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Occupy Denver — buy locally; boycott corporate exploiters
Nov 24th
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.
Occupy Denver “Not going anywhere” in spite of arrests
Nov 14th
Once again, the DPD reaffirms its position as the most violent police force in the United States. Officers assaulted demonstrators who were just standing on the sidelines. An officer waited until a protester turned around and hit him in the back three times. They assaulted people verbally, including threats to “break the teeth” of protesters. One officer told another officer to “SHOOT EM!! SHOOT EM NOW!” One protester was struck by an officer on a motorcycle and was hospitalized. Protesters were kettled and shot with pepper-balls, according to Colorado Street Medics, who found pepper-ball shells at the scene of last night’s incident. The shooting took place at 14th and Speer, eventually forcing the group to move to 16th St. Mall, where diners and theater-goers were present. The police action resulted in the closing of the 16th St. Mall bus system for civilian safety. Police actions put the general public in harms way, for no reason. All of this dangerous mayhem, completely instigated by police under the orders of our Mayor, was directed at peaceful protesters. Protestors were followed, intimidated and hunted by the police for hours after the eviction, proving that this was not about Civic Center park, but an attempt to aggressively confront the Occupy movement. These are certainly the kind of actions one might expect from the Egyptian Police in the last days of the Arab Spring, but not in Denver….
Our calls for the state to respect our first amendment rights have apparently fallen on deaf ears. Our attempts to negotiate through the city council, the mayor, and the governor have turned up nothing concrete. The first amendment states that it is illegal for the state to make any laws “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” For the Occupy Movement, the ability to assemble in tents is a form of free speech, and our constitutional rights have clearly been violated. The state and local governments are both in violation of the U.S. Constitution, as they are also in violation of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We call on the Department of Justice and the UN Human Rights Commission to look into these allegations as we assert our right to freely assemble peacefully.
So far almost 4,000 folks have been arrested at Occupy demonstrations around the country, yet not a single one of the Wall Street criminals responsible for the financial ruin we find ourselves in has. We have mobilized against the greatest concentration of power known to man, and like all empires of the past, we know this one will not go down without a fight. It’s been little over a month, and we can already see the tremendous positive impact the Occupy movement has had. For the fourth time in a month, they may have blocked off our park from us, but we are not going anywhere.
-Occupy Denver General Assembly
Occupy Denver elects dog as CEO: Mayor Hancock brunt of ridicule
Nov 8th
OCCUPY DENVER ELECTS LEADER
In response to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s insistence that Occupy Denver choose leadership to deal with City and State officials, and drawing inspiration from the notion that corporations are people, Occupy Denver’s General Assembly has elected a leader: Shelby, a three year old Border Collie. “Shelby is closer to a person than any corporation: She can bleed, she can breed, and she can show emotion. Either Shelby is a person, or corporations aren’t people,” said a Shelby supporter at the time of her election.
Occupy Denver reserves the right to alter leadership status, but for now, Shelby exhibits heart, warmth, and an appreciation for the group over personal ambition that Occupy Denver members feel are sorely lacking in the leaders some of them have voted for on national, state, and local levels. Accordingly, Occupy Denver looks forward to communication with Mayor Hancock and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper sometime this week to introduce their leadership.
Newly-elected leader Shelby will be leading this Saturday’s Occupy Denver march against Corporate Personhood, and invites all other civic minded dogs (and their leash-holders) to join.