By Hunter Walker 1:29pm

investigations

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Jerry Nadler Says Feds Didn’t Give ‘A Satisfactory Response’ To His Call For A Probe Into NYPD’s Handling Of Occupy Wall Street

Congressman Jerrold Nadler was one of the politicians who attended yesterday’s protest march against the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy. He told The Politickerhe believes stop and frisk is “terribly violative of civil liberties” and, like other elected officials, he hopes the Department of Justice will investigate the policy.

However, Mr. Nadler is not optimistic about the possibility of a federal investigation because he said the DOJ didn’t respond to his call for them to investigate the NYPD’s conduct towards protesters and journalists during the raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park last November.

“I must say, the Justice Department has not been terribly responsive when some of us have asked for investigations for various things,” Mr. Nadler said.

Mr. Nadler went on to say one of the requests he was referring to was his push for a probe into the NYPD’s handling of the Occupy Wall Street eviction.

“We never got a satisfactory response,” he said of his call for an Occupy investigation. “I think we got a response, it was not satisfactory.” Read More

By Hunter Walker 6/08/12 6:47pm

Numbers Game

NYPD Officers manning a barricade to keep people back during the raid. (Photo: Hunter Walker)

NYPD Says There Were Actually Two Reporters Arrested During Occupy Wall Street Raid

The Queens Chronicle published an interview with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and his top spokesman Paul Browne in which Mr. Browne described the notion many reporters were arrested at the police raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park as “a total myth.” In his story about the interview, Chronicle Editor in Chief Peter C. Mastrosimone wrote that Mr. Browne claimed “only one journalist was arrested during the operation,” but the NYPD told us there were actually two arrests of credentialed reporters during the raid.

“The information that I have here–there were two individuals that were arrested in Zuccotti Park, which was Julie Walker and Patrick Hedlund, they were credentialed individuals,” said Sergeant Ryan with the NYPD’s office of the deputy commissioner for public information. Read More

By Hunter Walker 6/08/12 4:30pm

Law & Order

Stu Loeser (Photo: Facebook)

Mayor Bloomberg’s Spokesman Explains How Only One Reporter Was Arrested During The Zuccotti Park Raid [Update]

This morning, we wrote about an interview NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and the Department’s top spokesman Paul Browne gave to the Queens Chronicle in which Mr. Browne discussed the arrests of reporters following the police raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park.

“Paul Browne, the deputy commissioner for public information, who accompanied Kelly to the interview, added that only one journalist was arrested during the operation, despite stories to the contrary, which he called ‘a total myth,’” Chronicle Editor in Chief Peter C. Mastrosimone wrote.

We noted that this seemed to be a discrepancy with an email Mayor Bloomberg’s top spokesman sent in response to a post on the Awl describing reporters arrested while covering the Occupy Wall Street raid in which he acknowledged five reporters with press credentials were arrested.

We reached out to both Mr. Browne and Mr. Loeser to explain why they seemed to be in disagreement. A heated Mr. Loeser called us back to explain that only one reporter was arrested in Zuccotti Park itself while the other reporters were arrested in other areas that day.

“He’s talking about the issue at Zuccotti Park,” Mr. Loeser said of Mr. Browne’s comments. “There’s not a discrepancy.” Read More

By Hunter Walker 6/08/12 9:24am

Rewriting History

NYPD-Chief-Ray-Kelly-Hold-007

NYPD Spokesman Says Stories Of Reporters Arrested At Occupy Raid Were ‘A Total Myth’ [Update]

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and his top spokesman, Paul Browne, gave a lengthy, exclusive interview to the Queens Chronicle in which they discussed one of the biggest controversies surrounding the Department in recent months–the arrests of journalists during last November’s raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park. Mr. Browne apparently denied reports of journalists arrested at Zuccotti Park and attributed them to protesters using fake press credentials.

“Paul Browne, the deputy commissioner for public information, who accompanied Kelly to the interview, added that only one journalist was arrested during the operation, despite stories to the contrary, which he called ‘a total myth,’” wrote Chronicle Editor in Chief Peter C. Mastrosimone. “Occupy Wall Street protesters were forging press credentials in an effort to get through the police lines, he added, but that doesn’t mean actual reporters were arrested.” Read More

By Colin Campbell 5/28/12 8:55am

why not

(Photo: YouTube)

Congressional Candidate Stars in Occupy-Themed Hip-Hop Video

George Martinez, a former district leader and current underdog candidate against Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez in this year’s Democratic primary, now has some tunes for his campaign.

Global Block Collective, a hip-hop activist organization Mr. Martinez founded, released a video last week starring the candidate and other artists urging the public to “stand up” for a somewhat ambiguous purpose. The video was apparently shot during the May Day protests earlier this month and includes a number of shots of police and protesters, as well as other settings like the subway. Read More

By Hunter Walker 5/14/12 9:00am

Survey Says

(Photo: Wikimedia)

New Poll Shows Cuomo’s Approval Rating Taking a Slight Hit

A new Siena Research Institute poll of voters in New York State shows that, while still high, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s favorability ratings are at their lowest since he took office in 2011. The poll also showed President Barack Obama up 20 points over Mitt Romney in the Empire State, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand way ahead of her three potential opponents, displeasure with Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party, strong support for raising the minimum wage and high favorability ratings for the Legislature.  Read More

By Hunter Walker 5/08/12 7:51pm

Longshots

Vivek Jain (Photo: VivekForVirginia.com)

Meet The 31-Year-Old Doctor And Occupier Who’s Trying to Take Out Eric Cantor

Vivek Jain was standing in the rain outside President Barack Obama’s rally in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday wearing a red armband and collecting signatures for a campaign against one of the most influential Republicans in Washington–House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. A softspoken and extremely articulate man who looks even younger than his 31 years, Mr. Jain is a doctor who also helps teach classes at Virginia Commonwealth University. He’s running as an independent.

“Both parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, are beholden to corporate interests,” Mr. Jain told The Politicker. “You’ve only seen the same kind of pro one percent policies from both parties despite their campaign season populist rhetoric.” Read More

By Hunter Walker 5/02/12 5:21pm

Analysis

An Occupy Wall Street demonstrator wearing a Guy Fawkes mask in Zuccotti Park last year. (Getty)

Why Occupy Wall Street Isn’t Working

Throughout its nearly eight month existence, Occupy Wall Street has been fueled by the youthful enthusiasm and social media savvy of today’s digitally connected twentysomethings. But the generation that birthed Occupy may also prove to be the movement’s undoing. Read More

By Hunter Walker 5/02/12 12:08pm

#OccupyWallStreet

Arrested protesters lined up inside Vietnam Veterans Plaza. (Photo: Hunter Walker)

New NYPD Tactics Lead to an Anticlimactic End For May Day

In many ways, the story of Occupy Wall Street’s May Day protest yesterday is much more about what didn’t happen than what did. There were no mass arrests or massive traffic disruptions and workers didn’t walk off their jobs en masse. In total, the NYPD said there were “over 50″ Occupy-related arrests yesterday, a far cry from the hundreds of arrests that accompanied previous Occupy actions.

After months of dealing with the protests, the police have clearly adapted to Occupy.  Last night, the NYPD managed to clear the crowd that gathered for the May Day finale rally within thirty minutes without the pepper spray and arrests of press and politicans that led to controversy at past protests. Read More

By Hunter Walker 5/01/12 8:24pm

Heck No We Won't Go

John Samuelsen at the May Day march. (Photo: Hunter Walker)

TWU Prez Says Transit Workers Won’t Help ‘Pharoah Bloomberg’ Arrest Occupiers

Transit Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen doesn’t want members of his union to help the NYPD transport protesters arrested at Occupy Wall Street’s May Day demonstrations. Mr. Samuelsen marched with Occupiers and union members from Union Square to Battery Park this evening and, at the end of the route, he made a speech where he urged transit workers to “resist orders” given by “the screws” to drive buses full of arrested protesters.  Read More