OCCUPY CAMP IN NEW ORLEANS REMOVED FROM DUNCAN PLAZA

From NOLA.com:

The two-month occupation of Duncan Plaza ended with a whimper late Tuesday as U.S. District Judge Lance Africk denied Occupy NOLA's request for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed protesters to continue camping indefinitely in the park across from City Hall. As darkness fell, protesters scurried to pack up possessions and clear out of the plaza by 10:30 p.m., the park's official closing time.
....

So while plaintiffs' lawyers spent the day hoping for a favorable decision, they also hedged their bets, helping their clients arrange places to stay in case Africk ruled against them.

"We're just heartbroken for people who are out here with no place to go," said plaintiffs' lawyer Davida Finger, who estimated that about 20 people were in that situation.
....

Across the nation, the issue of tents is one of the more unusual aspects of Occupy cases. Carol Sobel, an attorney for the National Lawyers Guild, which has represented many of the groups, says she believes that the cases have forced judges to ask, "What is the role of the tent as a symbolic expression of foreclosures and people's loss of their homes?"

Some proponents have proposed that tents, as a symbol, rise to the level of free speech. But so far, no courts have supported that argument.

First Amendment scholar Keith Werhan, a professor at Tulane University Law School, said he sees the structures as emblematic.

"Tents are in a sense symbolic of the message that the Occupy movement is trying to get out: that some people are literally left out in the cold," he said. Plus, from a practical standpoint, he said, tents also make possible a 24-7 occupation, which in itself is arguably part of a larger message.

I don't see what harm the Occupiers do that they need to be driven out. A couple of months ago, I visited Duncan Plaza, and I fail to understand why they couldn't stay, so long as Occupy followed health and safety rules. Perhaps certain people don't like the sight of the folks camped out in the plaza, but is that a reason that they must be removed?

In another story on the front page of the newspaper, we learn that Occupy negotiated a cheaper price on portable toilets than the city. Occupy paid $163.50 a week for two portable toilets, including cleaning, compared to the $1000 per week that the city paid just for cleaning four portable toilets.

Occupy's lawyers say the disparity in costs raises a broader question about whether Landrieu administration officials have overstated what the low-key protest movement has cost New Orleans.

Their memorandum accompanying Exhibit No. 1 notes that city officials claim to have spent $50,000 to maintain Occupy NOLA, including about $1,000 per week for toilets. But Occupy could have rented four toilets a week for $327, about one-third of what the city had paid.

Occupy posted signs on the toilets reminding the users to keep them clean because the cleaner is "one of the 99 percent".

Only two persons, Michael Raso and David Dantonio, refused to leave Duncan Plaza and were arrested by NOPD.

OCCUPY NEW ORLEANS

From NOLA.com:

Hundreds of people, young and old, black and white, marched with signs held high and slogans spewing. It was a disjointed group: upbeat, angry, courteous, displeased, but united in unhappiness with the current economic and political climate. If there was a singular message shared among the masses, it centered on a simple idea: The status quo has got to go.

The "Occupy NOLA" protest and march was one of dozens of social actions held recently across the country, offshoots of a larger ongoing demonstration on Wall Street in New York City.

The marchers at Lafayette Square

Images from Occupy NOLA on Facebook.

Looks great doesn't it? I wish we had been there. Grandpère and I went to New Orleans yesterday, but we did not arrive at Lafayette Square until 3:00PM. By then the gathering at Lafayette Square in front of the Federal Building was over, and the group had moved on to Duncan Plaza in front of City Hall...the story of my life. The rally at Lafayette Square was tentatively scheduled to begin between 3:00 and 4:00 in the afternoon when the marchers arrived. Alas, the march went faster than was expected, and the marchers arrived at the square at around 1:00PM.

Once we left home, we had no further access to the internet, what with being technologically old-timey and all. The details of the march were, no doubt, Tweeted and Facebooked, but we had no connection.

At Lafayette Square, we ran into a couple of stray marchers, and we decided to share a cab to Duncan Plaza, which was only about a mile away, but still.... When we arrived at Duncan Plaza, there were around 150 people left of the crowd, mostly spread out on the grass around the plaza.





A General Assembly of Occupy NOLA was held in Duncan Plaza later yesterday evening, and occupiers who were camping out spent the night in the plaza.



Below you see the signs which are homemade, not professional signs paid for by the Koch Brothers.



This nice guy in the red shirt was one of our taxi partners.



When GP saw TV cameras, he became antsy and wanted to leave. He did NOT want me on TV. I didn't particularly want to be on TV, but if the camera captured me, I would not have cared.

The visit to the scene of the protest was my thing, not his thing, and he was kind enough to accompany me. Being a democracy of two we had to negotiate our way through the process, as we each had our say, and then we arrived at consensus. I prevailed upon him to let me stay a while longer to talk to a few more people.

Below are some of the folks with whom I chatted as long as Grandpère would permit.





Some of the responses to my question, 'Why are you here?'

I've been waiting to do this for 10 years! There is so much that is wrong in this country, and no one is watching out for the 99%.

We want the 1% to pay their fair share of taxes.

One man wanted the police chief in New Orleans fired. He wanted me to know why there were so many criminals in NO. He said, 'Too many black people have no hope.'

We are the majority in the country, and no one is listening to us.

The big banks and the corporations run the country, and their executives get richer as the middle class and the poor get poorer.

The police accompanied the protestors during the march, and relations between the two groups were cordial. A few policemen were across the street from the plaza, but they apparently saw nothing to police. Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu paid an impromptu visit to the people in the plaza and chatted with them. It was not a photo op. You can follow the latest updates on the Occupy NOLA Facebook page.

Photo update from Occupy Wall Street/Foley Square/NYC:

Thanks to Roger Bishop Alan. It takes one to know one. (I am a retired librarian.)