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 After being held in Orleans Parrish Prison for making a speech from Wednesday at 1 am until early Tuesday morning, founding member of Occupy The Stage was transferred to East Baton Rouge where he was finally released around 8:30 pm Central Time. Members of OTS met him at the gate. 
Add Comment FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 26, 2012 Occupy The Stage founder, Justin Warren was held at Orleans Parish Prison from June 20 - June 26 and transferred to Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a warrant he didn't know existed. His bond in Eastern Baton Rouge for charges of disturbing the peace and resisting arrest totaled 1,000. Justin Warren has a voice that can carry and be heard over the din of city streets. His key voice at assemblies and protests in the occupy community has demonstrated his dedication as an advocate of freedom of speech. The charges he is facing are for allegedly disturbing the peace on the steps of the capitol building in Baton Rouge. On the 12th of March, he was in Baton Rouge with Occupy The Stage, Occupy NOLA and Occupy Baton Rouge for the opening of the 2012 session of the Louisiana Legislature that included a protest against budget cuts in education. He was making a speech when an officer approached him and attempted to silence him. He continued exercising his First Amendment rights and was then approached by several officers who attempted to grab him from behind. However, he slipped out of his jacket and left the steps of the State Capitol. After he departed, Officer Holman (badge # 6071) said on camera that Justin was no longer disturbing the peace and would not be arrested. (see min 1:40 here: http://youtu.be/86OSs6YmM8s) When questioned as to why Louisiana State Police were interfering with Justin's First Amendment rights, Officer Holman replied that he was speaking without a permit. Apparently, The Tea Party had scheduled a separate event in the same area, and they were not approached by the police because they had obtained said permit. The New Orleans protesters did not have a permit, nor did they need one according to The Bill of Rights. Occupy movements across the country continue to battle relentless attacks on free speech and assembly, which are assured to all citizens by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. The warrant and the ensuing transfer to Baton Rouge are obviously a ridiculous waste of taxpayers' money. No citizen should need a permit to exercise freedom of speech in the State of Louisiana. Public spaces, including the steps of the capitol building, are protest points where free speech has been exercised for decades. Justin Warren was released after spending 6 days in Orleans Parish Prison and 1 day in Eastern Baton Rouge Parish Prison. He needs to be compensated for his loss of income while being held for no justifiable reason. In Solidarity, Occupy NOLA Occupy NOLA Direct Action Working Group Approves Jail Support for Founding Member of Occupy The Stage On June 23, The Occupy NOLA 99% Direct Action Working Group voted 12 - 0 to support Occupy The Stage in accepting donations for Jail Support for Justin Warren via WePay. The donation link is available here: https://www.wepay.com/donations/188968 This Jail Support account has been endorsed by the following Occupy NOLA working groups and individuals:
The founding member of Occupy The Stage was arrested 06/20/2012 while Occupy The Stage was hosting the Occupy Caravan. Justin Warren was house-sitting for a friend in the neighborhood and went a few blocks up the street to feed the cat. He was next seen in the back of an NOPD car as it passed the OTS warehouse. Occupy The Stage held an emergency meeting with the members of Occupy Caravan the night of Justin's arrest and unanimously agreed to begin collecting Jail Support funds. At the time of his arrest Justin was playing a lead role in helping organize the New Orleans stop of the national Occupy the Caravan. He is currently being held without bond because of a warrant issued by the Louisiana State Police for Disturbing the Peace and Resisting Arrest on March 12. He was not arrested that day and was unaware of the warrant. He is facing extradition/transfer to East Baton Rouge and has been waiting to appear before the magistrate. The Occupy The Stage Working Group borrowed $500.00 for Jail Support to pay the lawyer from the Occupy NOLA Legal Team, but he has still not released due to the Baton Rouge charges. If bond is set in Baton Rouge, OTS would like to be prepared with funds. They will also be traveling to Baton Rouge. Justin Warren is a Master Carpenter who works at least 60 hours a week and will have missed a full week of work if/when he is taken to Baton Rouge and released by sometime Tuesday. The Occupy The Stage Warehouse hosts Occupy NOLA General Assemblies, activist "Teach-Ins," a community kitchen, a community library, a bike repair shop, and a digital media station. He typically uses his wages to pay the lease on the warehouse, the utilities including Wireless Internet that is used during Occupy NOLA General Assemblies, to pay for his own livestreaming service which he has used to record members of Occupy NOLA who have performed at OTS, to contribute to the community kitchen, to print and circulate materials about the Occupy Movement, and to support other occupations. He has at times paid musicians who perform at the FREE shows Occupy The Stage welcomes the community to attend. He was planning to attend the Occupy National Gathering and had spent most of the money he'd earned prior to arrest preparing for the Occupy Caravan, which stayed at OTS for 2 nights. The Occupy The Stage website has been updated with info about the Baton Rouge warrant, a copy of the speech he was reading, and more videos of March 12. You can also see the photographs section to get a sense of the amount of work that this warehouse has produced - banners, protest signs, tentmonsters, educational materials, and more. Sincerely, The 99% Occupy NOLA Direct Action Working Group This information was forwarded to Occupy The Stage from Occupy NOLA's 99% Direct Action Working Group. Justin Warren, founding member of Occupy the Stage, sits in Orleans Parish Prison because authorities in Baton Rouge want him sent there to stand trial for the “crime” of speaking without a permit on the steps of the State Capitol building. The charges against Justin arise from his March 12th speech on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol building denouncing then proposed cuts to the state’s education budget. Interestingly enough, the NOPD, not Baton Rouge police, arrested Justin early Wednesday morning, June 20th in New Orleans. At the time of his arrest Justin was playing a lead role in helping organize the New Orleans stop of the national Occupy the Caravan. At this time Occupy NOLA is urging all supporters of free speech and the right to dissent to contact Sheriff Marlin Gusman to urge that the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office not collaborate with any attempt to extradite Justin to Baton Rouge. Remember Sheriff Gusman is an elected official who is susceptible to public pressure. What’s more is that the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office should not be in the business of aiding attacks on free speech. How to contact Sheriff Gusman: The phone number of the East Bank Sheriff’s Office is 504-822-8000 EXT 6411. (The wrong one was included in email from DAWG and was tweeted and we REALLY apologize). But there is no answer on Sunday. You can submit a comment on the Contact Us section of the website of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office provides for the sending of emails to the Sheriff. The address for the home page of this website is www.opcso.org Founding Member of Occupy The Stage's Speech with Occupy Baton Rouge on Steps of State Capital06/23/2012
The founding member of Occupy The Stage (Justin Warren) is still in jail in New Orleans. Today members of Occupy The Stage and Occupy NOLA Legal went to J's arraignment in Municipal Court. Legal is still speaking with Baton Rouge about NOT having Justin extradited to Baton Rouge. We do not know if he will be extradited or not, but it seems like he will be. He did not know there was a warrant out for his arrest for disturbing the peace and resisting arrest when he was in Baton Rouge on March 12. There are 3 videos of this protest on the home page of this website. In court today, we wrote our phone numbers on a piece of paper and gave them to the lawyer to give to him because he did not know them, so hopefully we will hear from him soon. Legal will contact us about the extradition and I will update when I know what the situation is. @small_affair was thrown out of court for looking at him, which is considered "communicating." She was sending him #OccupyLove. The Occupy NOLA Direct Action Working Group will meet on Saturday 2pm to discuss an official press conference regarding this arrest. Here is the link to Jail Support if anyone would like to donate to help repay the person who lent us 500 for jail support. All the details about jail support and the arrest that we can provide are there at this time, including the video of the events on the steps of the state capital. https://www.wepay.com/donations/jailsupportots We still have not spoken to Justin about what happened on June 20 around 1am when he was arrested, and are waiting for him to speak with the legal team himself and to hear from them before commenting. For updates, follow @small_affair and @occuball on Twitter. The Occupy The Stage Digital Media Team is updating the Facebook page. Thank you everyone for being so supportive of Occupy The Stage during this time. Much Love and Solidarity ~ Occupy The Stage Digital Media
 Be a Citizen Monitor or take Creative Action! This even is organized by The Louisiana Bucket Brigade.It is taking place on the morning of June 20 when you will be at Occupy NOLA/ Occupy The Stage. On June 20, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will be auctioning off the final unleased areas in the Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area—just off the Louisiana coast—for exploration and drilling. This is a huge event for the oil and gas industry. Many of these areas are in 11,000 feet of water, twice as deep as the Deepwater Horizon, requiring the most hazardous of drilling techniques and equipment. Do you think the oil industry have proven to be “safe and responsible”? With 4500 spills since the BP disaster, it’s clear that they haven’t. These are public resources, this is a public event, and this sale will impact us, our coast and our communities. We need to be present to remind industry and the Dept. of the Interior that they are accountable to the public. The event will be from 9 am - 11 am on Wednesday, June 20th, in the St. Charles Room of the New Orleans, Louisiana Superdome. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will be present. Even if you don’t attend the Louisiana Bucket Brigade trainings, this event is open to the public. Members of Occupy NOLA will be there with Corexit fact sheets to engage oil and gas industry officials and government officials in discussion or participate in creative actions outside.. Citizens are welcome to go as Citizen Monitors and attend the meeting (inside) with Louisiana Bucket Brigade’s newly formed “Oil Monitoring Group”. This is an opportunity to observe the proceedings, engage attendees in conversation, and take notes. The oil industry has not proven that it can manage our resources responsibly. Come out and hold industry and government accountable!  Hey ya’ll there is a Freddie Mac office in New Orleans! This is an excellent opportunity for Solidarity and will be proposed at the June 19 Occupy NOLA GA. Since April 30, Occupy Homes MN has been working with the Cruz family, whose home went into foreclosure when PNC Bank mishandled an online payment. Although PNC executives have acknowledged their error and repeatedly told Cruz supporters that they are working on a solution, their actions have shown the opposite. They have refused to work with the family, instead working with Freddie Mac and the city of Minneapolis to launch a series of costly police raids against home, resulting in 23 arrests in less than a week. The city of Minneapolis has spent over $42,429 of public resources to defend the banks’ eviction and keep the family and their supporters out of their own home. http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2012/06/police_efforts_at_now-foreclosed_cruz_family_home_cost_taxpayers_42429.php Despite ongoing protests, PNC still thinks we’ll go away if they ignore us long enough. It’s time to show them otherwise: on June 19, Alejandra and David Cruz will be travelling along with a team of supporters to PNC’s Pittsburgh headquarters to hand-deliver their modification documents and demand a meeting with CEO Jim Rohr! Occupy Homes MN callsfor a national day of action on PNC to coincide with the Cruz’s arrival on Thursday, June 21. TUESDAY JUNE 19: caravan: http://www.facebook.com/events/310205149071280/ WEDNESDAY JUNE 20: the Cruz family will make a stop at Freddie Mac’s regional headquarters in Chicago on Wednesday to demand they stop tearing up our neighborhoods with their eviction profiteering. Atlanta: http://www.facebook.com/events/345327975539867/ Chicago Cincinnati: http://www.facebook.com/events/135234656614011/ Minneapolis: http://www.facebook.com/events/443066159051838/ New York Philadelphia Pittsburgh St. Louis: http://www.facebook.com/events/288991261199740/ Washington, DC And many more to come! Please, organize an event in your city! To add your PNC action to the list in solidarity with the Cruz family, contact and people going through foreclosure across the country, contact occupyhomesmn@gmail.com and post your event on the wall. Follow @occupyhomesMN and search #cruzhome on Twitter. In the meantime, feel free to flood the inboxes and voicemails of Freddie Mac and PNC execs and demand they negotiate with the Cruz family and give them back their home. Freddie Mac: Brad German Brad_german@freddiemac.com general press line: (703) 903-3933 PNC: Fred Solomon, PR director of PNC Bank 412-600-2628, cell 412-762-7544, direct Diana Reid Executive Vice President (212) 527-3946 diana.reid@pnc.com Romella Haiyder Vice President Business banker 212-661-2349 romella.haiyder@pnc.com Sawra Safi Vice President-Workplace Banking (212) 210-9910 sawra.safi@pnc.com Marc Hansen Vice President Relationship Manager 212-752-6044 marc.hansen@pncbusinesscredit.com Barbara Lamb Director of Loans 212-224-4000 blamb@mafb.com Kevin Madigan Vice President 212-303-0054 kevin.madigan@pnc.com Thomas Hyland Senior Vice President thomas.hyland@pnc.com (412) 762-2000 Craig Stillwagon Executive Vice President (770) 551-8222 craig.stillwagon@pnc.com Stephen Shelton Vice President/Business Credit (212) 303-0042 stephen.shelton@pnc.com Parameswar Sivaramakrishnan Vice President-Business Credit 212-752-6092 parameswar.sivaramakrishnan@pnc.com Sara Traberman Vice President sara.traberman@pncbusinesscredit.com (212) 223-3925 Alan Tischbein Senior Vice President-Team Leader alan.tischbein@pnc.com (212) 752-6094 Thomas Thompson Vice President (212) 223-3925 thomas.thompson@pncbusinesscredit.com  *FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* June 18, 2012 OccupyNOLA Occupy The Stage From Tuesday, June 19 to Thursday, June 21, Occupy New Orleans (Occupy NOLA) will be hosting Occupy groups from across the nation in preparation for the Occupy National Gathering. The Occupy movement will convene at the Occupy National Gathering in the vicinity of Philadelphia’s Independence Mall from June 30th to July 4th for a week of direct actions, movement building and the creation of a vision for a democratic future. Members of Occupy NOLA will be attending. Activists from Occupy groups across the country are traveling to this first Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia as the Occupy Caravan sweeps America with its "This Land is Our Land" road tour. The Occupy Caravan will be stopping in New Orleans on June 19 - 21 en route. The Occupy NOLA General Assembly endorsed The Occupy National Gathering on May 12, 2012, and formed a working group to coordinate with the Occupy Caravan on May 15. The Central and Southern Occupy Caravan routes have met up and are expected to arrive in New Orleans on Tuesday, June 19. This journey will carry the economic message of the 99% through the Heartland to the nation’s seats of power, educating and entertaining communities in the spirit of justice, fairness and accountability. Speakers, musicians and entertainers will perform in this immersive, economic civil rights action for friends and families in cities everywhere. Occupy The Stage, a working group of Occupy NOLA, will be hosting the Caravan travelers. A film crew from City Projects will be documenting Occupy NOLA and the Occupy Caravan as part of Race 2012, a PBS election special about race and politics in the 2012 election and beyond. Events of interest include: June 19: Occupy NOLA General Assembly meets at 7:00 pm at Occupy The Stage - 2735C Toulouse Street. The Playback Theatre Troupe will lead off the GA with an interactive performance. June 20: Occupy NOLA and Occupy Caravan travelers will celebrate with an afternoon of performances and a "Rebel Without A Cause" march at 2pm (exact location to be announced). This march will encompass the diverse issues of social and economic justice Occupy NOLA members have supported since the 99% Occupy Wall Street Movement began including: · Irresponsible financial practices by corporations and banks · The student the student debt burden · The housing foreclosure crisis · The right to assemble · Funding cuts to education · The New Orleans Downtown Development District's plans to radically reduce the presence of African-Americans on Canal Street and the need for a secure place for Canal Street vendors to operate · Police brutality and the deaths of Wendell Allen and Justin Sipp at the hands of NOPD and dismissal of NOPD Chief Serpas · Human and marine losses suffered as a result of the BP oil disaster · Full disclosure by the U.S. government, BP and NALCO, the company that manufactures Corexit, as to how much Corexit has actually been in the Gulf of Mexico · Fair and affordable housing for working class people At 10pm, Occupy The Stage will host Midsummer Night's Burlesque a night of performances at 2735 C Toulouse Street. Acts will include Ben Joseph and The Lay-Lows and burlesque troupe Rv. Spooky LeStrange and Her Billion Dollar Baby Dolls. All are invited to attend in a spirit of cooperation and democracy for the common good as we advocate for economic justice. The Caravan will leave on the morning of the 21st. One of their purposes is to gather up local riders and drivers as they head East, so all members of the 99% are encouraged to gather friends and a vehicle and jump on board! Occupy NOLA New Orleans, LA Content provided by Occupy NOLA Press Occupy NOLA New Orleans, LA occupynolapress@gmail.com occupythestagenola@gmail.com | OTSOccupy the Stage is a branch of Occupy NOLA that is dedicated to artists and artisans. We are committed to the belief that the arts and skilled trades are sacred. They belong to the people and are immune to censorship, gentrification, taxation or corporate consolidation. These are the basic necessities for civilization and are considered incorruptible. 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