Occupy Protesters Arrested At Iowa Democratic Party Headquarters In Des Moines

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Eight Occupy Iowa protesters have been arrested at the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters in Des Moines, where they protested measures being considered in Washington dealing with issues including defense spending, a planned oil pipeline and jobless benefits.

Twelve protesters entered the party headquarters Monday morning. A few hours later, eight were escorted away by police and placed into a van. Police say they will be cited with trespassing and released.

The arrests came two days after the protesters set up camp outside President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters in Des Moines to demand he agree with them on the issues.

Protester Julie Brown says the goal wasn't to get arrested but to bring attention to defense spending, plans for an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas and other matters.

 

Comments

[ZetaReticuli]

05:27 PM on 12/23/2011

The issue of tents as forms of free speech is often brought up, but here's Riverside Police Dept. Chief of Police, Diaz, addressing the size of tents by gesturing with a cup of his hands in a cute sort of way. He states that only small tents are OK. Here'd have made a humorous reply if this issue were not serious. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_luYzDJSqZs

[citizenlegisators]

02:57 PM on 12/22/2011

wow,,, this has to be as disconcerting to the dems as when a person of color doesn't follow

[Alexey Braguine]

10:13 AM on 12/22/2011

652 Billiom in the Defense Bill is only part of the problem. Another 600 billion is hidden away. Cutting military expenditures by half would do a lot to solve the economic crisis, unemployment and the burden of debt.

[ZetaReticuli]

05:21 PM on 12/23/2011

Yes, cutting it in half is right down the middle, so it's a moderate move which should be embraced by all sides in this bad Bush-era economy.

[amacd]

09:45 PM on 12/21/2011

It's very encouraging to see that the Occupy message of confronting the Empire that has 'captured' and now 'occupies' our former country, by hiding behind a two-party 'Vichy' facade, has spread from Occupy Washington to Occupy Iowa --- as the Des Moines protestors at faux-Emperor Obama's office demanded: ""To fulfill the Occupy Wall Street movement's call to return our country's economic and political life back to the 99%, we will need a president who will make the dismantling of the U.S. military empire their number one foreign policy priority".

This Occupying Empire is not merely the military Empire but the entire integrated corporate/financial/militarist Empire of cancer that is the seminal cause of all our 'symptom problems' such as; increasing imperialist wars abroad, vast economic inequality at home, domestic spying and lying, environmental destruction, etc. etc.

[aforbes808]

08:02 PM on 12/21/2011

Rub the sleep out of your eyes. The real reason neither party wants us is because we won't submit. We get that it's a set up. We get both sides play us off each other. As George Carlin said, "It's a big club and you ain't in it."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBZDSSky0

[Brecia Veonne Bloom]

02:53 PM on 12/21/2011

Getting a jobs bill passed would be great; unfortunately at this point I don't think OWS will be satisfied with just another small step (albeit in in the right direction) inside the currently existing system.

[sherlockhemlock]

06:23 AM on 12/22/2011

Occupy is absolutely right not to be satisfied. Obama's jobs package is yet another band-aid for a sucking chest wound, and it's a far from clean band-aid too--loaded with as it is with a Georgia Works-style incentive to encourage employers to vampirize employees at taxpayers' expense.

[abhorson]

06:35 AM on 12/21/2011

what's really cool, is that with criminal convictions for trespassing, disturbing the peace and worse, resisting arrest ... they'll be wondering for the next 40 years why companies won't hire them ...

and, in the meantime, they will have made it impossible to qualify for certain government jobs too ... but it's all worth it to look like a "winner" on the nightly news...

[aforbes808]

08:05 PM on 12/21/2011

Roll over. Sit. Stay. Lie down. Good boy. Here's your bone. For how easy it is to get arrested in this country, makes me wonder why the jails aren't full of Wall St. CEO's? Oh, that's right our government has sold their authority to Multi-National Corporations that don't give a flying flip about you or your family, or your neighbor, or your country.

[abhorson]

05:29 AM on 12/22/2011

it's okay ... we'll always need dishwashers and waiters with attitudes....

[Abe Says]

04:41 AM on 12/21/2011

Wow they were arrested for trespassing

[aforbes808]

08:07 PM on 12/21/2011

They don't run a Multi-National Corp. If they did, they wouldn't get arrested if OUR lives depended on it. Occupy Reality.

[Kevin Rayburn]

01:43 AM on 12/21/2011

sorry one more thought, the first thing we HAVE to do however is stop judging each other, respect each other, what is good for kansas isnt exactly what is good for west virginia...that doesnt mean one is better than the other it just means different ways of life due to enviroment history and populations. do not let your peers lure you into the hate the politicans so desperately need you to have, if we cannot respect our differences then we cannot stop those whose ONLY difference is a D or an R behind their name and title.

[Kevin Rayburn]

01:40 AM on 12/21/2011

i do have to say this very conservative christian hillbilly is behind you in your message, i have looked on in amusement ot OWS tactics from time to time, but hey who am i to tell you what to do. i believe in live and let live plus i find differing culures and outlooks can help one grow spiritually. in my opinion the bottom line is neither party is looking out for any of us and the soon we start acting like the adults and take this country back from the childish politicans who are currently running the place the sooner we will all be better off. while i do not totally agree with OWS or the tea party i do respect the way both movements have shaken things up and i pretty much am convinced if the two movements made a joint apperance on DC the politicans soiling their pants would fowl the air so bad that san franciscans would be going SHEEWWW! what is that stink?

[Hopeful in Iowa]

09:43 PM on 12/20/2011

Continuation: "We the People" ask you to do the RIGHT thing in protecting our rights in this matter.Where will it end on the Federal Government targeting domestic terrorism? By me not agreeing with their agenda? By me expressing my concern of what is put on the table for laws? By me voting for the fundamentals this county was built on? By the profiling with color of skin, hair, sex, nationality, religious beliefs, political beliefs or economical issues? Would this make me and others a domestic terrorist? Where could this end up? Disaster I tell you! This is tyranny in it's fullest. "We the People" are NOT a communist country, a dictatorship or a regime! We are to be a republic with indirect democracy! We go to wars and try to provide the same fundamentals we have built our nation on to other countries and that would be a republic with democracy! If this is what democracy is about....NO THANK YOU!

As many of you know the headlines follow: Update at 12:56 p.m. ET. House Rejects Bill.
Just maybe if the pissing contest would quit and the lobbyist's would stop having the elected officials tack on BS Acts or projects that would destruct our environment and the Constitution/Decoration or quit putting band-aids on major issues they might accomplish something for AMERICA not the Corporations and the almighty $$$.

[Hopeful in Iowa]

09:42 PM on 12/20/2011

I proceeded to send the following to may of the Senator's and House Rep's:
I am writing to you on the behalf of my family and "We the People". I want to express while I can the dangerous bill that has been approved by the Senate that is to go in front of the House of Representatives and President Obama later this week. Please for the sake of the American people who have fought for every right that we still have that has not been perverted to benefit big business or the Federal Government and not for the "We the People. I am asking for your support as a elected official of the "We the People" here in Iowa to oppose a veto override. Why? Because even if the president were to veto the bill, there are enough Senate votes to override the veto and automatically pass the bill (a presidential veto would be merely symbolic). This bill contains some language that allows the Pentagon to effectively wage a cyberwar on any domestic enemies of the state. The bill is a serious violation of First Amendment human and civil rights, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and the legislation could potentially hinder the movements of both Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party campaign, as well as quash attempts from the whistleblowers in independent news media from exposing corruption from within the government.

[Hopeful in Iowa]

09:39 PM on 12/20/2011

I support Occupy 110%. Like I wrote and gave my 2 cents while I can on the link to the article on http://www.omaha.com/article/20111217/NEWS/712179890/0#pipeline-became-linchpin-in-broader-deal.
I'd comment completely on this massive destruction of LIFE which is above ANY $$$$ or power with this pushed through with out LONGTERM effects really being studied (ie seeping carcinogens into freshwater delta's, cancer increases in the region drastically in all life forms, polluted pools of water that can now be seen from space and all resource that we need to SURVIVE like fresh water that is being depleted on a massive scale) that is in play here but, with the new NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) passed, meaning that whomever the gov't decides they think is a 'terrorist' (I use that term loosely, because it includes protesters and anyone else that disagrees with them) can be placed under arrest (for life if they decide, it's just up to them) without a lawyer or a trial, and they don't have to tell ANYONE they took you or why. I'll refrain from going to never never land!!!! Talk about a BIG slap in the face to the Decoration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the American "We the People" that have paid with their lives to in-act and preserve it! Thank you Federal Government!

[amacd]

06:23 PM on 12/20/2011

As 'Punk Patriot' boldly warned on Common Dreams, it didn't take the disguised Empire long to utilize the new 21st century 'enabling act'.

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2011/12/16-4

Best luck and love to Occupy Empire.

Liberty, democracy, justice, and equality.
over
violent/Vichy
empire,

Alan MacDonald

[bernadene]

05:58 PM on 12/20/2011

We had 12,000 protesting the Keystone pipeline. That was very clear. We already have been protesting for the veto of the NDAA. How much does it take to understand :"A corporation is NOT a person!" ? or "Tax the rich"? , or ""School loan forgiveness" ? or ""Banks got bailed out we got sold out"? or ""Healthcare not warfare" ? This is purposeful ignorance. Ask Rep. Dennis Kucinich. He knows EXACTLY what we want because he has been working for all the same things. There is no mystery, just intransigence.