Sit In & Arrests by NY Stock Exchange, After Eviction Occupy Wall Street Continues

By Matthew Russell Lee

LOWER MANHATTAN, November 17 -- Two days after the Occupy Wall Street encampment on Liberty Street was evicted, demonstrators converged two blocks south on Pine Street.

They were met with riot equipped police. A sit in at the intersection of William Street and Pine ensued complete with arrests, sometimes violent, and chants from the crowd about shutting Wall Street down.

From the raised esplanade of Chase Manhattan Plaza bank worker looked down on the mass arrests. Referring to the bailouts, a sign asked of the JPMorgan Chase CEO, "Jaime Dimon, I want my money back!"

The crowd chanted "shame" as police pushed a protester's face into the asphalt. "Get back on the sidewalk," a policeman in a visor and helmet ordered Inner City Press. The crowd began singing the National Anthem. Overhead police helicopters hovered.

An arrest video is here, on Inner City Press' YouTube channel

Police prepare arrests at sit-in, Pine & William St, #N17 (c) MRLee

On the way to the sit in, a rag tag jazz band played. A group dressed in foliage held signs, "Shrubs Against Hedge Fund Abuse" and chanted, "Bloomberg beware, Liberty Park is everywhere."

Whether the New York Stock Exchange was shut or slowed down wasn't known to the crowd. Those leaving to head elsewhere to work, for example to cover the UN Security Council at 10 am, found that the 4 and 5 train IRT subways weren't working.

The day previous in Washington, the #OccupyDC camp in McPherson Square was peaceful.

#OccupyDC in drizzle, McPherson #N16 (c) MRLee

The Occupiers had targeted a building owned by Brookfield Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park and asked for the eviction. On Constitution Avenue at the Federal Reserve Board, police patrols the landscaped grounds.

In Fed's temple #N16, #OccupyTheFed not shown (c) MRLee

But that's another story. Watch this site.

UN Silent on Haiti Evictions, Says Rented Love Boat is Not a Luxury

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/haiti1dsg041510.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- While the UN speaks of the humane relocation of Haitians, on April 9 the Haitian National Police summarily evicted over 7000 people from the Sylvio Cator soccer stadium in Port-au-Prince. The stadium's managers said that "the Taiwanese are planning to repair the bleachers and replace the artificial turf," which the earthquake survivors had reportedly damaged.

The UN had send Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro to Haiti for the three month anniversary of the January 12 earthquake. On April 15, Inner City Press asked DSG Migiro if the UN had planned any role in the eviction, if the UN had been informed by the HNP, which UN officials have described as a "partner," prior to the evictions.

DSG Migiro said that despite her visit, she was unaware of the eviction. She said that some relocations are involuntary, but are intended to move people to higher ground before the rainy season. Those in the soccer stadium, however, were merely given one small tent per family, and were otherwise left to fend for themselves.

By contrast, the UN system has rented luxury cruise ships on which to house its international staff. Inner City Press asked Ms. Migiro about these ships. She disputed that they were luxury liners, despite the ship's owner's own photographs. She said she had been aware of the controversy, but had not visited the ships.

After her press conference, several correspondents remarked how her presentation style has improved since the halting and hurried MDGs presentations earlier in her tenure. The Secretariat's communications arm, on the other hand, seems to be moving backwards. Wednesday that Office said it would explain why Ms. Migiro's predessessor Mark Malloch Brown was at the UN Chief Executives Board meetings last week in Vienna. But a day later, no answer has been provided.

Footnotes: Later on Thursday, as SG Ban Ki-moon marched with his entourage into the Security Council, Mr. Ban asked Inner City Press about the new press arrangements. We still have less access that before, Inner City Press replied, but pointed out that after a fight, the press was allowed in a pen in front of the Council entrance. Mr. Ban indicated, seemingly joking, that this made him more vulnerable. But there are questions to be answered.

Among them is why the UN said nothing when it learned that its U.S. staff member Louis Maxwell and other colleagues in Kabul were quite possible killed by Afghan National forces and not the Taliban. Already this week Mr. Ban has said he was unaware of the case of Al-Tijani Al-Sissi Ateem, who was recruited as a pro-government Darfur rebel leader by the UN-AU mediator Djibril Bassole while Ateem was being paid as a UN staffer. (Inner City Press has been promised both contact information for Mr. Bassole, and a further answer about his activities, neither of which has yet been provided).

Will Ban say he is unaware of the troubling case of Louis Maxwell? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/haiti1dsg041510.html

As HABITAT Meets in Brazil Before Sports Evictions, No Angola Follow-up

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1evictions040310.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- While the UN talks a good game, often neither neither the past or future's solved. Taking UN HABITAT, which bragged on April 1 about its World Urban Forum in Brazil. Inner City Press asked, what about the threatened evictions for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics? We talked about that, was the answer. But what if any commitments were obtained?

Previously, when HABITAT held an event in Angola, Inner City Press asked about evictions there. HABITAT responded that it chose to stay quiet, in exchange for a commitment that some percentage of Angola's oil would be devoted to poor housing.

But the evictions have continued, have gotten worse in fact. Click here. When Inner City Press raised this on April 1, HABITAT's presented implied that the purpose of the evictions was to create better housing for the poor. Video here. But in fact in these evictions, no replacement housing was promised, no recompense for that destroyed.

Twice, the HABITAT representatives highlighted that their conference was held in a previously derelict port area, and therefore did not itself displace people but rather "revitalized." One wonders of HABITAT's views on gentrification and other forms of displacement.

Just focusing on sports events, what did the UN or HABITAT do in the face of, according to the UN itself,

1.5 million people displaced for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. "Residents were relocated on a large scale. Mass evictions were reported, sometimes conduced by unidentified men."

2010 - World Cup in South Africa

More than 20,000 residents have been removed and transferred to impoverished areas of the city. The minister for Housing noted that plans to build thousands of low-cost housing units could be affected by changes in the demands of the World Cup budget.

2010 - Commonwealth Games in New Delhi

In New Delhi, India, 35,000 families were evicted from public land in preparation for the games.

Where is HABITAT on this? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1evictions040310.html