Donations for bond and legal fees can be made through:
https://www.wepay.com/donations/ots-jail-support
Livestreams of the arrests can be found here:
http://bambuser.com/v/3150179
http://bambuser.com/v/3150191
http://bambuser.com/v/3150220
Four People were arrested today, in New Orleans, for protesting a meeting of the American Petroleum Institute. They are being charged with criminal trespassing, despite there being no signs stating that they were not allowed, the meeting was public, when asked to leave they complied. A Louisiana state police officer manhandled several people inside and blocked their vehicle outside, keeping them from leaving, before finally identifying himself as a police officer.
Donations for bond and legal fees can be made through: https://www.wepay.com/donations/ots-jail-support Livestreams of the arrests can be found here: http://bambuser.com/v/3150179 http://bambuser.com/v/3150191 http://bambuser.com/v/3150220
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Today Governor Jindal and Wisconsin Governor Walker at their $25,000 a plate fundraiser for the Louisiana GOP at Calcasieu Ball Room in the Warehouse District of New Orleans. We demanded the following, especially that Jindal Save Southeast Louisiana Hospital and end his School Voucher System.
Jindal was seen emerging from a vehicle but quickly ducked into the building, at which point those in the ballroom upstairs began photographing us. When we used the People's Mic to voice our concerns and demanded Jindal's recall, those inside the ballroom drew the curtains. They obviously heard us. It rained throughout most of this event, but the rain did stop long enough for us to Chalkupy "Recall Jindal" on the sidewalk. Authorities photographed us but did not attempt to interrupt our protest. Sign or start your own Recall Jindal petition at Recall Bobby Jindal Dot Com Below is the footage from today's livestream. Thanks for streaming, small affair. ~ Occupy The Stage This essay was originally published on January 21 on the Tumblr blog Love from ONOLA & Occupy The Stage NOLA
I do not claim to understand the inner workings of the hactivist hive Anonymous, but over the past few months, I my gratitude toward and respect for Anons has grown as the spirit of the Occupy Wall Street Movement has spread across the globe. This is not to say that I once did not respect or love this group. I am writing to both express this gratitude and to respond to some opinions voiced by members of mainstream media regarding the relationship between the DDoS attacks of 01/19/2012, the Occupy Movement and Anonymous. Josh Harkinson from Mother Jones wrote an interesting piece today "How and Why Anonymous Took Down the FBI's Website" that attempts to explain #OpMegaUpload, the distributed denial of service attack that temporarily took down the homepages of the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, Universal Music, the US Copyright Service, the US Department of Justice, and last, but not least, the FBI. In addition to sharing conversations from AnonOps chat rooms, Harkinson quotes Biella Coleman of McGill University who is "... a leading academic expert on Anonymous." However, Harkinson's article is mis-titled as it fails to explain the "why" as he admits
Instead of providing an in-depth analysis of the role Anonymous has played supporting the Occupy Wall Street Movement, Harkinson shies away from elaborating upon his statement:
What Harkinson fails to acknowledge is that what someone can and cannot do in front of a computer screen is important because of its impact on what someone else can and cannot do in real life. One needs only to observe a citizen journalist from the Occupy Movement to note the importance of those who use Twitter and other social networking tools to support the protesters and livestreamers and to protect them from police brutality, violence and the forces of nature. When an activist is in need, it matters greatly that someone is watching. Recently, a group of peaceful protesters now known as "The Amarillo 13" benefited from the efforts of those watching the citizen footage they broadcasted live on Ustream. I watched this from my apartment in a city with an Occupy group that is no longer allowed to camp. When I am not actively working with the Occupy community or working at my job (yes, I have a job - actually 2), I watch the livestreams of citizen journalists. I was following the activities of various Occupy groups (learning about them via Twitter) late on Saturday, January 14 when a group of 13 protesters using the Twitter handle @Road2Congress were detained aboard Greyhound and then kicked off the bus. These folks were kicked off a bus by Driver Don Ainsworth in Amarillo Texas for being part of Occupy Wall Street movement. I have only been using Twitter seriously for a year, and it was not until recently that I even began livestreaming, so Twitter is still a learning experience for me. Since the Occupy movement began, I have come to view social networking services like Twitter and Facebook as activist/hactivist tools. On January 14 and 15, Twitter especially allowed caring individuals to offer comfort and resources to these thirteen protesters who were stranded. However, if it were not for what Harkinson refers to as Anonymous' main twitter account @YourAnonNews, I would not have been aware of the crisis my comrades faced in Amarillo. I can only follow 2000 Twitter accounts at a time and had somewhere around 650 followers that weekend. As I write this, @YourAnonNews has 308,094 followers. That means that if I tweet something to @YourAnonNews, it will appear in the streams of 308,094 people. I was not following @Road2Congress, had never even heard of them, but I learned about their situation from @YourAnonNews. View the story "Tweets to the Amarillo 13 - for Anonymous with Love" on Storify is a timeline of some of the Twitter activity relating to the Amarillo 13 tweeting from @Road2Congress and the resources tweeted by @YourAnonNews. This conversation demonstrates the importance of having freedom to communicate while sitting in front of a computer screen. The following tweets are from January 15 when the Amarillo 13 sent out an S.O.S. via Ustream and Twitter. @Road2Congress tweeted
The Twitter account @YourAnonNews has many many more followers than @Road2Congress did.
People begin to listen.
Your Anon News is also very good at keeping track of the livestream channels.
The hashtag #amarillo13 was eventually used to refer to the 13 protesters kicked off Greyhound.
People across the country began networking.
— #99% Magpie (@Magpieluvsyou) January 15, 2012
— Occupy Congress (@Re_Occupy) January 15, 2012 A PayPal account was set up to help the Amarillo folks buy new bus tickets.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) January 15, 2012 Imagine what it would feel like if you or your child or mother or brother was stranded at a Greyhound bus station and you wanted to call the bus station!
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) January 15, 2012 Finally, Greyhound responded!
@YourAnonNews played a significant part in spreading the word so these 13 innocent people could get help.
The following article "What really happened when the San Diego Occupuiers got kicked off the Greyhound bus in Amarillo, Texas" from The Ocean Beach, California Rag will be helpful for those unfamiliar with the Amarillo 13 and Twitter. When I livesteamed my own Occupy movement's MLK parade and was followed by police in unmarked cars and offered a ride, I secretly hoped that somewhere, Anons were watching. I can't help but note the attitude of dismissal in Arik Hesseldahl's ethics statement "Anonymous Fails, Once Again, to Make Its Point" appearing on All Things Digital this evening. Hesseldahl writes:
"Constructive" is an obviously relative term. What is or is not constructive behavior could be debated the same way what is or is not art is debated in regard to graffiti. As I write this, 107 Brazilian government and media websites as well as Justin Bieber's music website have been declared "TANGO DOWN" (WIN). I can neither refute or confirm mainstream media's claims that Anonymous misled people into following a link which triggered a tool which launched a DDoS attack. Hesseldahl explains that these innocent users were
Personally, I do not click on links that are provided without context or information, and I have not come across any. I have not participated in a DDoS attack knowingly or unknowingly because I don't click on random links. To call Thursday's DDoS attack a failure is a premature assumption based on one's understanding of the word "FAIL." If one goal of Anons is to inform the public of their existence and the existence of every citizen who cannot speak up for herself, they have certainly accomplished that (see video Anonymous on Protect IP Bill). The irony is in the final paragraph of Hesseldahl's judgement of Thursday's DDoS attacks:
I not only imagine but expect that the attention spans of Anons will shift elsewhere. They have taught me to expect them when I used to expect no one, as in "A Message of Hope from Anonymous UK" and in their vigilant online presence when journalists, freedom fighters, the strong, the weak, the young, and the elderly wish to be heard. Regarding SOPA and PIPA, Anonymous has done more than protest SOPA via DDoS attacks. The Tumblr site Your Anon News provides an Anti-SOPA Took Kit which includes links to the actual bill text of SOPA and PIPA and a Take Action Checklist which links to Fight for The Future's petition to Stop American Censorship petition. These primary documents - the actual bills are crucial when discussing or protesting The Senate's Protect IP Act (S. 968) or the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). I have noticed that in social networks, more and more people are referencing the actual text of the bills instead of the interpretation offered in an OpEd column, and regardless of whether or not the people I interact with got them from Your Anon News, it pleases me that these primary sources are circulating. I am a person who uses Twitter and has a camera. I am a citizen journalist. I am a citizen of Earth. I am employed yet I cannot afford my student loan payments and devote almost every free moment I have to supporting my own city's Occupy movement as well as the national movement. I am afraid of my own local police department. I may someday encounter violence or police brutality as I stand up for the basic rights of human beings. I hope someone will be watching. As I write this, I see more articles titled "Did Anonymous Undo The Goodwill Built Up By The Internet This Week?" which I am sure aimed at the general public who equates "hacker" with "identity theft." For evidence of goodwill on the Internet, one need only follow the livestream of a citizen journalist while a peaceful protester's hands are zip-tied behind him by police who will not display badge numbers or when an Anon sends a shout-out that an activist needs water or shoes or an ambulance. With Love and Solidarity, ~ Magpie |
OTSOccupy the Stage is a branch of Occupy NOLA that is dedicated to artists and artisans. We are committed to the belief that the arts and skilled trades are sacred. They belong to the people and are immune to censorship, gentrification, taxation or corporate consolidation. These are the basic necessities for civilization and are considered incorruptible. Archives
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