After Hurricane Sandy, Lone Lights on Wall Street, Flooded Underpass, Whither OWS?

By Matthew Russell Lee

WALL STREET, October 31 -- With the southern tip of Manhattan virtually occupied by the trucks and machinery of utility, telecommunications and "environmental emergency" companies, long canyons office buildings lay dark on Wednesday night, 48 hours after Hurricane Sandy hit.

  Facing the East River a highway underpass by South Ferry was still flooded with twelve feet of water, a pick-up truck nearly entirely covered. Inner City Press photo here.

  Up on Wall Street while the New York Stock Exchange was lit, the block east of it was entirely dark, but for lone security guards with flashlights. "Priorities," as one source signed to Inner City Press. 

  The atrium at 60 Wall Street was opened and surprisingly lit and empty. One wondered if this would have have been a time for Occupy Wall Street. But so does timing go. There are OWS-ers helping in Red Hook and elsewhere.

  A denizen of West Street told Inner City Press of his three hour commute south from 89th Street on the M15 bus. "I'll have to climb up 18 flights of stairs," he said, "to see if my dog is still okay. Then either take him uptown or just stay there in the dark.

  Another commuter told of a cab trying to charge him and his son $50 for a ride uptown, charging extra for the family of two which usually couldn't be done. Now with school canceled until the end of the week, new challenges emerge.

For Occupy Wall Street, Federal Reserve Police Deployed, Documents Withheld

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

WALL STREET, September 17 -- Two blocks east of Zuccotti Park, the once and perhaps future Liberty Square, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was surrounded by police on Monday morning as the Occupy Wall Street movement celebrated its first anniversary.

  Despite the year's many changes, from Arab Spring to economic downturn in southern Europe, the Federal Reserve has remained as unaccountable and untransparent as before.

  The Fed did nothing to reign in the predatory loan trading of Citigroup and the other Big Three. It approved the formation of a Fifth, Capital One through buying ING DIRECT, then withheld from Inner City Press and others documents about its review.

  Now amid the LIBOR interest rate fixing scandal, the Federal Reserve has denied Freedom of Information Act requests from Inner City Press and others, find court challenges or reversals unlikely.

  Monday the Federal Reserve Police were parked in front of the FRBNY's slammed shut massive doors. Across the street, the New York Police Department guarded JP Morgan Chase, while arrests were made on the corner of Pine and William Streets. Former Philadelphia police Captain Ray Lewis looked on, shaking his head.

 

Back in front of Brown Brothers Harriman, OWS protesters posed with masks of Obama and Romney. Then they set off marching behind a puppet Lady Liberty, toward Wall Street again. Watch this site.

Occupy the UN Called For As Bank of America Invited In by Ban Ki-moon, Who Excludes Africa, Proposes UN Drones

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 -- "Occupy Wall Street is coming," a UN Security officer told Inner City Press on March 23. "We've been told to get ready for them."

Inner City Press since last Fall has called on and off for an "Occupy the UN." UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his spokespeople, when Inner City Press asked questions about the mass arrest of 700 peaceful protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge or the shooting of Scott Olsen in Oakland, were slow to comment - then told Inner City Press the Oakland Police Department "acted responsibly," click here for that story.

Telling, as exposed on March 22, UN Peacekeeping is quietly proposing to intercept communications and use surveillance - drones, as member states complained to Inner City Press.

When Inner City Press asked how Ban could name as the co-chair of his "Sustainable Energy for All" group Charles Holliday, the chairman of Bank of America which has been protested as the number one funder of mountaintop removal coal mining, the UN called Holliday a responsible businessman.

Ban's adviser Robert Orr further defended Bank of America to Inner City Press; now Orr is in charge of "public private partnerships" for the UN. The UN also has a Global Compact with business which essentially blue washes multinational corporations.

When as is rare, non-violent protesters came on to UN grounds to protest Dupont, they were stopped and ejected. Apparently, there is no right to peaceful dissent in the UN.

(UN Security have their own grievances: when they were beaten by the bodyguards of a member state last September, Ban immediately apologized to the member state.)

And so it is entirely appropriate that the UN now become the target of protest by Occupy. The only question is "what took so long?" It's important to recognize that the corporate domination that will be protested is not limited to corporate lobbying of the member states that will attend the Rio + 20 conference -- the corporation have gotten into the UN Secretariat, have been invited in by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his team.

The invitations, even at the level of staff, are more and more selective. Ban is letting go his African Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro of Tanzania, to be replaced by a 71 year old European. His top Africa adviser post, Ban recently gave to an Egyptian diplomat who represented now deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak.

When Ban spoke with Yemen's Ali Saleh, Inner City Press asked Ban if he had raised the immunity deal Saleh was seeking and got, after killing over 1000 civilians. No, Ban told Inner City Press, it didn't come up.

Nor has Ban's UN admitted, much less provided compensation for, having brought cholera into Haiti.

Ban himself is, as usual, out of town. Most recently he met with the President of his native South Korea, devoting seven sentences of his read-out to North Korea, two to Syria, with a mere passing reference to Africa, congratulating Lee Myung-bak for sending a small group of engineers to the UN mission in South Sudan.

In Sudan, the UN offered free helicopter flights to Darfur genocide mastermind Ahmed Harun, despite him having been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. Ban has accepted without comment another alleged war criminal, Sri Lankan General Shavendra Silva, as his Senior Adviser on Peacekeeping.

To Syria, UN envoy Kofi Annan has an adviser Nicholas Michel, who was he was chief lawyer for the UN nevertheless took $12,000 a month from his government, as exposed by Inner City Press, to rent a seven bedroom apartment on Park Avenue. He told Inner City Press he couldn't find anything "appropriate" that was cheaper.

There is an overlap between the top echelons of the United Nations and the 1%, one hopes the connect gets made now, even if only as part of a "Mock'Upation," and even more going forward. Watch this site.

Police Push Occupy Wall Street Out of Zuccotti Park Again, American Spring?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 17 -- When Occupy Wall Street rallied Saturday night in Zuccotti Park, police began to assemble on Broadway and Liberty Street. In the part, a small green tent went up, no more than a tarp hung on a line between two trees.

There was chants about an "American Spring," and against banks: "hit the road, banks, and don't ya come back no more." Then the police moved in.

First they surged in from Broadway, pushing the crowd back. Some were arrested and pulled up to Broadway where a paddy wagon was filled.

To the south of the park, a march arrived with a band playing Irish music on bagpipes, on this St. Patrick's Day. The police shut that down too. An MTA bus showed up, "Not in Service," to be filled with other arrestees. From inside an arrested tweeted there were 16 others; it was Bus Number 6694.

A woman flopped on the sidewalk; people said she had a seizure. Photos on www.twitter.com/innercitypress; video here

While the crowd was focused on that, police and security from Brookfield Properties, the owner of the prviate public public, rushed in with metal barricades to close off the park again. Meanwhile more NYPD vehicles showed up.

As Inner City Press sought information about the woman with the seizure, a three wheel police scooter drove up fast and did not stop. It was Vehicle Number 3530, in from the 78th Precinct.

Soon a wall of police was pushing the crowd south on Broadway to Thames Street. The police pushed, and some people fell down. But the police kept pushing forward.

Who ordered this crackdown, several in the crowd asked. There was some ugly back and forth. Buzz went through the crowd of more arrests, further north, and a march set off. American Spring? One hopes the focus remains on the banks, which continue to get over. We'll see.

With UN Quiet On SCAF Crackdown in Tahrir, Protest at Egypt NY Consulate

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 21 -- Amid the continued army crackdown in Tahrir Square in Cairo, a protest was held on a rainy Wednesday in Manhattan, ten blocks north of the United Nations.

In front of the Egyptian consulate on Second Avenue, a chant went up, "Hey Obama, can't you hear, people are dying in Tahrir." A young woman told the story of a 20 year old engineering student with three sister, who was shot by the SCAF and after 30 hours in intensive care, died. Click here to view short video on Inner City Press YouTube channel.

At the UN, surprisingly little is being said about this round of violence in Egypt. Visible senior UN officialdom contains a number of former Mubarak cronies; the Permanent members of the Security Council seem to have little interest in raising the issue of Egypt as some are, for example, Syria.

The Permanent Representative of a non-permanent Security Council member approached Inner City Press and said he'd raised Egypt in the Council, and at the members' lunch with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

But Ban Ki-moon has employed, and as reported yesterday defended, Shaaban Shaaban who worked for Mubarak, click here for that story. The UN just moves on to the next issue. Watch this site.

Footnote: the protest at the Egyptian consulate had some support from activists from Occupy Wall Street. An earlier OWS "mission" to observe the elections in Egypt got canceled after Mayor Michael Bloomberg's and Brookfield Properties' eviction of Zuccotti Park (or "Liberty Square"). But OWS continues to look globally, and at banks, to it credit.

After Arrests, Occupy Wall Street Testifies in Times Square, B of A, Occupy Won't Go Away

By Matthew Russell Lee

TIMES SQUARE, December 16 -- After dozens of arrests in Duarte Square followed by a march north shadowed by police, Occupy Wall Street descended on Times Square again, chanting and testifying in a sea of tourists.

"Christmas is canceled!" a marcher yelled into the crowd. "Bloomberg arrested Santa Claus!"

The march stalled on 44th Street, with police on horses on either side. Where to go next? One long time Occupier complained to Inner City Press, "I came to occupy Wall Street, not entertain tourists." A decision was taken to proceed north to the red staircase.

There testimonials through the people's mic began, each starting with "I occupy because." There was a surfeit of idealism: occupying for starving children overseas and in the United States, for unborn children, for Egyptians blinded by pepper spray made in Pennsylvania.

A woman said she'd come from unemployed Spain to occupy Wall Street, where the global problem started. As she spoke a passing tourist shouted, "Get a job!"

They were parallel universes. Speaker after speaker denounced the neon advertisements towering above them. "This is no beauty," said one. "I hate light pollution said another," from Buffalo by way of Oregon.

In Times Square, Bank of America, Occupy Won't Go Away, cops (c) MRLee, more photos at www.twitter.com/innercitypress

Finally things turned back to financial institutions. A chant begna, "Morgan Stanley, B of A, Occupy won't go away." Here's hoping. Watch this site.