My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan

December 6, 2011

My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.

I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted “We Are Peaceful” and “We Are Nonviolent” and “Join Us.”

As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement. For example, I watched as the LAPD destroyed a pop-up canopy tent that, until that moment, had been serving as Occupy LA’s First Aid and Wellness tent, in which volunteer health professionals gave free medical care to absolutely anyone who requested it. As it happens, my family had personally contributed that exact canopy tent to Occupy LA, at a cost of several hundred of my family’s dollars. As I watched, the LAPD sliced that canopy tent to shreds, broke the telescoping poles into pieces and scattered the detritus across the park. Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.

When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor.

It was horrible to watch, and apparently designed to terrorize the rest of us. At least I was sufficiently terrorized. I unlinked my arms voluntarily and informed the LAPD officers that I would go peacefully and cooperatively. I stood as instructed, and then I had my arms wrenched behind my back, and an officer hyperextended my wrists into my inner arms. It was super violent, it hurt really really bad, and he was doing it on purpose. When I involuntarily recoiled from the pain, the LAPD officer threw me face-first to the pavement. He had my hands behind my back, so I landed right on my face. The officer dropped with his knee on my back and ground my face into the pavement. It really, really hurt and my face started bleeding and I was very scared. I begged for mercy and I promised that I was honestly not resisting and would not resist.

My hands were then zipcuffed very tightly behind my back, where they turned blue. I am now suffering nerve damage in my right thumb and palm.

I was put on a paddywagon with other nonviolent protestors and taken to a parking garage in Parker Center. They forced us to kneel (and sit--SEE UPDATE) on the hard pavement of that parking garage for seven straight hours with our hands still tightly zipcuffed behind our backs. Some began to pass out. One man rolled to the ground and vomited for a long, long time before falling unconscious. The LAPD officers watched and did nothing.

At 9 a.m. we were finally taken from the pavement into the station to be processed. The charge was sitting in the park after the police said not to. It’s a misdemeanor. Almost always, for a misdemeanor, the police just give you a ticket and let you go. It costs you a couple hundred dollars. Apparently, that’s what happened with most every other misdemeanor arrest in LA that day.

With us Occupy LA protestors, however, they set bail at $5,000 and booked us into jail. Almost none of the protesters could afford to bail themselves out. I’m lucky and I could afford it, except the LAPD spent all day refusing to actually *accept* the bail they set. If you were an accused murderer or a rapist in LAPD custody that day, you could bail yourself right out and be back on the street, no problem. But if you were a nonviolent Occupy LA protestor with bail money in hand, you were held long into the following morning, with absolutely no access to a lawyer.

I spent most of my day and night crammed into an eight-man jail cell, along with sixteen other Occupy LA protesters. My sleeping spot was on the floor next to the toilet.

Finally, at 2:30 the next morning, after twenty-five hours in custody, I was released on bail. But there were at least 200 Occupy LA protestors who couldn’t afford the bail. The LAPD chose to keep those peaceful, non-violent protesters in prison for two full days… the absolute legal maximum that the LAPD is allowed to detain someone on misdemeanor charges.

As a reminder, Antonio Villaraigosa has referred to all of this as “the LAPD’s finest hour.”

So that’s what happened to the 292 women and men were arrested last Wednesday. Now let’s talk about a man who was not arrested last Wednesday. He is former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. Under Charles Prince, Citigroup was guilty of massive, coordinated securities fraud.

Citigroup spent years intentionally buying up every bad mortgage loan it could find, creating bad securities out of those bad loans and then selling shares in those bad securities to duped investors. And then they sometimes secretly bet *against* their *own* bad securities to make even more money. For one such bad Citigroup security, Citigroup executives were internally calling it, quote, “a collection of dogshit”. To investors, however, they called it, quote, “an attractive investment rigorously selected by an independent investment adviser”.

This is fraud, and it’s a felony, and the Charles Princes of the world spent several years doing it again and again: knowingly writing bad mortgages, and then packaging them into fraudulent securities which they then sold to suckers and then repeating the process. This is a big part of why your property values went up so fast. But then the bubble burst, and that’s why our economy is now shattered for a generation, and it’s also why your home is now underwater. Or at least mine is.

Anyway, if your retirement fund lost a decade’s-worth of gains overnight, this is why.

If your son’s middle school has added furlough days because the school district can’t afford to keep its doors open for a full school year, this is why.

If your daughter has come out of college with a degree only to discover that there are no jobs for her, this is why.

But back to Charles Prince. For his four years of in charge of massive, repeated fraud at Citigroup, he received fifty-three million dollars in salary and also received another ninety-four million dollars in stock holdings. What Charles Prince has *not* received is a pair of zipcuffs. The nerves in his thumb are fine. No cop has thrown Charles Prince into the pavement, face-first. Each and every peaceful, nonviolent Occupy LA protester arrested last week has has spent more time sleeping on a jail floor than every single Charles Prince on Wall Street, combined.

The more I think about that, the madder I get. What does it say about our country that nonviolent protesters are given the bottom of a police boot while those who steal hundreds of billions, do trillions worth of damage to our economy and shatter our social fabric for a generation are not only spared the zipcuffs but showered with rewards?

In any event, believe it or not, I’m really not angry that I got arrested. I chose to get arrested. And I’m not even angry that the mayor and the LAPD decided to give non-violent protestors like me a little extra shiv in jail (although I’m not especially grateful for it either).

I’m just really angry that every single Charles Prince wasn’t in jail with me.

Thank you for letting me share that anger with you today.

Patrick Meighan

My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan


My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan

L.A. and Occupy L.A. Agree: It’s Time to End Corporate Personhood | NationofChange

Published: Wednesday 7 December 2011

“What’s the issue that unites the occupiers and the city they’re occupying? Getting corporate money out of politics.

On De­cem­ber 3, just two days be­fore Oc­cupy L.A. was evicted by po­lice, the Gen­eral As­sem­bly of the oc­cu­pa­tion passed a unan­i­mous res­o­lu­tion call­ing for a con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment to end cor­po­rate per­son­hood.
Today, the City Coun­cil of Los An­ge­les also voted, also unan­i­mously, for a res­o­lu­tion mak­ing the same ap­peal, be­com­ing the first major city in the na­tion to do so.
So what’s the issue that unites the oc­cu­piers and the city they’re oc­cu­py­ing? Cor­po­rate per­son­hood, the legal con­cept that un­der­pins rul­ings like the Supreme Court's 2010 de­ci­sion in Cit­i­zens United v the Fed­eral Elec­tion Com­mis­sion, means that cor­po­ra­tions are con­sid­ered peo­ple under the law, with the con­sti­tu­tional right of free speech. Since the courts have also de­fined money as speech, the up­shot is that cor­po­ra­tions are em­pow­ered to spend un­lim­ited amounts of money try­ing to in­flu­ence the po­lit­i­cal process.

Na­tionofChange is a 501(c)3 non­profit funded di­rectly by our read­ers. Please make a small do­na­tion to sup­port our work.

It’s lit­tle sur­prise that Oc­cupy, a move­ment that wants our na­tion’s de­ci­sions to be made by the 99% in­stead of the 1%, sup­ports a con­sti­tu­tional fix for the prob­lem of cor­po­rate in­flu­ence on pol­i­tics. In its first of­fi­cial state­ment, the flag­ship oc­cu­pa­tion in New York’s Zuc­cotti Park de­clared, “no true democ­racy is at­tain­able when the process is de­ter­mined by eco­nomic power.” The as­sem­bly in­cluded in a list of griev­ances the fact that cor­po­ra­tions “have in­flu­enced the courts to achieve the same rights as peo­ple, with none of the cul­pa­bil­ity or re­spon­si­bil­ity.” Other Oc­cupy sites have also called for con­sti­tu­tional checks on cor­po­rate power, and slo­gans call­ing for the end of cor­po­rate per­son­hood and Cit­i­zens United are com­mon sights on pro­test­ers’ signs.
But when L.A. and Oc­cupy L.A. are mak­ing the same unan­i­mous de­mand, it’s clear that the de­sire to take on cor­po­rate power in pol­i­tics is gain­ing trac­tion.
In­deed, though Los An­ge­les is the largest city to date to join the call for a con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment tak­ing on cor­po­rate per­son­hood, it’s not the first. So far this year, vot­ers in Boul­der, Colo.; Mis­soula, Mont.; Madi­son, Wisc.; and Dane County, Wisc., have all passed bal­lot ini­tia­tives mak­ing the same ap­peal, with sup­port rang­ing from 75 % to 84%. Other cities, in­clud­ing Pitts­burgh, Penn., have gone so far as to elim­i­nate the rights of “per­son­hood” for cor­po­ra­tions seek­ing to per­form cer­tain ac­tiv­i­ties (such as nat­ural gas drilling in Pitts­burgh) within their bor­ders.
“Local res­o­lu­tion cam­paigns are an op­por­tu­nity for cit­i­zens to speak up and let it be known that we won’t ac­cept the cor­po­rate takeover of our gov­ern­ment,” said Kaitlin Sopoci-Belk­nap, a spokesper­son for Move to Amend. The group was cre­ated in the wake of Cit­i­zens United to ad­vo­cate for a con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment that would over­rule the de­ci­sion; a local chap­ter pressed for pas­sage of the res­o­lu­tion by the L.A. City Coun­cil. Move to Amend hopes that 50 cities and towns will put the same res­o­lu­tion on bal­lots next No­vem­ber. “Our plan is build a move­ment that will drive this issue into Con­gress from the grass­roots,” said Sopoci-Belk­nap.
Ap­prox­i­mately 100 peo­ple came to the L.A. coun­cil meet­ing to sup­port the res­o­lu­tion, many of them re­port­edly mem­bers of Oc­cupy L.A.
The Los An­ge­les Times re­ported only one dis­senter: a man in a top hat, with fake money pour­ing out of the pock­ets of his suit, who said he had come to speak for the wealthy. He im­plored the coun­cil not to pass the res­o­lu­tion.
Brooke Jarvis wrote this ar­ti­cle for YES! Mag­a­zine, a na­tional, non­profit media or­ga­ni­za­tion that fuses pow­er­ful ideas with prac­ti­cal ac­tions. Brooke Jarvis is YES! Mag­a­zine's web ed­i­tor.

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On De­cem­ber 3, just two days be­fore Oc­cupy L.A. was evicted by po­lice, the Gen­eral As­sem­bly of the oc­cu­pa­tion passed a unan­i­mous res­o­lu­tion call­ing for a con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment to end cor­po­rate per­son­hood.
Today, the City Coun­cil of Los An­ge­les also voted, also unan­i­mously, for a res­o­lu­tion mak­ing the same ap­peal, be­com­ing the first major city in the na­tion to do so.
So what’s the issue that unites the oc­cu­piers and the city they’re oc­cu­py­ing? Cor­po­rate per­son­hood, the legal con­cept that un­der­pins rul­ings like the Supreme Court's 2010 de­ci­sion in Cit­i­zens United v the Fed­eral Elec­tion Com­mis­sion, means that cor­po­ra­tions are con­sid­ered peo­ple under the law, with the con­sti­tu­tional right of free speech. Since the courts have also de­fined money as speech, the up­shot is that cor­po­ra­tions are em­pow­ered to spend un­lim­ited amounts of money try­ing to in­flu­ence the po­lit­i­cal process.

Na­tionofChange is a 501(c)3 non­profit funded di­rectly by our read­ers. Please make a small do­na­tion to sup­port our work.

It’s lit­tle sur­prise that Oc­cupy, a move­ment that wants our na­tion’s de­ci­sions to be made by the 99% in­stead of the 1%, sup­ports a con­sti­tu­tional fix for the prob­lem of cor­po­rate in­flu­ence on pol­i­tics. In its first of­fi­cial state­ment, the flag­ship oc­cu­pa­tion in New York’s Zuc­cotti Park de­clared, “no true democ­racy is at­tain­able when the process is de­ter­mined by eco­nomic power.” The as­sem­bly in­cluded in a list of griev­ances the fact that cor­po­ra­tions “have in­flu­enced the courts to achieve the same rights as peo­ple, with none of the cul­pa­bil­ity or re­spon­si­bil­ity.” Other Oc­cupy sites have also called for con­sti­tu­tional checks on cor­po­rate power, and slo­gans call­ing for the end of cor­po­rate per­son­hood and Cit­i­zens United are com­mon sights on pro­test­ers’ signs.
But when L.A. and Oc­cupy L.A. are mak­ing the same unan­i­mous de­mand, it’s clear that the de­sire to take on cor­po­rate power in pol­i­tics is gain­ing trac­tion.
In­deed, though Los An­ge­les is the largest city to date to join the call for a con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment tak­ing on cor­po­rate per­son­hood, it’s not the first. So far this year, vot­ers in Boul­der, Colo.; Mis­soula, Mont.; Madi­son, Wisc.; and Dane County, Wisc., have all passed bal­lot ini­tia­tives mak­ing the same ap­peal, with sup­port rang­ing from 75 % to 84%. Other cities, in­clud­ing Pitts­burgh, Penn., have gone so far as to elim­i­nate the rights of “per­son­hood” for cor­po­ra­tions seek­ing to per­form cer­tain ac­tiv­i­ties (such as nat­ural gas drilling in Pitts­burgh) within their bor­ders.
“Local res­o­lu­tion cam­paigns are an op­por­tu­nity for cit­i­zens to speak up and let it be known that we won’t ac­cept the cor­po­rate takeover of our gov­ern­ment,” said Kaitlin Sopoci-Belk­nap, a spokesper­son for Move to Amend. The group was cre­ated in the wake of Cit­i­zens United to ad­vo­cate for a con­sti­tu­tional amend­ment that would over­rule the de­ci­sion; a local chap­ter pressed for pas­sage of the res­o­lu­tion by the L.A. City Coun­cil. Move to Amend hopes that 50 cities and towns will put the same res­o­lu­tion on bal­lots next No­vem­ber. “Our plan is build a move­ment that will drive this issue into Con­gress from the grass­roots,” said Sopoci-Belk­nap.
Ap­prox­i­mately 100 peo­ple came to the L.A. coun­cil meet­ing to sup­port the res­o­lu­tion, many of them re­port­edly mem­bers of Oc­cupy L.A.
The Los An­ge­les Times re­ported only one dis­senter: a man in a top hat, with fake money pour­ing out of the pock­ets of his suit, who said he had come to speak for the wealthy. He im­plored the coun­cil not to pass the res­o­lu­tion.
Brooke Jarvis wrote this ar­ti­cle for YES! Mag­a­zine, a na­tional, non­profit media or­ga­ni­za­tion that fuses pow­er­ful ideas with prac­ti­cal ac­tions. Brooke Jarvis is YES! Mag­a­zine's web ed­i­tor.

NationofChange is a 501(c)3 nonprofit funded directly by our readers. Please make a small donation to support our work.

On December 3, just two days before Occupy L.A. was evicted by police, the General Assembly of the occupation passed a unanimous resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood.
Today, the City Council of Los Angeles also voted, also unanimously, for a resolution making the same appeal, becoming the first major city in the nation to do so.
So what’s the issue that unites the occupiers and the city they’re occupying? Corporate personhood, the legal concept that underpins rulings like the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v the Federal Election Commission, means that corporations are considered people under the law, with the constitutional right of free speech. Since the courts have also defined money as speech, the upshot is that corporations are empowered to spend unlimited amounts of money trying to influence the political process.

NationofChange is a 501(c)3 nonprofit funded directly by our readers. Please make a small donation to support our work.

It’s little surprise that Occupy, a movement that wants our nation’s decisions to be made by the 99% instead of the 1%, supports a constitutional fix for the problem of corporate influence on politics. In its first official statement, the flagship occupation in New York’s Zuccotti Park declared, “no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.” The assembly included in a list of grievances the fact that corporations “have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.” Other Occupy sites have also called for constitutional checks on corporate power, and slogans calling for the end of corporate personhood and Citizens United are common sights on protesters’ signs.
But when L.A. and Occupy L.A. are making the same unanimous demand, it’s clear that the desire to take on corporate power in politics is gaining traction.
Indeed, though Los Angeles is the largest city to date to join the call for a constitutional amendment taking on corporate personhood, it’s not the first. So far this year, voters in Boulder, Colo.; Missoula, Mont.; Madison, Wisc.; and Dane County, Wisc., have all passed ballot initiatives making the same appeal, with support ranging from 75 % to 84%. Other cities, including Pittsburgh, Penn., have gone so far as to eliminate the rights of “personhood” for corporations seeking to perform certain activities (such as natural gas drilling in Pittsburgh) within their borders.
“Local resolution campaigns are an opportunity for citizens to speak up and let it be known that we won’t accept the corporate takeover of our government,” said Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a spokesperson for Move to Amend. The group was created in the wake of Citizens United to advocate for a constitutional amendment that would overrule the decision; a local chapter pressed for passage of the resolution by the L.A. City Council. Move to Amend hopes that 50 cities and towns will put the same resolution on ballots next November. “Our plan is build a movement that will drive this issue into Congress from the grassroots,” said Sopoci-Belknap.
Approximately 100 people came to the L.A. council meeting to support the resolution, many of them reportedly members of Occupy L.A.
The Los Angeles Times reported only one dissenter: a man in a top hat, with fake money pouring out of the pockets of his suit, who said he had come to speak for the wealthy. He implored the council not to pass the resolution.
Brooke Jarvis wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Brooke Jarvis is YES! Magazine's web editor.

On December 3, just two days before Occupy L.A. was evicted by police, the General Assembly of the occupation passed a unanimous resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood.
Today, the City Council of Los Angeles also voted, also unanimously, for a resolution making the same appeal, becoming the first major city in the nation to do so.
So what’s the issue that unites the occupiers and the city they’re occupying? Corporate personhood, the legal concept that underpins rulings like the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v the Federal Election Commission, means that corporations are considered people under the law, with the constitutional right of free speech. Since the courts have also defined money as speech, the upshot is that corporations are empowered to spend unlimited amounts of money trying to influence the political process.

NationofChange is a 501(c)3 nonprofit funded directly by our readers. Please make a small donation to support our work.

It’s little surprise that Occupy, a movement that wants our nation’s decisions to be made by the 99% instead of the 1%, supports a constitutional fix for the problem of corporate influence on politics. In its first official statement, the flagship occupation in New York’s Zuccotti Park declared, “no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.” The assembly included in a list of grievances the fact that corporations “have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.” Other Occupy sites have also called for constitutional checks on corporate power, and slogans calling for the end of corporate personhood and Citizens United are common sights on protesters’ signs.
But when L.A. and Occupy L.A. are making the same unanimous demand, it’s clear that the desire to take on corporate power in politics is gaining traction.
Indeed, though Los Angeles is the largest city to date to join the call for a constitutional amendment taking on corporate personhood, it’s not the first. So far this year, voters in Boulder, Colo.; Missoula, Mont.; Madison, Wisc.; and Dane County, Wisc., have all passed ballot initiatives making the same appeal, with support ranging from 75 % to 84%. Other cities, including Pittsburgh, Penn., have gone so far as to eliminate the rights of “personhood” for corporations seeking to perform certain activities (such as natural gas drilling in Pittsburgh) within their borders.
“Local resolution campaigns are an opportunity for citizens to speak up and let it be known that we won’t accept the corporate takeover of our government,” said Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a spokesperson for Move to Amend. The group was created in the wake of Citizens United to advocate for a constitutional amendment that would overrule the decision; a local chapter pressed for passage of the resolution by the L.A. City Council. Move to Amend hopes that 50 cities and towns will put the same resolution on ballots next November. “Our plan is build a movement that will drive this issue into Congress from the grassroots,” said Sopoci-Belknap.
Approximately 100 people came to the L.A. council meeting to support the resolution, many of them reportedly members of Occupy L.A.
The Los Angeles Times reported only one dissenter: a man in a top hat, with fake money pouring out of the pockets of his suit, who said he had come to speak for the wealthy. He implored the council not to pass the resolution.
Brooke Jarvis wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Brooke Jarvis is YES! Magazine's web editor.

It’s little surprise that Occupy, a movement that wants our nation’s decisions to be made by the 99% instead of the 1%, supports a constitutional fix for the problem of corporate influence on politics. In its first official statement, the flagship occupation in New York’s Zuccotti Park declared, “no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.” The assembly included in a list of grievances the fact that corporations “have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.” Other Occupy sites have also called for constitutional checks on corporate power, and slogans calling for the end of corporate personhood and Citizens United are common sights on protesters’ signs.
But when L.A. and Occupy L.A. are making the same unanimous demand, it’s clear that the desire to take on corporate power in politics is gaining traction.
Indeed, though Los Angeles is the largest city to date to join the call for a constitutional amendment taking on corporate personhood, it’s not the first. So far this year, voters in Boulder, Colo.; Missoula, Mont.; Madison, Wisc.; and Dane County, Wisc., have all passed ballot initiatives making the same appeal, with support ranging from 75 % to 84%. Other cities, including Pittsburgh, Penn., have gone so far as to eliminate the rights of “personhood” for corporations seeking to perform certain activities (such as natural gas drilling in Pittsburgh) within their borders.
“Local resolution campaigns are an opportunity for citizens to speak up and let it be known that we won’t accept the corporate takeover of our government,” said Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a spokesperson for Move to Amend. The group was created in the wake of Citizens United to advocate for a constitutional amendment that would overrule the decision; a local chapter pressed for passage of the resolution by the L.A. City Council. Move to Amend hopes that 50 cities and towns will put the same resolution on ballots next November. “Our plan is build a movement that will drive this issue into Congress from the grassroots,” said Sopoci-Belknap.
Approximately 100 people came to the L.A. council meeting to support the resolution, many of them reportedly members of Occupy L.A.
The Los Angeles Times reported only one dissenter: a man in a top hat, with fake money pouring out of the pockets of his suit, who said he had come to speak for the wealthy. He implored the council not to pass the resolution.
Brooke Jarvis wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Brooke Jarvis is YES! Magazine's web editor.

On December 3, just two days before Occupy L.A. was evicted by police, the General Assembly of the occupation passed a unanimous resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood.
Today, the City Council of Los Angeles also voted, also unanimously, for a resolution making the same appeal, becoming the first major city in the nation to do so.
So what’s the issue that unites the occupiers and the city they’re occupying? Corporate personhood, the legal concept that underpins rulings like the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v the Federal Election Commission, means that corporations are considered people under the law, with the constitutional right of free speech. Since the courts have also defined money as speech, the upshot is that corporations are empowered to spend unlimited amounts of money trying to influence the political process.

NationofChange is a 501(c)3 nonprofit funded directly by our readers. Please make a small donation to support our work.

It’s little surprise that Occupy, a movement that wants our nation’s decisions to be made by the 99% instead of the 1%, supports a constitutional fix for the problem of corporate influence on politics. In its first official statement, the flagship occupation in New York’s Zuccotti Park declared, “no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.” The assembly included in a list of grievances the fact that corporations “have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.” Other Occupy sites have also called for constitutional checks on corporate power, and slogans calling for the end of corporate personhood and Citizens United are common sights on protesters’ signs.
But when L.A. and Occupy L.A. are making the same unanimous demand, it’s clear that the desire to take on corporate power in politics is gaining traction.
Indeed, though Los Angeles is the largest city to date to join the call for a constitutional amendment taking on corporate personhood, it’s not the first. So far this year, voters in Boulder, Colo.; Missoula, Mont.; Madison, Wisc.; and Dane County, Wisc., have all passed ballot initiatives making the same appeal, with support ranging from 75 % to 84%. Other cities, including Pittsburgh, Penn., have gone so far as to eliminate the rights of “personhood” for corporations seeking to perform certain activities (such as natural gas drilling in Pittsburgh) within their borders.
“Local resolution campaigns are an opportunity for citizens to speak up and let it be known that we won’t accept the corporate takeover of our government,” said Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a spokesperson for Move to Amend. The group was created in the wake of Citizens United to advocate for a constitutional amendment that would overrule the decision; a local chapter pressed for passage of the resolution by the L.A. City Council. Move to Amend hopes that 50 cities and towns will put the same resolution on ballots next November. “Our plan is build a movement that will drive this issue into Congress from the grassroots,” said Sopoci-Belknap.
Approximately 100 people came to the L.A. council meeting to support the resolution, many of them reportedly members of Occupy L.A.
The Los Angeles Times reported only one dissenter: a man in a top hat, with fake money pouring out of the pockets of his suit, who said he had come to speak for the wealthy. He implored the council not to pass the resolution.
Brooke Jarvis wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Brooke Jarvis is YES! Magazine's web edi

L.A. and Occupy L.A. Agree: It’s Time to End Corporate Personhood | NationofChange

Occupy Philly and LA Camps Raided, Evicted at Midnight, Hundreds Arrested: Photos, Videos

Follow link at bottom of page for videos

By Sarah Seltzer, AlterNet
Posted on November 30, 2011, Printed on December 1, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/741424/occupy_philly_and_la_camps_raided%2C_evicted_at_midnight%2C_hundreds_arrested%3A_photos%2C_videos

Last night, in the same kind of secretive late-night actions we've seen elsewhere, police raided end evicted Occupy Philadelphia and Occupy Los Angeles.
Although the proceedings were largely peaceful compared to say, tear gas and pepper-spray, there were stiill major issues for civil liberties--in particular in LA. The LAPD played the same tricks with credentialing media organizations that the NYPD had done previously, allowing only certain journalists to cover the eviction. Lisa Derrick at Firedoglake has more details on that:

Monday night at 7:15 PT, the Los Angeles Police Department held a lottery to decide which media could be credentialed for the LAPD Occupy LA media pool, in anticipation of the next raid. According to a mainstream media source who was there, the LAPD only wanted to allow one media outlet per medium (print, radio, television), but was persuaded to allow three of each...

On Twitter, @ProgresivTeachr Brian Jones tweeted: "Actual quote from KCAL9, "We made an agreement with LAPD to not give away their tactics." AGAINST PEACEFUL PROTESTERS! #OccupyLA #OLAraid"
The report from The Guardian announces over 200 arrests in LA:

In Los Angeles around 1,400 officers wearing riot gear and biohazard suits were moving members of Occupy Los Angeles after they ignored a Monday deadline to leave the area.
Protesters moved into the City Hall park on 1 October and, within weeks, their encampment had grown to include 500 tents and up to 800 full-time residents. But numbers fell last week after the Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, issued an ultimatum, telling them to move out at the beginning of this week or face eviction.

And a handful in Philadelphia:

In Philadelphia, police began pulling down tents at about 1:20am (EST) after giving demonstrators three warnings that they would have to leave, which nearly all of the protesters followed. Dozens of demonstrators then marched through the street until they were stopped by police.

Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey said breaking up the camp in the early hours helped minimise disruption to businesses and traffic.

Six protesters were arrested after remaining on a street that police tried to clear.

A video of words exchanged between protesters and mounted police in Philadelphia:
Photos from the AFP of LA--for Philadelphia photos, click here:

Police arrive to evict protesters from the Occupy Los Angeles camp near City Hall. Hundreds of riot police flooded into downtown Los Angeles and Philadelphia early Wednesday to clear anti-Wall Street protest camps in mostly peaceful operations that saw dozens arrested.

Members of Los Angeles Police Department process two arrested Occupy LA protesters at their camp outside City Hall. Hundreds of riot police flooded into downtown Los Angeles and Philadelphia early Wednesday to clear anti-Wall Street protest camps in mostly peaceful operations that saw dozens arrested.

Members of the Occupy LA group protest as police raid the Occupy Los Angeles campsite. Hundreds of riot police flooded into downtown Los Angeles and Philadelphia early Wednesday to clear anti-Wall Street protest camps in mostly peaceful operations that saw dozens arrested.

Members of Occupy LA hold signs and candles outside City Hall in Los Angeles. Hundreds of riot police flooded into downtown Los Angeles and Philadelphia early Wednesday to clear anti-Wall Street protest camps in mostly peaceful operations that saw dozens arrested.

Anti-Wall Street demonstrators take to the streets prior to being raided by police near City Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Police arrested more than 200 anti-Wall Street protesters in downtown Los Angeles in an early morning raid Wednesday that cleared out hundreds from the two-month old encampment.

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AlterNet: Occupy Philly and LA Camps Raided, Evicted at Midnight, Hundreds Arrested: Photos, Videos