Activists Tasered and Arrested Protesting Holder and Bank Fraud

Activist Post
More than two dozen arrests have followed in the wake of multi-day protests in various locations targeting the Department of Justice and their dereliction of duty to prosecute the involvement of major banks in foreclosure fraud.

Protests began several days ago at law firm Covington & Burling where Attorney General Holder was formerly a partner. Holder's connection to the law firm is seen to represent the collusion between government and some of the big banks allegedly responsible for the mortgage scandal. Covington & Burling have represented Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Protesters literally blocked "the revolving door" to make their point.

Activists and homeowners chanted the familiar refrain from the Occupy movement, "Banks Got Bailed Out; We Got Sold Out" and "The People United are Too Big To Fail" as seen in the video below. It appears that excessive force had been used during previous days, as Homeland Security worked with local police to quell the disturbance:
In addition to District of Columbia police, the video also shows Homeland Security officers at the scene. The YouTube video and a DCist post say the protest had been going on for several days, at the law firm's office building and elsewhere, and had involved previous arrests and the use of a stun gun on some individuals. (Source)



Published on May 23, 2013
Foreclosure protesters storm Covington and Burling
On the 22nd of May, the same protesters who have been hammering Eric Holder and the Department of Justice all week over "too big to fail" banks stormed the DC office of Holder's former law firm, Covington and Burling LLP.
Reuters reports that Holder and many top DOJ officials were connected to major mortage banks by their prior work art Convington, which has represented many or most of the major banks involved in questionable foreclosures. Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo are all clients of Convington and Burling LLP. In short, Convington symbolizes the "revolving door" between government and Wall St. interests.
The theme of the protest was to "stop the revolving door" and the civil disobediance element of the protest did exactly that, sitting in and blocking both of the revolving doors. When the larger group that had invaded the lobby withdrew after police warnings, the revolving door blockades remained in place.
According to one report 7 people were arrested in the revolving doors, and police took risks with the safety of the blockaders in the process of trying to move the doors to access some of the protesters.
Revolving doors can be folded up as well as rotated, so both ways of getting past the doors had to be secured to block the police. In response, police attempted to rotate or otherwise move the doors even when there was the risk of body parts being trapped.
For some reason, Taser-wielding Homeland Security cops were summoned to the scene by MPD when it was time to move arrestees out of the building. This time around, the Tasers were not fired.
All Tasers I've seen in the last three says in the hands of the FPS/Homeland Security goons were loaded with "extra penetration," 25 foot range cartridges with the green blast doors. All recent Taser incidents I've seen or heard about involving protesters appeared to have been at or near contact range. A 25 foot shot with the requirement that both probes land on target with a Taser is not easy to make.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=FdIyLPGQlgk



Activists post continued from above
According to reports, 7 protesters were arrested for unlawful entry into the lobby area at Covington & Burling, while one was charged with assaulting an officer -- which, we have been reminded, could just mean being at a protest and getting tackled and/or tasered by police.

The DCist had this to say:
Twenty-seven protesters have been arrested this week, including activist Carmen Pittman who was stunned by police with a taser Tuesday outside the Department of Justice. On Monday, protesters blocked traffic on Constitution Avenue in front of the DOJ building and were arrested for doing so. The protests are organized in part by Occupy Our Homes and Home Defenders League.
The Department of Justice has yet to acknowledge the protests, according to the Huffington Post.
The video of Carmen Pittman, already restrained, then tasered can be seen here:



Other Sources:
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/lo...208571981.html

Livestream info here:
http://www.ustream.tv/occupycarlisle

If anyone has additional on-the-scene information from these protests, please leave your comments below or contact us at activistpost (at) gmail.com

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/05/...-arrested.html