NYPD To Put Up ID Checkpoints To Thwart OWS Anniversary

By putting up barricades and security checkpoints all over Lower Manhattan, which has not been done since 9/11, is this how the NYPD thinks it is going to serve and protect us ? Is it trying to protect us from our own Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Speech ?

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 Police State Watch: NYPD to Install Checkpoints, Demand ID in Lower Manahttan on OWS Anniversary Since when are Americans required to carry and show ID to the police to go about their daily business? Apparently since the 1% became sufficiently afraid of the 99% so as to regard the Constitutionally-guaranteed rights to assembly and free speech as security threats. This notice gives a flavor of what to expect for the September 17 celebrations of the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street (click to enlarge; hat tip nathan):

2012 09 14 Pace NYPD ID Checkpoints for Occupy Wall Street Anniversary

Original Source : Police State Watch: NYPD to Install Checkpoints, Demand ID in Lower Manahttan on OWS Anniversary

Intermediary Post : Suzannah B. Troy : Occupy Wall Street Alert Police State Watch: NYPD to Install Checkpoints

Michael Bloomberg Handschu Agreement

Note how NYPD filmed the evacuation of Liberty Square/Zuccotti Park :

Are NYPD Intelligence Division violating terms of the Handschu Agreement ?

On September 6, 2012, activists against the Fracking Pipeline that is proposed to run through the West Village organised a demonstration along the West Side Highway. At that protest, a white shirt police officer was caught video taping lawful political activities of the protesters. If the protesters were only engaged in lawful political activities on September 6, as it surely does appear, then does the monitoring of the protesters by the NYPD not violate the Handschu Agreement ?

The Handschu agreement is a court ruling from the case Handschu v. Special Services Division, 605 F.Supp. 1384, affirmed 787 F.2d 828, that brought about guidelines that regulate police behavior in New York City with regard to police monitoring of citizens' political activity (Wikipedia).

A large coalition of activist groups accused police of compiling information to punish and repress lawful dissent, according to Wikipedia.

For the last year, the NYPD and the Bloomberg administration have been monitoring the Occupy Wall Street movement since before activists began their occupation in Liberty Square. In 2011, NYPD used camcorders to videotape protesters during a march against the execution of Troy Davis. On one occasion, in 2012, Occupy activists caught the NYPD engaged in monitoring the lawful political activities by #OWS.

Because New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gives direct orders to NYPD, what kind of approval has he made about any illegal monitoring acts by the New York Police Department ? Does this video appear to show that NYPD Intelligence Division assault reporters, block news cameras, and attack the Freedom of the Press to benefit Mayor Bloomberg ?

NYPD Confiscate Protest Sign

From YouTube :

"Filmed September 1, 2012, 5.55pm, Outside the 24 hr protest of Trinity Church. I saw Captain Timoney walking down the street scanning the protesters up-and-down looking for something. He then stopped, and tried to get the attention of some patrol officers standing across the street. And when nobody came, he walked over to issue orders to the cops to..... take a cardboard box with political messaging on it. Justin Stone-Diaz tells us the backstory to this."

Fran Lebowitz OWS Mike Bloomberg

Read Also : Fran Lebowitz And Frank Rich At The Town Hall : A Review Of The State Of The Union Conversation

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Fran Lebowitz spoke about the intersection of Occupy Wall Street and Michael Bloomberg, and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

"The thing I have enjoyed the most, I have to say, about Occupy Wall Street, because I am a vengeful and superficial person, is to see Bloomberg not have any idea which way to go with this thing. ... We know how he really feels, because, I mean, this mayor is not even in the 1%. He's in the 1% of the 1%. We have a mayor, who is so rich, that he will not live in a place actually called Gracie Mansion. It's not nice enough for him, you know ? He has not in any way attracted the ire of these [activists], which is shocking to me. I mean, when I walk around and sometimes these kids talk to me, I say, 'Go to Bloomberg's house.' You know, the day that they went to rich people's houses, I said, 'Go to Bloomberg's house,' and those kids said to me,'No, no, no. He's O.K., he said we could stay.' I said, 'What are you talking about ? This isn't his city. Anybody can stay. This is not his estate.' ...

"And we've seen the new, doe-eyed Christine Quinn -- all of a sudden, champion of the people, you know, not in fact his henchman or henchwoman that she's been for the last 40 years of his mayoralty, who helped him overturn two elections in order to have this third term.

Two days after the Zucotti Park eviction, Ms. Lebowitz said, Mike Bloomberg "is a central villian in all this." In respect of Speaker Quinn, Ms. Lebowitz said, "She is an architect of this."

NBC censors Doug Biviano on YouTube

NBC works behind the scenes to ban a candidate's YouTube video which asks the Media to cover the political challengers during this year's election season.

According to a breaking news flash published by the blogger and artist Suzannah B. Troy this evening, NBC or somebody affiliated or employed by NBC has been contacting YouTube in order to remove a political candidate's controversial political Michael Moore-inspired mini-documentary about media bias. The controversial YouTube video was produced by Doug Biviano, who is challenging Joan Millman in Brooklyn's 52nd Assembly District.

Here is a new version of the banned video :

How can a news network commit censorship against a candidate during an election year ? NBC is being biased in favor of the incumbent as long as it is blocking political coverage of challengers. But it doesn't just stop there. Here we see NBC interfering with the freedom of speech of a political candidate. What if political candidates censored NBC ? How would NBC like that ? It is upon a slippery slope that NBC or its employee has put us all by contacting YouTube to ban this video.

Mayor plans to cut more first responders. Next up : street artists.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who already has a record of decimating other first responders, such as laying off firefighters and closing firehouses, laying off police, doing nothing to save critical hospitals and emergency rooms (such as St. Vincent's Hospital), has now turned his attention to the latest heroes of New York : street artists.

The Huffington Post explains the impact of the mayor's proposed cuts to street artists, not in terms of the loss of arts and culture in New York City, but in terms of national security :

"Right now, the Bloomberg administration wants to reduce park art vendors by a whopping seventy-five percent. If the city follows through with its plan, only 18 vendors would be allowed in Union Square, for example, down from the 100 or so that set up shop now on busy weekends. While the proposed changes would result in more elbow room, the regulations would also mean eighty fewer pairs of eyes that can "say something" when they "see something" suspicious in a crowded park on a summer afternoon, an appealing soft target for people bent on inflicting the most mayhem with minimal effort. Think of your typical vendor as a living, breathing time-lapse camera, attuned to subtleties we don't stick around long enough to notice. Can we really afford to risk losing so many ?"

The return of the YouTube Hater, Online Bully, and possible Identity Thief

Anonymous YouTube Hater profile hoochee003 (possibly aka BloombergForLife, CIoeBuckingham, LordCarruthers, hoochee002, et al.) strikes again.

On YouTube, we all know about members who leave nasty comments. We call them, "haters." But some members cross the line, like the owner of the anonymous profile, "hoochee003."

During the 2009 campaign for New York City mayor, hoochee003 posted many harassing comments on the activist YouTube videos that were made by Suzannah B. Troy and I. Some of hoochee003's comments were inane and harmless, but the volume of comments were sometimes great, and the fact that hoochee003 would jump from one activist's YouTube account to another showed that his intention was to harass and bully online activists.

Since many anonymous comments were posted on our videos leading up to last year's mayoral election, it has become suspicious that so many hateful, nasty, and negative comments could be generated in such a short period of time from a series of anonymous YouTube profiles. One of the anonymous profiles even represented that he was Tony Avella, the former New York City Councilman. At times, it has been thought that all of these anonymous profiles were the act of one person working under different YouTube usernames. After Ms. Troy informed the real Mr. Avella of the suspected identity theft, action was taken to suspend the fraudulent account.

As a result of the way Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Council denied voters a referendum on term limits last year, an internet community was created, in opposition to the unethical and highly questionable official acts by the Mayor and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Because many online activists were linking to each others' blogs, online posts, and YouTube videos, these anonymous profiles were able to stalk the opposing online activist community. There is evidence to show that the owner of an anonymous profile would jump from one activist's message to another's, in a series of coordinated actions, the sole intention of which could only be described as harassment.

This week, one of those anonymous YouTube profiles has returned to further post hateful comments.

If the Internet is all about the democratisation of communication and interconnectedness on a massive, world-wide scale, then there is something wrong when the likely owner of a series of YouTube profiles abuses the platform that is supposed to facilitate a two-way conversation over the Internet. Where the owner of these anonymous profiles may cross the line is that his or her actions can be deemed harassment, because the hateful comments are perpetual, there is no way to have a meaningful conversation with the profiles' owner, and the one-sided nature of the offensive comments only causes frustration and are clearly intended to disturb or upset the productive online community. It threatens to disturb, silence, or censor the independent voice of online activists, who are trying to make a positive contribute to the online community and to New York society.

From September 22-23, 2009, Ms. Troy's YouTube account was suspended by YouTube for reasons that were never clearly explained. This possible act of censorship by YouTube (many of Ms. Troy's videos involve the subjects of her art, her reviews of the arts, and her views of politics) is in striking contrast to how YouTube tolerates anonymous users like hoochee003 (and other online bullies), who post pejorative, racist, sexist, offensive, and homophobic comments.

How can YouTube respect hoochee003's freedom of speech, when it clearly lacks the integrity to respect Ms. Troy's ?

Bloomberg opposes free speech

Freedom of Speech doesn't exist under Mike Bloomberg's version of New York.

"Shocking video clips of police brutality and arrests during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City. Mayor Michael Bloomberg directed the NYPD to stifle Constitutional rights of free speech and freedom of assembly by stopping any 'protests' that may embarrass George W. Bush and the Republican party. Clips in this video are two days before the Convention even began, when police arrested 250 people during the Critical Mass bike ride, a non-partisan event which has occurred every month since 1994. Even more shocking, many of those being arrested had nothing to do with the bike ride, but had the misfortune of crossing the street while this was happening. Clips are from the documentary 'Watch This!' by Glass Bead Collective released under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC) license."

Part 1 :

Part 2 :