LAPD's "Finest Hour", Illegal Foreclosures, the 1% with the 99%

1,400+ police in Los Angeles in riot and biohazard gear clear occupiers                                 

I heard an officer from the LAPD  boasting that they had done the eviction at Occupy Los Angeles on Wednesday without using pepper spray or tear gas. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa went so far to say it “was the finest hour in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department."

It seemed like a tiny victory, in a sea of unconstitutional police actions. I thought maybe they are finally getting it - police brutality against peaceful protesters is morally repugnant, un-Constitutional and only increases support for the occupiers- then I heard more about the eviction.

Why were there over 1,400 police in riot and hazmat gear? Then I read this article in which, Yasha Levine describes the deplorable conditions nonviolent protesters in Los Angeles experienced while in custody.

"The disgraceful truth is that a lot of the abuse was police sadism, pure and simple," says Levine.
Read more.


Scott Olsen

Scott Olsen- back to the scene of the crime  Credit: indybay.org screen shot

"I liked everything about Occupy — getting the money out of politics, getting people back into their homes", says Scott Olsen, the Iraq War Vet who was critically injured by Oakland Police Oct 25. He just got out of the hospital- and although his speech is halting, he has made a remarkable recovery.

From Truthout-
When asked what he might like to say "to politicians or the Chamber of Commerce or to Occupy Oakland," Olsen responds as he flashes another smile along with a peace sign, "To all of them, I would have to say, stay peaceful, because that's what this is about. It's about working together. Working with one another. And it's about being open with each. And that's how we can solve our problems."
Read more

Banks May have Illegally Foreclosed on 5,000 Members of the Military (like we need another reason to hate the banks)
http://www.truth-out.org/banks-may-have-illegally-foreclosed-5000-members-military/1322589950

The 1% who stand with the 99% say "Raise our taxes!"
Members from Responsible Wealth (there are now a few groups of wealthy individuals advocating for higher taxes) had this to say.

"The idea that business owners and wealthy individuals will not invest unless marginal income tax rates and capital gains rates are low is a myth, and should not be used to justify further extensions of tax cuts for the wealthy. We invest when there is a profit to be made, not because tax rates on our profits are low. History shows that when marginal tax rates and capital gains rates were much higher than today, including the 1950s and 1960s and as recently as the 1990s, the economy was strong, investments were made, businesses thrived and millions of jobs were created."
 http://www.truth-out.org/patriot-millionaires-let-bush-tax-cuts-expire-once-and-all/1322506362

Sorry Mitt- Corporations are NOT People- Time to Take Our Power Back!
"From the founding of America to the late 1800s, governments routinely revoked corporate charters, forcing the liquidation and the sale of assets. Banks were shut down for behaving in a "financially unsound" way in Ohio, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania. And when corporations that ran the turnpikes in New York and Massachusetts didn’t keep their roads in repair, those states gave the corporations the death sentence."
http://www.truth-out.org/if-we-end-corporate-personhood-we-can-define-terms-new-economy/1321986003