They've arrested 38 people at Occupy Austin. There's a rally at 4pm to protest this action.
Here's a link for Occupy Austin.
http://www.facebook.com/...
Here are contacts for phoning to state your objections to the police action.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/...
When I checked it out last week, it was a pretty small Occupy demonstration. We'll see whether the police action is able to provoke it into a huge movement instead.
Really this just makes no sense for a nice friendly librul town, now does it? Not to mention the expense (yeah, MY tax dollars) of paying police overtime, and the court costs of booking and releasing all these folks exercising their first amendment rights?
Also noteworthy: the city's insistence on powerwashing the site in the midst of the worst drought in history.
Also noteworthy: the eviction notices foreshadowing these arrests were sent out Thurs or Friday, making it clear they planned the whole event for the weekend to attract as little notice as possible.
(a) Saturday night, everybody's at a Halloween party on 6th Street - - who's going to notice a few arrests?
(b) Weekend, mayor and city council are OOTO - - nobody to call and complain to!
10:00 AM PT: CNN
http://www.cnn.com/...
Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/...