Local groups Band of Rebels and Occupy Rochester join with a bus load from Occupy Wall Street to protest Wells Fargo's support of privately run prisons.
It's been a while, but Rochester IMC is back, here to stay, and hopefully better than ever. We've upgraded our server software and are excited to start building up the new site with all of you. Let's talk about some of the new features!
New Frontpage Layout
Our frontpage has gotten a face lift. Features are now displayed in a slideshow format on the top of the page. We think it looks pretty, but more importantly, it gives us room to put the local newswire in the middle column instead of stashed away on the side. This means that as soon as anyone posts a local news article, it will go directly to the center column of the front page. For readers, this means more/faster site updates, and for writers this means that your articles will be more prominently displayed.
Below are links to videos on our IndyTV.blip.tv video channel that you may have missed while Rochester.Indymedia.org was being redesigned! Just click the titles to take you to the videos and enjoy!
This is a 20 minute mini-documentary about the Rochester City School District Board of Education contracting with Ray & Associates, Inc.--an expensive, corporate superintendent search firm with ties to the Eli Broad Superintendents Academy--and the community's struggle and response to such attacks on public education.
In this 4 minute piece, Ryan Acuff talks about negotiations between the City of Rochester and Occupy Rochester to continue the occupation of Washington Square Park for another two months as per the contract signed by Mayor Richards on November 10, 2011 allowing occupiers full legal right to occupy the park in downtown.
In this 7 minute video, we see members of Occupy Rochester describe being awakened by police asking for identification at 2AM on February 2, 2012. One occupier had the wherewithal to record some of the interaction.
Local filmmaker and journalist--Davy V.--wrote an article, in Minority Reporter, calling out Rochester radio station 103.9FM WDKX for not supporting communities of color in Rochester. On January 12, 2012, Davy decided to hit the streets to bring his criticisms of the station to the people.
Here is WSQT Radio (90.5 in DC, 2 hour broadcasts) coverage of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City. For the weekend, the central part of Wall Street has been blocked off while thousands or protesters have been swarming everywhere else nearby. If protesters can force the cops to keep the barricades Monday, the resulting traffic could itself severely hobble Wall Street's operations!
On Tuesday the New York State legislature passed Governor Andrew Cuomo's austerity budget. 1500 children, parents, educators, students, and activists rallied outside the Senate and Assembly chambers to defend their interests.
On Friday, November 5th, former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was sentenced for the shooting death of Oscar Grant, III. Mehserle received the minimum jail sentence possible from Judge Robert Perry, two years. Subtracting the 146 days Mehserle has already been behind bars in an LA County jail and another 146 days for "good behavior," he is expected to be released from state prison in less than one year from now. Concerned community members gathered together in Frank Ogawa Plaza by Oakland City Hall to respond to the sentencing and to honor Oscar. Police arrested 152 people in a march that followed.
This afternoon, in the midst of a blizzard, about 30 Buffalonians came out to protest conditions at the Erie County Holding Center. Today's protest was exceptionally emotional as it comes the weekend after another inmate committed suicide, the 5th hanging suicide since 2007 and the 11th overall in the center since 2003.
Severe police repression continued in Rochester, NY for the 5th consecutive night. The Rochester police crackdown started at about midnight when about 60 police forcibly violated the people of Rochester’s rights and evicted them from Washington Square Park. The 16 arrested transformed the Rochester 32 to the Rochester 48 who have been arrested enforcing their [...]
From the newswire: "Martin Macias, Jr., a credentialed freelance journalist who contributes to Vocalo.org, the online and new media outlet for Chicago Public Radio, was turned back from the Canadian border late Saturday night.
America’s majority who supported the Occupy Wall Street movement (OWS), within the 99% of all Americans, are being smeared by agent propagandists within the punditry of mainstream media (MSM). For example, Michael Gerson’s black demagoguery, of the closet-right-wing Washington Post, is a good example. In one of his recent columns he declared the OWS movement seems little more than a “…confused set of grievances…†and paints the movement to have little ideological coherence save Marxist socialism and anarchy. Equally he attempts to blame the Democratic Party (that he claims is their “desperate†political calculation) for this phenomenon of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement.
On October 28, 2011, Warren Barnes entered judge Melchor E. Castro's court at 10:32 AM. He was arrested on June 27 for refusing to give his name to an officer attempting to write him a ticket for jaywalking. He was charged with obstruction of governmental administration for not identifying himself. Barnes crossed a less-than-busy-and-blocked-off-by-cops Monroe Ave. after videotaping Rochester Police Department officers stopping and frisking a group of people of color.
Citizens Against Police Brutality & Misconduct--President Theodore “Teddyâ€Loria who has successfully sued the Rochester, N.Y. Police Department four separate times in federal court back in the 1990’s for violating his civil rights, and currently has a fifth (5th) lawsuit and also a sixth (6th) lawsuit pending in federal court.