Starting now: Call & e-mail Hennepin County Commissioners to demand that they stop restricting Occupy Minneapolis’s right to protest & right to shelter!

Don’t dismantle Occupy Minneapolis tents on Wednesday – shelter is a human right! Stop threatening Occupy Minneapolis right to protest! Stop the intimidation and harassment of Occupy Minneapolis!

On Wednesday, occupiers and supporters will take action, setting up “99 Tents for the 99 Percent” on the plaza. County officials have been trying to coerce the protesters to cancel this event through the use of intimidation, harassment and threats. This is unacceptable. We need to stand up for the right to protest and the right to shelter. We need to pressure the County authorities to NOT dismantle or confiscate the tents on Wednesday, to not threaten the protesters with repression if they stand up for their basic rights.

Since Occupy Minneapolis started their protest at The People’s Plaza on October 7 as part of the global Occupy Wall Street movement, Hennepin County Sheriff Stanek and Hennepin County Administrators have refused to allow the protesters to have shelter from the weather. Since there was no actual policy forbidding shelter on the plaza, County Commissioners made up a new set of rules directly singling out Occupy Minneapolis’s protest, restricting protesters from sleeping or having shelter on the plaza. The public responded with an outpouring of support for the occupiers, as hundreds rallied, community and labor leaders spoke out, and 100 people slept out on the Plaza the first night the sleeping restriction was to take effect. Occupiers have continued to sleep on the Plaza every night since, and the Plaza has continued to serve as a central rallying point for the struggle to put people before profits.

As winter sets in and temperatures drop, the need for shelter must be defended. It is a question of basic rights and safety. Please call the County Commissioners to pressure them to keep hands off our tents and hands off the Occupy movement’s right to protest and right to shelter!

Call as many of the commissioners as you can, but if you can only call two, call Gail Dorfman and Peter McLaughlin.

Gail Dorfman: 612-348-7883 | gail.dorfman@co.hennepin.mn.us Peter McLaughlin: 612-348-7884 | commissioner.mclaughlin@co.hennepin.mn.us Mike Opat, chair: 612-348-7881 | mike.opat@co.hennepin.mn.us Mark Stenglein: 612-348-7882 | mark.stenglein@co.hennepin.mn.us Randy Johnson: 612-348-7885 | randy.johnson@co.hennepin.mn.us Jan Callison: 612-348-7886 | jan.callison@co.hennepin.mn.us Jeff Johnson: 612-348-7887 | jeff.r.johnson@co.hennepin.mn.us

#Minneapolis #MinneapolisMN #InJusticeSystem #PoliceBrutality #Eviction #OccupyWallStreet #OWS #OccupyMinneapolis #CallIn

Those one-hundred sat down on a large tarp on the bridge, with the remaining protesters surrounding them, for about three hours. The protests across the country were intended to highlight the fight for jobs, arguing that people could be put to work fixing our nation’s crumbling bridges.

The rally at Carver Park only lasted for about 15 minutes, but included speeches from several community members, including local politician Ian Biddle, who said of the people on Wall Street, “They don’t care about us, they don’t care about black people, or Hispanic people, or poor people. . . we will not be divided between black and white.” Then protesters marched to the bridge, chanting “We are the 99%!”

When they arrived at the bridge, another speaker addressed the crowd, saying “We won’t tolerate one more cut or one more corporate giveaway.” Protesters then surrounded the taped-off civil disobedience zone, forming a barrier between those performing civil disobedience and the police. Organizers of the march set up tents and distributed water and hand warmers.

As time went on, the police constructed a one-way barrier through which people could leave, but could not re-enter. Arrest seemed imminent as the police surrounded the occupied bridge. Protesters began new chants, such as “We are unstoppable, another world is possible,” and “Walker, let’s face it, your budget cuts are racist,” in reference to Wisconsin’s right-wing governor Scott Walker.

Chief Ed Flynn of the Milwaukee Police Department announced to the media that their blockade would stay up. No one could bring in food, but that the occupiers would be allowed to stay the night on the bridge if they wished. Occupiers held a meeting and decided to march to the MICAH building nearby. The MICAH building is the headquarters of a local inner-city faith activist group. Despite warnings from the police, protesters took the streets and marched all the way to the building, where they were greeted with applause.

University of Wisconsin Student and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) member Eddie Chapman said of the action, “It was a success, we won...this was the most inspiring and radical action I’ve ever been a part of.” Chapman was one of sixteen arrested on the March 4, 2010 National Day of Action for Education Rights.

#Milwaukee #MilwaukeeWI #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #jobs #OccupyMilwaukee #OccupyWallStreet #bridges #CarverPark #OWS