|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Joshua F. Whalen's #OWS weblog
This is NOT an official publication of #OWS
I speak only for myself. Thanks for listening!
March 18, 2013
Tonight’s Tweet of the night:
March 17, 2013
March 17, 2013
Tweet of the night
Best tweet on tonight’s march:
Tim Pool (@Timcast) 3/16/13 11:07 PM Police outnumbered protester nearly 3 to 1 on todays march #Brooklynprotest
March 17, 2013
Tonight’s march in East Flatbush
The cops behaved themselves much better tonight than on previous nights. Maybe it was the cold, wet rain that fell all afternoon at evening literally putting a damper on everyone, and making them chill.
In spite of that freezing rain, almost 200 people marched to the precinct once more, accompanied by several hundred police.
Some video and some photos. This is the raw footage off my iphone, so it’s quicktime, and it’s cinematic resolution, so be patient, they’ll take a while.
March 17, 2013
Kimani Gray’s School teachers say he was a model student
Once again, in of all the places you never expected it, the New York Post has a story of how Kimani Gray’s school teachers knew him.
March 16, 2013
Kimani Gray’s killers have been charged with misconduct and excessive force repeatedly!
See this item in, of all places, the NY Daily News! It would seem these officers have a habit of roughing up suspect and making up charges. How are we supposed to take the word of the officers over the words of the witnesses? They’ve been caught lying before.
Meanwhile, an amazing photo gallery from tonight’s march!
UPDATE 1 04:27 AM - 03/16/13:
Wow! The Examiner gets into the act! Congratulations, everyone, we are officially an issue, a cause, and a class act!
UPDATE 2 05:53 AM - 03/16/13
Dangerous minds has Jenna Pope’s version of events from Wednesday night
THis photo is way too familiar, but the comparison is right on the money
March 15, 2013
Happy Birthday!
Tonight’s my birthday, and you are ALL invited to a little get together at Odessa Bar, which is next door to Odessa Restaurant on Avenue A btw. 7th St. and St. Mark’s Place in East Village. Bring your friends, and bring yourself!! We’ll be there starting at 10 pm, and we’ll be staying until we stagger out in the wee hours of the morning! See you there!
March 14, 2013
Kimani Gray Vigil in East Flatbush
Just a quick one:
I’ve been out in East Flatbush tonight and last night. Last night, about 200+ people marched peacefully to the 67th precinct from E. 55 st. & Church Avenue. Cops arrested a couple people, early on, rather brutaly. I got some footage, but didn’t see how it began. Otherwise, there were more cops than protestors, and most in riot gear, doing their level best to seem intimidating.
Tonight was another matter entirely. more than 500 people gathered at 55th st tonight, and we began as last night, quite peacefully. Before we’d gotten 3 blocks police (and there were LOTS MORE COPS tonight than last night, more than is obvious in the footage I’ll be posting shortly, because they had dozens of reserve units on the side streets, where it was way too dark for my lousy iPwn cam to get a decent image) began trying to kettle the crowd I was trying to catch up with the front of the march, after having stood in one spot and let the crowd march past me so that viewer would get some idea of it’s size. I tried to cross back over to where they were kettling and was shoved forcibly away by several police officers. You can see the camera swing wildly for a moment when a cop shoves me hard from behind as I’m obeying his order to back away. I got a close up of him. That footage is right here.
I’m sorry the video is all quicktime. I haven’t really had time to process any of this stuff yet. I’ll have it up as standard mpegs as soon as there’s a break in the action. There’s so much more to tell, like the second attempt to kettle, and the melees and the arrest of a 14 year old girl while her father was screaming for her, here’s a link to poor quality photo of that.
I’m not sure if I got any of that part of the march, I had no memory left at a certain point, and a fairly early point. MY head is still spinning.
This is the neighborhood I grew up in. It was no paradise then, either, and honestly, by it’s looks, the old hood is thriving compared to the last time I walked down church ave 2 nites in a row, some 30+ years ago.
I’m burnt out from all the running we did. I’m toasted and frayed from all the intensity. I’ll have a real story on this soon, I promise.
I’ve gotta sleep soon, but before I go, one more thing: I’ll be going back tomorrow night, and every night, until this is over. Also, Friday is my birthday. I’ll be having a party somewhere. I’ll post the time and place here sometime early friday morning.
That’s all for now, folks! Stay tuned for more!
UPDATE: I forgot to mention, I’m tweeting this as @joshuafwhalen, and you should also follow #brooklyn, #brooklynprotest(s), #brooklynriot, #kimanigray
UPDATE 2 @ 6:39 3/14/13: First, I just read that Kimani’s family had asked for the marches to stop, and I was considering not attending tomorrow, but then i read that his sister was among the +50 people arrested tonight, so now I’m confused. I’m going tonight to find out what’s up. If his sister also wants it to stop, I’l stop, but if she was there last night, then not all of Kimani’s family want it to stop. What’s a poor blogger to do?
Second, some more footage from the march, on youtube, shot by some other brave soul, of one of the arrests: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZGN-k148TW4
Third, some insight from a tweeter:
Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallSt)
RT @jamesx61: RT @_nasdaf_: “Don’t hurt them! You’re being filmed!!!” NYPD chief to fellow officers at#BrooklynProtest #kimanigray
Also, this link has some good info: http://kreepnyc.com/2013/03/14/the-brooklyn-protest-in-pictures-march-14th/
I’ll be posting more third party material here over the course of the day. Stick around, and check back every couple hours for updates. I still haven’t slept, so I’m going to try to now.
UPDATE 3: GOTHAMIST has coverage of the story that a witness claims Kimani never had a gun. I’ve been hearing this and repeating it for two days now. Glad to see Gothamist pick it up. This is the real story, and this is why there are protests.
UPDATE 4 8:49 3/14/13: Good coverage from the voice, here: http://gothamist.com/2013/03/14/dont_shoot_me_hundreds_turn_out_for.php#photo-5 and here: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2013/03/kimani_gray_1.php
UPDATE 5 9:10 - 03/14/13: I”m staying away tonight as there is currently some controversy as to whether or not OWS people are a help or a hazard to local organizers. However, I’m monitoring the tweet feeds and will be posting their stuff as I get it. Here’s the latest links:
 |
911 Operator (@911BUFF) |
|
BROOKLYN: DAY 4! LARGE AMOUNTS OF PEOPLE GATHERING OUTSIDE 67 PCT. NYPD REQUESTING RIOT POLICE AND ARREST WAGONS FORTHWITH. #KIMANIGRAY
|
|
Video from tonights protest on youtube:
 |
Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) |
|
My god, so many police lights, it’s pretty incredible ustream.tv/channel/ows-oc… #kimanigray #brooklynprotest
|
|
|
Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) |
 |
Carrie M (@CarrieM213) |
|
My buddy Angry Pacifist is also live at the #BrooklynProtest.His stream: ustream.tv/channel/angryp… #KimaniGray
|
|
 |
Anonymous (@AnonymousOpsIRC) |
|
This is a Protest, not a Riot. Learn the difference. We want justice, nothing else. We are The People. #brooklynprotest not #brooklynriot.
|
|
UPDATE 6 10:11 - 03/14/13: Kimani Gray’s Mom begs police for explanation of why here son was hit by so many bullets:
http://globalgrind.com/news/kimani-grays-mother-speaks-out-about-sons-death-video-riots-flatbush-brooklyn-family-shot-police
Truly tragic, there’s a video as well:
UPDATE 7 - 02:05 AM - 03/15/13
This video on Youtube is horrendous - Tonight’s East Flatbush atrocity brought to you by NYPD & the 67th Precinct!
UPDATE 8 - 05:42 - 03/15/13:
 |
Rebuild commUNITY (@imatargett) |
|
“@RT_America: UPDATE: Police said to be preparing “kettle nets” as arrests continue at #BrooklynProtest:rt.com/usa/police-flo…”
|
|
 |
Jenna Pope (@BatmanWI) |
 |
REPEACE (@repeace) |
|
CALL AND DEMAND ALL CHARGES BE DROPPED IN #BROOKLYNPROTEST
Call the 71rst Precinct in Brooklyn at (718) 735-0511… fb.me/2Db6j6J6Y |
|
 |
Cali (@cdasilva) |
|
The NYPD Declares Martial Law in Brooklyn storify.com/Ashwin_B/brook…
|
|
 |
rosanna▲ (@rar_g) |
|
And where the hell is @TheRevAl in all of this?! He’s been too quiet. These people need you. They need a voice. #KimaniGray#BrooklynProtest
|
|
February 6, 2013
Heckuva storm heading our way. Be prepared.
Also keep in mind that there have been quite a few occasions when we get 3 - 6 feet of snow in a single storm or series of storms during mid-February in an otherwise mild and snowless winter. This could be one of those.
February 5, 2013
Wisdom from Twitter
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p>Obama’s drone policy so broad as to include every table tennis player in Michigan: I’m not exagger… <a href=”http://t.co/mXqmPILf” title=”http://antonyloewenstein.com/?p=65217”>antonyloewenstein.com/?p=65217</a></p>— Antony Loewenstein (@antloewenstein) <a href=”https://twitter.com/antloewenstein/status/298768978036281344”>February 5, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8”></script>
