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Occupy Los Angeles has become a success story of sorts. Unlike most cities, L.A.'s encampment on the lawn outside City Hall is still standing. Occupiers here have even received handshakes and an official resolution of support from the city council. Even as other urban centers crack down on their local Occupations, Los Angeles says proudly that there have been no "serious incidents" between authorities and protesters.

The mayor's office said this week that city was in dialogue with the movement and that the campers will not be able to remain on city property indefinitely. "In the last few days, there have been some shifts," says Lisa Clapier, a member of the movement's media team. "We have heard rumors about them wanting to move us." That means considering new ways of getting their message out. "The civil rights movement took 10 years," says protester Chase Golding, 26, who had a facemask on his forehead. "So for us, 47 days isn't going to cut it."

Protesters saw the cops in riot gear as more of a threat than in previous days (earlier, some Occupiers praised the police for allowing them their right to press civil disobedience). In the latest face-offs between cops and demonstrators, the slightest flinch by one of the several hundred officers in blue surrounding the protest prompted Occupier calls to huddle together to devise a plan for protection against possible tear gas. "We're going on the offensive for sure," says Anthony, an 18-year-old protester who declined to give his last name, after delivering a speech to the crowd through a megaphone. Protesters were ready for jail as well. "I don't want to live in a country where my rights are blatantly ignored because corporations have purchased the politicians," says Golding. "So yeah, I'll go to jail for that."
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Even if the L.A. protesters do have to move out of City Hall, they've got supporters in some unlikely places. Local pastor James Boline and Rabbi Yonah Bookstein attended the BofA march. "I support justice," Boline said. "I don't support their eviction and I hope there will be a place for them elsewhere if not the place where they have been." Even one of the police officers who was cordoning off the area voiced his tacit support. "This is history, isn't it?" the officer said quietly. "Just like the Boston Tea Party, you'll read about Occupy in the history books." http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2099885,00.html only just begun. The encampments were the first step; that they'd be torn down was expected. But we're in it for the long haul, and history is on our side. Americans are a stubborn people, as has been mentioned, and when we put our minds to injustice, things change. To those so sadly desperate to see this as an already-dead-or-dying movement, I say: "Wait and see."

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Just before 5 p.m., they emerged from the subway at the intersection of Canal and Center Street and began to march past the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse. Shoppers stepped out of bodegas to cheer them on.
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In the wake of the eviction from Zuccotti Park and the ruling that they could return, but could not sleep there, many thought that Occupy Wall Street was dead. But the movement stayed in the headlines, garnering much of CNN’s coverage in the middle of the day.

On the day of the eviction, Mayor Bloomberg said that the protestors “have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags,” and would now “have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments.” They’re up for the challenge: Says Occupy spokesperson Senia Barragan: “This movement is bigger than the park.” http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/11/18/occupy-wall-street-at-post-evictio
n-day-of-action-movement-vows-to-fight-on/ see it first hand; from the honking and waving and thumbs up, to the fire truck turning on all his lights, the transit bus driver waving at us, people hollering "thank you" from their cars, school bus drivers hanging out their windows to call "hang in there!" and more. The more violent actions by police bring public outcry and so-called "investigations". They'll probably go nowhere, but they increase our numbers in each city each time.

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As video spread of an officer in riot gear blasting pepper spray into the faces of seated protesters at a northern California university, outrage came quickly.

University of California Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a statement Saturday she was forming a task force to investigate the police action and the video images she said were “chilling.”
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As the images were circulated widely on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on Saturday, the university’s faculty association called on Katehi to resign, saying in a letter there had been a “gross failure of leadership.”

At a news conference, Katehi said what the video shows is, “sad and really very inappropriate” but defended her leadership and said she had no plans to resign.
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Katehi remained in a media room for more than two hours after the news conference, eventually walking to an SUV past a group of students nearly three blocks long who, in a coordinated effort, remained completely silent. The Sacramento Bee said.
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Images of police actions have served to galvanize support during the Occupy Wall Street movement, from the clash between protesters and police in Oakland last month that left an Iraq War veteran with serious injuries to more recent skirmishes in New York City, San Diego, Denver and Portland, Ore.

Some of the most notorious instances went viral online, including the use of pepper spray on an 84-year-old activist in Seattle and a group of women in New York. Seattle’s mayor apologized to the activist, and the New York Police Department official shown using pepper spray on the group of women lost 10 vacation days after an internal review.

In the video of the UC Davis protest, the officer, a member of the university police force, displays a bottle before spraying its contents on the seated protesters in a sweeping motion while walking back and forth. Most of the protesters have their heads down, but several were hit directly in the face.
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Many Twitter and Facebook comments supported the students and criticized the response.

“Stomach churning video of police using pepper spray on seated anti-Wall Street protesters in Davis, Calif.,” actress Mia Farrow wrote in a retweet of the video. http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/8963025-418/pepper-spraying-of-occ
upy-protesters-in-calif-draws-scrutiny.html gawd for social media; despite the MSM ignoring us as much as they can, the truth gets out now. It's different in that way from previous movements; now TPTB can't keep people from knowing what's going on. Their violence only causes others to join us.

In the same article, I just love the explanations:

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Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department’s use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a “compliance tool” that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters.

“When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them,” Kelly said. “Bodies don’t have handles on them.”

After reviewing the video, Kelly said he observed at least two cases of “active resistance” from protesters. In one instance, a woman pulls her arm back from an officer. In the second instance, a protester curls into a ball. Each of those actions could have warranted more force, including baton strikes and pressure-point techniques.

“What I’m looking at is fairly standard police procedure,” Kelly said.
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UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza said the decision to use pepper spray was made at the scene.

“The students had encircled the officers,” she said Saturday. “They needed to exit. They were looking to leave but were unable to get out.”[/quote}You buy that? The "active resistance" of curling into a ball is certainly cause for pepper spraying someone, and the risk of hurting people by picking them up is a pathetic excuse...given some were hospitalized, I think their explanation is laughable. Do they LOOK like they were encircled? By a line of protesters sitting on the ground, which they could easily have stepped over?

It's not going to work. The majority of Americans just aren't that stupid. There will always be those like Raptor who will try to defend these acts of violence, but we've got a long ways to go, and violence only swells our numbers. As it did in the civil rights movement. As it did in the protests against the Vietnam war. It seems they never learn. The movement IS growing, in part thanx to the response by authorities.

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The police chief at the University of California at Davis has been placed on administrative leave while officials investigate officers' use of pepper spray against protesters, the university said in a statement Monday.

"As I have gathered more information about the events that took place on our Quad on Friday, it has become clear to me that this is a necessary step toward restoring trust on our campus," UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said in the statement.

On Sunday the university said it had placed two police officers on administrative leave after video of them pepper-spraying non-violent protesters at point-blank range sparked outrage at school officials.

The decision to place Chief Annette Spicuzza on administrative leave was necessary to allow "a fact-based review of events, assist in calming the community environment and allow the department to focus on its current and substantial demands," Vice Chancellor John Meyer said in a letter to police department staff quoted in the university's statement.

Katehi was scheduled to create a task force Monday to review the incident and issue recommendations within 30 days.

The chancellor also accepted students' invitation to attend a rally at noon (3 p.m. ET) Monday in the campus Quad, university spokeswoman Claudia Morain said.

Video of police pepper-spraying demonstrators at the Friday protest sparked widespread criticism, including calls for Katehi's resignation.

Announcing the placement of the officers on leave in a written statement Sunday, Katehi said she shared the "outrage" of students and was "deeply saddened" by the use of the chemical irritant by campus police.

"I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident," she said. "However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again."

A group of about a dozen protesters sat on a path with their arms interlocked as police moved in to clear out a protest encampment affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement Friday. Most of the protesters had their heads down as a campus police officer walked down the line, spraying them in their faces in a sweeping motion.

"I was shocked," Sophia Kamran, one of the protesters subjected to the spray, said Saturday. "When students are sitting on the ground and no way of moving to be violent, being totally peaceful, I don't understand the use of pepper spray against them."

The school said 10 protesters arrested were given misdemeanor citations for unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. Eleven were treated for the effects of pepper spray, which burns the eyes and nose, causing coughing, gagging and shortness of breath.

The Davis Faculty Association, citing incidents at other campuses, demanded "that the chancellors of the University of California cease using police violence to repress nonviolent political protests."

It called for greater attention to cuts in state funding to education and rising tuition. Its board demanded Katehi resign, saying she exhibited "gross failure of leadership."

Saturday, Katehi called the officers' actions "chilling" and said the video "raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this." But she refused calls from faculty members and others for her to step down, saying she did not violate campus policies. http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/21/us/california-occupy-pepper-spray/index.
html?hpt=hp_t2, in essence, it's "campus policy", and the rest is all for show. No surprise there.

EAT: CTS, where did you get that photo? It looks amazingly like a youngster who is central to our OccupyMarin group, a very active young man who was at both Oakland and Berserkeley. I'm sure it's not, but I'd like to look it up.