OLBERMANN: Anjali Mullany, reporter of the New York Daily News has tweeted at this hour that police are indeed pepper spraying, and arresting Occupy Wall Street protesters, on Wall Street.
Additionally, I can see protesters in kettled area, on Wall and Broadway doing jazz hands in air.
Additionally, we had told you earlier from Ryan Devereaux of Democracy Now! -- who was on the program earlier in the week -- that he reports from Broadway and Wall Street, protesters attempted to enter the Wall Street area after the, basically 12-block march from Foley Square back to Zuccotti Park via city hall, that police pushed back, fights ensued, random pepper spraying into the crowd that tried to occupy Wall Street, literally, to get onto Wall Street. Police on horseback came out, more police showed up, arrests were made, and Ryan Devereaux said he personally saw at least 20 people arrested. Obviously nothing close to the 700 at Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday, but barricades were knocked down, and so after an extraordinarily peaceful, and accomplish filled day, the Occupy Wall Street protesters, as night falls in New York, it's an entirely different scene, and we're gonna continue to provide you with details as they come into us here at the control desk.
For the whole of the time that the Occupy Wall Street protesters have been making their case for a sea change in the way we Americans permit big business to draw and quarter, and circumscribe our lives. Media -- too corrupt or too dense to understand anything more complicated than whether the blonde is missing, or verdict is guilty -- have parroted "What do they want? What is their catch phrase?"
In our third story, it is not a catch phrase, but it is a declaration of what they want. That the document -- which I will read in full in a moment -- is not a list of laws to be repealed nor politicians to be elected, may only confuse the precocious ninth graders now passing for TV anchors and news men these days, but the absence of the kind of painted footsteps with which they used to mark the floors of dance-instruction studios is -- in a way -- breathtaking.
The two by four that Errol Louis described -- it implies that there is so much to change, that such a tipping point has been reached, that some easy to apply band-aids just are not going to be enough -- and it implies that the commentators, and politicians, and moneyed interests that do not come to understand the scope of what must change will be without influence, and without power before they realize that the change has happened.
So with that as preamble, here is formerly and finally, what Occupy Wall Street says and wants. It is, in essence, their special comment:
"As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members. That our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors. That a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people, and the Earth, and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.
We come to you at a time when corporations -- which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality -- run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here as is our right to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in workplaces based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is, itself, a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut worker's health care and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams, but look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products, endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people's lives, or provide relief in order to protect investments that have
already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully kept people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners, even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City general assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble, occupy public space, create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard."
The statement issued from Zuccotti Park by the general assembly at Occupy Wall Street. We will continue, and we'll continue to update you on the events and the violence that ensued this evening.
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