and Wenig being removed in a police van.

Freelance radio journalist Julie Walker says she was arrested on disorderly conduct. http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/8849390-418/journalists-arrested-i
n-occupy-wall-street-sweeps.html for the retired judge, in her own words from her Twitter site:

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I was there to take down the names of people who were arrested… As I’m standing there, some African-American woman goes up to a police officer and says, ‘I need to get in. My daughter’s there. I want to know if she’s OK.’ And he said, ‘Move on, lady.’ And they kept pushing with their sticks, pushing back. And she was crying. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he throws her to the ground and starts hitting her in the head,” says Smith. “I walk over, and I say, ‘Look, cuff her if she’s done something, but you don’t need to do that.’ And he said, ‘Lady, do you want to get arrested?’ And I said, ‘Do you see my hat? I’m here as a legal observer.’ He said, ‘You want to get arrested?’ And he pushed me up against the wall.

“— Retired New York Supreme Court Judge Karen Smith, working as a legal observer after the raids on Zucotti Park this Tuesday, via Paramilitary Policing of Occupy Wall Street: Excessive Use of Force amidst the New Military Urbanism http://stfuconservatives.net/post/12951914702 an interview with Smith herself:

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AMY GOODMAN: Speaking of neutral referees, I wanted to bring a judge into this discussion, retired New York Supreme Court Judge Karen Smith, who worked as a legal observer early Tuesday morning here in New York. I saw her right on the corner of Wall Street shortly after police raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment. Judge Smith, what did you see?

JUDGE KAREN SMITH (ret.): Well, I arrived about 1:30, 1:40 in the morning, got out and walked to Dey and Broadway. And the police were in full riot gear. I mean, it was a paramilitary operation if there ever was one, I mean, which sets off—here it is, 1:30 in the morning, what we call a stealth eviction, 1:30 in the morning, and they were just lined up two blocks from—on either side from the park, so that nobody could get near, this solid wall of police.

I was wearing—and I brought this—a hat, which says the “National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer.” And as you can see, in color, it’s quite bright. And at night—

AMY GOODMAN: It’s fluorescent green.

JUDGE KAREN SMITH (ret.): It’s fluorescent green. And then I was wearing it, and I had a pad and a pen, and I was there to take down the names of people who were arrested so we could follow them through the system and just observe what was going on. And as I’m standing there, some African-American woman goes up to a police officer and says, “I need to get in. My daughter’s there. I want to know if she’s OK.” And he said, “Move on, lady.” And he kept pushing—they kept pushing with their sticks, pushing back. And she said—and she was crying. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he throws her to the ground and starts hitting her in the head. And I walk over, and I say, “Look, cuff her if she’s done something, but you don’t need to do that.” And he said, “Lady, do you want to get arrested?” And I said, “Do you see my hat? I’m here as a legal observer.” He said, “You want to get arrested?” And he pushed me up against the wall.

And, you know, it was late at night. There was a lot going on. People were—all of a sudden, there was like a cordon of police pushing everybody into Dey Street between Broadway and Church. And it seemed like they were setting everybody up to get arrested. And then they started—some people broke away, some of the police, and started running after people. I moved away and then decided that I needed to get on the other side. I received a call that there were things developing on Pine and Broadway, and so I moved all the way east to go around the police and then ended up on Pine and Broadway, which is really where I ran into you.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, of course, you had a personal interest, as well. Your son was also one of the participants in Occupy Wall Street.

JUDGE KAREN SMITH (ret.): Yes, my son was a—he’s a staff person for SEIU 1199. And they were there in support. They were not going to get arrested, but they wanted to show the demonstrators and the occupiers that—and they’ve been supportive all along as one of the unions. And he was there. And I was watching carefully to make sure that he did not get hurt, as well. I was very concerned.

At Pine and Broadway, it was sort of a standoff. People were—there was a lot of confusion. People didn’t know what was going on. There were some people that may have sat on some police cars just in comfort, but nobody was—I heard later on reports—talk about objectivity of the press—you know, that they were jumping up and down and they were taunting the police. The only time I ever saw on—when I first got there on Dey and Broadway, they were just saying, “Shame on you,” you know, to the police, and—but that was it. And down on Pine and Broadway, at least until about 4:30 in the morning, I didn’t see any provocation whatsoever. http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/police-chief-ny-supreme-c
t-judge-agre/ the way, have you heard/read about the other vet beaten at Oakland?

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A former U.S. Army Ranger and Occupy Oakland protester was in intensive care on Friday after a veterans' group said he was beaten by police during clashes with anti-Wall Street demonstrators this week.

Kayvan Sabeghi, 32, was arrested and hospitalized about a week after another U.S. military veteran, former Marine Scott Olsen, was badly injured in a confrontation with police that helped spark the latest round of unrest.

The group Iraq Veterans Against the War said Sabeghi was detained during disturbances that erupted late on Wednesday in downtown Oakland and was charged with resisting arrest and remaining present at the place of a riot.

Brian Kelly, who co-owns a brew pub with Sabeghi, said his business partner told him he was arrested and beaten by a group of policemen as he was leaving the protest to go home.

"He told me he was in the hospital with a lacerated spleen and that the cops had jumped him," Kelly said, adding that Sabeghi had served as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"They put him in jail, and he told them he was injured, and they denied him medical treatment for about 18 hours," he said.

The Oakland Police Department did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The veterans' group said in a statement that police struck Sabeghi with nightsticks on his hands, shoulders, ribs and back, and that in addition to a lacerated spleen he suffered from internal bleeding.

Sabeghi's name was listed by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office as among those arrested that night, and Highland General Hospital confirmed he was a patient in its intensive care unit. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/05/us-protests-oakland-veteran-
idUSTRE7A37A820111105

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I forgot to mention that one, which I heard from one of our people who was there, mostly because I never saw it mentioned in the news. But today I found it, on Reuters.

I'm starting to believe Frem more and more, the more I'm involved in this and see for myself the difference between what happens and what's reported...