Bloomberg simply brushed off the assembled group that was desperate to talk to the mayor about their increasingly dire situation post-Sandy.

In the response to hurricane Sandy, Occupy Wall Street supporters have shown that voluntary, decentralized mutual aid is far more effective than the Red Cross or FEMA.

FEMA shut down last week “due to bad weather” (The agency will only help as long as it’s not raining, snowy or too windy.), during which time Occupy Sandy and other independent voluntary organizations continued to provide aid to hurricane victims. At one point, pictures were taken of occupy sandy volunteers feeding FEMA workers who couldn’t even find supplies for themselves.

Some community members still have no power. And after almost everyone in NYC has been helped some are being told that because they ‘rent’ they aren’t eligible for federal assistance.

Tenants who lived without heat, hot water, elevators and power … wanted a rent discount right away, worried that they would fall behind in December’s rent because of extra expenses incurred after Sandy.

NYCHA caved, agreeing not to pursue evictions of or default judgments against Sandy-affected tenants who don’t pay or are late with next month’s rent.

ACTONS

—Come to 489 Midland Ave Staten Island, NY 10306 to stand in support
—Volunteers requested to help move the hub to 100% private property - The 626 Midland Avenue hub in Staten Island has been evicted.
—Demand the Mayor’s office end community hub eviction and instead support hubs with space and equipment
—Public Advocate’s office: (212) 669-7250 9am-5pm EMAIL: GetHelp@pubadvocate.nyc.gov

Real-time Live Updates from Sandy Social Media

Don’t forget - GOP —> Expect Spending Offsets for Sandy Disaster Aid.

After Claudia Morain, the news service director at U.C. Davis, said only two (Officer Alexander Lee and Lt. John Pike) were able to be identified as having deployed pepper spray she told the press both would be placed on paid leave indefinitely. ‘Pepper Spray Cop’s  2010 salary was reportedly over $100,000 dollars.

Also Police Chief Annette Spicuzza was put on leave. She announcing her retirement after 27 years in law enforcement and will collected her pension. She does not want the Nov. 18 incident to define her or the university, and she’s leaving so everyone involved can move forward.

Chancellor Linda Katehi apologizes for pepper spray incident but refused to resign.

The police officers’ union at the last moment attempted to block the release of the Kroll and Reynoso Reports on the grounds of the Police Officer’s Bill of Rights.
Judge Grillo wrote about his decision…
There is a “strong public policy supporting transparency in government… [t]he public’s interest in the … conduct of peace officers is substantial” because “[p]eace officers “hold one of the most powerful positions in our society; our dependence on them is high and the potential for abuse of power is far from insignificant… As police officers paid by the public… to exercise authority over individual members of the public, the FUPOA cannot reasonably expect that information… will be shielded from public scrutiny… The significance overall… is that it wasn’t sufficient to just release some names when the whole goal of the Reynoso report [PDF] was to make clear to everyone that was involved, Lt. Pike did not act alone that day, and the chief of police didn’t just direct him,”

Months later Claudia Morain said “We can confirm he is no longer employed as of today… but we cannot confirm anything else because of privacy guidelines,”. A police union letter criticized the University “Additionally, the discipline recommendations did not include termination, but rather demotion or suspension. He should not have been terminated from The UC Davis Police Department.” Another letter by newly appointed Police Chief Matthew Carmichael rejected internal affairs findings saying “The needs of the department do not justify your continued employment,”

John Pike’s previous U.C. Davis $240,00 discrimination 2008 settlement might play into his termination.

These members of the police force do not work at Davis anymore HOWEVER they have all been cleared of wrongdoing by an IA investigation.

The University of California is offering to pay $30,000 to each of 21 plaintiffs who were pepper-sprayed 

Cook County Judge Thomas M. Donnelly dismissed charges against 92 Occupy Chicago protesters saying the overnight park curfew violates our First Amendment.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel predicted the city will reverse the ruling, saying his administration’s enforcement of a park curfew is on “firm ground as it relates both to public safety and First Amendment rights.”

Over the past five years, at least 49 people in 13 American cities have run afoul of authorities for coloring things with chalk. The vast majority were arrested in connection with drawing designs or messages on public streets or sidewalks. Those accused of chalk vandalism range from the “Chalking 8“—who were asking for trouble when they drew anti-cop slogans on the wall of the police station in Manchester, New Hampshire—to six-year-old Natalie Shea, who received a New York City graffiti warning that carries a possible $300 fine for marring her stoop in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood with a blue chalk scribble.

Some people said to be part of OWS did an unsanctioned action of chaining subway doors open. When the police cut the chains the NYPD, creepily, took DNA resulting in a puzzling DNA match that appeared to link the 2004 killing of a New York City drama student and evidence collected this year from a protest affiliated with Occupy Wall Street was instead the result of a lab worker who handled both cases.

The match, first reported by NBC Channel 4, was discovered Monday night, sources told The Post.

“The DNA was contaminated,” a source said today.

“It was a total screw up,” said another.

—-> I HATE YOU NEWS OUTLETS.

The Judge opened his opinion with this rather eloquent paragraph:

“What a huge debt this nation owes to its ‘troublemakers.’ From Thomas Paine to Martin Luther King Jr., they have forced us to focus on problems we would prefer to downplay or ignore. Yet it is often only with hindsight that we can distinguish those troublemakers who brought us to our senses from those who are simply troublemakers. Prudence, and respect for the constitutional rights to free speech and free association, therefore dictate that the legal system cut all nonviolent protesters a fair amount of slack.”

(Source: thedailyechoblog)