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Lessons For Black Protesters: 7 Things That Will Blow Your Mind About How the Occupy Wall Street Movement Was Crushed

Posted byBy Curtis Bunn | Published on: CommentsComments (6)

Occupy Wall Street Holds Major Day Of Action In New York City

Government, Banks, Corporations All Partnered to Squash Movement

According to a December 2012 article in the Guardian, the Federal Reserve of Richmond, Virginia, hired a private security company to spy on Occupy Tampa and Tampa Veterans for Peace and passed privately collected information on activists back to the Richmond FBI.

The Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC), which is “a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector,” gave corporate clients several tips on “civil unrest” ranging from “small, organized rallies to large-scale demonstrations and rioting.” It also advised workers to dress conservatively, avoid political discussions and “avoid all large gatherings related to civil issues … Bystanders may be arrested or harmed by security forces using water cannons, tear gas or other measures to control crowds.”

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Infiltrated Colleges to Sabotage

The FBI was found to have committed spying abuses through its “Campus Liaison Program” in which the FBI in Albany and the Syracuse Joint Terrorism Task Force disseminated information to 22 different campuses’ police officials, who reported information to the FBI on OWS encampments made up of students and professors in an attempt to sabotage them. At least six American universities were reported to have facilitated this kind of partnership.

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

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The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

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