On Thursday, Sept. 1st, a small group of demonstrators were met with police intimidation while performing a peaceful and legal occupation of a public sidewalk on Wall Street for a single night. Nine were arrested for disorderly conduct and later released without charge. One demonstrator was held for 24 hours because he was unable to provide proof of residency.

This demonstration was intended to serve as a one night test run for the September 17th occupation using the "legal encampment" strategy. According to a federal court ruling in 2000, the use of "public sleeping as a means of symbolic expression" is allowed on public sidewalks in New York City. (METROPOLITAN COUNCIL, INC., Plaintiff, -against- HOWARD SAFIR, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department, et al., June 12, 2000 [99 F. Supp. 2d 438; 2000 U.S. Dist.]). The demonstrators of Bloombergville also employed this tactic for an occupation that lasted a few weeks.

Despite fully obeying the law, demonstrators were still met with police harassment and intimidation. This event serves to remind us that we're living in a police state with absolutely no respect for the right of the people to peacefully assemble and exercise their constitutional free speech. But we will not be scared away or deterred. This abuse of authority by the NYPD only serves to strengthen our resolve and reinforce our belief that corruption and injustice in America must be fought.

More will be coming September 17th.

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet-less-two-weeks-away.html

Hey you jammers, dreamers, patriots and revolutionaries out there,

Our occupation of Wall Street is less than two weeks away … do we have it together?

The perpetrators of the massive financial fraud have been allowed to slip quietly from the scene and continue business as usual. Our elected representatives in Washington have become so tightly intertwined with the financiers and bankers that public accountability has all but vanished.

OCCUPYWALLSTREET is all about breaking up that cosy relationship between money and politics and bringing the perpetrators of the financial crash of 2008 to justice.

On September 17, 20,000 of us will descend on Wall Street, the iconic financial center of America, set up a peaceful encampment, hold a people's assembly to decide what our one demand will be, and carry out an agenda of full-spectrum, absolutely nonviolent civil disobedience the likes of which the country has not seen since the freedom marches of the 1960s.

From our encampment we will launch daily smart mob forays all over lower Manhattan … peaceful, creative happenings in front of Goldman Sachs; the SEC; the Federal Reserve; the New York Stock Exchange … and maybe even, if we can figure out where they're being held, at the sites of Obama's private $38,500 per person fundraising events happening somewhere in Manhattan on Sept. 19 and 20.

Our strategy will be that of the master strategist Sun Tzu: "appear at points which the enemy must hasten to defend; march swiftly to places where you are not expected."

With a bit of luck, and if fate is on our side, we may be able to turn all of lower Manhattan into a site of passionate democratic contestation – an American Tahrir Square.

We will do all this with peace in our hearts. Our unshakable commitment to nonviolence will give us the spiritual strength we need to inspire the nation and to ultimately triumph in the weeks and maybe months of struggle that will unfold after September 17.

for the wild, Culture Jammers HQ

occupywallstreet.org / occupywallst.org / Reddit / Facebook

PS. Last week Anonymous endorsed #OCCUPYWALLSTREET with a video that attracted over 70,000 views. The Department of Homeland Security has warned the nation's bankers to be prepared. Corporate owned media is taking notice. Yesterday, a columnist for MarketWatch.com posted a rousing portrait of what may now unfold:

"Listen closely. This is not another internecine political squabble. These revolutionaries are pushing America back to its roots. You sense they're drafting a new Declaration of Independence, driven by the same powerful motivations as the 57 original signers who wrote: 'Whenever any form of government becomes destructive … it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.' Back in 1776 King George III was the destructive force far away. Today greed is the corruptor, from within."

S17 occupations of financial districts are also being planned in Milan, Madrid, Valencia, London, Lisbon, Athens, San Francisco and hopefully many other cities still to be announced. S17 could well be the catalyst that ushers in a new global economic order.