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by elfismiles » Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:48 am
2012 Countdown wrote:9NEWS ONLINE
VIDEO FEED-Police clearing Occupy Denver tent camp
http://www.9news.com/video/9newsonline.aspx
Its about to go down...
edit- happening now...full riot gear and pushing everyone out onto the street.
by seemslikeadream » Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:49 am
Mayor Bloomberg's Girlfriend Sits on the Board of Brookfield Properties, Which is Acting at the Behest of the Mayor
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 10/14/2011 - 6:37am
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
According to the New York Times, Mayor Bloomberg's girlfriend sits on the board of Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zucotti Park (AKA Liberty Park). But that's hardly the ownly tie that has resulted in Brookfield becoming an active partner in Bloomberg's efforts to close down Occupy Wall Street.
The current gambit of, in essence, closing the public headquarters of the movement under the guise of "cleaning up" the park, and then imposing rules that would prohibit anything other than pedestrian traffic and sitting on benches, is now delayed. (It had originally been scheduled for 7 AM EST Friday.)
Occupy Wall Street put out a call last night for people to join them in preventing the New York Police Department -- allegedly acting at the behest of Brookfield Properties -- from effectively shutting down the active "headquarters" of the anti-Wall Street corruption and economic inequality groundswell uprising. In addition, the public advocate for New York City -- a position not well known out of Manhattan, but one with considerable influence in city politics -- challenged Bloomberg's coordinated effort with Brookfield to render inoperative the anti-Wall Street beachhead.
"Bill de Blasio, the city's public advocate," according to the New York Times, "had expressed concern over the city's actions as he inspected the park Thursday afternoon and listened to protesters' complaints."
Bloomberg had first tried to use the NYPD -- and perhaps others -- to infiltrate and perhaps bait the Occupy Wall Street protesters into some sort of violent act, which would turn public opinion against them, and allow him to use the sort of excessive police force employed in "The Battle of Seattle" several years ago to cut off the head of the populist surge that has put corporations and Wall Street on the defensive. That didn't work, even though hundreds of people were arrested after claiming that the police led them onto the street level of the Brooklyn Bridge and then arrested them.
But plan "B" was for Brookfield Properties, which technically owns the public park as a result of it being built in return for zoning variations in the area, to "ask" for police help if plan "A" didn't pan out.
Just two weeks ago, Bloomberg -- the 4th richest man in America whose fortune comes from an information software and device used by financial firms (along with a growing media empire, with an emphasis on business) -- spoke of a "sanitation crisis" in a rambling attack on Occupation Wall Street on a New York radio program. He implicitly threatened that he would close the site down. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Brookfield Properties was expressing "deep" concern about the sanitation conditions in the park. This was not a coincidence: it was a public relations meme.
Newspaper accounts of the now delayed Zucotti Park clean up generally accept that the City of New York was planning to have the NYPD arrest protesters who didn't clear the park as a response to a "request" from Brookfield Properties -- and it is true that there is such a written request.
But this is not Brookfield Properties acting on its own. It could have done that a long time ago. In fact it could have employed private security guards to clear the park of "temporary residents," by some legal interpretations of its rights as "owner" of the property.
Brookfield Properties is a multi-billion dollar commercial real estate company that is as tight as a tick with Bloomberg and the Wall Street plutocracy. It can't make a move in New York City to develop new projects without the approval of City Hall. It didn't make a move on Zucotti Park (named after the chairman of Brookfield) until the mayor got his ducks in a row and his public relations and legal people felt they could use the "sanitation" ruse, while the mayor claimed -- for media consumption -- that he was in support of the constitutional right to protest. You can bet your last dollar that Brookfield Properties was asked to write its letter to City Hall at the time it did directly by City Hall. The fact that the mayor's girlfriend is on the board of Brookfield is just symbolic icing on the cake of the oligarchy's symbiotic relationship.
However, due to factors already cited, and the strong legal possibility that the the NYPD could not be called in to Zucotti Park unless Brookfield Properties obtained a court order allowing for such a move, the mayor's office announced just before their scheduled de facto eviction that the police clear-out was being "delayed."
As BuzzFlash at Truthout noted in a commentary last week, "With the price of milk rising so high that many low-income New Yorkers can't afford it anymore, it's hardly comforting to know that...the priority of the multibillionaire mayor of New York is 'helping the banks.'"
Brookfield Properties does not make a move or a statement in regards to Zucotti Park without direction from Mayor Bloomberg's office. Of this you can be certain.
Nearly every financial firm and multi-national corporation in America is relying on Bloomberg to be their fellow multi-billionaire point man in putting an end to this "insurrection," just like the British Tories tried to do with the American revolution.
by Bruce Dazzling » Fri Oct 14, 2011 9:58 am
by psynapz » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:04 am
by elfismiles » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:11 am
Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, was a secretive "scenario and drill" developed by the United States federal government to suspend the United States Constitution, declare martial law, place military commanders in charge of state and local governments, and detain large numbers of American citizens who are deemed to be "national security threats", in the event that the President declares a "State of Domestic National Emergency". The plan states that events that might cause such a declaration would be widespread U.S. opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad, such as if the United States were to directly invade Central America.[1][2][3][4][5][6] To combat what the government perceived as "subversive activities", the plan also authorized the military to direct ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels.[7]
Rex 84 was written by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who was both National Security Council White House Aide, and NSC liaison to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and John Brinkerhoff, the deputy director of "national preparedness" programs for FEMA. They patterned the plan on an 1970 report written by FEMA chief Louis Giuffrida, at the Army War College, which proposed the detention of up to 21 million "American Negroes", if there were a black militant uprising in the United States.[1][8] Existence of a master military contingency plan (of which REX-84 was a part), "Garden Plot" and a similar earlier exercise, "Lantern Spike" were originally revealed by journalist Ron Ridenhour, who summarized his findings in an article in CounterSpy.[9]
Transcripts from the Iran-Contra Hearings in 1987 record the following dialogue between Congressman Jack Brooks, Oliver North's attorney Brendan Sullivan and Senator Daniel Inouye, the Democratic Chair of the joint Senate-House Committee:[10]
[Congressman Jack] Brooks: Colonel North, in your work at the N.S.C. were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?
Brendan Sullivan [North's counsel, agitatedly]: Mr. Chairman?
[Senator Daniel] Inouye: I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch upon that?
Brooks: I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was an area in which he had worked. I believe that it was and I wanted to get his confirmation.
Inouye: May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session.
Exercises similar to Rex 84 happen regularly.[11] For example, from 1967 to 1971 the FBI kept a list of over 100,000 persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the "ADEX" list.[12]
The basic facts about Rex 84 and other contingency planning readiness exercises—and the potential threat they pose to civil liberties if fully implemented in a real operation—are taken seriously by scholars and civil libertarians.[13][broken citation]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84
psynapz wrote:Unverified breaking rumor as announced on http://livestream.com/globalrevolution right now:
FBI has off-record plan named "Zero One" to mass-arrest OWS demonstrators in several cities and detain them for several weeks.
Media team member still talking on livestream now about the plausibility, practicing discernment with paranoid rumors, the philosophy of fear, "Northcom Conplan 3502" (replacement for "Garden Plot"), etc. and is saying he just wanted to put this out there since it's not unrealistic.
FWIW...
by Bruce Dazzling » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:23 am
elfismiles wrote:Sounds like REX84...
Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, was a secretive "scenario and drill" developed by the United States federal government to suspend the United States Constitution, declare martial law, place military commanders in charge of state and local governments, and detain large numbers of American citizens who are deemed to be "national security threats", in the event that the President declares a "State of Domestic National Emergency". The plan states that events that might cause such a declaration would be widespread U.S. opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad, such as if the United States were to directly invade Central America.[1][2][3][4][5][6] To combat what the government perceived as "subversive activities", the plan also authorized the military to direct ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels.[7]
Rex 84 was written by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who was both National Security Council White House Aide, and NSC liaison to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and John Brinkerhoff, the deputy director of "national preparedness" programs for FEMA. They patterned the plan on an 1970 report written by FEMA chief Louis Giuffrida, at the Army War College, which proposed the detention of up to 21 million "American Negroes", if there were a black militant uprising in the United States.[1][8] Existence of a master military contingency plan (of which REX-84 was a part), "Garden Plot" and a similar earlier exercise, "Lantern Spike" were originally revealed by journalist Ron Ridenhour, who summarized his findings in an article in CounterSpy.[9]
Transcripts from the Iran-Contra Hearings in 1987 record the following dialogue between Congressman Jack Brooks, Oliver North's attorney Brendan Sullivan and Senator Daniel Inouye, the Democratic Chair of the joint Senate-House Committee:[10]
[Congressman Jack] Brooks: Colonel North, in your work at the N.S.C. were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?
Brendan Sullivan [North's counsel, agitatedly]: Mr. Chairman?
[Senator Daniel] Inouye: I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch upon that?
Brooks: I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was an area in which he had worked. I believe that it was and I wanted to get his confirmation.
Inouye: May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session.
Exercises similar to Rex 84 happen regularly.[11] For example, from 1967 to 1971 the FBI kept a list of over 100,000 persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the "ADEX" list.[12]
The basic facts about Rex 84 and other contingency planning readiness exercises—and the potential threat they pose to civil liberties if fully implemented in a real operation—are taken seriously by scholars and civil libertarians.[13][broken citation]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84
by elfismiles » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:27 am
NY protests spread to San Antonio
Protesters plan week of rallies and camping at HemisFair Park.By Jennifer M. Ytuarte
Published: Friday, October 7, 2011
Wearing marijuana pasties, "Occupy San Antonio" protester Vonia Smith displays a sign Thursday toward the East Nueva street entrance of the Bexar County Courthouse at 100 Dolorosa St. Her husband Ricardo Juarez said they were there to wake America up and raise awareness of financial inequality and hegemony.
http://www.theranger.org/news/ny-protes ... -1.2648851
"Occupy San Antonio" protesters march past the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center Thursday on 200 E. Market St. The group says they want corporate finance removed from politics, the Federal Reserve audited and the end of the Iraq and Afghan wars.
http://www.theranger.org/news/ny-protes ... -1.2648851
by seemslikeadream » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:30 am
Live from Obamaville
by VIJAY PRASHAD
I. Hooverville.
Poor Herbert Hoover. A multimillionaire by thirty from the vast profits of gold mining, Hoover went into public service as retirement. His early administrative work was in agriculture, but he spent the longest time of his career in the Department of Commerce. In 1925, Hoover warned Calvin Coolidge about the dangerous speculation in Wall Street. Coolidge was not interested (he had a witlessness about economics, having once said, “When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results”). It was Hoover’s cross to bear that the stock market crash of 1929 came on his watch. It is a sad fact that just before the October 29 debacle on Wall Street, Hoover told the country, “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.”
The final triumph never came. By 1933, the jobless rate was twenty five per cent. In May 1932, seventeen thousand veterans came to Washington on a Bonus March. They were fed up. Their friends and relations had been thrown by the wayside, and promises made to them had been betrayed. Across the Potomac from Washington’s offices, the Bonus Army created an encampment. It would soon be given the name, Hooverville, and it was soon to be imitated across the country. Hoover sent General Douglas MacArthur (later of the wars in Asia) to quell the peaceful Bonus Army. MacArthur unleashed tanks and tear gas.
But the Hoovervilles continued.
II. Hartford.
The Occupied Hartford encampment has a significant view. If you stand in the middle of the camp at the intersection of Broad and Farmington, you can see Richard Upjohn’s dazzling Connecticut State Capital (the Government), the plantation of Aetna and various office buildings of the major insurance firms (the Corporations), the office of the Hartford Courant, the oldest continuously published newspaper in America (the Media) and the Connecticut State Armory (the Military). The ensemble of power is within sight of the protestors.
So too is the city’s heartbreaking poverty (the official jobless rate is thirty-three percent, the highest in the nation).
I asked a group of Occupiers whether they have formed Obamaville, the 21st century’s Hooverville. It was fitting that they missed the point of my question. Brian leapt in. “I’m not here for any politician,” he said, “I’m against all political parties. Our politics are the problem.” Talk of the Occupy movement being co-opted by the Democratic Party had come here, and it had been rejected. “This is not for Obama,” Dave interjected, “but it is our fight against the corporations.”
I heard much the same thing at Wall Street. There is no appetite for Obama.
What unites the Occupiers is that they are in general not coming into the movement for the first time. Most of those in Hartford came from the more beaten up side of the tracks, raised in Hartford’s streets where the bonds of community battle daily with the temptations of the drug economy and the itchy fingers of the police department. For many that I spoke with the reality of poverty and inequality led them to despair until they found each other, to work together in groups like Food Not Bombs, anti-war organizations, and in ad hoc groups to defend their communities’ right to survival. “When we struggle, it’s therapy,” raps M1 of the dead prez. So it was for many of the Occupiers.
Hartford struggles to survive. Chronic joblessness, with a collapse of state institutions to expand the social wage, is met by an increase in the means of repression (police and jails) and the ideology of consumerism. It is the same condition along the Interstate 91 corridor, from Hartford to Springfield to Holyoke. The future along the Freeway has been left to the resilience of families and communities and to the underground economies (legal and illegal). Michaelann Bewsee of Springfield’s Arise for Social Justice calls these neighborhoods “an economic dustbowl.”
Angelo, born in Hartford to Puerto Rican parents who worked in a factory and in the lunchroom of a school in the North-End, came from economic poverty but social dignity. His father’s political roots lay in Puerto Rican socialism, and pictures of Fidel Castro decorated the walls of his home (Angelo inherited these pictures). At seven, Angelo joined his father on the picket line. It took years for Angelo to put these memories into focus and to find the confidence to believe that change was possible (getting a computer helped, he says, as it “opened up the world to me”).
Victoria, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, found her hope in prayer. But it was not enough. One day she was listening to an interview with the band members of Me Without You, when one of the musicians mentioned a book (Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, written by Shane Clairborne). Victoria read this book, which tells the story of Clairborne’s radical faith community house from the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia called A Simple Way. This house was in the same neighborhood as the Kensington Welfare Rights Organization, whose long-time leader, Cherie Honkala is running for sheriff of Philadelphia on a Green ticket, with the express purpose of fighting foreclosures. Visiting A Simple Way and then other intentional communities, Victoria came to Hartford to be part of a movement that engenders this form of social living (there is a Catholic Worker house in the North-End of Hartford, held down by the remarkable Brian Kavanagh who should have a cell in the Hartford jails named for him).
Jeffrey Harris had recently lost his job, and then his wife died. Returning home from the hospital on the public bus, Jeffrey saw the tent city. He got off at the nearest bus stop, walked over and has stayed. The epidemic of foreclosures in the city angered and saddened Jeffrey, a pleasant man who wore his life’s tragedies with grace. “It’s crazy,” he said of the inequality in the city. “It’s a bunch of bullshit. These guys, the corporate elite, have to back down and give us something. It’s crazy man. When the system’s not working, then it has to be fixed.”
Such sentiments are commonplace at the Occupied camps that I have visited. John Pitman, standing near Jeffrey concurred. “People that are out here are here to bring back the country from the corporates,” he said. I asked John what gave him hope through his agitation. “Hope?” he said, “It’s not hope. It’s survival. I want to take back what belongs to us.”
III. Banks.
On August 31, George Magnus, the senior economic advisor to UBS in London, published a letter in the Financial Times, which the newspaper titled, “Capitalism is having a very Marxist crisis.” Magnus pointed out that Marx “analyzed and explained insightfully how and why capitalism would succumb to recurrent crises, and especially big ones after a credit bust.” In light of this analysis, Magnus from his perch in the well-appointed glass towers at Finsbury Square, wrote that we need to “reboot intellectually and think about how to address a very Marxist crisis of capitalism, starting with job creation, income formation, and money gross domestic product targeting.” It is sensible stuff, but rather odd coming from the same building where a Delta One desk was busy conducting the kind of prop trading that has given bankers an especially ugly image problem.
Magnus is an unusual banker. Most have battened down the hatches, ready to weather out this storm toward the Seas of Business As Usual.
Up the river from Hartford, in Springfield, a significant coalition of community activists and survivors of foreclosure named No One Leaves had pushed for a far-sighted city ordinance. Banks would have to jump through some cleverly crafted hoops before sending in the sheriff to eject people from their homes. Among these are a mandatory mediation program and a $10,000 bond to secure and maintain properties that had been foreclosed upon. This is the kind of innovation that one has come to expect from community organizations, and it is the kind of policy that we have come to expect would be pushed by local politicians such as Springfield’s Amaad Rivera and Hartford’s Luis Cotto.
The banks did not take this quietly. The Massachusetts Bankers Association sent a seven-page document to the city, saying that the council was not on firm legal footing. Florence Savings Bank, one of the parties to the letter, has made much of its localness since the credit crisis, with its slogan, “Don’t Blame Me, I Bank Locally.” But that does not stop this Northampton institution from getting into the fight against the residents of Springfield. On Monday, October 17, No Ones Leaves and Councilor Rivera will hold a rally against the banks’ maneuver in front of city hall in Springfield.
“We believe that this is the strongest anti-foreclosure ordinance in the entire country,” said Councilor Rivera (who is up for re-election this year, and needs all the help he can get). I think he is right. No One Leaves is effectively Occupied Springfield.
IV. Counterrevolution Cometh.
The Boston police, in the name of protecting flowers, has already clobbered and arrested the residents of Occupied Boston. They are unmoved.
The New York mayor has threatened to remove Occupied Wall Street to “clean the area.” There is an emergency mobilization to defend Liberty Park.
The patience of the elite has been tested, and found wanting. They want their country back.
In 1786, the farmers of western Massachusetts were angered by the denial of the right to vote in their new republic and by the shoddy treatment of the veterans of the revolutionary wars. One farmer, Daniel Shays, led his band of veterans and farmers to Springfield, where they marched around with fife and drum to prevent the court from hearing cases against rioting farmers. The Shays’ movement then marched toward Boston, where the Senate’s President, Sam Adams, signed a Riot Act and sent General Benjamin Lincoln to crack some heads. Northampton, where I live, was the home of the trials of the captured rebels, many of whom were put to death.
From Paris, France, America’s Ambassador, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison about Daniel Shays’ rebellion. “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, & as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”
by elfismiles » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:03 pm
elfismiles wrote:
The irony of the above rumors of FBI roundups and the photo above of protesters going past the HB Gonzales convention center ... it was Henry who verified the mass-roundup Rex84 plans:
"The truth is yes - you do have these standby provisions and the plans are here...whereby you could, in the name of stopping terrorism...evoke the military and arrest Americans and put them in detention camps."
by 2012 Countdown » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:21 pm
allisonkilkenny 48 mins 45 secs ago Twitter Cop ran over a member of National Lawyer's Guild at #ows. Reportedly broke his leg. (photo by @CSMuncyPhoto) yfrog.com/nuwaamaj
AnonyOps Anonymous
#libertyPlaza is packed & by the end of the day, we're going to see some amazing crowds. #OWS
1 minute ago
by Bruce Dazzling » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:33 pm
Violence Breaks Out During ‘Occupy Wall Street’ March Toward New York Stock Exchange
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Just a short while after protesters learned they’d be able to stay in Zuccotti Park indefinitely, violence broke out as a group marched away from it.
Protesters, apparently jubilant over being able to stay in the park after their furious cleanup efforts, took their brooms, flags and signs and started fanning out at around 7:30 a.m.
1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg reported the protesters were saying things to the effect that now that they’d cleaned up the park, they were going to clean up Wall Street.
“The whole world is watching,” they chanted, reported WCBS 880′s Alex Silverman.
A group of protesters headed south on Broadway toward the New York Stock Exchange, carrying their brooms. Police were taken off-guard, Sandberg reported. The group swelled quickly and wound up in a confrontation with police as they tried to gain access to Wall Street. The standoff occurred near Bowling Green as they turned left on Beaver Street.
Police urged protesters to stay out of the street and stay on the sidewalk.
Police scooters were shaped like a V and moved toward the protesters in the standoff. One man lost his balance, and was run over by a police scooter.
“He was just walking and the cop ran him over,” one witness said.
Police descended on the protester and got him out from under the bike. Some witnesses tell Sandberg the man was beaten during the arrest.
“We had somebody knock over a scooter, there were some arrests here — I don’t know what the charges were — there were people in the street the police officer was trying to get them out of the street, this was down near the exchange,” New York City Police Department’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne said.
Sandberg reported police clashed with some protesters, wielding their night sticks and batons.
First Precinct Commander Ed Winski checked a protester who refused to stay on the sidewalk. When the protester came back into the street, Winski hurled his megaphone down and wound up rolling around in the street with the protester, throwing punches. Other officers surrounded the two, throwing punches. The protester was arrested.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he threw down his megaphone in order to help make an arrest,” Browne said.
Police say the protesters were throwing bottles and bags of garbage at officers, triggering the police response, Sandberg reported. Police say they were trying to control the situation when it got out of hand.
At least a dozen demonstrators were arrested, mostly for ignoring police commands, CBS 2′s Dave Carlin reported.
Many of the protesters wound up circling back and returning to Zuccotti Park, Sandberg reported.
by 2012 Countdown » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:36 pm
by Project Willow » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:43 pm
by Bruce Dazzling » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:55 pm
by 82_28 » Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:22 pm
The Colorado State Patrol said 23 people were arrested as police in riot gear moved into the Occupy Denver camp in front of the Colorado Capitol early this morning to dismantle tents and remove debris.
The initial order to disperse came shortly before 3 a.m., but arrests weren't made until after 6 a.m.
Cpt. Jeff Goodwin of the Colorado State Patrol said troopers arrested 21 people for suspicion of unlawful conduct on public land. He said that number could increase later today.
Two others were arrested by Denver police, Goodwin said. One of whom was arrested for simple assault, the other was arrested for impeding traffic.
The state patrol continued to surround the park this morning and planned to clean and secure the park throughout the day. Goodwin said troopers planned to have a long-term presence at the park.
No injuries were reported and no names were immediately released.
Around 6:25 this morning, police marched lock-step through the camp, moving protesters into the street.
"The whole world is watching," chanted some protesters.
A core group of about 25 people remained around a makeshift structure that served as the camp's kitchen and medical tent, dubbed by protesters the "thunderdome."
Some of the core protesters who refused to leave were physically lifted by police, moved out of the immediate area and then allowed to disperse on their own.
"I don't know why I'm being detained," said Patricia Hughes, a nurse, as she was dragged from the area on her knees.
Once police reached the perimeter they had established, they allowed Hughes to leave on her own.
The protesters who would not leave were isolated by police, read their Miranda rights, restrained with plastic ties and then taken into custody.
Vince Lopez, 24, was among the protesters who had his Miranda rights read to him.
His wife, Chelsea Champ-Lopez, 22, said they are college students and have been there for days. She was crying as they took her husband into custody.
Through her tears, Champ-Lopez said she would "stay here until I find out what's going on with my husband."
She said it has been peaceful for days and they had been thankful when police would come by, but that all changed early this morning.
By 7 a.m., only about a half dozen protesters remained.
By 7:30, officials had dismantled the "thunderdome."
Chris, a 21-year-old student from Naropa University in Boulder who refused to give his last name, was among the final protesters. He said police gave him the option to leave or be arrested. He decided to leave.
"I don't want to pay a fine to finance more billy-clubs and tear gas to be used to repress my brothers and sisters," Chris said.
Casey Childers, a 27-year-old student from the University of Colorado at Denver, said she was kicked off a median in the middle of Colfax where she was holding a sign with a blue peace sign on it.
"They showed up in full riot gear and all we have are signs and slogans," Childers said. "I'm very concerned we are not able to protest peacefully and freely."
As lines of officers in riot gear stepped up onto the sidewalk on the west side of Broadway, many stood toe-to-toe with protesters who screamed profanity at them.
Peter Ericson, 27, of Douglas County, tried to calm protesters and encouraged them not to scream.
"Police are part of the 99 percent," Ericson said.
Tensions eased when officers broke their lines and moved across Broadway. After two orange CDOT trucks, filled with remnants of the camp drove off, officers lined up on the edges of Lincoln Park, leaving the sidewalk open.
Protesters crossed Broadway and lined up along the sidewalk on the west side of the park. Some danced as they crossed the street, others screamed "We won!"
People walking down the street offered encouragement, cars continued to honk horns as they passed.
Initially, a kind of calm standoff formed, with Colorado State Patrol officers and Denver police inching through the park and surrounding streets, usually in groups of a dozen or more, as protesters yelled at them, waved signs and at times stood or sat in the street surrounding police vehicles.
Police closed the area to cars and buses but Broadway was reopened about 7:20.
By 8:25 a.m., protestors had gathered back on the east side of Broadway, chanting and holding signs, under a close, watchful eye of police in riot gear.
"Whose street? Our street," chanted the protesters.
One held a sign that read "Jail Wall Street Crooks."
Officers gathered all of the salvagable belongings left behind at the camp and put them into one truck, while all of the garbage was put into a second CDOT truck.
The protesters — who were told Thursday afternoon they had to leave the park by 11 p.m. — had hoped that if they held their ground until 5 a.m., when the park typically reopens, they would be able to resume their protest.
But the Colorado State Patrol announced this morning that the park had been closed indefinitely, by executive order.
Around 5 a.m., police also announced that the group had 30 minutes to remove personal belongings and makeshift structures they have built.
Many protesters began packing upon hearing the news, saying they were moving gear to "safehouses" so they could rebuild either at the same place or elsewhere.
The Occupy Denver movement has mirrored similar movements across the country that started with New York City's Occupy Wall Street, which protesters say is a response to frustration over what they view as the country's inequitable financial system.
There have been no reports of Occupy camps being forcibly evicted in other cities, but more than 100 people were arrested this week when they tried to expand Occupy Boston.
In Denver, the encampment at its height had about 70 tents, a kitchen with free food, library, school, worship tent, security detail and nurses station.
On Thursday, Gov. John Hickenlooper held an 11:30 a.m. news conference, along with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, demanding the protesters disperse by 11 p.m. or face arrest for violating state laws that forbid camping on those grounds.
Speaking at a 9:30 p.m. news conference forced indoors by chants and a crowd that surged onto the Capitol steps, State Patrol Chief James Wolfinbarger said that troopers could take action including issuing citations or making arrests between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
"We want people to go home," Wolfinbarger told a small group of media, his voice sometimes drowned out by people outside pounding on the Capitol doors and yelling. "We want this to end well so people can come back tomorrow and continue."
He also expressed concern that the original Occupy Denver protest has been "hijacked" by people whose goal is civil disobedience.
"The concern is this group that is out there in large part is not representative of the group out there at the start," Wolfinbarger said.
Authorities didn't appear at the park until approximately 2:40 a.m., when a State Patrol captain drove an SUV to the corner of Lincoln and 14th Avenue and announced via loudspeaker that the crowd had until 3:15 to disperse.
As he repeated the warning several times over the next 40 minutes, crowds formed around the SUV, yelling at police to let the peaceful gathering continue.
Around 3:15 a.m. rows of squad cars parked on Lincoln and Colfax, and officers began walking into the park. Others stood on Broadway. Dump trucks were brought in for tents and other trash that authorities picked up and threw away.
Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661 or sburnett@denverpost.com
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