Sorry, but the right protest and freedom of speech does end in private businesses.

Freedom of speech does NOT end in private businesses. You know that.

glad to see that my neighborhood will be turned into a shitty mess. I started out respecting the movement but now just despise it. and trust me the rest of the neighborhood will soon turn against these occupying douches

The livestream is cheerful. They've Peoples'-Miked their plan to march down Pine to the Sheraton where they hope to find the chairman of Chase.

@2 So if I me and a group of 30 people wanted to Occupy your living room because we felt you were oppressing us you would be totally cool with that?

Just walked through it on Broadway while headed home. It looked like a bunch of morons waving black and red flags running in circles.

@1/2 Constitutionally protected speech is not the issue. The foundation of private property is the ability to restrict and grant access unless violating other provisions set forth for protected classes.

@5 i'm sure his living room is a business.

@7 Why are you trying to limit free speech?

The (presumably) Occupy Seattle folks just marched down Broadway back towards SCCC, chanting and giving the following motorcycle cops the finger.

What if people want to close their accounts before Nov. 5? Getting in the way of people isn't the way to send a message. Chase employees already know that their company sucks: the YouTube videos they make and the account closures are proof.

Also, Dominic, the verb "lay" requires a direct object. I think you mean "lie" as in "Protesters are lying on the ground."

@5 Dude, that would be trespassing. But the government can't arrest you because of what you say in my living room.

Is the First Amendment really that hard to understand?

Anyone who wants to limit free speech is a friend of the right wing fascists

@5-A living room isn't a public space. A sidewalk is, the protesters inside the bank will be arrested. They probably went in knowing that and are okay with it. Direct action and nonviolence are legitimate forms of protest.

@12 A business has the right to refuse services dude! Have you ever heard the term 86ed?

I get dibs on their tents!

holy typos, batman.

@15, they weren't asking for services. See @14.

LOL. Occupy Seattle is an exercise in embarrassment. Just what exactly were they protesting here? Reading their naive and convoluted statement didn't exactly clarify anything. Jamie Dimon is downtown, morons, if you are looking for someone to protest. How many of the 1% do you think use the Broadway Chase branch on Capitol Hill? All you ended up doing was inconveniencing the same people you claim to be and or are representing. It's okay though, now you can head back to SCCC, fire up some smokes, bang the drums, perhaps tag some school property and plot your next nonsensical course of action.

Honest question: What are the charges they're leveling at Dimon? Is he merely symbolic of their concerns (financial inequality/perceived banking industry malfeasance), or is it something specific he's presumably guilty of?

So that's why the Twitter feed shut down.

Never forget you live in a Police State.

"Get in, make a scene, get out and head tot the next action."

Yeah, it's kind of like a...a...a....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzkrieg

Through constant motion, the blitzkrieg attempts to keep its enemy off-balance, making it difficult to respond effectively at any given point before the front has already moved on.

Is blocking the entrance of a building "Free Speech?"

Is disrupting a business "Free Speech?"

I can see a context or two where it could be and a context or two where it would not be.

Free Speech cannot be an absolute in every context.

If a bunch of Tea Baggers or Fred Phelps followers walked into the the Strangers office and began screaming and wouldn't leave The Stranger would call the cops. Eventually. After shitting themselves with glee. Hey. Isn't THAT "free speech?"

But this debate about Free Speech is irrelevant and huge red herring.

It's called Civil Disobedience for a reason. That's the god damned point.

If your getting arrested that means you're probably doing something right. Of course your rights are being violated. It's why there's a demonstration in the first place.

@14

Direct Action is not necessarily nonviolent. Or legitimate, depending on your personal conception of legitimacy.

@ 14 of course they will be arrested.

@20, off the top of my head: under his direction, JPMorgan Chase took $25 billion in TARP money, not because it needed it to stay viable during the crash, but as a free loan so the bank could make more high risk/high yield investments. Dimon has bragged about this openly.

I'm sure there are other things, too.

@15 what does that have to do with freedom of speech as per @2? Of course they can kick you out, it's private property, but your speech is still protected.

@19 - Thank you, why are people not more tired of this shit?

OS needs to get the fuck off the hill...Although, being at SCCC could certainly benefit some of them. They have some great professional training programs that could, you know, lead to gainful employment and being a productive member of society. Oh wait, then you would actually have to do something...

@23 the free speech discussion was in reference to @1.

Remember a while ago when a bunch of people caused trouble in a bank and people flipped out and I said that was going to happen and they wouldn't let you out? Yeah, still true.

@Dominic the author who wrote this update....
UPDATE at 3:59 PM: Protesters regrouped in the intersection, held a brief conference, and decided to go protest Dimon outside the Sheraton tonight. Gotta say, that's pretty smart strategy: Get in, make a scene, get out and head tot the next action.

How was this "smart" in your opinion? What exactly might be construed as intelligent in any of the actions taken by Occupy Seattle today? "Gee we are a bunch of morons guys, maybe we should go downtown and protest the real enemy, Jamie Dimon instead of continuing to alienate ourselves from the neighborhood!"
I imagine this is how the group in the streets conversation went in which case, Dom, yes, this was finally a moment of rare "smartness" from OS

@27 You brought of freedom of speech not me. All I am saying is they have as much right to chain themselves inside a chase bank as I have to protest in your living room.

@28 Don't hold your breath...

@20 you can't explain it much better than Taibi:

People aren't jealous and they don’t want privileges. They just want a level playing field, and they want Wall Street to give up its cheat codes, things like:

FREE MONEY. Ordinary people have to borrow their money at market rates. Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon get billions of dollars for free, from the Federal Reserve. They borrow at zero and lend the same money back to the government at two or three percent, a valuable public service otherwise known as "standing in the middle and taking a gigantic cut when the government decides to lend money to itself."

Or the banks borrow billions at zero and lend mortgages to us at four percent, or credit cards at twenty or twenty-five percent. This is essentially an official government license to be rich, handed out at the expense of prudent ordinary citizens, who now no longer receive much interest on their CDs or other saved income.

Your average chimpanzee couldn't fuck up that business plan...

The entire post: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blo…

Remember what the protests of the late sixties brought, Nixon.....

@32, that's dishonest. You said that as a retort to @2:

"Freedom of speech does NOT end in private businesses. You know that."

@30

I don't seem to recall them chaining themselves together in the NYC branch. I thought the whole reason people were upset about that one was that the protesters weren't actually doing anything.

"Don't forget nonviolence." LOLOL

@32 then you were addressing my argument @2 with a straw man. You are a jackass. Don't ever do that again.

@36 You can be arrested for trespassing. What they did could be considered trespassing. If I was to protest in his living room that would be trespassing. Freedom of speech is doing things for which you could not be arrested for, such as trespassing. Do you need me to break it down any more for you?

@26, that's not at all what happened with the TARP stuff, you know. Dimon didn't want to take it but Paulson asked him to set an example for other, less healthy large banks. Chase repaid the amount in full as soon as Treasury would let them, less than a year later.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/j…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_As…

I don't like Chase or Dimon, but there's no need to make shit up.

A straw man? Like the 1%? Like Chase? Oh no, not a straw man.....

@42 If you are not on private property go ahead and do your thing. Get yo protest on.

@28 "People" aren't more tired of this shit because they are way way way more tired of living in a country where the majority of their representatives think their constituency is Wall Street. And Wall Street is defrauding the public, misusing the public's investments, and corrupting the government.

Corruptee Patty Murray today: "We’ve said we are very open to painful concessions and compromises if Republicans are as well—and we have put forward serious ideas that reflect this."

info for Patty: corporations aren't people and don't feel pain. The 1% are too rich to feel pain by having to pay pre-Bush-tax-cut taxes.

McNutt: wake up and get a clue. "People" are worried about having health care if they lose their job. They are worried about whether their children can afford to go to school or if they and their kids could ever buy a house. They are worried because they don't see anyone protecting them anymore from the free-ride lawlessness of the obscenely wealthy. The social compact is a frickin wreck so they identify with someone being held down and having pepper-spray poured into their eyes.

@41 We are creating straw men here, please don't interfere with pesky things like facts and truth....

@45 Life is hard, we should protest Chase that will improve things! :-)

@26 - I'm not defending JP Morgan in the least, so don't take my original question as trolling when I mention they've since paid it back with interest ($795B worth according to a quick search). I'm just wondering if we're talking about a Kenneth Lay type here, or just some obvious target.

ALL major banks took took TARP money, the Fed made sure of is. Wells Fargo (anecdotally, if that's a word) was strong-armed into accept money they didn't need or want. That hardly make them a martyr, but combined with the fact they dodged the sub-prime collapse fiasco I thought it made them an odd target for when Occupy SF to take over their main branch downtown.

I support many of of Occupy's talking points (or, I did?), but this mob (like all mobs) lacks due diligence, and it makes me extremely weary.

@40, you're the only one who seems to need a discussion to verify that chaining oneself to a bank will lead to arrest. On the other hand, you aren't trespassing in a place which is open to the public--like a bank--and freedom of speech doesn't end because you entered such a place. Don't be dense.

@41, fair enough. I had read some distasteful comment of his about it, but looking closer reveals a complex mess. I stand corrected.

@47 Dude you're on a roll , please come up with more examples of what you think a strawman is...

Thanks to the brave men and women of the SPD for finally enforcing the law in Seattle.

Please remember, these are rioters and squatters with contempt for the law and an adolescent hatred of you as law enforcement. I hope you have orders to meet them with whatever force is needed for your safety. Treating them with mistaken kindness won't work. Mass arrests and trying them to the full extent of the law is the only option they've left you.

Oh, and if you meet that Holden scumbag, give him a knock in the head with a nightstick, will ya? I know, it's made of solid bone, but at least it'll make a pleasing sound.

And SeattleBlues admits that they don't know how sound and resonance work.

all of the hipsters who recently moved to the hill because they heard its a cool place for affluent 20 somethings to live should go the fuck back to california or whereever their parents live.

@45 - That does sound nice...And it makes it easier for me to never be a big boy and take care of things for myself. Do I have to go and sign up anywhere for people to take care of me or just hang out at home and wait for it? Not sure how that process works...

I get that things aren't fair. It's unfortunate. I agree that people are looking to bring about greater equilibrium. But when did the sense of whiny entitlement permeate so many young people? Speaking as one (who went to public school, has lots of student loan debt, etc.) I don't understand how just a little sense of personal responsibility can't be allowed into the discussion.

FINALLY!!! Seattle's OWS is DOING SOMETHING!!!! YIIPPEE!!!!

"Oh, and if you meet that Holden scumbag, give him a knock in the head with a nightstick, will ya? I know, it's made of solid bone, but at least it'll make a pleasing sound."

Now that sounds just like, Jesus, when he commanded his followers to love their neighbors. Act justly... love mercy... walk humbly... knock them in the head with a nightstick. Yes? I don't think so. Perhaps you're feeling ill?

Someone should really call out the SPD for calling the protesters "immature."

If that is immaturity, this entire country was founded on immaturity.

@3: So that would be why the numbers in the march GREW instead of shrinking, right?

All the people claiming that OWS is failing have forgotten one important fact: They have you talking.

@55 Maybe because it's off-topic? The issue is what in the financial system needs to be reformed, not sassy critiques of subjective ideas like people's sense of "entitlement"

I live and own property on the hill, and fully support all of the (sometimes strange, sometimes inconvenient) actions of our occupiers. I'm sorry that some sloggers feel otherwise, but I understand: they just want to live their lives without protesters getting in the way. Just remember, they are fighting for a better world for all of us, no matter how "naive and convoluted" (@19) they seem.

Citizens taking part in a peaceful protest BENEFITS everyone directly unless you are part of the top 1%. Once enough people are desperate for food to feed their families, medical attention so they don't have to watch their children suffer, and losing their own sense of being then you will find the movement growing exponentially. The apathy, the disconnect, the callous disregard for fellow human beings, the ignorance of history, and the total lack of that thing inside us that makes us all human from some of the posts here is astonishingly sad, ignorant, and short sided. Some of you are just in too much denial that it will never happen to you but most of you are actually one or 2 paychecks away from it yourself. Now ask yourself honestly, if you were out of work for 2 months to 2 years and more you would be singing a different tune?

@45: You really ARE cracked if you think Patty Murray represents the enemy!
She's one of a small handful of senators who actually cares about the needs of the people!
How many Wall Street bankers give a shit about veterans? Women's health? Affordable healthcare, housing, the environment, and higher education?
Put THAT in your teabag and smoke it.

@59 suddenlyorcas: Ya got THAT right!
Onward goes another bloody revolution; this one's spreading worldwide.

Why not Occupy the drug companies? The insurance companies? The mainstream media giants? Why do they continue to focus on banks all the time?

Occupy America should demand we have a free press once again. Untie the hands of the journalists.....disseminate in-depth information about what's really going on. And the American people ought to turn off the g-damn reality TV
shows and shopping networks, and read, think, talk, and act!

Fuck corporate America! November 5th take your money to a credit union!

p.s. Wash your pepper sprayed eyes out with milk or a liquid antacid containing aluminum hydroxide or magnesium hydroxide.

@52: Yeah, those brave police officers of the SPD who are macing non-violent activists in the face. When you say "whatever force is needed for your safety", are you referring to the same force they used on John T. Williams? They have the right to remove them from private property. They don't have the right to cause them physical harm without being provoked.

@55: Way to drink the Kool Aid, buddy. That 53% bullshit was discounted long ago. Where did you ever hear anything from any Occupy people about asking for handouts and being entitled to be taken care of by anyone else? What part of "level playing field" don't you understand? In a country where banks are laying off thousands of employees while giving their executives bonuses in the millions and there are four applicants for every job opening, people have the right to get pissed off. People should be getting pissed off. Being saddled with thousands of dollars of debt and working three jobs to pay the mortgage may be your American dream, but it's not theirs, and it's sure as hell not mine.

A good thing to know for tear gas, pepper spray, etc is the liquid and water remedy.

http://medic.wikia.com/wiki/L.A.W._%28li…

Did all that wankery come from a response to Kitten Koder? Really, people?

I think we can all agree that no one can be arrested for simple speech, even while on someone else's property. (Shouts of FIRE and explicit threats may be treated differently.)

We can also all agree that chaining oneself to someone else's post will get you arrested; furthermore, that the five people who did so, understood that before they entered the building.

@70 - The world is not fair, nor is their an implicit promise of fairness in the American dream. Being an adult who takes responsibility for my actions, I do what I have to in order to meet the financial commitments I've made and support my family. It's not about drinking kool aid, it's about putting your big girls pants on and being an adult. The reason the majority of people aren't taking OS seriously is because almost everyone is impacted and shares many of the concerns voiced by OS...We just don't enjoy the behavior that makes OS look like bratty little kids.

Ironically, we the 99% are on the same side as SPD. Really we are!

99% on 99% crime. :(

@65 Veterans health care is on the block too. Such cuts are in Obama's plan and I'll be interested to see if Murray stands up to resist them when Catfood Commission II's final version comes out.

When they passed a renewal of the Bush tax cuts. People said, "Oh, they had no choice. It was the only way to get an extension of unemployment benefits." But even then it was obvious Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would be on the block as a result. The best thing would be if the Democrats can't get any GOP cooperation for their "painful compromises." But now that they have offered the cuts, the current crop of faux Dems will be hard pressed to argue against them when a Republican administration puts them on the table even if Obama fails to realize his dream of compromise now.

If Murray was ever all those things you mention, she isn't now. The is a player.

the vast majority of these comments make my head hurt. the occupy seattle/wall street/everywhere movement is your movement too. if you aren't happy with it, get involved and make some changes. complaining about how your life was affected by protesters on the slog won't change anything, but maybe you getting out and doing something will.

Dominic,
This is uncivilized behavior on the part of some of OS protesters (enough to negate the civilized behavior of the majority). There is no reason for this kind of provocation at the Seattle Police Department. It is not the enemy. Someone on Slog commended the SPD's restraint. I do as well. I don't support OS anymore and I predict by mid-December it will have faded. These videos are greatly upsetting.

i just ate an entire trader joes pizza

@73: Er, where did I say that there was a "casual connection"? I never claimed to be 100% in agreement with 100% of the things the protesters did. I agree with you - I think many of them are losing track of the goal and bringing negative press to the movement. That doesn't invalidate the movement itself.

@74: You just completely contradicted yourself. We're all in the same boat and have complaints, but we just need to suck it up and deal with it? That doesn't make you a grown-up, it makes you complacent. The American dream is about fair chances, and the occupy movement is about pointing out that the game has been rigged by the 1%. If you can't see that, I can't help you.

@ 71 & @74 masque of owls: you've said it better than I could. Bravo!

I'm not anti-cop, they are part of the 99% as well. Most are simply blue-collar guys and gals trying to make a living for themselves and their families. Like many other government employees, they are underpaid for the work they do, yet they continue to serve the public for reasons that vary from job security (not so much anymore in the world of budget-gutting cuts), or to be able to buy health insurance for thier families. They are not the enemies, they also are members of the working class. If you want to identify the real enemies, turn your ire to the politicians who direct them.

Please keep the protests non-violent, and don't give the cops a reason to hurt anyone. They generally don't want to do so.

I'm fine with the civil disobedience that gets folks arrested like the five that went into the bank. They knew what their actions would result in, and accepted that risk. That's a righteous form of protest as well. However, even then, be polite to the cops who are only doing what they are ordered to do. Everything will go much smoother, and you won't give Fox News video to discredit your movement with.

If cops then act badly against nonviolent protestors who do not provoke them, then let's get that out to the world. The world is watching, and that can be a very good thing if you maintain the higher ground, or a bad thing if you behave badly. This is too important to fuck up.

Oops, I meant masque of owls @ 84 not @ 74. Sorry for that.

And agin I messed it up: masque of owls @ 70 not @ 71, I can't seem to do numbers tonight. Sorry . . .

My 72 year old mother works for a Chase branch, and if any Occupy whatever fucks with her at work, the movement is on my shit list. Bigger bullies than the Tea Party.

If you have complaints concerning the Occupy movement, join us in the streets and show us how it should be done.

I don't disparage anyone the right to yell crazy shit (or not crazy shit -- my preference is crazy shit though) but seems to me that letting the Occupy idea morph into a series of police vs. lefty pepper spray endurance contests sort of kills the whole appeal for me. Maybe I'm not revolutionary enough...

...Or maybe I just think that the cops, students, underpaid employees of UW, hotel workers and regular hotel guests at the Sheraton shouldn't have to put up with that kind of crap just because there is a point to be made (maybe even a valid, important point.) I'm sure there's a way to voice these frustrations without negatively impacting the lives of many of the very 99%-types you're trying to advocate for. The aggressive attitude this thing is being consumed with isn't productive.

@15: Also, a business (at least any business that falls under civil rights legislation) DOESN'T have the right to refuse service based on political affiliation, which is a protected class. They also can't bootstrap post facto policies on allowed behavior to get rid of protestors based on their specific actions. The bank may well have had existing policies in place banning the protestors' actions and legitimizing the trespassing charge, but that's not *necessarily* the case.

@72: A couple ways. In the context of our present capitalist market economic system (which will not change dramatically overnight, or even over a decade), the way to motivate changes in the behaviors of firms or individuals is to cause "good" behavior (quotes to indicate that it's a contextualized perspective on morality specific to the protestors in question) by those firms/individuals to be beneficial and/or to cause "bad" behavior to be detrimental. Disrupting the business operations of a firm engaged in "bad" behavior, with the explicit understanding that this is the motivation for the disruptive behavior, is the most effective political model under neoclassical economic theory (same theoretical motivation for things like boycotts, though active disruption is obviously more invasive).

The less-direct way (granted the first way isn't exactly direct either) is through discursive engineering. While pissing people off may not be the most pro-social, collaborative way to motivate change, if your movement is strong enough and especially if it's pushing for something with which a majority of people ultimately agree, pissing people off can function to create popular political pressure for public policy to move toward the protestors' demands simply to get them to shut up and stop occupying things. Put another way, if the current policies are going to motivate people to do things that piss me off, it changes the opportunity cost equation for my personal opinion of those policies - it might be worth another 2% in taxes to not have to deal with occupiers blocking my hotel access.

Finally, doing something like blocking a hotel forces people to confront you and ultimately think about your issue, even if it also motivates some hostility. It can serve to bring into public discourse issue that might otherwise simply be ignored and dismissed.While it might make people hostile to one's ideas more hostile (and turn some people on the fence against the movement), there was going to be no change in the first place if the issue wasn't even part of the larger public discourse, so the loss of a few potential supporters and radicalization of opponents is still worth it.

As for the police, they (even the good ones, though the really good ones simply refuse to follow illegal and/or immoral orders) function to preserve the socio-political status quo. This can certainly be helpful, but in this context, it's incredibly harmful, so fuck the police.

Whoops, should have been @73.

LOL at Stranger devotees protesting one of the few good bank CEOs out there. Way to do your research, ladies & gents. Such is why the more reasonable among us like to, oh I don't know, ANALYZE who/what the heck we're protesting before grabbing our pitchforks and joining the angry mob.

I always thought it was the right who oversimplified complex issues into myopic black & white characterizations, though every day I'm learning more and more that I was wrong. Further, I always thought it was only the right that could slant news reporting so significantly that "news" almost became a misnomer.

Perhaps I was the one seeing things in black & white.

About Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan Chase:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/magazi…

Being a grown up means taking responsibility for making things happen in whatever way you can. Being a child means waiting for an adult to come along and fix things for you. If you think the people protesting are children you have it backwards.

@95:

Really? How is what they're doing any different from when a child screams aloud when they don't get their way? I saw a child throw a Tantrum at Trader Joe's the other day, refusing to leave the candy aisle until his parents bought him a chocolate bar. In a sense, he was occupying aisle 2 until he got his way.

We, as adults, have crafted a system of governance where we have the means to effectuate change. Occupying because we're not getting our way is not one of the delineated options. Furthermore, occupying and refusing to budge until the powers that be spontaneously decide to change things sounds an awful lot like "waiting for an adult to come along and fix things for you."

You are the one who has it backwards.

@95 Well said! Thanks.

"Being a grown up means taking responsibility for making things happen in whatever way you can. Being a child means waiting for an adult to come along and fix things for you. If you think the people protesting are children you have it backwards."

@96 If a child is being physically and mentally abused, isn't it justified and even brave to protest and fight back. Children don't stay children either.

Actually the Occupiers have the all-American way of doing things down pat. When America wants a nation to do something, or wants their resources, they just move in and occupy the place. You know, like Iraq and Afghanistan--or we hire people to do this for us. What's happened in our country is probably worthy of this war.

Use sodium bicarbonate to clean tear gas and other

Those of you ranting that the 1st Amendment allows you an excuse to trespass on private property (which is what a business IS) are idiots, and need to go back to school, because you are making the entire movement look like a bunch of ignorant angry morons. If you want to protest, stay on PUBLIC PROPERTY, and DO NOT BLOCK PEDESTRIAN OR VEHICULAR TRAFFIC, or otherwise hinder your fellow citizens who are trying to go about their daily lives if you expect the public to support this movement. THINK!!! Stop defiling your own cause by making yourselves (AS WELL AS all those who are protesting RESPONSIBLY) look like inbred rednecks with a grudge against anyone who has more money that you!!

So, let me get this right... Some of you think it's my Constitutional right to enter your home, chain myself to your wall, and start telling you what a dick you are, and you can't legally have me removed? Is that it? Because if you DON'T think THAT is right, then WTF are you thinking when you support doing it to someone else, whether that private property is functioning as a business OR as a home?!? It belongs to them and they have the right to have you removed from it whether it be because you're talking shit, or because they don't like the shirt you're wearing, OR simply because you are not there to conduct a transaction with them!

The posts calling you child minded are pretty accurate in that children run off half cocked, not knowing as much as they THINK they know, and get their asses in TROUBLE for it! You fools are the only excuse the cops need to start firing off the gas canisters and rubber bullets into the crowds of legitimate protesters who are NOT making ASSES of themselves, and if you would knock it the hell off maybe more people would join you on the streets instead of laughing at you on YouTube!!

I'll say this much... I DO support what is being done by protesters who HAVE half a brain, and KNOW the Constitutional protections and rights they are exercising by protesting while on PUBLIC PROPERTY, and while NOT inhibiting their fellow citizens in our daily life.

There are certainly ENOUGH garbage excuses to prevent a protest being used right now, but you guys REALLY need to learn the difference!! When a cop tells you that it's a city ordinance that you must keep moving if you are going to protest or hold a sign of some sort, you should be telling him that is garbage AS LONG AS you are NOT blocking pedestrian or vehicular traffic! Protesting is NOT "loitering". Likewise, if you are on a public street, or other public property (by LEGAL definition, NOT just publicly ACCESSIBLE private property, such as parking lots!) the requirement of a "permit" is a direct violation of the constitution, as a permit can be denied or revoked, which would define protesting as a privilege rather than a right. the constitution does NOT grant us privileges, it outlines our RIGHTS, the things that we as free people can do and that NO law can restrict us from doing.

Just keep in mind that it is your RIGHT to OWN and PROTECT your private property, and NOT your right to trespass onto someone else's!

Corporate greed is the target, and while it is a major problem in America that there is this 1% controlling the wealth, it is IMMORAL, not ILLEGAL, and if you want to beat them, you need to stay within the law of the Constitution or go the hell home and let people with some intelligence stay to fight this battle!! I'm fed up with you idiots feeding FOX NEWS all the crap they are dying to have on the OWS to make EVERYONE INVOLVED look like a bunch of clueless vandals and whiny little bitches who are just wanting to trash anyone with an income larger than yours!!

So ya, grow the hell up and protest RESPONSIBLY and with a little intelligence showing!!

@102 Agree 100%.

I nominate #22 for Most Artfully Passive Aggressive Application of Godwin's Law...