Occupy Wall Street Protesting Carlos Slim at Saks Fifth Avenue

As the richest man in the world, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú has his hand in many honeypots including the phone company Telmex, the New York Times, and apparently Saks Fifth Avenue. Itself an icon of Manhattan luxury, protesters have picked the department store for a four-day rally beginning this afternoon: What's left of Occupy Wall Street plans to join forces with Yo Soy 132, the similarly amorphous Mexican student group, under the umbrella of what they're calling "Two Countries, One Voice," for a demonstration against Slim's "monopolistic practices" at his telecommunications companies. "Carlos Slim is the 1 percent of the 1 percent," said one Occupy organizer. But the would-be villain himself won't be there, and doesn't seem to be sweating it.

As of now, the Facebook group for the event boasts just about 250 RSVPs (and another 175 "maybes"). "Slim is the world's richest man, the largest stakeholder in Saks Fifth Avenue, and has been accused of overcharging impoverished Mexicans by over $129 billion as owner of Mexico's largest phone company," the group stresses. "What better way to protest predatory greed by taking over his Fifth Avenue store?"

By attaching its name to the international cause, Occupy Wall Street is again exercising what's left of its cachet on disparate causes. With domestic elections coming up, the once-strong movement has not demonstrated much of a resurgence at all and has shown a sustained disinterest in traditional political channels. The last time Occupy came out strong, on May Day, the group relied on a coalition of immigrant and labor groups that gave them strength in numbers, but spread the message thin. This latest action seems to indicate a similar tack, for better or worse.

From their golden perches, Slim's team is snide in their dismissal, questioning whether the protesters are even real, Reuters reports:

Today, perfume samples will probably have to do.

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NYPD's Occupy Pepper Spraying Sparks More Lawsuits, Calls For Police Oversight

Police resist the urge to spray down the crowd at another Occupy protest in September 2011.

Last week a report from civil liberties experts at NYU, Fordham, Harvard, and Stanford confirmed what anyone who followed Occupy Wall Street had already concluded:  Police were far too rough with protesters. Two protesters already filed a lawsuit in February against the city and NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, whose liberal use of pepper spray was caught on film and widely circulated on YouTube. Today three more protesters filed lawsuits, but in addition to monetary damages they're hoping to force the NYPD to change its policies on the use of force during demonstrations.

According to the New York Times, the suit alleges that Damien Crisp and Julie Lawler were also pepper sprayed by Officer Bologna during a march from Zuccotti Park to Union Square on September 24, even though police had already corralled them within a length of orange netting. The suit states that Crisp was hit directly in his right eye. Aside from the initial burning in his eyes, lungs, and on his skin, he suffered from an inflamed sty for about two weeks and missed three days of work while receiving medical treatment. Lawler says she was temporarily blinded, and the effects of the spray were exacerbated because she was wearing contact lenses.

Following the initial complaints about Bologna, he offered a questionable excuse, lost some vacation time, and was reassigned to Staten Island. Plus, in what may be the most serious punishment, the city is also letting him pay his own legal fees related to the lawsuits filed in February. (There's no word yet on whether the same goes for the new complaints.)

A third plaintiff, Kelly Hanlin, managed to stay out of Bologna's path, but was pepper sprayed in the face during the same protest by an unknown officer. He wasn't restrained by netting, but was nearby attempting to film what he thought was an unnecessarily rough arrest.

None of the three plaintiffs were arrested, one of their attorneys tells Gothamist that isn't surprising. "We are seeing a lot of instances of NYPD officers using force on people, but not arresting them," says Mark Taylor. "A lot of these incidents are the police department attempting to intimidate people, trying to scare them away from demonstrating."

Taylor says that his clients are seeking monetary damages "as anyone would seek if they were wrongfully pepper-sprayed," but their primary goal is changing the way the NYPD operates. "Ray Kelly isn't going to do it, the mayor isn't going to do it, so we're asking the courts to step in," says Taylor. They want to see more judicial supervision of the department's response to protests, and held off on filing the suits partially so they'd have the experts' report to bolster their claim. The city has already ignored numerous calls to create an inspector general's office to review its policies, but with new suits filed and the report's authors threatening to ask the Department of Justice to investigate their findings, it seems that the era of asking the NYPD to do a better job of policing itself may be over.

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