LAPD officers, Occupy L.A. protesters clash during ArtWalk downtown

Crowd throws bottles and cans; at least 2 officers injured

By Melissa Leu and Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times

July 13, 2012
July 13, 2012 LA Times


A confrontation in downtown Los Angeles late Thursday between police and
Occupy L.A.protesters appeared to have stemmed from a sidewalk
chalk-drawing demonstration, witnesses said.

At least two officers were injured and several arrests had been made.

A woman who identified herself as part ofOccupy L.A. said protesters
attended the monthly L.A. ArtWalk on Thursday night with the intention of
showing support for people previously arrested for chalking on the
sidewalk. A Facebook event advertised the planned demonstration.

Discuss at 9 a.m. Friday: Skirmishes at L.A. ArtWalk

Some of the messages written at the intersection of Spring and 5th streets
included, "May the youth rise" and "End the Fed."

"We were handing out free chalk for freedom of speech," said Cheryl
Aichele, 34, a member of Occupy L.A.

Police arrived at the intersection shortly before 10 p.m. to move
protesters blocking the street. At one point, an unidentified man tossed a
glass bottle over his shoulder that landed in front of a line of LAPD
officers gathered on Spring Street between 4th and 5th streets. The man
was shot with what appeared to be a non-lethal weapon, witnesses said.
PHOTOS: The ArtWalk confrontation

Police used batons and non-lethal projectiles to disperse the crowd, which
in turn threw bottles and cans at officers and chanted, "Whose streets?
Our streets!"

Hundreds of officers in riot gear systematically moved the crowd away
block by block as people gathered in the windows of nearby apartments and
bars to watch and snap cellphone pictures. It took officers about two
hours to quell the protest.

"I came down for ArtWalk and it turned into this," said 25-year-old Susan
Enciso.

This Morning, Police Raided a House in the Central District Looking for a Black Hoodie, a Pink Scarf, and "Paperwork—Anarchists"

(Or, Since When Are Pamphlets Evidence of a Crime?)

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Jul 10, 2012 The Stranger

(Dom posted about this earlier today, but here are a few more details.)

At approximately 5:45 am this morning, L was sleeping in bed with his girlfriend, in his Central District apartment. (L spoke with me before speaking to an attorney, so I've agreed to leave his name out of it until he consults one.) The apartment is on the third story of an old house that's been partitioned off into apartment units.

Around that time, he heard a bang near the main, first-floor entrance. "My first instinct," he said, "was that it was Fourth of July and we were hearing fireworks." Then he says he heard from below: "This is the Seattle Police Department." He hadn't heard fireworks. He'd heard police kicking down his door and throwing flash-bang grenades into the house.

So L crawled out of bed, put on some pants, and knelt on the floor with his hands behind his head—before the police even entered his apartment. L wasn't surprised. He's been a participant in the Occupy events, anarchist circles, and the May Day protests (which thousands of people attended, including myself, in a professional capacity). And in the past few weeks, such people have been visited by FBI agents—who asked them to become informants—and had their houses raided and their telephones confiscated, presumably for social-mapping purposes.

L had heard these stories and was expecting a visit sooner or later. "We knew that SWAT teams tend to come in with automatic guns," he said, "and nobody wanted to test the trigger-happiness of Seattle cops." So they got down on their knees.

He asked the first SWAT officer on the scene three questions:
1. Do you have a warrant?
2. Did you break down the door? ("We rent the place," L told me, "and it'd be a pain in the ass to deal with a broken lock.")
3. Did you knock before you entered? (L said this was his idea of a joke—since he's on the third floor, he wouldn't have heard a knock anyway.)

The SWAT officer, according to L, said "the detectives will be up here soon."

Detective Wesley Friesen (who was busted for drunk driving and threatening to kill his arresting officers in 2004) entered and announced that he was the lead investigator of the May Day smashup. He briefly flashed the warrant in L's face and said he could examine it more closely once the search was over. The morning's occupants of the home—two regular residents and two visitors, including L's girlfriend—had their hands zip-tied and were herded into the living room. Then the search began.

According to the warrant-inventory, signed by Detective Freisen, they took a black sweatshirt, a pink scarf, a pair of black goggles, "papers—notebook," a black bandana, a black stocking hat, and "paperwork—anarchists in the Occupy movement."

L said most of the officers appeared to be from Seattle Police Department, though some had their name tags covered with coats and one appeared to be from the Washington State Patrol. (Why the WSP? The domestic-surveillance information-sharing of our local fusion center might have something to do with it.)
The officers rifled through drawers and closets and knocked books around, including L's Shakespeare books. "It's funny," he said. "When they knocked the Shakespeare books off the shelves, I thought of the line from Coriolanus (a play about a military man who becomes a politician during a period of civil unrest): 'You may as well strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them against the Roman state.'"

Detective Friesen approached L with a stack of photographs, asking him to identify people in them, but L immediately declined to speak without an attorney present.

"If you're gonna refuse to cooperate," L said Friesen said, "this is gonna take a lot longer and be a lot harder for you guys."

The officers rifled through stuff, took stuff, and left without arresting anyone. L said that Friesen gave a parting shot: "You're gonna go to jail after this investigation is over for assault and malicious mischief."
SPD spokesperson Sean Whitcomb said: "I've seen some stuff on social media that has said that this is an overreaction—that a SWAT team doing a search-warrant service for a vandalism investigation is heavy-handed. I'd say the May Day violence was the worst I'd seen since WTO... and not a message to corporations, but to individuals, such as people who had parked on the street and had their car windows smashed out. And incendiary devices such as smoke bombs—knowing what we do about violence across the globe, anytime anyone has an incendiary device, it is a cause of great concern."

Understood. But police seizing political pamphlets as "evidence" for a crime? That seems wrong.

Since when does political writing—even, gasp, radical political philosophy—count as "evidence"? I suppose if you beat someone over the head with a hardback book by Bakunin, that would count.

But last time I checked, pamphlets and unpopular political opinions weren't against the law.

SWAT raid on organizers of Occupy Seattle & E4E

July 10, 2012 Kasama Project

 

Door beaten in by SWAT police raid.

Kasama received this shortly after the police ended their ransacking of the Seattle apartment. We will cover events and statements as they emerge.

Early morning, July 10, SWAT police forced their way into the Seattle apartment of organizers from the Occupy movement. The sleeping residents scrambled to put on clothes as they were confronted with automatic weapons.

The neighbor Natalio Perez heard the attack from downstairs: “Suddenly we heard the bang of their grenade, and the crashing as police entered the apartment. The crashing and stomping continued for a long time as they tore the place apart.”

After the raid, the residents pored over the papers handed them by a detective. One explained: “This warrant says that they were specifically looking for ‘anarchist materials’ — which lays out the political police state nature of this right there. In addition they were looking for specific pieces of clothing supposedly connected with a May First incident.

When the police finally left, they did not arrest anyone.

This action targets well known activists from Occupy Seattle and the Red Spark Collective (part of the national Kasama network).

This apartment has been a hub for organizing the Everything 4 Everyone festival in August – to bring together West Coast forces for a cultural and political event building on the year of Occupy.

Room ransacked by police searching for “anarchist materials” and specific clothing.

The raid is a heavy-handed threat delivered by armed police aimed at intimidating specific people – but also st suppressing the work to continue the Occupy movement in Seattle, and create E4E as a space for radical gathering.

The E4E site will update this with more as we receive it, including hopefully statement from those involved. http://www.everythingforeveryone.org/

Contact: Liam Wright, Red Spark Collective, redsparkcollective@gmail.com

Occupy Abai - day 8

May 15, 2012 Avtonom

 

One day in the life of protest camp against inauguration of Putin in Moscow - 14th of May

Before evening Anarchist singer-songwriter "comrade Arkadi" made a concert. Later, a freemarket was opened, where everyone could leave their goods and gather what was left by other people. Tomorrow 15th of May, there will be a lecture on free non-capitalist economy in the camp.

Closer to the evening, participators of the "Food Not Bombs", who have already developed a routine for feeding the camp, brough food. Evening assembly become a full general meeting, deciding all important questions. This evening, several hundred people took part, but unfortunately not all participators of the camp are interested. It was decided that a general assembly will be organise every evening 21:00 at the statue of Abai Kunanbayev.

This time, financial questions were given a special attention. Most of the people agreed, that due to big turnover of the people in the camp (in practice nobody may be present 24 hours a day), there should be at least three treasurers, and not just one, as it was decided 13th of May. As a matter of fact, there is already a working group on the finances, which was selected after first general assembly in the camp, it is allocating necessary money for other groups. Amounts exceeding 5000 rubles (120 euros/$) will be dicscussed in the general assembly.

Also, question of moving the camp was discussed. Some people proposed to negotiate with Moscow authorities, and to move camp to a spot where authorities would allow tents (at the moment, people are sleeping without tents). But other participators were adamant in staying in Chistye Prudy until the end, and in case of dispersal of the camp, to move camp to other spot in the boulevard ring of the capital.

Duma deputy Dmitri Gudkov was visiting the camp, and wanted to speak at the assembly. However he was totally surprised, that his status as a deputy did not implied any privilegies, and he was asked to raise his hand and wait for his turn. Deputy preferred to leave the camp.

As we already wrote, during the day 14th of May authorities attempted to close camp by using park workers from local administration of the municipality, with a pretext of renovating the grass. Camp participators moved their property from the grass, but returned in the evening. Photos of local people prove, that grass around the statute of Kubai was trampled a long time before the protest camp was established. However camp participators announced that they may repair the grass on their own, and necessary funds for that were already raised.

Activists of Autonomous Action distributed special issue of the  paper "Situatsiya" and  leaflets.

Some songs of Arkadi in youtube: http://youtu.be/kMj0aZhsLaA, http://youtu.be/FhLNnEgwdP4






Schedule for tomorrow 15th of May:


Online translation from the camp:
http://оккупайабай.рф/t/

Updates in Russian:
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/56718.html (15 мая), http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/56685.html (14 мая)

Updates from other Russian cities: России: http://www.ikd.ru/node/18262
Contact address for those, willing to come to camp: occupytogether12@gmail.com
Contact number for anarchists: 8-985-247-20-65 (Autonomous Action of Moscow)

Russian protests: thousands march in support of Occupy Abay camp

About 15,000 people join march through Moscow in solidarity with anti-Putin sit-in, which is entering second week

• Miriam Elder in Moscow
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 May 2012

Protesters marched from Pushkin Square to the Chistye Prudy metro station in Moscow. Photograph: Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images

 

There's a guitar and kazoo player under a tree on a leafy Moscow boulevard, singing squeaky songs of revolution. Under another, three men gather for an impromptu game of chess, their jackets and hats adorned with the white ribbons that have become the symbol of those protesting against Vladimir Putin. A sign says a lecture on the lessons of Egypt's Tahrir Square will begin at 6pm.
For nearly a week, hundreds of Russians have camped out at Chistye Prudy, a boulevard in the centre of Moscow whose name translates as Clean Ponds. Inspired in style by the global Occupy movement, but fed in substance by the growing anger at Putin's return to power, the protest is the clearest sign yet that opposition to Russia's leader refuses to go away.

"We can't live like this any more," said Nina Panteleyeva, a 63-year-old French teacher. "Everything is falling apart – the schools don't teach, the hospitals don't heal, the courts don't deliver justice."
Panteleyeva was one of 15,000 Russians that took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday for a march in support of the camp, nicknamed Occupy Abay after the statue of a 19th-century Kazakh poet that is the anchor of the sit-in.

The crowd erupted into applause when passing cars honked in solidarity. They wore white ribbons and carried white flowers. Refraining from shouting slogans or carrying anti-Putin signs, police left them alone.

Yet, through it all ran a shiver of fear. "Of course we're scared," said Lena Sokolovskaya, a 40-year-old designer. "We live in such a country where at any moment we can be crushed."
After violently cracking down on protests last week during Putin's inauguration for his third term as president, riot police have been called back. They had arrested hundreds in the span of four days as protesters wandered from square to square before settling down at Chistye Prudy.

The opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who helped launch the Occupy Abay movement, remains in jail on a 15-day sentence for disobeying police. His co-hort Sergei Udaltsov, a far-left leader, is also in jail and has gone on hunger strike. Supporters worry they could face longer sentences as the Kremlin seeks to clamp down on the movement.

Putin has remained silent on the protests since his inauguration. His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said riot police acted "too softly" when they violently broke up a thousands-strong protest on the eve of the event. Ilya Ponomaryov, an opposition Duma deputy, said Peskov told him the protesters should "have their livers smeared on the sidewalk for injuring riot police". Peskov has refused to deny the phrase, saying only that Ponomaryov's publicising of a private conversation was "not manly".

 

Anti-Putin protesters at Chistye Prudy. Photograph: Sergey Ponomarev/AP 

  For now, the atmosphere at Occupy Abay remains one of hippy calmness. Groups of protesters break into song. Others form a drum circle. There are teenagers and pensioners, women with children, men with white ribbons tied into their beards.

"It's a huge number of people, happy and smiling people without a drop of aggression," said Lyudmila Ulitskaya, one of Russia's best-known novelists. "I'd call it the birth of civil society, which we in Russia have always had such a hard time with."

Ulitskaya and several other writers and poets had called for Russians to join Sunday's march. Boris Akunin, a novelist and protest organiser, told the crowd: "The point of this walk is simple. We have to teach the authorities to deal with their people politely and with respect, not via sticks or the police."

Strangers struck up political discussions. Struggling poets read their work to small crowds. One man walked by and shouted into his telephone: "I've realised what Moscow wants! Not a KGB president, but a writer-president, like Vaclav Havel."

Vladimir Nikipolsky, a taxi driver and poet, said: "The intelligentsia has woken up. We can no longer live under feudalism."

As evening fell on Moscow, many of the protesters faded away, but hundreds stayed behind ready to sleep on yoga mats and wake up to the camp's second week. A white board on a platform announced events in the days to come: lectures on the workers' struggle, followed by a priest's discussion on the church's attitude towards the jailed punk band Pussy Riot.

"I have a feeling of cyclicity," said Ilya Bezrukov, head of a Moscow museum focused on Russia's many revolutions. "You see what they were demanding 100 years ago and we have the same problems today. But this protest shows we've broken the cycle of bloodletting. It's our victory not theirs."

Re-Occupied! Thousands of activists clash with police as May Day protesters swarm dozens of U.S. cities

May 1, 2012 By Daniel Bates , Lydia Warren and Louise Boyle Daily Mail

At least 50 Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested after clashes with NYPD

In anticipation of protests, NYPD stormed activists' homes on Monday

Tear gas launched in Oakland, California - 25 arrests made

At least 12 arrested in Portland, Oregon and 10 in LA

Black-clad protesters in Seattle used sticks to smash small downtown shop windows and ran through the streets disrupting traffic

Comes after Occupy called for a general strike, urging workers and students across the U.S. to stay at home today in an act of defiance

Thousands of Occupy Wall Street activists clashed with police across the country on Tuesday as they swarmed into the streets as part of the movement's nationwide May Day protests.


In a deliberate attempt to bring large-scale European-style May 1 protests to America for the first time, Occupy called for a general strike, urging workers to attend marches rather than work.

The biggest swell of defiance was in New York, where protesters had planned to bring the city to a halt by blockading major arteries like the Brooklyn Bridge - and where at least 50 were arrested.


Scroll down for live footage

Clash: One protester is caught by police in New York as thousands of activists marched through the city

Chaos: Masked protestors use bats and wooden poles to destroy the glass storefront of an American Apparel store in Seattle on May Day

Confrontation: Demonstrators clash with police as a tear gas canister goes off in the background during May Day protests in Oakland

City at a standstill: Protesters march down Broadway towards Wall Street on Tuesday afternoon as the Occupy movement shows no sign of dissipating

Lashing out: A police lieutenant swings his baton at an Occupy Wall Street activist in New York City

Observing: People watch the protests from fire escapes, left, and tourists take pictures of the NYPD cavalcade down Broadway, right

Sore: Another Occupy Wall Street activist with a bloody nose is arrested by New York City police

Gloating: Businessmen in a window laugh after placing a sign on their window above where Occupy Wall Street protesters were marching. It reads: 'The harder I work, the luckier I get'

Activists brandishing banners with anti-capitalist slogans swarmed picket lines at Chase banks and in public parks, while others gathered behind barricades at the Bank of America tower at Bryant Park.

Police officers - some in riot gear and others with scooters - stood guard outside the headquarters of blue-chip companies and shadowed protesters as the day culminated in a march down Broadway.

In Oakland, California, tear gas sent protesters fleeing a downtown intersection where they were demonstrating. As protesters ignored police dispersal orders into the evening, officers took 25 people into custody on charges of vandalism, resisting arrest and failing to disperse.

Some 50 black-clad protesters in Seattle used sticks to smash downtown store windows and ran through the streets disrupting traffic.

Burning: A police officer in riot gear emerges after shooting pepper spray at masked protestors when demonstrations turned violent in Seattle

Shattered: A disguised activist pulls away more sheet glass from the window of a Wells Fargo branch in downtown Seattle on Tuesday

Gang: About two dozen of the hundreds of protesters that participated in the march shattered windows and caused mayhem in Seattle

Defense: A Seattle SWAT officer maces a man as protesters marched through the streets

Violent: In Oakland, as rallies stretch into the night, protesters light a trash can on fire during a May Day

At least 12 were arrested in Portland, Oregon, and ten in Los Angeles during demonstrations. 

In Seattle, police reported several arrests after clashes between police and demonstrators. Offenses included vandalism and striking an officer.

Across the country in Washington D.C., demonstrators marched from McPherson Square near the White House to the lobby of a downtown building - which houses UBS - on Monday afternoon.

May Day, which has been associated for more than a century with workers' rights and the labor movement around the world, has been used by American activists in recent years to hold rallies for immigrants' rights.

Those at Chicago's rally said they welcomed participation from the Occupy groups. 'I definitely see it as an enrichment of it,' one organiser Orlando Sepulveda said. 'It's great.'

Far from heroic: 'Citizen superhero' Phoenix Jones and his sidekicks at Seattle's May Day protests - who have allegedly been dousing protesters with pepper spray

Flagging the issue: Officers detain a man in Oakland as he tries to make a run for it with his American flag

Fashion victim: Seattle riot police shoot pepper spray at masked protesters that used bats and wooden poles to destroy the glass storefront of an American Apparel store today

Eyes front: A protester confronts a police officer near City Hall in downtown Oakland today

Grappled: Police officers try to detain an Occupy Oakland protester during May Day protests

In Los Angeles, at least a half a dozen rallies were planned. A rally was also planned in Minneapolis.

In Atlanta, about 100 people rallied outside the state Capitol, where a law targeting illegal immigration was passed last year. They called for an end to local-federal partnerships to enforce immigration law.

Back in New York, officers brought out kettling nets to cordon off any unruly protesters, while there were reports on Twitter of teargas being used along Broadway near Union Square.

'Remember remember, the 1st of May, the day we made the bankers pay,' read one sign held by a protester marching through Times Square.

Target: An Oakland police officer is hit in the face with paint after advancing on activists blocking an intersection

At the ready: Police officers form a line during a May Day protest in Oakland, California

Taken down: An Occupy Wall Street demonstrator is arrested by the NYPD while marching in the Lower East Side of New York

Grounded: NYPD officers use batons to subdue protesters on the sidewalk

Driving the issue: A New York yellow cab driver lends his support to the OWS movement

Hundreds of activists were accompanied by a smartly-clad marching band as they walked en masse from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan across the Williamsburg Bridge.

With crowds growing, protesters flocked to Bryant Park to march to Union Square. Tom Morello, from rock band Rage Against the Machine, led a 'Guitarmy' Guitar Workshop beforehand.

As numbers grew and tensions rose, there were reports of disruption along the route, with police employing their batons.

Among the early-morning arrests was a man identified as a Vietnam veteran outside the Bank of America HQ. 'Freedom isn't free,'one activist tweeted. 'Got to arrest some veterans to preserve it.'

There were more than 50 arrests throughout the day, and that number is expected to increase, according to an NYPD spokesperson. Most arrests were for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Fighting back: NYPD officers escort the Vietnam veteran away after his arrest near Bryant Park

Rage: Demos will be held late into the night in the biggest May Day protest in the nation's history

Demanding to be heard: Protesters brandish signs and yell outside the News Corporation building

Arrests were made on the Williambsurg Bridge, at Union Square during a rally and during the march from Union Square to Wall Street during the evening, the spokesperson told CNN.

Hectic: A sukey.org map shows the Occupy actions planned throughout Manhattan, New York on Tuesday

Defiant protesters were put in plastic handcuffs with bloody noses following scuffles with police. No NYPD officers were hurt.

Tensions continued to rise as protesters marched to the Vietnam Memorial. When the park closed at 10 p.m., some activists clashed with hundreds of police officers, leading to further arrests.

The mass-scale protest comes after the anti-capitalism movement called for a general strike and urged millions of workers to stay at home today and gather in city centres.

The demonstrations did not appear to have majorly disrupted businesses. Plans to close down main streets and bridges in New York City did not go ahead.

On its website, Occupy wrote: 'For the first time, workers, students, immigrants, and the unemployed from 135 U.S. cities will stand together for economic justice.'
It added: 'No work, no school, no shopping, now housework, no compliance.
'If you can’t strike call in sick. If you can’t call in sick hold a slow down.'
According to the timetable of ‘permitted actions’ on occupywallst.org, the day in New York began in Bryant Park at 8 a.m. with a ‘pop up occupation’ over the road from the Bank of America HQ.

Among the arteries into the city that they hoped to target were the Brooklyn Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel, causing traffic chaos and bringing Manhattan to a standstill.

Marching on: Hundreds of protesters marched across the Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan

Force: An officer tries to squeeze through the crowd - which included a full marching band - on the bridge

Speaking out: An officer arrests a protester on the bridge, left, while others brandish signs behind, right

Cuffed: Another Occupy activist is arrested by police during a march through midtown Manhattan

There were more than 50 confirmed picket protests scheduled for the city, with protesters crowding the New York Times building, Sotheby's and the U.S. Post Office, among others.

But the NYPD prepared for the worst, putting detectives in uniform to boost police numbers and having arrest teams at the ready, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.

In anticipation of the strike, the FBI and NYPD reportedly swooped on protesters' homes on Monday.

'There were a number of visits between 6:00 and 7:30 in the morning and at other points in the day that appeared to target people that primarily the NYPD, but in one instance the FBI, wanted to ask certain questions to,' Gideon Oliver, a spokesman for the National Lawyers Guild, which has represented the activists in the past, told Buzzfeed.

Devoted: Evelyn Talarico, from Puerto Rico but now living in Brooklyn, joins hundreds of protesters in Bryant Park

Going all out: Another activist at Bryant Park, where a rally is operating with the permission of the council

In tune with the activists: Tom Morello from rock band Rage Against the Machine marches with activists

Prepared: NYPD officers stand guard in front of the Bank of America building as protesters descend

At the ready: Other police stood in riot gear to protect a Chase bank

'Questions included things like "what are your May Day plans?" "Do you know who the protest leaders are?" "What do you know about the May Day protests?" and such.'

OCCUPYING AMERICA

Scores of cities across the United States took part in the May Day protests.
Police in Oakland, California - where the movement's most violent protests were held last October - reportedly used tear gas to 'gain the attention of the crowd'. Activists clashed with baton-carrying police who fired flash-bang grenades and used a loudspeaker to order demonstrators to disperse from an intersection.

ABC7 video footage taken in Oakland also shows a woman apparently being pulled to the ground from her bike by police.

In Los Angeles, activists and union members staged early-morning protests at LAX airport, encouraging workers to leave and join their ranks. At least 10 were expecting to be arrested, the LA Times reported, while others began marching downtown.

Trouble was also reported in San Fransisco, where activists taking part in a march on Monday night were accused of smashing windows and vandalising cars along their route. Demonstrators backed off their pledge to occupy the Golden Gate Bridge.
In Chicago, Occupy protesters - watched closely by police - gathered outside Bank of America branches, chanting 'Banks got bailed out, we got sold out'. Police blocked an entrance to a bank as numbers swelled.


In Seattle, 50 black-clad protesters marched through the city centre, carrying black flags on sticks which they used to shatter the windows of several stores including a Nike outlet and an HSBC bank before police forced them out.

'We’re experienced at accommodating lawful protests and responding appropriately to anyone who engages in unlawful activity, and we’re prepared to do both,' NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.


The NYPD trained for the protests on Randall's Island this weekend and the department sent around an internal memo to brace officers, the Guardian reported.
It warned of 'pop-up' and splinter demos that could occur at any time, especially during the evening.

It listed events such as a 'wildcat march' starting at 1 p.m. on East Houston Street; a 'Bike Bloc' to beginning at 9 a.m. at Union Square and 'Hoodie March Against Police Violence'.

The memo noted: 'There are fissures within OWS, but a 'respect for diversity of tactics,' which includes everything from peaceful protests to... vandalism... has been embraced by the movement.'

The city's mayor Michael Bloomberg added that while he would tolerate the protest he was not going to let Occupy take over the city.

He said: ‘They don’t have a right to disrupt other people and keep other people from protesting or just going about their business, and we will do as we normally do - find the right balance.’

Thousands of activists have already swarmed some of the other U.S. cities targeted by the movement, preparing to blockade major roads and bridges and occupy businesses and banks.

In Los Angeles, California, protesters marched through LAX airport, encouraging employees to join the movement rather than go to work.

In San Fransisco, which Occupy described as 'a playground for the rich', protests started last night. 


Activists are accused of smashing windows and vandalising cars along their marching route.

Occupy Oakland, the most radical of all the Occupy groups in the U.S. scrapped plans to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge but still held a huge rally in the evening.

Vandalised: Workers clean windows of a Bank of America branch in Washington. Activists were also accused of vandalism in San Fransisco after they held a march on Monday night ahead of the day of action

Intimidating: Occupy protestors join immigrant and workers' rights protesters in Chicago, lllinois

Protests were also organised in college towns such as Amherst, Massachusetts, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia. 


Students were encouraged to stay away from universities and consumers were being urged not to buy anything.


Demonstrations took place in other major cities across the world, including Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Istanbul and Hamburg in Germany.

Two thousand people swarmed Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece, with another 7,000 gathered outside a factory where employees have not been paid in six months, according to their union.

In Istanbul's Taksim Square, thousands of protesters were met with a police presence.

Plan of action: An Occupy flier shows the movement's intentions for the May Day protest in New York City

There were also marches to Trafalgar Square in London, where officers closed streets and arrested three men in Exchange Square by Liverpool Street, according to the police.

The day of action comes after Wells Fargo closed three bank branches in New York City when they received suspicious envelopes containing white powder.

New York City Police told Reuters they were investigating six separate incidents of white powder reported at locations around Manhattan.

The Wells Fargo branches will remain closed pending further investigation by the police, bank spokesman Ancel Martinez said.

The branch locations are at Third Avenue and 47th Street; Madison Avenue and 34th Street; and Broadway and 85th Street.

Well, well, well... what do we have here? A British police officer ponders her next move with an activist by St Paul's Cathedral in London

Worldwide: Protesters in London kick off the demos on International Labour Day

Occupy began on September 17 last year when protesters occupied Zuccotti park in Manhattan but were cleared out two months later.

By then the movement had inspired dozens of copycat protests around the world including in the UK and across Europe. 


After the crackdown its organisers were forced to holding one-off events but are now hoping to use May 1 as a way of putting themselves back in the limelight.
They are trying to latch on to what in the U.S. has traditionally been a day for labour unions to achieve their goal.