by Charles Augustine and the El Reportero’s staff
The U.S. Constitution guarantees “Occupy Wall Street” their right to assembly. WHY THE POLICE DOESN’T RESPECT IT? Occupy Wall Street protests continue expanding around the United States, as it is happening now in San Francisoc (as in the photo).(PHOTO BY LUKE HAUSER (AKA GEORGE FRANKLIN))
As the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement gains momentum and makes its way westward, San Franciscans too are being caught up in its spirit and to this avail, they are now rallying to Tax “Wall Street of the West.”
In this vein, more than 500 people protested in front of banks and investment firms in SF’s Financial District during rush hour Sept. 30. To this date, more people continue arriving despite police intervention.
To date, OWS actions are taking place in San Jose and Sac, with 19 people having been arrested after a rally Sept. 7 where about 500 protesters encompassed the Capital.
The same day the San Jose Mercury News reported SJ city officials scratching their heads in bewilderment, as to what to do about the ever growing Occupy Wall Street movement encampments that are springing up around their City Hall. They were contemplating making arrests. That city’s attorney Rick Doyle pointed out that SJ “prohibits staying overnight.”
The same night one Occupy protester found himself in cuffs at a SF Wall Street rally.
Democrats and Republicans are having to take a stance, as to the legitimacy of OWS; and L.A. Times reporter Paul West reported that at a “Values Voter Summit” in Washintong, D.C., House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who is a Republican, called OWS protesters a “mob,” suggesting the Obama administration is behind adthem. On the other hand, the Obama Administration has expressed solidarity with Occupy protesters.
However, it should be noted OWS is upset with the President because of his advocating for bailing out Wall Street bankers during what has come to be known as “the 2008 financial meltdown bailouts.”
The President is on record stating to not bail them out would result in a catastrophe.
By the same token, Obama acknowledged the frustration of common working people who felt – and many Americans are saying justifiably so – because at a time when American bankruptcy and foreclosures were at their highest in recorded U.S. history, CEO’s of these Fortune 500 films were giving themselves unprecedented (in the tens of millions of dollars per year) bonuses! So, many Americans, felt jolted, asking, why?
“I think people are frustrated, and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works,” Obama said.
Another common theme voiced at many of these rallies is “student loans,” which Occupy protesters feel are just another example of how speculative financial lending institutions like Wall Street – enslave poor working class Americans – and in this case on those who are just embarking upon their careers by saddling them with debts they will never be able to pay back in their lifetime.
National Review writer Josh Barro points out that: “educational inflation has been running far ahead of general inflation, without improvements in quality.”
In short, a quality education from a four-year college does not guarantee one a good job as it used to, and many Americans, not being able to find a job in the field they graduated in, are saying – it’s unfair – because they are drowning in student loan debt which is constantly incurring more debt, due to lending institutions selling their loans for a profit as though they were commodities, with the loan recipient picking up the tab.
For this reason many Americans facing similar student loan debt are lobbying for bankruptcy relief. However, it should be noted that currently student loans cannot be bankrupted.
It is not uncommon to hear horror stories of a student loan that started out as a $8,000 debt that is now a $50,000 one, with the borrower making less than $24,000 a year and in all likelihood, never ever going to make much more than that – who finds themselves with destroyed credit and constantly hounded by collection agencies.
Then this new Occupy Wall Street movement brings about the question of First Amendment rights, i.e., are these actions protected within the Constitution’s right for Americans to engage in the public free speech and assembly? Here in SF, there have been clashes with police that resulted in protesters being arrested.
In an alleged informal notice from the City and County of San Francisco and SFPD, protestors were warned that while the City honors their right to engage in free speech and assembly – their makeshift “encampment is in violation of the law.”
In other words, does the constitution guarantees these growing movement of people dissatisfied with their government inaction to protest their inconformity? If not, have we abandoned the Constitution all together and fell under a dictatorial government as many are already claiming?
The allege police document then goes on to cite what city and police officials consider to be infringements by the protesters upon SF businesses and private citizens. disorderly conduct, health code violations (including camping on a city street or sidewalk without permission from the city and food serving without a permit).
In an anonymous written retort, allegedly from the protesters, calling themselves occupysanfrancisco@gmail.com, they point out that: “This is a free speech assembly. It cannot be crashed by the police under any city ordinance, state code or statutes. This is not Cuba, the Soviet Union or China. People do not have to solicit permit to exercise (our rights).”
Occupy Wall Street is currently encouraging minorities who they worry might feel excluded from the movement to come and join, and pitch in, to the fight.
A group calling itself People of Color Working Group, said, “Let’s be real. The economic crisis did not begin with the collapse of the Lehman Brothers in 2008. Indeed, people of color and poor people have been in a state of crisis since the founding of this country, and for indigenous communities, since before the founding of the nation.
Black and brown folks have long known that whenever economic troubles ‘necessitate’ austerity measures and the people are asked to tighten their belts, we are the first to lose our jobs, our children’s schools are the first to lose funding, and our bodies are the first to be brutalized and caged. Only we can speak this truth to power. We must not miss the chance to put the needs of people of color—upon whose backs this country was built—at the forefront of this struggle.”
Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Article 20.
European Convention on Human Rights – Article 11.
American Convention on Human Rights – Article 15.
Examples of the national and regional constitutions recognizing the freedom of assembly are: United States – First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
