A group calling themselves "OccupySTL" is planning to protest this Saturday morning at the St.Louis Federal Reserve building to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests that have been going on in New York City for almost 2 weeks. If you haven't heard about the NY protests it's not surprising.
Thousands of progressive protesters converged on Wall Street on Sept. 17 to protest the concentration of power and wealth in America. The Occupy Wall Street web site states “The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.” The "occupation" has continued even as the number of activists has diminished.
In what activists called a "media blackout", the protests were largely ignored by the news media until protesters started getting arrested a few days into the event. This is true of the St.Louis Post Dispatch, which did not have an online story about the protest until Sept. 20, when 7 protesters were arrested, and so far has not produced an article in the print version of the newspaper. To make matters worse, Yahoo was blocking e-mails containing the Occupy Wall Street web site. Yahoo later admitted it had done so, saying it was an innocent mistake. As of this writing Norton is blocking occupywallst.org.
OccupySTL has posted details of the planned protests and a list of "demands" on facebook. To view it click here. The event is listed incorrectly as taking place on Oct. 31, it should read Oct.1. The organizers say they will correct that soon. The list of demands range from ending the death penalty to ending political corruption and ending unemployment. Another demand is ending "police intimidation". The conduct of the New York Police Department has become an issue in the past week as the peaceful protesters have sometimes been treated roughly. In one incident a group of women who had been corralled on the sidewalk were pepper sprayed. In this video you can see that the women were not resisting or being violent. The NYPD says it will investigate the incident.
Chris Otto
Thousands of progressive protesters converged on Wall Street on Sept. 17 to protest the concentration of power and wealth in America. The Occupy Wall Street web site states “The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.” The "occupation" has continued even as the number of activists has diminished.
In what activists called a "media blackout", the protests were largely ignored by the news media until protesters started getting arrested a few days into the event. This is true of the St.Louis Post Dispatch, which did not have an online story about the protest until Sept. 20, when 7 protesters were arrested, and so far has not produced an article in the print version of the newspaper. To make matters worse, Yahoo was blocking e-mails containing the Occupy Wall Street web site. Yahoo later admitted it had done so, saying it was an innocent mistake. As of this writing Norton is blocking occupywallst.org.
OccupySTL has posted details of the planned protests and a list of "demands" on facebook. To view it click here. The event is listed incorrectly as taking place on Oct. 31, it should read Oct.1. The organizers say they will correct that soon. The list of demands range from ending the death penalty to ending political corruption and ending unemployment. Another demand is ending "police intimidation". The conduct of the New York Police Department has become an issue in the past week as the peaceful protesters have sometimes been treated roughly. In one incident a group of women who had been corralled on the sidewalk were pepper sprayed. In this video you can see that the women were not resisting or being violent. The NYPD says it will investigate the incident.
Chris Otto