Southern California breaking news and trends
Occupy LA protests cost taxpayers $4.7 million
Occupy Los Angeles cost city taxpayers $4.7 million, with most of the money spent on policing last year's protests outside City Hall.
The Los Angeles Times says the LA Police Department spent $1.3 million monitoring protesters during the two-month demonstration, and an additional $1.3 million evicting them. Another $500,000 was spent by the Office of Public Safety, whose security officers protect city property.
The newspaper cites a report presented Friday by City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana.
The total is $2 million higher than an estimate made in February.
The Times says the updated figure reflects recently reported police costs and the bill to rehabilitate City Hall Park and several monuments damaged by protesters.
The city has received more than $400,000 in donations and rebates for the restoration project.
#Denied: Judge rules prosecutors can get Occupy protester's tweets
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Demonstrators affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement attempt to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on the motorway on October 1, 2011 in New York City. The motorway portion of the bridge is not intended for pedestrians and as the marchers attempted to cross, they were stopped midway by police. Hundreds of protesters were arrested.
In a ruling that could affect Occupy protesters around the nation, a judge in Manhattan ruled that prosecutors can successfully subpoena tweets from a defendant even if they no longer appear on the site.
Prosecutors argued that the public tweets of Malcolm Harris, an Occupy Wall Street protestor, could prove that Harris knew that he was in violation of the law when he and others were arrested for marching on the Brooklyn Bridge in October.
"There is, in fact, reasonable grounds to believe the information sought was relevant and material to this investigation," Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. wrote in a decision Friday, reports the Associated Press.
The judge made sure not to be misunderstood by putting a hashtag next to the word "denied."
"All of the tweets that we request are communications that the defendant put out there, into the world, and he has no privacy interest," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Lee Langston argued at the hearing in March.
Occupy Education: March 1 protests planned for CA campuses
Photo by alamosbasement via Flickr Creative Commons
Occupy Education will be schooling California college campuses on March 1 with scheduled protests denouncing cuts to higher education and promoting a message that, "education is not for sale."
Dubbed the "National Day of Action," the call for change is detailed on the movement's website:
"We refuse to accept the dismantling of our schools and universities, while the banks and corporations make record profits. We refuse to accept educational re-segregation, massive tuition increases, outrageous student debt, and increasing privatization and corporatization.
They got bailed out and we got sold out. But through nationally coordinated mass action we can and will turn back the tide of austerity.
We call on all students, teachers, workers, and parents from all levels of education —pre-K-12 through higher education in public and private institutions— and all Occupy assemblies, labor unions, and organizations of oppressed communities, to mobilize on March 1st, 2012 across the country to tell those in power: The resources exist for high-quality education for all."































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