Wall Street Protesters, Occupy Wall Street | featured news

It was only a few nights after the Occupy protesters began sleeping in his church sanctuary when the Rev. Bob Brashear realized that his laptop was missing. The refugees from Manhattan's Zuccotti Park had found their way to his cavernous Presbyterian church on a cold winter evening, hoping to stay for a few nights, maybe longer. It was the latest stopover for the nomadic group, which has been living in a rotating series of churches since the city shut down its camp in November.

Dozens of Occupy protesters arrested after going around a chain-link fence to get to a church-owned lot they want to use as a new camp site.

The Occupy Wall Street protests are moving into the neighborhood. Finding it increasingly difficult to camp in public spaces, Occupy protesters across the country are reclaiming foreclosed homes and boarded-up properties, signaling a tactical shift for the movement against wealth inequality.

Blacks have historically suffered the income inequality and job scarcity that the Wall Street protesters are now railing against. Perhaps black America’s absence is sending a message to the Occupiers: “We told you so! Nothing will change. We’ve been here already. It’s hopeless.”

Los Angeles and San Francisco are seeking long-term solutions to the entrenched encampments by anti-Wall Street protesters, hoping to end the drain on resources and the frayed nerves among police and politicians....

UC Davis' embattled chancellor said campus police officers defied her orders when they used pepper spray on peaceful Occupy protesters last week. Chancellor Linda Katehi's statement comes as outrage continued over the incident, which was caught on tape.

The Occupy Wall Street camp in New York spawned others across the world before it was broken up this week, just short of its two-month anniversary. But, as those who bedded down in Zuccotti Park on the first night explain, it very nearly didn't happen.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a big enough problem for U.S. banks that they should pay for opposition research into the political motives of protesters, said a firm that lobbies for the industry.

Serious crimes more than doubled in the area around Occupy Los Angeles during the first 45 days since the protesters began their encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officials said.

The Republican Party and the tea party seemed to be a natural political pairing. But what may have seemed like another politically beneficial alliance — Democrats and Occupy Wall Street — hasn't happened.