Remember that little incident in downtown Minneapolis the other night? Turns out that the cops beating people up made a few “oopsies” — namely, beating up on people whose bosses have deep pockets:

Chad Nelson, the photojournalist who was man-handled by a Minneapolis police officer while filming for KSTP Saturday night, has decided to file a criminal complaint.

The cop who beat up Nelson has yet to be officially IDed, but that will soon be forthcoming — the video above, taken by an Occupy protester who was himself arrested moments after recording it, shows the officer’s face quite clearly.

The irony here is that KSTP is run by a corporation owned by the very conservative and rich Hubbard family. That they are likely going to be depending on video taken by an Occupy member in the upcoming court case makes for strange bedfellows.

What say you, Mayor Rybak?

Live broadcast by Ustream

This just in from OccupyMN on Twitter:

“5 or 6 arrests at 9th and Nicollet including media and legal observer”

Make that eight arrests at least.

There’s a link above to the Ustream live coverage of the arrests. Apparently the MPD had been planning this from the get-go. A Tweet from three hours ago indicates MPD was tailing the Occupiers:

“Took the street, #mpd on our tail. Whose streets? OUR STREETS”

Undaunted, OccupyMN is now back at the Peoples’ Plaza (aka the Hennepin County Government Plaza) for a meeting in solidarity with their jailed Occupier kindred. Follow the OccupyMN Twitter feed for more information as it happens.

UPDATE — 10:00 am, April 8: This just came to me via email: Read the rest of this entry →

The Occupy movement in Minnesota seems to have unleashed a lot of pent-up energy, frustration, and creativity. One example of the latter is a “bake sale” held for US Bank by the Twin Cities faith-based social justice movement Spirit of Truth, whose Facebook page is here. The goal was to spotlight the huge amounts of money made by US Bank — $11.45 billion this year alone, a record — even as its CEO and other officers pretend that they just can’t afford to stop kicking people out of their homes.

Judging from the reactions of potential “customers” in the video above, I think they succeeded.

Wells Fargo chairman of the board and CEO John Stumpf was a few minutes into a boilerplate speech about the wonders of capitalism (particularly for people like him) over at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management when he got a mic check: Read the rest of this entry →

Remember that little US Bank and Minnesota Chamber of Commerce shindig scheduled for earlier today? The gathering of the elites to both circle their cloth-of-gold-covered wagons and to nervously pat themselves on their Brooks-Brothers-clad backs?

Well, US Bank president Richard Davis must figure that having wealth on the order of Ozymandias gives him a similar imagined immunity from the consequences of his own words and actions. Not only does he not acknowledge that he and his buds might have done anything wrong (much less the throngs gathered outside courtesy of OccupyMN to protest him and his buds), he chides the nervous Nellies among them who might still have concerns over what’s been going on. Check this out, courtesy of City Pages‘ Gregory Pratt:

Davis did comment on the economic woes facing the country, saying “fear,” “loss of faith,” and “uncertainty” were damaging American society. Davis called these feelings “really lame reasons to not get up in the morning.”

“‘Everybody’s breaking the rules, blah blah blah,’” Davis said at one point, admonishing the assembled business leaders to “get over it.”

Clap louder, guys! C’mon, clap louder! Gotta drown out the sounds of the protesters outside! Don’t you know that every time Tinkerbell’s allowed to hear a protester, it’s another dagger in her heart?!

Geez, this guy wins the Marie Antoinette Award for callous cluelessness — or is it clueless callousness?

Just a heads-up to all Twin Cities Metro Area residents:

ADVISORY: EVENT – Tues. Nov 1 – 11:45am

CONTACT:
Kevin Whelan, 612-325-9266,
kwhelan@mnfaireconomy.org or Donna Cassutt 612-859-2054, dcassutt@mnfaireconomy.org

Rally at Chamber of Commerce Meeting to tell Banks, CEOs: “Stop Foreclosing on the American Dream”

St. Paul—Minnesotans from faith, labor and community groups will rally on Tuesday November 1^st outside of the annual meeting of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce to demand that large banks and corporations pay their fair share of taxes, invest in good jobs, fix the foreclosure crisis and practice fair lending.

WHAT: “Don’t Foreclose on the American Dream” Rally at Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting

WHEN: Tuesday, November 1, 11:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Read the rest of this entry →

Progressives across the country have been bemoaning the quality of coverage of Occupations by the mainstream media in regional markets. It seems that’s it’s been difficult for many of the Occupiers to make themselves heard in their local media.

This hasn’t been a problem for the folks of Occupy MN — at least, not one they haven’t been able to surmount. Consider the clever, widely reported videos recently made by Nick Espinosa and friends touting Occupy Minnesota’s efforts on behalf of foreclosure victim Ruth Murman. For far less than the cost of running a TV or radio ad even once, even in the local media, the OccupyMN folks have with their Murman videos managed to capture the imaginations — and the news cycles — of the various mainstream print, TV, and radio outlets. This is a triumph of the concept of “earned media”, without the interference of “cool seekers” who see the Occupy movement mostly as the next new shiny thing. Read the rest of this entry →

One of the less-known effects of the Occupy movement is that nationwide, many homeowners from New York to Washington state to California have been able to stay in their homes for at least a little while longer thanks to the aid of the Occupiers.  Banks that didn’t return phone calls pre-Occupy are now working with homeowners on deals that at the very least allow the homeowners extra time to get moved to a new home, or even to keep the one they have.

Click on the video above to see how one satisfied customer describes how OccupyMN helped her deal with her bank.  Read the rest of this entry →

One of the memes the 1% crowd has been pushing, both locally and nationally, has been The Cost To The Taxpayer of the protests — usually in the form of utterly unnecessary (and local-economy-hurting) barricades, police presence, and surveillance of groups of largely self-disciplined and peaceful protesters — costs that one almost never sees tallied in discussions of, say, policing of sporting events such as the Minnesota Lynx’ win of the WNBA championship.

The dirty little secret here is that the price of foreclosures and bank bailouts — where your tax dollars are given to the banks so they can use that money to more efficiently kick you out of your own home — is what’s really costing the taxpayer. See, for example, Minnesotans for Fair Economy’s report on Hennepin County in Minnesota, which encompasses the city of Minneapolis and several other municipalities:

• Experts estimate that a typical foreclosure can cost a local government more than $19,000 [i]. With 9,393 foreclosures[ii] in Hennepin County, the cost of current foreclosures to taxpayers in Hennepin County is $180.6 million.[iii]

The real estate market collapse widely attributed to the big banks reckless behavior has cost the county much more in lost property taxes.

• Homes in Hennepin County are worth about $75,200 less than they were at the beginning of the housing crisis [iv], for lost an estimated total of $22.7 billion in lost value[v], which could drain $268 million in annual tax revenue from the county and its municipalities.[vi]

“Our First Amendment rights to protest are priceless; but the foreclosure crisis brought on by predatory lending and Wall Street recklessness has drained homeowners of billions in home value and thus cost Hennepin County millions,” said Donna Cassutt,Minnesotans for a Fair Economy spokesperson said.

“Sheriff Stanek and Chief Dolan shouldn’t blame the messenger when people stand up to demand reform of reckless bank behavior that has cost our communities a fortune and devastated whole neighborhoods,” added Javier Morillo, President of SEIU Local 26 and a steering committee member of Minnesotans for a Fair Economy.

Steve Fletcher, the Executive Director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change said, “NOC just released a study showing that the foreclosure crisis has cost the Minneapolis Public Schools $150 million. The banks and government have done far too little to help underwater and struggling homeowners or hold banks accountable. That’s the problem.”

“All across this county we have roads and bridges and schools that need repair and re-building.  We should be investing in putting  people to work so they can stay in their houses instead of letting sheriff’s deputies be used to put families out of their homes,” said Carol Nieters Executive Director of SEIU Local 284.

Watch the video above for some strong testimony from victims of foreclosure. Bet it sounds a lot like what you’re seeing in your home towns.

The OccupyMN crew, having had their tents taken from them on Government Plaza, were going to move to US Bank Plaza — but they were thwarted by a group of power-washers that suddenly showed up and cordoned off most of the US Bank Plaza, right as they were gearing up to move their encampment there. The power-washers didn’t show any signs of leaving any time soon, either.

So, faced with the choice of setting up their tents on the narrow strip of sidewalk still open on the plaza, or making a bid to get some public space somehow, some of them chose to set up in the street — literally — and a few of them were arrested as a result. Per CityPages’ Jessica Lussenhop: Read the rest of this entry →