This is the press release from the Metropolitan Police in DC:

November 7, 2011
Statement from Chief Lanier Regarding Occupy DC

While the Occupy DC movement has been here since October 6, 2011 and the Metropolitan Police Department supports an individual’s right to assemble, we do not condone nor will we tolerate violence or aggression. Prior demonstrations had been peaceful. However, the aggressive nature of Friday’s demonstration prompted the Metropolitan Police Department to adjust tactics as needed to ensure safety.

MPD will continue to protect life (residents, visitors, protestors --everyone) and property as warranted. The administration will do what’s necessary to maintain order in the city and to ensure that everyone is safe.

Five people that we are aware of were injured. That is no longer a peaceful protest. Demonstrators have become increasingly confrontational and violent toward uninvolved bystanders and motorists. Demonstrators have also jeopardized the safety of their own children by using them in blockades. The following videos highlight such actions by demonstrators:

Intentionally Blocking Traffic/putting little children in the street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDsogOy2IU

IUsing little children to blockade the door
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CguFPFJAqlA

IDemonstrators blockade doors and injure attendees
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prgkEAuSQT0

IBlockading people from leaving the Convention Center
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXXf56JhTbs

Regarding the traffic incident and allegations of hit and run, MPD is investigating and is seeking any evidence and witness statements. Anyone with information should contact police by calling (202) 727-9099 or 1-888-919-CRIME (1-888-919-2746).

Cathy L. Lanier,
Police Chief

If you click on the links to the videos - they are shocking - shocking because they are heavily edited and released by conservative groups. Why is this a big deal? Well, because the protest was of John Birch Society scions the Koch brothers at their Americans for Prosperity powwow. Yes. Oil money. Billionaires who fund candidates like Herman Cain who was at the conference and said he was a Koch brother from another mother. So for the police to cite FOUR videos that are all pro what was being protested - is twisted. Especially since being deemed "no longer a peaceful protest" has translated into (from the reports I'm getting) more cops at McPherson Square with their batons out.

Here's the Daily Caller video the police cite:

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In March, Bill O'Reilly used footage of "union thugs" in Wisconsin shoving people. The clip used to illustrate his assessment had some suspicious looking palm trees in the background. Suspicious because there are no palm trees in Wisconsin. Yes, the family-friendly polite mid-western saunter around the Capitol Building was being reported as violent by right-wingers on Fox News. Those who couldn't get enough of all those wonderful tea partiers showing up with Glocks talking about watering the tree of liberty with BLOOD - denounced the teachers' union supporters as being ready to bust heads if their demands were not met. They doctored footage for it.

In Madison, there had been palm trees - blow up palm trees carried as an homage to the uprising in Egypt. Then O'Reilly tried to paint them all as psychopaths. Then the number of blow up palm trees increased, the meaning then changed. After the Factor clip above those palm tress were a big middle figure to Billo's BS. And they were still peaceful.

Mayor Bloomberg has allowed the NYPD to arrest the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. They were again pepper sprayed Wednesday. On the other side of the country, a horrible law passed during the midterms called Measure L, criminalized sleeping on the streets of San Fransisco. So the OccupySF group had a run in with SFPD last night too.

Those who oppose people who work for a living are figuring out how to kill this movement. They're going to throw whatever they can at it until something sticks.

We've grown so used to the extremist right-wing being smitten with protests and demonstrations because it's been their billionaire-funded buses bringing the outraged to photo ops. It'd be easy to assume they just enjoy the First Amendment in their venerated Constitution on display. The airing of ideas in the public square. They don't.

This is the brilliance of OccupyTogether. It disseminates the storyline. How can it be said that the Occupy Wall Street crowd are anarchists who want to eat your children for Satan / Soros / Mao / Hitler / Moveon / Unions / BlackPanthers / ACORN / Muslims / BigGovernment / Czars / Socialism / Illegal Immigrants / Obama / DeathPanels / ShariaLaw if the solidarity demonstrations are all peaceful? If it's your neighbors in your neighborhood locally being out there voicing their frustrations with a rigged system fixed for the 1 percent - it's impossible to slime all of them. The OccupyTogether movement is a Spartacus moment: "We are the 99 percent."

We are still doling out pizzas to the demonstrators. This is what I knew I could do to support locally-owned businesses and the protestors: buy pizzas across America. I had no IDEA how big it would get. Amato tells me over 440 of you have donated over $13,000 now. We've given out pizzas in seven or eight cities and it's only growing. Thank you guys for participating!

Arianna Huffington -- who represents the "professional left" about as well as anyone -- says the president is "not all that into" the middle class. I don't think she's being very original or very funny. Worse, I put that sort of rhetoric in the firebagger category, as it isn't useful. There is nothing anyone can do about the president until 2012 at the earliest -- and as I have said consistently throughout the body of my work, Congress is where most of the blame lies for any progressive disappointment.

Sorry if you're turned off by the music in the video; it's loud and angry because I want the righteous anger of the just focused where it belongs, which is not on the man least responsible for legislative reform. Much more after the jump...

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Sadly, I can't imagine what on earth could motivate Americans to so strongly protect their rights. And of course, a brutal crackdown in Iran is inevitable:

An uneasy calm settled over the streets of Tehran Sunday as state media reported at least 10 more deaths in post-election unrest and said authorities arrested the daughter and four other relatives of ex-President Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of Iran's most powerful men.

The reports brought the official death toll for a week of confrontations to at least 19. State television inside Iran said 10 were killed and 100 injured in clashes Saturday between demonstrators contesting the result of the June 12 election and police wielding truncheons, tear gas and water cannons.

Iran's regime continued to impose a blackout on the country's most serious internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But fresh images and allegations of brutality emerged as Iranians at home and abroad sought to shed light on a week of resistance to hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The New-York based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said scores of injured demonstrators who had sought medical treatment after Saturday's clashes were arrested by security forces at hospitals in the capital.

It said doctors had been ordered to report protest-related injuries to the authorities, and that some seriously injured protesters had sought refuge at foreign embassies in a bid to evade arrest.

"The arrest of citizens seeking care for wounds suffered at the hands of security forces when they attempted to exercise rights guaranteed under their own constitution and international law is deplorable," said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the campaign, denouncing the alleged arrests as "a sign of profound disrespect by the state for the well-being of its own people."

"The government of Iran should be ashamed of itself. Right now, in front of the whole world, it is showing its violent actions," he said.

State-run Press TV reported that Rafsanjani's eldest daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, and four other family members were arrested late Saturday. It did not identify the other four. Last week, state television showed images of Hashemi, 46, speaking to hundreds of supporters of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Download | play Download | play (h/t Orangutan)

Tibetans and those who support their independence protested in several cities Saturday in India, Nepal and the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, where death tolls ranging from 10 to 100 were reported in the past 24 hours.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday urged the Chinese government to exercise restraint in dealing with the demonstrations and told both sides to avoid violence.

Tibetan exiles in India cited unconfirmed reports that at least 100 people were killed and many more injured in violence that started when Chinese police blocked a march by monks in Lhasa on Friday. China's state-run Xinhua news agency, citing the Tibetan government, said 10 were killed.

"The victims are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death," an official with the regional government told Xinhua.

Because of the extreme difficulties in getting news reports from Tibet, it was impossible to independently verify the death toll or the number of those injured.

Tibetan protesters have been clashing with police in several areas since March 10, the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

This video was produced by Witness in partnership with a Burmese justice group, The Peace Foundation: Burma Issues. It is one small but rare view inside Burma - shot by Burmese residents who are on the run from the military dictatorship. Witness is a remarkable organization which provides cameras and equipment to grassroots activists around the world so they can document their own experiences and struggles and speak to us in their own words or as they write:

"WITNESS uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change."

And the story inside Burma as the monks try to lead a movement for change is one we cannot close our eyes to. One of Ko Htike's readers posted this horrific account today at his blog, Prosaic Collection:

We just got phone call with our sister living in Yangon about a few hours ago.

We saw on BBC world, saying that 200 monks were arrested. The true picture is far worse!!!!!!!!!

For one instance, the monastery at an obscure neighborhood of Yangon, called Ngwe Kyar Yan (on Wei-za-yan-tar Road, Yangon) had been raided early this morning.

A troop of lone-tein (riot police comprised of paid thugs) protected by the military trucks, raided the monastery with 200 studying monks. They systematically ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed each one's head against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the peaceful, non resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then, they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks (like rice bags) and took the bodies away.

The head monk of the monastery, was tied up in the middle of the monastery, tortured , bludgeoned, and later died the same day, today. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the monastery, warded off by troops with bayoneted rifles, unable to help their helpless monks being slaughtered inside the monastery. Their every try to forge ahead was met with the bayonets.

When all is done, only 10 out of 200 remained alive, hiding in the monastery. Blood stained everywhere on the walls and floors of the monastery.

Please tell your audience of the full extent of the fate of the monks please please !!!!!!!!!!!!

'Arrested' is not enough expression. They have been bludgeoned to death !!!!!!

Even with this brutal treatment, the people of Burma are trying to keep fighting for their rights and Ko reported two attempted demonstrations in Yangon (Rangoon) today as well as word that 500 additional monks are being held at a detention center. The monks refuse to accept food from their military jailors. Please sign the global petition at Avaaz.org and support the efforts listed at the Burma Campaign Facebook group such as today's email campaign calling on companies to end their investments in Burma.

Tomorrow, Congress will consider a bipartisan resolution, HR200 supporting Human Rights in Burma - make sure your representative knows that you want their Yea vote: 1-800-828-0498.

Heres the footage of Cindy being (Updated) escorted by NYPD.

Download | play -WMP

Download | play -QT (courtesy of Third Planet Video)

Village Voice:...As the activists hustled away Sheehan and the other family members on the Bring Them Home Now tour, an enraged crowd of about 50 people stormed after the police, chanting, "Shame! Shame!" Meanwhile Iraq war veteran and now peace activist Jeff Key played "God Bless America" on his trumpet."

Wherever you fall on the Cindy Sheehan meter, it's odd to see her being escorted out for a fairly tame demonstration. I know they didn't have the permits, but couldn't they just have pulled the power? Living in New York for many years, I saw a lot worse offenses and demonstrations left alone.

Booman Tribune has more.

With all the turmoil in Lebanon, Wolf had on Imad Moustapha.

BLITZER: Huge demonstrations today in Lebanon. These demonstrations, unlike earlier ones, demonstrations in favor of Syria's presence in Lebanon. Demonstrations organized by Hezbollah.

Did Syria arrange, though, today massive show of support? And how will it respond to the latest tough talk from President Bush?

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