From Occupy LA   “… as a direct response to these assaults on our civil liberties, we are calling for a year of struggle among all communities and across all issues to unite against state sponsored repression and assert the inherent right of the people to peacefully assemble.”

 

 

 

Occupy Los Angeles, in solidarity with the occupy movement, asserts our right to live, work and organize peacefully and politically without repression.  On October 1st we assembled together to explore and create collective will to address the various special interests that have taken hold of our governing processes. We stand together again, at the dawn of a new year, to reassert our dedication to developing a peaceful nonviolent resistance movement in Los Angeles, the neighboring cities of Southern California and throughout the world.

Our efforts to organize and petition for justice were met with the following measures utilized by Law Enforcement, the City Attorney, Mayor, and City Council with the complicit support, if not express coordination of the Federal Government:

1) restrictions on individual and commercial free speech and press including the selection of a ‘media pool’ and the exclusion of religious, legal, and medical observers.2) restraints on free speech including regulation of sound devices or the requirement of permits to assemble

3) the restriction of our first amendment right to assemble (or occupy) by arbitrary city ordinances4) the withholding of access to a public park and the arbitrary establishment of  designated “free speech zones”

5) the abuse of ‘declaration of unlawful assembly’ to stop peaceful assemblies6) the predatory nature of the entire legal and judicial system by which free speech is being criminalized through an aggressive arrest policy7) the abuses of the City Attorney’s office, who misrepresents “the people” by holding peaceful individuals engaged in public protest for extended periods of time without access to basic human necessities in order to intimidate and impose harsher restrictions8) the intimidation of individuals willing to engage in deliberative public assembly by constant police presence or escalation

9) the private contracting and institution of a re-education course on the 1st amendment

10) a full-scale paramilitary operation to remove OccupyLA from Solidarity Park (paid for by taxpayers) by law enforcement, the City Attorney, Mayor, City Council and the support, if not express coordination of the Federal Government

11) the CIA’s refusal to process a Freedom of Information Act request exposing what role, if any, they played in the orchestrated evictions of occupy
encampments nationwide

12) the concession of basic civil liberties by our representatives to appease political and financial pressure by special interests 

We consider the methods used to intimidate and criminalize protesters throughout the country to be unconstitutional, and move to notify our appointed representatives and civil servants officially that they have abused their authority and violated our fundamental and explicitly documented rights.  We hope to inform the world and our peers throughout this country that what we have experienced at the hands of our representatives and civil servants cannot be mistaken for anything other than an intent to silence and oppress the growing discontent felt by people everywhere. 

We reject this treatment, and our response to harassment, intimidation, criminalization and repression is as follows:

“In the spirit of constant public protest and as a direct response to these assaults on our civil liberties, we are calling for a year of struggle among all communities and across all issues to unite against state sponsored repression and assert the inherent right of the people to peacefully assemble.  We will stand in solidarity together as a people, despite having different beliefs, values and political ideologies, to reestablish these rights and mobilize against corruption by special interests in our towns, cities and government.”

Please join us to demonstrate the power of the people and collective will by striking on May 1st. 

Organize. Occupy. Strike. Power!
Occupy LA GA 1/4/2011