Junfu Han

 

The University of New Mexico announced today that it will not renew (Un)occupy Albuquerque’s permit to protest during operating hours on campus.

The university says there were problems last week, such as a man threatening to stab protesters on Friday.

Check back here for updates as this story develops.

In last week’s news section, Carolyn Carlson reported that three city councilors—Rey Garduño, Ken Sanchez and Isaac Benton— publicly backed the movement. Alex Limkin, an Iraq War veteran, penned a column on why it’s part of the soldier’s oath to protect people exercising the First Amendment. And finally, Don Schrader made an appearance on our letters page to say that he’s the original occupier.

• We are the 99% (ParkerEast) [ Tue Oct 25 2011 11:34 AM ]
  
• "permit to protest" (jerry) [ Tue Oct 25 2011 3:09 PM ]
  
• Hilarious (Eason) [ Sat Oct 29 2011 10:15 PM ]
  

 

You know, for park cleanup. Not for anything political or anything.

Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in Zuccotti Park have got to get out tomorrow morning. The billionaire mayor went to the park to deliver the news.

According to this notice, maintenance crews will be cleaning the park in thirds. While one-third is being cleaned, the other two will remain open, and it should take four hours to clean each section.

That sounds like it should ultimately affect the protesters only a little, but tacked on to the notice is a list of appropriate uses of the privately owned park.

Camping, erecting tents

Laying down on the ground, benches, sitting areas or walkways

Spreading tarps and sleeping bags

Storing personal property

Using bikes, skateboards and roller blades

Taking things out of the trash cans

MoveOn’s got a petition going to stop the eviction.

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• Portland tents torn down, TV News Hypes Threat of Cop Action (StormCrow) [ Thu Oct 13 2011 5:53 PM ]
  

 

Last night, Camp Coyote was removed peacefully—and without arrests—from University of New Mexico campus by a force of state and university police.

Spokesperson Karen Wentworth held a press conference at the UNM Police Department station, where she said the university does not allow people to camp out. “We don’t let students stay here overnight. You’re not allowed to stay here overnight,” she said. She told protesters they could be at Yale Park between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Wentworth said Occupy Albuquerque demonstrators had been repeatedly notified over the last week. Many occupiers said they were aware the university had asked them to leave. After being removed from campus, one protester who didn’t want to give her name said “The university completely reneged on their agreement with us.”

A group trying to raise awareness about homelessness camped overnight on Johnson Field last semester. What’s the difference? Wentworth said the group “went through a pretty rigorous vetting.”

The university’s Facebook page was updated yesterday by the UNM admins to say “The Occupy Burque protesters do not have permission to camp on campus overnight.”

There were 63 comments on the post, most of which were in support of the movement. Some were vitriolic. One person wrote “Kick them out there starting to bug any ways WTF when did loitering become leagle,” and another suggested “give em the gas then bash their skulls in.”

So, a Daily Lobo reporter asked, if they were in violation of the policy then why weren’t they kicked out the first night? “We were trying to make sure they understood this was a violation,” Wentworth said. “I don’t know, maybe we were too patient.”

Desi Brown, from UNM’s Peace Studies Program, has acted as a liaison between the university and the protesters. He said last week that the group filled out a permit request to stay on campus, and under “contact information” they wrote that the only way to contact them was to come to Occupy Albuquerque’s general assembly meetings, held every day at 6 p.m. Spokesperson Wentworth said the university didn’t want to go to the general assembly meetings “because we didn’t want to seem heavy-handed.”

Protester and UNM student Jordan Whelchel said the university certainly came off that way by having the demonstrators removed. “I’d say that sending out more police officers than there were people in the park is a heavy-handed gesture, if I’ve ever seen one,” he said. “Coming to an assembly meeting to let us know some crucial information is by no means heavy-handed.”

Occupy Albuquerque moved to the parking lot of the Peace and Justice Center on the corner of Silver and Harvard to spend the rest of the night and reassembled today at UNM.

More updates to come.

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Unemployment, the economy and budget cuts can be boring topics, but once you start paying attention, they're scarier than that time you watched The Shining late at night, alone. Instead of cowering in fear of a federal ax hacking away at social programs, the American Dream Movement will rally at Civic Plaza today from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The American Dream Movement, a progressive response to the Tea Party, includes MoveOn.org and 30 other organizations. It’s mission is to create economic justice for veterans, students and others in need. The movement grew out of the turmoil in Wisconsin and was named by Van Jones, who was the green jobs adviser to the White House in 2009. The debt ceiling deal and cuts to Medicare, education and transportation spurred a recent round of demonstrations.

“The priorities are upside down,” says Margo Morado, the council coordinator for the Albuquerque chapter of MoveOn.org, “Taxes have not been raised, and the cuts are going to affect the poor, elderly and disabled the most.”

Albuquerque's rally is one of 254 nationwide taking place today. Morado says 200 people have signed up, and she estimates an attendance of 250 to 400 participants. The demonstration will feature a reading of “A Contract for the American Dream,” a plan to get the economy back on track based on ideas from 131,203 people. The 10-point proposal was developed through online forums and house meetings.

Democratic state Sens. Eric Griego, Jerry Ortiz y Pino (an Alibi columnist) and state Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas will speak in support of job creation and halts on spending cuts. In addition to policy discussions, the rally will also include poets, music from the Route 66 Revelers and a flash mob.

• jobs
• economy
• protest

• Van Jones: George Soros's monkey (desertbunny) [ Thu Aug 11 2011 8:07 AM ]
  

 

Babes and Bullies members are chaining themselves to dog houses for 11 hours on Saturday at UNM. The group is participating in Chain Off 2011. This national event is held every year on Fourth of July weekend to highlight the plight of dogs that spend their whole lives on chains.

The demonstration from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. will and raise money for Kaya—a pit bull rescued from starvation in late May by New Mexico Dogs Deserve Better. Babes and Bullies will have a booth out there on Saturday and will sell merch. All proceeds will benefit Kaya.

Pit bulls tote around quite a reputation–from bad-ass guard dogs to evil attack hounds—and in keeping with the bad boy tradition, they are irresistible to babes.

Nearly 25 percent of the dogs placed in Albuquerque animal shelters are pit bulls, according to Babes and Bullies. The group started a couple years to fundraise, raise awareness and act as a resource for pit bulls and their owners.

Babes and Bullies is one of many groups across the country that challenges the premise that all pit bulls act aggressively. The group isn't a rescue service, but many of the women act as foster guardians for abandoned dogs.

While pit bull advocacy groups cite the breed's loving and loyal disposition, their history in dog fighting is hard to ignore. Over the past 160 years, pit bulls have been bred to obey humans, but their behavior against other dogs is another matter, according to the Pit Bull Rescue Central. Traditionally used as fighters, the dogs are trained not to back down in confrontations.

Megan Cooley, president and treasurer of Babes and Bullies says that the perceptions of pit bulls acting aggressively comes from their loyal disposition.

“They're so loyal to their owner, they'll do anything,” she says. “People take advantage of that.”

While many cities banned pit bulls entirely, the Albuquerque City Council ruled instead to place dogs of all breeds in three categories: “potentially dangerous,” “dangerous” and “irresponsible owners.”

Owners that fail to restrain their dogs are civilly liable for any harm caused. Of the 27 instances reported on the city’s website, 20 involve pits.

Kirtland Air Force# base is the only area of the city that bans the dogs, a move that Babes and Bullies spoke out against in March.

Joby Wallace said she was shocked to learn Gov. Susana Martinez axed funding for the African American Performing Arts Center and Exhibit Hall. Wallace, president of the center’s board of directors, said she had to read about it in the paper like everyone else.

Last weekend, demonstrators gathered to speak out against the cut. Alibi photographer William Rodwell was on hand to take photos.

After more than a decade of work, the center was launched mid-2007. After a series of smaller cuts, it was expecting about $379,000 in 2011 from the state to operate. The center hadn’t yet acquired much additional funding yet, so it may be out of luck in June when the money dries up.

The move is a slap in the face to African Americans, Wallace told the Alibi in an interview last week. “We can no longer sit around and accept it.”

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A series of demonstrations will happen around the country today in solidarity with the workers in Wisconsin. The events, organized by the national AFL-CIO, are also intended to commemorate the day Martin Luther King Jr. died.

In Albuquerque, people will gather at the corner of San Mateo and Central at noon. “Greedy banks and corporations destroyed our economy, and now they want to fix it on the backs of workers,” write ralliers on Facebook.

(Here’s the local AFL-CIO chapter.)

CarbonNYC / CC BY-SA 2.0

 

In honor of love on Valentine's Day, people will gather in Downtown Albuquerque to embrace LGBT families.

Civic Plaza is in Downtown Albuquerque near Third Street and Tijeras.

Kelly Hutton, one of the demonstration's organizers, said in an interview that she's committed to her family. As someone who's a good aunty and "wants to have her her own family one day, I deserve the same rights as any other family member in the United States or in New Mexico. I'm a person of faith, as well."

Calvary Chapel is organizing a march against marriage rights for the LGBT community in Santa Fe today.

Three bills in the Legislature aim to define marriage in New Mexico as between one man and one woman. (Such bills are commonly referred to as Defense of Marriage Acts.) Hutton says she's not surprised by the number of DOMAs in the Roundhouse this year because of the conservative shift in political power. "There's been a movement to fight off a DOMA bill every year," Hutton said. "We have a lot of help. Right now, we're working toward getting people to be active and holding our allies accountable. There still is hope. There's always hope."

Today's rally on Civic Plaza is organized by Get Equal and Marriage Equality USA. It's part of a chain of demonstrations across the country.

• Marriage equality rally at noon Civic Plaza (ubermom87) [ Tue Feb 15 2011 12:26 AM ]
  

Cameron Cassan / CC BY-SA 2.0

Another kind of fair food.

UNM’s Fair Trade Initiative will hoist signs and banners offering thanks to farmworkers and calling for a fair wage. Today at 3 p.m., demonstrators will post up outside the Uptown Trader Joe’s as part of the national Supermarket Week of Action.

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• food
• protest
• groceries
• wages
• farmworkers
• thanksgiving

• "See you at Trader Joes!" (pencil) [ Wed Nov 24 2010 1:38 PM ]
  
• "the Uptown Trader Joe's" (marisa) [ Wed Nov 24 2010 2:12 PM ]
  

 

Every Oct. 22, people nationwide nonviolently protest police brutality and repression. 2010 marks the 15th year of this action.

Albuquerque’s Copwatch is participating and organized a silent march and vigil to remember the people who’ve been shot by the Albuquerque Police Department. There have been 11 officer-involved shootings this year.

People will gather at Fourth Street and Roma at 3:30 p.m. Family members of Kenneth Ellis III , the Iraq War veteran who was killed by police in January, will speak. The friends and relatives of Enrique “Kiki” Carrasco will also attend. At 4:30, the silent march will begin making its way up Central and end at Robinson Park on 8th Street.

The event is also sponsored by Vecinos United, Young Women United and the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition.

• Sandy Springs, GA Police Tests Out Bluetooth Cam (JAYALLAN) [ Sat Oct 23 2010 9:38 AM ]
  
• Ice-T (freedumb) [ Sat Oct 23 2010 1:09 PM ]
  

The Alibi’s reported in the past on the hundreds who turn out on Good Friday to protest in front of Planned Parenthood. Smaller demonstrations are daily events at that clinic and others.

Today, at about 4:30 p.m., Planned Parenthood of New Mexico is calling abortion rights supporters to gather at the clinic on 719 San Mateo NE. The rally is intended to express opposition to anti-choice groups that harass and intimidate abortion providers.

Project Defending Life set up shop down the street from Planned Parenthood a few years ago. Since then, it’s moved directly across the street.

During last year’s Good Friday protests, there was talk of Operation Rescue coming to town. That anti-abortion group led the protests at Dr. George Tiller’s offices in Wichita, Kan. Tiller performed third-trimester abortions, and he was shot and killed in May 2009 as he left church.

Few doctors nationwide perform late-term abortions, so Dr. Curtis Boyd of Albuquerque stepped in to fill his shoes.

Planned Parenthood calls Operation Rescue out in its news release about today’s protests:

The group engages in daily protests at clinics providing abortion services, using inflammatory signage and “Truth Trucks” with huge, graphic images of bloody, mutilated fetuses to upset patients, annoy neighbors and disrupt businesses nearby. It is significant to note that Operation Rescue’s senior policy adviser, Cheryl Sullenger, served two years in prison for conspiring to bomb abortion clinics.

• abortion
• planned parenthood
• operation rescue
• project defending life
• protest
• demonstration