In The First Occupy Wall Street Protest Trial, Acquittal

Arbuckle was arrested while photographing a march early on January 1. As a contingent of a few dozen protesters turned off Sixth Avenue onto 13th street, heading east, the police following the march on foot and on scooters moved in, making several arrests.

Among those arrests was Arbuckle, charged with disorderly conduct for standing in the middle of the street blocking traffic, even after police had repeatedly told protesters to get out of the street. That's the story told in the criminal complaint against Arbuckle, and it's the story that the officer who arrested him told again under oath in court on Monday. The protesters, including Arbuckle, were in the street blocking traffic, Officer Elisheba Vera testified. The police, on the sidewalk, had to move in to make arrests to allow blocked traffic to move.

This is the typical tactic of the Police anywhere "unsanctioned" protest is happening but infamously now is especially true of the NYPD. Arrest a protester and lie about it. I don't even know why they do it. Do they hope that people who get arrested will opt out of trial by admitting guilt, paying a fine and go about their merry lives? Well that isn't going to happen at least not in the numbers the NYPD needs them to. They've arrested thousands of protesters and journalists since September 17, 2011 most of them illegally and this isn't a crowd to let them get away with it. Look for more of these stories as more and more people choose to stand trial.

But there was a problem with the police account: it bore no resemblance to photographs and videos taken that night. Arbuckle's own photographs from the evening place him squarely on the sidewalk. All the video from the NYPD's Technical Research Assistance Unit, which follows the protesters with video-cameras (in almost certain violation of a federal consent decree), showed Arbuckle on the sidewalk.

And in an indication of the way new media are transforming the dynamics of street protest, a clip from the live-stream of journalist Tim Pool showed that not only was Arbuckle on the sidewalk, so were all the other protesters. The only thing blocking traffic on 13th Street that night was the police themselves.

Here's Pool's video. The relevant section begins around minute 31:50 and ends with the arrests around minute 35:00.

(Emphasis mine, just because.)

There's a bit of irony here as well...

A junior at New York University majoring in political science and journalism, Arbuckle doesn't identify with the Occupy movement, but was working on an assignment for class to document the officers assigned to police it.

"I felt the police had been treated unfairly on the media," he said. "All the focus was on the conflict and the worst instances of brutality and aggression, where most of the police I met down there were really professional and restrained."

"It was a total fabrication," Arbuckle said. "When I was first arraigned in February, they offered me an ACD [Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal]. It would have been nice to have everything over and done with, but it would have been an acknowledgment of guilt, and I knew I wasn't guilty."

villagevoice.com (blog)

Yes, I did a happy dance.

lol, classic. the police are basically setting themselves up for failure with these kinds of action. They're having a hard time dealing with the Occupies legally and are resorting to lawlessness basically. Only the MSM will deny police brutality with these kinds of things happening daily.

Well, all well and good.

But what happens when they (the police) take things to the "Next Level" ....

and even beyond ?

What's the desired "end result" of #Occupy ?

How will all this "close the banks" and end corruption ?

Originally posted by xuenchen
But what happens when they (the police) take things to the "Next Level" ....

and even beyond ?

What should happen? We take it like dogs?

What's the desired "end result" of #Occupy ?

A more honest system. That would include the justice system.

How will all this "close the banks" and end corruption ?

Police that illegally arrest citizens is corruption isn't it? Can't protest about corrupt banks etc... from behind bars can you?

reply to post by Kali74


Yep.

Sounds like a plan !

Originally posted by xuenchen
Well, all well and good.

But what happens when they (the police) take things to the "Next Level" ....

and even beyond ?

Footage of it gets recorded; and the public at least know about it, even if, as is most likely, nothing happens to the police themselves.

It has been abundantly proven in America, that contemporary police are entirely above the law, and operate completely outside its' reach. The best anyone within Occupy can hope for, is that they themselves are acquitted. Charges against the police, in the current political climate, realistically speaking, are not going to happen.

What's the desired "end result" of #Occupy ?

With apologies to Kali, I personally don't believe that Occupy know what they want; and that is Occupy's central problem. They know how to point out problems, yes; but they don't know how to come up with solutions.

Another major element of this, is Occupy's degree of Marxism, as I've mentioned numerous times before. Occupy are not patriots, generally speaking, and they are not going to advocate a return to a pure interpretation or rule of the American Constitution, because they're on the wrong side of the aisle for that. Most of them probably want some form of the Internationale, or some sort of U.N. government, which personally, I think would be a disaster.

Marxism does not contain a model for government that is either stable, or has a proven track record of success. Every single time it has been attempted at a national level, for whatever reason, the result has been genocide. Decentralised, small-scale (per syndicate) anarcho-syndicalism (which is essentially tribalism, more or less) possibly could work, but the psychopaths are addicted to federalism, because they want concentrated power over the majority, so they will not allow it.

reply to post by petrus4

With apologies to Kali, I personally don't believe that Occupy know what they want

occupy wall street untill the criminal bankers who crashed your nation for a profit are behind bars and without money


not hard is it?

occupy till this is achived.


more and more people need to take on the cops for illegal arrests and haresment.
when the courts get sick of hearing about flagrant abuse of powers by poliece they will act.

till then OCCUPY

xploder

Originally posted by XPLodER
reply to post by petrus4

 

occupy wall street untill the criminal bankers who crashed your nation for a profit are behind bars and without money

The only problem with this, XPLodER, is how much will it really change?

What we really need, is structural change. If you just put the current generation of bankers in jail, without changing anything else, more will simply take their place. We need to fix the system which is producing criminals. Imprisoning the criminals themselves, by itself, won't achieve much.

reply to post by petrus4

The only problem with this, XPLodER, is how much will it really change?

people will realize that when banks get to big they will destroy all for money,
in this instence over 12 states are looking at forming state banks who would be beholdent to the people of the states they work in,

not to profits for private share holders

look to the bank of north dekota for an example.
stability and funding for state infrastructure without interest

more hospitals and schools ect,
more care for veterans ect

to big to fail means to big to exist.
states are taking things into there own hands for the benifit of their people as big banks will destroy your country,


xploder

And another today...

In Second Occupy Wall Street Protest Trial, Police Claims Again Rejected

Another day, another Occupy Wall Street trial, another black eye for the police. Just two days after the first Occupy Wall Street protest case to go to trial ended with the NYPD's version of events unraveling, the same thing happened again in New York Criminal Court this morning.
Jessica Hall, an Occupy Wall Street protester, was arrested on November 17 at the intersection of Williams and Pine streets in Lower Manhattan and charged with disorderly conduct for obstructing traffic. Hall's charges were the same as those of Alexander Arbuckle, who was acquitted on Tuesday.

But as in Arbuckle's case, the police version of events was debunked; it wasn't the person on trial who was preventing traffic from moving, but the police themselves.

On the stand, Hall's arresting officer, Sgt. Michael Soldo, said he arrested her because she was blocking traffic. But as Soldo admitted under cross-examination, and as the NYPD's own video documentation confirmed, it was actually the NYPD metal barricades running all the way across William Street that was preventing vehicles from passing.

At the time of her arrest, Hall was about a foot away from the police barricades.

After Soldo's testimony, Hall's lawyers, Marty Stolar and Elena Cohen, moved to dismiss. Judge Matthew Sciarrino agreed that the prosecution hadn't made its case.

"The police arrested people willy-nilly without any determination that they had actually committed the offenses that they were charged with," Stollar told the Voice afterwards. "That's what tends to criminalize protest activity."

Today's ruling, coupled with Tuesday's, have presented police efforts to criminalize protest activity "a temporary roadblock," Stolar said, adding that the profusion of cameras at Occupy Wall Street protests have made it harder for police to get away with fabricating stories to justify arrests.

villagevoice

reply to post by Kali74


and the whole world is watching those videos
good news, i hope more people challenge wrongful arrests

xp