In yet another midnight police raid, Occupy Dallas eviction under way

"Dozens of Dallas Police officers holding shields, batons and wearing helmets about to enter the #Occupy camp," tweets WFAA (Dallas, TX) reporter Jason Whitely.

By various reports, about 50 Occupy Dallas protestors are gathered. Police are in riot gear.

Media were ordered by police to move away from the camp (at a distance that would make direct observation impossible), or face arrest along with protesters, according to various sources.

The camp wasn't all that big, compared to other cities, really. One WFAA reporter says she's covered the Dallas police department for 8 years, and she's never seen this scope of police action. Describes it as an "unusual show of force." So does a city councilwoman, according to local NBC affiliate reporter Amanda Guerra.

Dallas councilwoman Angela Hunt says police response is "vast overkill." says council received notice just before 12am

The Occupiers must have had something really dangerous on-site, like books.

• [Guest]

  Shields, batons, and helmets because people dare to complain during a depression that is only called a recession because the top 10% have brought up the curve?

  Show of farce is more like it. You’re on the wrong side of the barricades, officers.

• [occupyordie]

  You are 100% correct, hatter, and until the cops turn those shields, batons, and their loyalty against the oligarchs this is going to be a difficult fight.

• [kidlaw28]

  Once again the fascism in America rears it’s head.  Come to my blog to air your concerns.  Active steps are being taken by thousands around the globe.  We are the many, they are the few, it is time to end this Plutocratic Oligarchy in America.
  Visit the blog, join me in the fight.

  http://exposing-injustice.blogspot.com/

  • [Guest]

    sniff sniff. Is that honey?

    • [Cowicide]

      I thought I smelled it too.  I don’t know why for sure.  Maybe it’s the “law” in kidlaw28?

• [Guest]

  Journalism : Get the story, as seen
  Stenography : Get the story, as recounted

  Dallas press corps, you’re doing it wrong.

• [catherinecc]

  Media supression has been used at all the Occupy camps. Since DHS/FBI is coordinating, it’s pretty clear that this is one of their “recommendations”

  Obama, change you can believe in!

  • [Aaron Stouder]

    Freedom of the Press is protected by the Constitution . But then again so is the right to peacefully assemble. It is apparent the 1% has no respect for the Constitution or the people it is ment to protect. In NYC the NYPD and Mayor bloomberg are disregarding Judges now.  I really hope that Obama line is ment to be sarcasim. He will be tried with the rest of the war crimanals when this all over.

• [Eark_the_Bunny]

  They took the truth!
  They gave us lies!
  They took our freedom!
  We let them do it!
  They took our money, bit by bit!
  We want it back!
  They took our lives!
  We want them restored!
  They will try to stop us!
  This time we will not be stopped!
  We are the 99%!

• [MizFurball]

  Damn right those Dallas Police needed riot gear. Those dangerous protesters might have had books or flashlights. Don’t want any of that going on in Dallas. #overkill

• [meatpigeon]

  Can someone explain the legality of not allowing press to cover the eviction of the OWS camp? Why do we live in a country where press can be barred from a public space because of a protest? Aren’t there some serious freedom of press rights being trampled on here?

  • [Cowicide]

    I hope someone from the press sues them, but much of the press that has the resources to do it is owned by the same corporatists who want OWS destroyed anyway. Will someone from Bloomberg news take a stand? Yeah, right… those coward reporters are just corporatist lackeys.

    I hope someone like the ACLU takes them on.

    If the cops accidentally arrest a journalist, this is what press credentials are for.
    I mean, is this Iraq?  Are people from the press going to have to start getting embedded with the cops in order to (biasedly) report on this?

    How much longer until we call America a fascist police state?

• [Thorzdad]

  The Occupy Indianapolis group was given their eviction notice yesterday. The police will be moving-in today.

• [Kenneth Warren]

  What’s it like living in a real police state, perhaps you could move to the land of the free: Russia ;-)

  • [jtegnell]

    Yep! Because as long as there is another country where things are worse, we have no right to complain!

    • [Antinous / Moderator]

      I think that you missed the sarcasm.

• [jtegnell]

  It seems, though, that the cause is lost. The tribal affiliations have turned — public sentiment is now squarely against the movement, partly because of the widespread feces smearing and urination, but mostly because it’s become more about police confrontation than about the cause itself. And when given the choice between supporting the police or supporting DFHs, we all know which side most Americans will choose.

• [d3matt]

  the lawyer for Occupy Dallas gave a press conference yesterday…  The takeaway quote was more or less: if you want to protect your free speech rights, stop pleasuring yourselves (in reference to dope allegations)… 

• [donovan acree]

  There were allegations of dope smoking, public urination and deification, and sex with a minor at Occupy Dallas. This was used as a rallying point for those opposed to the protestors.
  Maybe next time we should send those people to jail rather than allowing them to screw everything up for the rest of us.

  • [EvilSpirit]

    Oh? Whom did they deify? But that ought to be protected by the Establishment Clause, anyway.

  • [Ianto_Jones]

    So there were “allegations”?  Was anyone arrested and charged for these crimes?  Have they been convicted already?  Allegation does not equal guilt, especially if there are no suspects or evidence of a crime.

    • [donovan acree]

      Here are the stories @lanto_Jones:disqus
      http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/Occupy-Dallas-man-arrested-for-sexual-assault-133033828.html
      http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Occupy-Dallas-protesters-nervous-ahead-of-possible-eviction-133936573.html
      Yes, there have been arrests. The Occupy Dallas lawyer has tried to stop it. My point is that if the group does not police itself then expect continued eviction and corrosion of local support.

      @boingboing-5e3bee80611b37f4e3587e491eabe27f:disqus Nice catch. defication to deification. Typos are fun.

• [messymeasy]

  Actually, the sex involved a minor runaway who lied and told the #OccupyDallas folks that she was over 18. I don’t know about the dope-smoking, but I think it should be legal anyway, but it was still a poor decision to smoke it at the camp. I observed no dope-smoking while I was there. As far as the violence, one OccupyDallas protester named Stephen Benavides assaulted a member of the media team at a coffeeshop, not at the camp. OccupyDallas kicked him out. The OccupyDallas folks had made it clear that anyone being violent would be kicked out of the camp. They were unable to rent port-a-potties, which was also a point of contention because the City didn’t want the protesters to use the restroom at City Hall (even though they are citizens and pay taxes). When I visited the camp, it was clean. The trash was created by the city tearing up their tents and belongings before they began throwing them in garbage trucks. DPD and the DART police also sent homeless people to the camp, instead of to shelters like they’re supposed to, in an attempt to make the protesters look bad. Perhaps some of you shouldn’t  be so quick to believe everything that the mainstream media tells you to think.

  • [sata blank]

    When I was working across the street from cityhall at Databank I saw a couple of cops run after and tackle a homeless guy using an American flag as a blanket in the 20 degree weather and I’ve seen DART shoo away a homeless ( and most likely suffering from Alzheimer’s ) old man wrapped in a garbage bag I was trying to help. Said they had no place to put him and didn’t much care anyway. 

    Dallas has always had some real problems addressing ( or officially acknowledging  ) that it has a rather large homeless population and setting aside adequate shelter for them, I’ve heard that a lot of them go down to some of the old tunnels connecting the office buildings to sleep without getting bothered by the cops. That area in the government district has one of their largest concentrations of homeless folks too.

• [Daniel Smith]

  The protesters have exceeded the protest allowance that their natural superiors are willing to let them have. The constitution allows people to petition the government for redress of grievances, but it doesn’t say that the government actually has to do anything about them. You’ve had your say, now go home and allow the new aristocracy to get back to the business of putting the product of your labor where it belongs, in their pockets. If you people would just stop bitching and be happy with the generosity of your betters all this nonsense could be ended satisfactorily. Your sense of entitlement to a larger share of the wealth of the society is clearly delusional, and if we have to we will use force to put you in your place. And if you whiny liberals would stop insisting on a minimum wage, we could end unemployment tomorrow.

  • [Hanglyman]

    Sadly, I’ve seen dozens of comments in response to OWS right here on Boing Boing that amount to almost exactly what you just said, only without the sarcasm.

• [bardfinn]

  According to someone I know, there was an entire contingent of the Occupy Dallas camp that were absent during the police raid, supposedly at a meeting in neighbouring Rockwall county. The timing of their meeting seems suspicious.