OCCUPY WALL STREET -- November 15, 2011 at 5:14 PM EDT
Occupy Demonstrations Under Pressure Around the Nation
Rev. Ann Kantsfield faces off with NYPD at the Canal Street site. (Arun Venugopal/WNYC)
What began as the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York nearly two months ago has now spread to cities across the United States. Here is a roundup of some of the most recent developments in the movement, as reported by our public media partners around the country.
WNYC gives a complete update on the original Occupy Wall Street, where protesters in New York engaged in a legal battle Tuesday over their right to return to their de facto headquarters in Lower Manhattan just hours after they were evicted in the middle of the night. A State Supreme Court judge upheld the city's right to prevent Occupy Wall Street protesters from camping at Zuccotti Park.
Judge Upholds New York City Ban on Camping in Zuccotti Park,
Watch a photo slideshow of the police raid early Tuesday morning.
WNYC's It's a Free Country blog considers the potential galvanizing effect that the removal of Occupy Wall Street protesters could have on Occupy demonstrations across the country.
After the raid of Occupy Oakland early Monday morning, students and faculty at University of California Berkeley continued their demonstrations and are planning to walk out of classes to protest tuition hikes and budget cuts in an action they're calling "Occupy Cal," KQED reports. The tactics used by U.C. Berkeley police last week during Occupy Cal peaceful demonstrations are being heavily criticized.
The Informant blog of KALW in San Francisco reports that the ACLU of Northern California and the National Lawyers' Guild filed a federal civil rights suit against the Oakland Police Department Tuesday, alleging repeated violations of the department's own crowd control policies in response to Occupy Oakland and asking for an emergency temporary restraining order against Oakland Police. The city of Oakland has been court ordered to respond to the suit by end of Tuesday.
In Portland, OPB hosts a conversation between the mayor and several occupiers on Tuesday about where the movement may go next after being closed down on Sunday. Observers are applauding how police and protesters handled the tense standoff, although the police have also calculated that responding to the movement has cost the city over $750,000, mostly in overtime pay for police.
WUNC reports that police issued a statement defending their response to demonstrators who occupied a vacant building in Chapel Hill, N.C. Officers had moved into the building with assault rifles Sunday evening and charged seven people with breaking and entering.
Protesters on top of a wall at Canal Street and Sixth Avenue.(Photo by Arun Venugopal/WNYC). Part of the Occupy Cal protest on U.C. Berkeley's Sproul Plaza. (Photo by Ana Tintocalis/KQED). Oakland Police face off with the Occupy Oakland camp on October 25, 2011. (Photo by Ali Winston/KALW). A protester pleads with police during a demonstration near the Occupy Portland encampment November 13, 2011 in Portland, Oregon.(Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images)
