The final news cast of the evening is now off the air, but the last report of the night was about Occupy/(Un)Occupy Albuquerque which came to a consensus agreement earlier this evening to remain at Camp Coyote past the 10pm eviction deadline.
In spite of their properly obtained permit to peacefully assemble not being renewed for reasons still in question, protesters agreed to risk arrest in order to bring the concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement and all Sister Movements to light.
Currently, Occupy Oakland and Occupy Atlanta are also being evicted via Police action.
Official Press Release just posted by the Occupy/(Un)Occupy Albuquerque Protesters stating their decision and the reasons for it:
Press Release
ALBUQUERQUE (Tuesday, October 25, 2011) Tonight the (Un)Occupy Albuquerque Movement came to the consensus that due to UNM’s pending eviction of the protestors, we will be peacefully organizing against the decision via civil disobedience. There will be several who are going to be peacefully risking arrest if police show. The rest of the community will be present, in protest, but will comply with police requests.
Our country is suffering and we need relief. Tonight more than 50 people gathered to ensure the 1%, and the politicians they have bought, understand the unconstitutional police enforced eviction will not deter us.
The University’s arguments are a smokescreen to end a movement that is growing.
They claim homeless people, and this includes veterans of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, create a security risk for the campus.
Those who have risked their lives for this country are living on the streets and (Un)Occupy Albuquerque will not turn our backs on them like the 1%, the politicians, and the UNM Administration.
(Un)Occupy Albuquerque has been able to feed and provide a place of belonging for the homeless. If (Un)Occupy Albuquerque can do this even after the catastrophic economic collapse caused by Wall Street, then the University and the City of Albuquerque have the resources and the obligation to not turn their backs on those that need it the most.
The money spent on a $60 million PIT renovation and/or a $25 million sportsplex are examples of resources that can be redirected to serve the 99%.
The University claims to be a place that cultivates knowledge and encourages us to use that knowledge to improve society, but when we put their words into action they attempt to shut us down.
Points of Fact:
I. Transient presence was already set up at Yale park prior to the (Un)Occupy movement. Although the Transient population is an obvious important component of the movement, it is unjust to use preexisting social disparities to undermine our cause.
II. We have complied with all the demands listed concerning our permit to occupy Yale Park.
III. We have evacuated the site by curfew every night, sleeping on sidewalks outside of UNM boundaries. Further, it would be impossible to sleep on this ground overnight considering they water the lawn.
Why is this movement focused on Wall Street?
Wall Street took subprime mortgages and converted them into derivatives and sold those derivatives to retirement funds and banks around the world. This collapsed the world’s economy and wiped out 17 trillion in national economic assets.
The Bush administration said it was necessary to give the banks 800 billion in taxpayer dollars to prevent a great depression. In addition to the 800 billion, the Federal Reserve Bank secretly gave Wall Street another 1.2 trillion dollars to bail out the Wall Street Banks.
Now the Wall Street bankers are sitting on trillions of dollars and refuse to loan businesses money to get our economy going.
Wall Street put pressure on Congress to stop a proposed meager 3% tax increase on the 1% to mitigate the suffering of the 99%.
We, the tax-payers, bailed them out and they lobbied congress to prevent the implementation of regulations needed to prevent another economic catastrophe.
If things do not change Un(Occupy) Albuquerque prepared to take further action.