Occupy Wall Street Media Round-Up for Oct. 25

Local and national media have been reporting on mass arrests yesterday and over the weekend.  A new Twitter account, @OccupyArrests, tracks arrests across the country.  Washington Post and the Pew Center have released a new poll showing that Occupy Wall Street is more popular than the Tea party, with OWS enjoying a narrow plurality of support.    

OCCUPY PROTEST ARRESTS

Many arrests across the country have been reported in the last few days, even in the midst of mostly peaceful protests and this weekend’s marches against police action nationwide.  There seem to be more mass arrests than there have been in the past, carried out with the intention of shutting down protests for good.   Nevertheless, protesters remain positive and peaceful.  

Labor and Protest Actions

Milwaukee Labor Council praises occupy protesters taking actions onto the streets.  More than two dozen people affiliated with National Nurses United protested outside Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Hall office yesterday, reported the Chicago Tribune.  The protest came a day after 130 people including two nurses were arrested in Grant Park for refusing to leave after the park’s 11 p.m. closing time.  Jan Rodolfo, Midwest director for NNU, said her group is asking Emanuel to “act like mayors across the country” and allow protesters to set up a 24/7 encampment in Chicago without fear of arrest.  

Occupy Oakland: Think Progress reported that “late last night, Oakland police, under orders from the city, began surrounding the Occupy Oakland encampment in preparation to oust protesters from Frank Ogawa Plaza.  Several hours ago, hundreds of Oakland police officers raided the camp.  Dressed in riot gear, the police used rubber bullets, flash grenades, and gas canisters to forcibly evict and/or arrest the demonstrators who remained in the plaza.” Early reports from police say the raid went smoothly and that all protesters cleared out of the plaza in less than 30 minutes.  A different version of events went down according to Occupy Oakland’s live-tweets and a live video stream. Occupy Oakland had about 100 tents at one point, but local government cited vandalism, sanitation and public health issues for police involvement.   

Occupy Tuscon:  In total, Tucson Police made 95 arrests related to the Occupy Tucson movement over the weekend, which has now split into two camps.  According to the group’s Facebook page, there have been approximately 259 citations to Occupiers at Armory Park and Pancho Villa Park and $259,000 in collective maximum penalties.  There are 50 tents at Armory Park with 100 occupiers.  

Occupy Dallas: Yesterday, police arrested 23 protesters who linked arms and refused to leave a Chase Bank branch, blocking customer access to the bank.  Dallas officers had told the protesters that none of them would be arrested if they complied with the criminal trespass warning and vacated the property.

Occupy Denver: After a peaceful Saturday protest, 4 people were arrested. These arrests come after 50 arrests the previous weekend – the most common charge was disobeying lawful order.

Occupy Philadelphia: Police arrested 15 people on Sunday after blocking Eighth Street near Race Street just outside Police Headquarters.  The sit-in began about 17 hours earlier as a protest march against police action nationwide.

Occupy Atlanta: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced last night that he would revoke an executive order that has allowed protesters to stay in Woodruff Park more than two weeks.  Citing a dispute that arose Saturday when Occupy Atlanta allowed an unauthorized hip-hop show to go on, Reed said the concert created a dangerous situation and he added that some people associated with the movement "were on a clear path to escalation."  Reed also said that increased police presence at the park cost the city $100,000 just for Saturday.  Police presence remained strong Monday, including a SWAT team and a police helicopter that swooped by at one point.

OCCUPY THE NEWSROOM

Several stories have addressed the issue of corporate media.  The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellent Journalism pulled together a number of articles on the subject here.  In his piece for the New York Times, David Carr questioned why top executives at corporate-owned receive media massive bonuses when papers are cutting budgets and struggling to survive, scores of journalists are laid off, and quality of news declines.  He called out bonuses given out at Gannett company under Craig Dubow and the Tribune Company, a chain of television stations and newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Baltimore Sun, bought by Sam Zell in 2007. 

PEOPLE OF COLOR & OCCUPY PROTESTS
According to a Huffington Post story, Occupy Los Angeles continues to gain momentum as unionized workers and several immigrant rights groups have formally joined forces with the movement.  About 250 additional activists and immigration advocates, including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), are now part of Occupy LA.  Their demand for social justice includes full rights for immigrants, and to put an end to deportations.  The local Occupy movement has also been voicing other causes common to the Latino population: high unemployment levels and the real estate bubble.  Occupy LA has grown steadily to about 400 tents and an estimate of 700 people who stay each night.  

POLLING

A new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll shows that Occupy Wall Street is more popular than the Tea party, with OWS enjoying a narrow plurality of support.  

Overall, 39 percent of all Americans say they support the Occupy Wall Street movement, and nearly as many — 35 percent — are opposed. For the Tea Party, this poll shows somewhat more opposition than support, with 44 percent against, 32 percent in favor.  Independents lean against the Tea Party movement (30 percent supportive, 49 percent opposed), but narrowly in favor of Occupy Wall Street (43 percent favor, 35 percent opposed). Those independents who say they lean toward the Democratic Party are largely supportive of the Occupy movement and opposed to the Tea Party. GOP-leaning independents tend to back the Tea Party movement, but they split more evenly on the Occupy movement (34 percent support; 40 percent oppose). 

RIGHT-WING MEMES

Conservative media is loath to compare the influence of the Occupy movement to that of the Tea Party, but is more than eager to counter attacks on the Tea Party for its massive funding by the Koch brothers and other conservative big money by arguing that George Soros and the AFL-CIO are bankrolling the whole thing. Conservative blog Red State featured this post which claims that the AFL-CIO is funding the Occupy movement by providing legal support and encouraging people to be arrested.  Meanwhile, conservative media continues to push a “blame” divide between Wall Street, government, and Obama.  The National Review, a conservative publication, posted this article about OWS demonstrators protesting outside the home of GE CEO and “jobs czar to Obama” Jeffrey Immelt.