Occupy Atlanta | Police arrest protesters

Occupy Atlanta | Police arrest protesters

www.ajc.com

Police arrested protesters early Wednesday at Woodruff Park, home of the Occupy Atlanta movement.

Protesters had been ordered to leave the park. Those waiting to be arrested were sitting in a circle with their arms locked. Police starting handcuffing them with plastic handcuffs around 12:45 a.m. Many protesters would not get up on their own and some had to be dragged. Most protesters went peacefully.

(visit the link for the full news article)

so i was watching this live from fox 4 news. leading up to the arrest most had cleared out of the park they were called to clear out of and moved onto the sidewalks(tents and all).

the fox station said they were gonna air it when it went down and then right before it started both the livestream and the fox 4 news stream went down.

a senator was actually arrested in this, which was huge news to me. i saw him on screen a couple of times. wild wild times that is for sure.


in other news oakland at the time of this writing has been gassed 3 times and they continue to march around oakland.

ETA to add:



www.ajc.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Oakland just got gas dispersed again. I believe that is the third time.

Just for perspective, the radio scanner site that is putting out police frequencies also notes the alert traffic and shows OPD putting out a Multi-County Tactical Alert for 'riot in progress' earlier this evening. For those unacquainted with mutual assistance agreements between law enforcement agencies, that was basically a screaming call for help that may be needed later, stand by to come running..... OPD estimated 500+ protesters involved for that Tactical Alert message.

I know it's tough to imagine when on the ground there...but cops get scared too, especially if they honestly believe they're facing 500 people. Conventional wisdom is 2-3 to 1 on achieving total control, and they have nothing like 1000 cops down there, so visions of being completely over-run are what dance in their heads at the moment. That isn't a GOOD thing.

I'm watching the Protesters repeatedly group up and then slowly but steadily creep to the barricades before being gassed back again. Menacing the police is a bad idea...especially when the call is already out that will muster HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of cops in the time it takes to drive the distance with lights running. I just don't get what this kind of confrontation is supposed to accomplish. They're out of the park trying to menace their way BACK.... It's unwinnable and almost terminally foolish.

I hope no one is too badly hurt tonight.

im in atlanta. i have madddd video from tonight. it was sheer CHAOS!! I will post the vids in a thread soon!

but i reiterate, CHAOS!!

This is shocking, the government trying to silence people and stop protests. We should ask WHY? And WHERE do their ORDERS come from?
I watched SKY news this morning and was shocked at the discussion they had about the protests in front of St Paul's Cathedral. They showed thermal footage of empty tents at night, but you can clearly see people protesting in the background (obviously NOT in their tents). Then the reporter said "they should be removed as they are simply homeless people camping out," mocking the whole procedure.

I was literally just downtown atlanta and DAYUM, there were a grip of riot police and I wasnt allowed to even get close(vehicularly) to the park and when i got on foot, cameras in tow, i was forced to keep it moving. there were about 3 tents partially erect, the majority of them were torn down.

Originally posted by My.mind.is.mine
im in atlanta. i have madddd video from tonight. it was sheer CHAOS!! I will post the vids in a thread soon!

but i reiterate, CHAOS!!

Do it!!! i figured you were down there, which is honestly one reason i came down...to try to document the occurrence..i couldn't get close....I got there a little after 1am.

reply to post by ahmonrarh


you and I need to link up next time because it WILL happen again..

reply to post by stuncrazy


I think people who interface with the cops at protests or at protests should start demanding that the cops enforce the rights of the protesters. This will focus the spotlight back on the rights of protesters.

reply to post by bussoboy


i think you are absolutely right. from what i've seen/heard from all the occupy areas. we are making head room with the police. one man at ATL asked the cop why he was doing it, and he responded "I really don't know man. they told me to do this so i gotta do it." we're getting in their heads and that is a good thing.

does nobody else think it's huge that a SENATOR was also arrested in this occupation? i mean i don't think i've heard about this yet.

reply to post by stuncrazy


I can't find where you got a Senator being arrested. Can you point it out a little better for us blind bats who can't see something straight in front of our face? Thank you for your help.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


google senator Vincent Fort on google news. trust me, he was the first one handcuffed.

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


I will do and thank you!

Second thank you.

Wait! URLs needed because the only two hits I got were a single Tweet and a short paragraph on a Russian website which probably got their information off that single Tweet.

Now there is a different Senator Ford (South Carolina) who was arrested 73 times in civil protests many decades ago. But, I get nothing for a Senator named Vincent Ford.

And now I find the 2 Georgia Senators are not named Ford www.senate.gov...

But, there's a State of Georgia Senator named Fort not Ford.

second to last paragraph

Some of the protesters waved small American flags as they awaited arrest. Among those handcuffed were State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), former Atlanta city councilman Derrick Boazman and Joe Beasley, the southern regional director of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

so what are your thoughts on this?

reply to post by stuncrazy


Great thanks, I see it now. Local politicians. I think he's just earning his brownie points for the next election.

The whole protest and arrest procedure reminded me of a 1980's birth control clinic sit-in. Glad nobody was hurt like in California.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=vincent%20fort%20senator%20arrested&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCMQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FVin cent_Fort&ei=hbyoTsfeLqz8iQKeptTKBg&usg=AFQjCNH7Lx7FNnRQslJl4ubgZVE3jf4XSA&cad=rja

link to the wiki for the senators arrest so yeah he got locked up,i had always thought that senators had some form of like legal power or at least could order lesser officals around probaly wong but hey who knows could be some big blow back from this one

reply to post by KilrathiLG


US Senators do have some weird "outs" to get around some law-breaking. I won't go into that here, would be off topic.

But, this man Fort was a Georgia Senate official, not a US Senate official. I suppose each State sets their own "get out of jail free card" conditions individually.

This man Fort wasn't a Senator to the nation.

reply to post by Trexter Ziam


ah ok see that makes a bit more sense to me i was thinking federal in stead of state offical thank you for clearing that up for me either way good on the senator hes probably all-ready out of jail and hopefully back protesting