Ron Baird, news editor
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Posts by Ron Baird, news editor
Another beat-down of Denver’s homeless
02 days ago
To the surprise of no one, the “Criminalize Homelessness” ordinance put forth by the Denver City Council passed by a vote of 9-4. To call this a “camping ban” is disingenuous at best — camping is something people with houses do.
Council member Montero accused us tonight of being Hit and Run activists. What is really hit and run is the ordinance itself.
If we take the city at its word, and not at the verbiage of this fascist piece of legislation, we are expected to believe that there will be few arrests, and then only after unavailable services have been offered.
Chief White says that the police will have a “light touch.” We would like to remind the city that Denver County Jail is no day spa, in fact we’re quite sure there’s not a hot tub in the building.
The Denver Police claim that this bill will be selectively enforced. What that means, literally, is that if they don’t like where you are, who you are, or what you stand for, then you might be arrested. We remember when the Patriot Act was passed, we were told that it would only apply to terrorists, now petty NSA surveillance, TSA strip-searches, and the death of habeas corpus are an accepted reality to all Americans.
Homelessness is the ultimate symptom of a dying economy. To arrest people for sleeping on the streets because you don’t like the way it looks, is like throwing pumpkin seeds at an oncoming bear.
Lopez was right, “this is class war.”
Unfortunately, the front line is now the most vulnerable members of our community.
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Occupy Denver upcoming events
05 days ago
Occupy Denver Video On Camping Ban: http://vimeo.com/41951808
The Downtown Denver People’s Partnership including organizations like the Denver Catholic Worker and Occupy Denver will conduct a series of protests leading up to the Monday night city council vote on an ordinance that will criminalize the survival act of sleeping by our homeless friends. The protests seek to highlight the business influence pushing this ordinance through city council.
Saturday, May 12th Actions:
6:00 to 8:00 pm: Protest at the Palm Restaurant, 1672 Lawrence Street, Denver, CO 80202 (map) and other members of the Downtown Denver Partnership supporting this ordinance. Meet at 5:30 pm in Lincoln Park if you’d like to march to the Palm Restaurant via City Hall.
8:00 pm overnight: Mass overnight sleep-in protest in front of the Downtown Denver Partnership, 511 16th Street, Denver, CO 80202 (Between Glenarm Place and Welton Street) (map). Bring your sleeping bags and/or blankets for an all night sleep-in.
Monday, May 14th Actions:
Noon to 5:30 pm: Bring your sleeping bags and/or blankets for a day-long rally on the City Council steps (City and County Building, 1437 Bannock St, Denver, Colorado 80202). From noon until 5:30 there will be a series of actions and speeches highlighting the injustice of this ordinance. The City and County Building will be open to the public, let your voice be heard.
4:30 pm: Rally to OPPOSE the “Urban Camping” Ban at the City and County Building (1437 Bannock St, Denver, Colorado 80202)
Corporate and business interests in downtown Denver coalesce in the Downtown Denver Partnership, an organization that believes the homeless “will drive future conventions, tourists, residents and businesses from downtown.” Partnership members control billions of dollars of assets. The opportunities to obtain funds for campaigns and city services from the corporations represented by the partnership are clearly tempting city council members away from their duty to listen to the people who elected them and to find compassionate ways to eradicate homelessness.
The Downtown Denver People’s Partnership has information from a reliable source that the partnership has been discussing this ordinance for two years. After the ordinance emerged from “embargo” at Councilman Brooks’ office, it has consistently appeared like a “done deal.” City council insiders Shepherd and Lopez have consistently pointed this out. Before the ordinance passed first reading, Councilwoman Shepherd said, “I know the way this vote is going to go. I know it. And I think you all know how this vote is going to go too. And unfortunately, the sad thing about it, is that it has been like that from day one.”
While this ordinance was embargoed, Mayor Hancock and Councilman Brooks bypassed consulting the Denver Homeless Commission, the Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation and the homeless themselves. Little effort was made to pair adequate resources with the ordinance.
While the Bill Request specifically states that ordinances like this “are justified on the basis protecting the health, safety and general welfare of the public,” the ordinance was assigned to the Land Use committee instead of the Health and Safety committee. As Councilman Lopez pointed out, this was done so that it would advance. All amendments to make the ordinance safer have been rejected.
Mayor Hancock is already training the police on implementing this ordinance before it has even passed.
Protests
The Downtown People’s Partnership plans to protest Palm Restaurant, the Colorado Restaurant Association and other members of the Downtown Denver Partnership that are supporting this ordinance. Colorado Restaurant Association members voted unanimously to support criminalizing homelessness. We will then conduct an all night sleep-in protest in front of the partnership itself.
Tamara Door, CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership, spoke strongly in favor of the ordinance criminalizing homelessness at the city council public hearing. Door believes that, “Unauthorized camping poses a threat to the health and safety of the city’s residents, employees, visitors and to the unauthorized campers themselves.” As the Downtown Denver People‘s Partnership conducted their first sleep-in protest last week in front of The Pavillions on 16th Street Mall, we did not notice any overwhelming health and safety issues for “unauthorized campers”. On the contrary, we appreciated the well lit, safe environment provided by the 16th Street Mall.
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Occupy Denver goes after the big BAD boys Wed.
02 months ago
http://occupydenver.org/anti-alec-protest-229/
Occupy Denver, in solidarity with 60 other cities in the USA, will be holding an anti-ALEC guided tour of downtown Denver. ALEC, the American legislative exchange council is a non-profit free market policy group, with a membership of over 2000 legislators.
It works with major corporations to draft and pass legislation that benefits major corporations. It is best known for drafting anti union legislation in Wisconson and SB 1070 in Arizona. Legally it is not considered to be a lobbying group, yet is arguably the most dangerous “lobbyist” in the United States. ALEC’s collaborators include mega corporations such at ExxonMobil, Bank of America, BP, Monsanto, Pfizer, Wal-Mart, any many others.
For a complete list of ALEC corporations visit the source watch website. For a complete list of politicians that are involved, click here. For more information on ALEC visit alecexposed.org.
Occupy Denver will be rallying on 2/29 at 3PM in Civic Center park where we will depart on a guided tour/march of ALEC corporations in downtown Denver. Come prepared to learn and protest!
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Occupy Denver : “Government ready to go to war on it’s own people”
03 months ago
ALTERNATE FEED, GATHERING SET OUTSIDE DEMO. FUNDRAISER SAT.
At 5 PM On Saturday February 11th Occupy Denver will be holding a “no confidence” rally outside of the democratic fundraiser taking place in the Sheradon in downtown Denver. This fundraiser is called “The Jefferson Jackson Dinner,” tickets are $125 all the way up to $10,000. We will be holding a “no confidence” voting booth outside of the event. Participants will be invited to cast a simple vote of “no confidence” as an act of protest against the current state of our government. Also joining us at this rally will be our comrades The Thunderdome, the radical kitchen that served up thousands of free gourmet meals to anyone who came to Occupy Denver during the first few months of the occupation. Unlike the 1% dinner taking place inside, The Thunderdome will be serving free food to everyone.
In the wake of brutal repression of Occupies across america, the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act, the militarization of the US police force and the growing rich and poor gap it has become obvious that the government is ready to go to war with its own people. Obama, the Democrats and their “get out the vote” organizations are use the language of the Occupy movement for their own ends while ignoring the brutality that Occupiers have endured by the state that claims to protect them. Our government cheered on protestors in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and across Eastern Europe. When those same protests erupted in the US they slandered us in the mainstream media, threw provocateurs into our midst to disrupt our activities and attacked us brutally, repeatedly. What we are seeing in the US is a modern reincarnation of the same social movements that got us the 8 hour work day, minimum wage, and civil rights, and our government is engaging in business as usual. We will not stand for the phony populism on display in Washington DC. We are not fighting for a few token gestures so we can all go home and feel good, we are engaging in a ruthless criticism of everything. Today less than 1% controls the wealth and thus the politics in this country, much of it facilitated by dinners like these.
This $10,000 fundraiser is held in a time where more people have signed up for food stamps then ever and homelessness has been nearly criminalized in Denver. In front of Civic Center Park, many of our houseless brothers hold down the Occupation 24-7. The state has taken our tents, our structures and our sleeping bags yet our comrades on The Row have built an enduring community there. Many folks are awoken every night with police throwing their things around and generally harassing them, this is what it has come to on the streets of Denver. Many people ask why our homeless brothers and sisters don’t go to shelters? Did you know that there isn’t enough beds in Denver to sleep 50% of the homeless population? Democracy is ugly and our government’s treatment of the least priviledged among us is despicable.
Voting is often held up as the highest form of civic duty in the US. It is often said that if you can’t vote you can’t complain. So join us on February 11th, you can cast your vote for no confidence with us, whether you vote no confidence in the Democrats, Obama, Capitalism, or our form of government… your voice will be heard. If this government wishes to survive, it surely must stop selling the seat at the table to the highest bidder.
We will be gathering at 5PM In front of the Sheradon. 1550 Court Place Denver Colorado
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Occupy Denver — buy locally; boycott corporate exploiters
05 months ago
OCCUPY DENVER ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR BUY LOCAL BLACK FRIDAY
This Black Friday Occupy Denver has opted not to disrupt the activities of normal Americans as they go about their Christmas shopping. While we stand in Solidarity with several branches of the Occupy movement in observance of “Buy Nothing Day,” and “Boycott Walmart,” we also urge you to shop at local small businesses and artisan stores on this day. We are in the midst of this financial crisis largely because everything in our homes is currently manufactured overseas. This shift in manufacturing has deteriorated the United States labor market and eliminated our foothold as the most dominant economy in the world. The local small businesses and artisan shops of Denver survive on a slim margin and we urge you to consider them in your Black Friday shopping plans. If you are looking for products you may not be able to find in Denver, we urge you to try ETSY or look online for the independent equivalent.
We at Occupy Denver know that we can’t buy our way out of the massive problems we face. What we also know is that we can hit these mega exploiters where it hurts, like we did with the banks last month for Bank Transfer Day; in the pocketbook.
We stand in Solidarity with branches of the Occupy Movement across the Country who have denoted Walmart as one of the main enemies of American Labor. One measure of Walmart’s, and all corporations’, success is sales on Black Friday, so we urge all Americans to shop elsewhere. Avoid the Cherry Creek mall and all bastions of Corporatocracy in Denver. Spend the day with your loved ones and support your local economy. For a directory of locally owned businesses please try http://businessdirectory.bizjournals.com/denver/shopping_consumer_services
For more information, please visit occupydenver.org, or contact Occupy Denver at media-pr@occupydenver.org.
