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the time is exactly 7 o'clock, time once again for Off the Hook.
But if they could, they would, Bum-diddly-bum, for the best, expect the worst.
I hope that's understood, Bum-diddly-bum.
Bum-diddly-bum.
And getting started by the program is Off the Hook, Emmanuel Goldstein here with you on this
Wednesday evening. Joined tonight by Red Hat. Hello. Voltaire. Hey. And Jim in the studio.
Hello. And on the telephone we have Bernie S. in Philadelphia.
Greetings from Philadelphia. And Kyle out in Seattle. Hi. And a strange high-pitched
whine that's coming from someplace we don't know. Okay, that's, yeah, this is the phone.
It's definitely the phone. Michael, do you know anything about this? A high-pitched whine? No?
Okay, it's lovely, but I guess we'll have to live with it. All right, we have not been on
for the last couple of weeks, so we have a little bit of catching up to do. We have a special guest
we're going to have a very lively discussion. And, and something else, something else that
we talked about a couple of weeks ago that we're going to do tonight that we didn't know we were
going to do tonight. Something had to happen. This sound, that's the sound of an envelope hitting a
microphone. Yes, I received my answer from the Department of Homeland Security. Inside this
sealed envelope is the answer to the question of why every time I come to this damn country I get
detained. I filed a complaint, I went online, I did all the paperwork, sent it in the U.S. mail,
and they basically online confirmed that they had, in fact, finished my case and had sent me
a written response. So at some point during this hour, assuming I don't forget, I'll open this and
we'll find out the answer to the question. And, you know, it was really hard. I got this over the
weekend and it's really hard to contain opening it up, but for the audience I'll do it, you know?
I'm just going to say it doesn't look very thick. I don't know what you expect to get out of it.
Is thick good or is thick bad? Well, it doesn't look like a file. It may just be a form letter.
It comes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, DHS
TRIP they call it. I love how they make Traveler Redress Inquiry Program spell the word TRIP.
That's something. You know, this high-pitched whine is trying to drive me crazy, so what I'm
going to do is I'm going to put you guys on hold and I'm going to see if I can isolate the problem
and, okay, now, Kyle, we just have you, okay? And I hear the high-pitched whine, so hold on.
Let me now get... I can't put him on hold. Let me hit this button. All right, now he's on hold.
Now, Bernie, we have... and we still have the high-pitched whine. Okay, so it's got nothing
to do with either whine. It's our instrument and there's nothing we can do about it.
Oh, well. Okay, so in the news... Yes, Bernie, you have something? Apparently,
there's so many redresses against the TSA that they have to come up with an acronym to describe
them. Yeah, they certainly do. Well, one of my favorite acronyms is RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted
Police. This story from British Columbia. A BC man, that's what they call it out there, a BC man
has seized two surveillance cameras. He says that RCMP had hidden in trees near his trailer home
and guess what? They're full of images from crime scenes and investigations past. Yes,
Dion Nordick of Grand Forks told CBC News yesterday that he found the motion-activated
cameras in June in trees overlooking the trailer that he rents and they're now in his lawyer's
possession. He said he took the cameras down, removed the memory cards inside, found pictures
of himself and his friends coming and going from his trailer among the 200 images on the cameras.
There are also pictures of drug busts, suicides, and assaults, and it looked like they just hadn't
been erased off the card. Law enforcement once again comes through and wow. Were they just on
the card or was it that he was using some recovery software to find it? I think it was just on the
card. I think it was really simple. He says it's 100% sloppy police work, Charlie Brown technique,
I'd say. I don't know why he has to diss Charlie Brown, but you know, it's not the first time I've
seen something like this. Voltaire? Either way, this is an example of why recording personal
information is a bad idea because even if it's always like the database of stuff, it's always
likely to get compromised. Well, you think you can get the police to listen to that, you know?
They'll respect people's privacy and not record these things? Kind of doubt it. Yeah, so we also
have got news that Bradley Manning will be having a hearing coming up sometime in December. It's
Article 32 hearing for Private Bradley Manning on December 16th, 2011, Fort Meade, Maryland.
This hearing is expected to take approximately five days. That's one hell of a hearing.
With the exception of those limited times where classified information is being discussed,
it's going to be open to the public. So maybe we can charter a bus or something, go down there.
The primary purpose of the Article 32 hearing is to evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses
of the government's case as well as to provide the defense with an opportunity to obtain pre-trial
discovery. The defense is entitled to call witnesses during the hearing and to also cross-examine the
government's witnesses. Each witness who testifies is placed under oath. Their testimony can therefore
be used during the trial for impeachment purposes or as prior testimony should the witness become
unavailable. Bernie, I know you're interested in heading down there. I am. It's also, Fort Meade
happens to be the headquarters for the National Security Agency, or NSA.
Now, is that a coincidence? They have an army base, right?
Yeah, there is an army base. It's been there longer than the NSA has. There's also the NSA
Crypto Museum there, which is, if you're going down there to see Bradley Manning's hearing,
you might as well stop by the NSA Crypto Museum and check that out as well. It's worth checking
out. But I'm really curious about this hearing because if one of the things that's going to
happen during this hearing is to provide the defense with an opportunity to obtain
pre-trial discovery, for our listeners who don't know, that's where the government has to give
the accused all the stuff they want to use against them in the trial. So this could really
reveal things like sources and methods and how the government obtained this information. Some
of this could have been obtained from online service providers such as Twitter, Facebook,
Google, etc. I know some of our friends had their Twitter files subpoenaed. We've had a couple of
them on the show, these people. Anyhow, it's going to be an interesting hearing, so it's worth going
down there for, I think. All right, mark any calendars. December 16th. You know what day of
the week that is? Okay, well, I'm sure someone with a calendar app will tell us that information
pretty quickly. But December 16th, it'll last up to five days, they say. It should be an interesting
way to spend a few days. And hopefully it'll lead to an actual trial sometime soon. Thank you, Jim.
Let's see, you just handed me the whole book here. It's a Wednesday. Is that right? Wednesday? No,
that's November. Hang on, I got it. You know, this isn't convenient. I'm sorry. Yes, go ahead.
Friday. It's a Friday, okay. It starts on a Friday? That's unusual. All right, we also have
this interesting bit of news. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution which
criticizes domain name seizures of quote-unquote infringing websites that are seized by U.S.
authorities. Yeah, you've heard about this. According to the resolution, these measures
need to be countered as they endanger, quote, the integrity of the global internet and freedom of
communication. With this stance, the European Parliament joins an ever-growing list of
opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act, known as SOPA. Starting in the year 2010, U.S. authorities
have used domain name seizures as a standard tool to take down websites that are deemed to facilitate
copyright infringement. Despite fierce criticism from the public, legal experts, and civil liberties
groups, taking control of domain names is now one of the measures included in the pending Stop Online
Piracy Act legislation, which is designed to give copyright holders more tools to protect their
rights against foreign sites. Opposition to SOPA has been swelling recently, and this move by the
European Parliament is adding its voice by heavily criticizing the domain seizures that are part of
it. I can never understand how U.S. authorities are able to get away with that, just seizing
domains at will without having any kind of fair hearing or any sort of due process of any sort.
Bernie, you think this is something that's significant, this EU?
This is huge, when the U.S. government can just take down what they say are websites that are
deemed to facilitate copyright infringement, deemed by them without any benefit of a judge or jury
to actually deem if this really was a copyright infringement. I mean,
basically what this comes down to is government prior restraint on free speech.
And the U.S. government can just seize any domain name around the world. I don't know
what methods they use to do this, but it's obviously all internet domain names. Just the
domain names themselves can often contain an important message, like FordReallySucks.com,
for instance.
Hey, that was one of ours.
Yeah, exactly.
Just the domain name itself is an exercise in free speech, not to mention the content on any
website at that domain name. So this is a really, you know...
Also, Bernie, the fact that the websites are in different countries run by different people
that aren't subject to U.S. laws in the first place and shouldn't be prosecuted by them in
that manner.
It's really out of control for a government that really purports to be the land of freedom and so
forth to exercise prior restraint on free speech. It really makes the United States look bad as if
it needed help.
They can probably only seize domains that are run by registrars that operate in the U.S.,
I assume, and not just any domain they wish.
Okay, well, moving on, we have one more story. What do the words sex, lavender, flatulence,
quickie, butt, mango, and pud have in common? They're among more than 1,000 words deemed so
obscene by the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority that they have instructed mobile phone
operators to block them from all text messages. It's a decision that has left many in Pakistan
unsure whether to be staggered, amused, or outraged. This comes from BBC, so staggered,
and we don't use that word in quite that context.
What was the first word? It sounded very benign.
The first, what, sex?
Oh, no. Maybe it was the second one.
Lavender?
Yeah.
Okay. Yeah, it's interesting, that color. An unconfirmed list has been circulating online,
and you can go to bbcnews.com to find out that list, if you dare.
Many of the words are sexually explicit, but the inclusion of some words and phrases appear
to have defied even those who admit to possessing the lewdest of minds.
Yellow man? Really? They banned yellow man? Yellow man's an artist. He's amazing.
Monkey crotch, athlete's foot? They banned athlete's foot.
This is a sub-headline in the BBC news story here. They banned kiss ass. That is the headline.
It's a sub-headline of, and when you can get the BBC to say they banned kiss ass as a headline,
you know you've accomplished something. So yeah, that's what's going on in the rest of the world,
all kinds of silliness and nonsense and things like that.
Nothing, though, to compare to what has been going on here in New York and around
cities in this country. I'm sure if you listen to this radio station,
you have been brought up to date. The show right before us, an amazing program called
The Occupy Wall Street Show on every day from 6.30 to 7. And of course, you've probably heard
about in the news how the Occupy Wall Street camp in New York was raided and broken up last Tuesday
and how there was a day of action in the city last Thursday that was met with fierce resistance
by New York's finest. We're going to get into that in just a moment. I'd like you to hear
something. I'd like you to hear something that we got off the internet. Now, this is a second
generation copy, so it's going to be a little tinny sounding. Nothing to compare with the sound
of our own phone, though. But it's not as good as it actually sounded when it went out over
the internet. It's a recording from somebody's iPhone of an amazing live broadcast that was
coming not from the mainstream media, but from an individual walking around in the street. And
when all was said and done, tens of thousands of people were listening at the same amount of time,
hundreds of thousands of people listening all together to one person's perspective
walking through the streets of New York. Let's listen as things started to heat up last Thursday
afternoon.
I'm going to try to make it to the front. I think I see some police vehicles.
Excuse me. Sorry. All right, so I see the police vehicles.
I'm not sure they're trying to block this, but people are running past it now.
This is very similar to what we saw at the Oakland Solidarity March.
The police are now stopping and pushing media. I don't think they're going to be able to contain
this large of a group. We've seen this exact thing happen on Broadway with the Solidarity March.
So the police are now setting up these plastic barricades, the jersey barriers,
to block off the street right now.
Now there are several thousand, several thousand protesters right now,
and only a couple dozen police are staying.
Wow, this is amazing. We have one emergency service vehicle, a squad car, a van,
and some unmarked vehicles now. More vehicles pulling up,
and they're pulling white barriers now to block the march.
Now the march is actually just following through the sidewalks.
All right, I can see the police now trying to hold it. The barriers are being knocked over.
I see I see a man in a mask knocking them.
They're now running into the crowd, chasing after several police officers have tackled someone.
So there was a man in a hoodie and a mask, and he pushed over this barricade right here,
and someone ran through, and then we saw several officers run in, and I think they grabbed him.
So there's only a few dozen officers right now trying to hold back around three to five thousand
people. So we're on the other side right now. We can see all the officers. Someone just knocked
over this barricade. It's pretty smoky here.
All right, that's just a very short excerpt from the hours and hours of footage. Now that was
a video footage that was being aired live over the internet, and the guy who did it,
Tim Pool, joins us here tonight on Off the Hook. Tim, incredible footage that
you did single-handedly, it seemed. Yeah, thanks. And what exactly did you have? What were you
walking around the streets with? To broadcast? Yeah. A Galaxy S2 phone. Uh-huh. And that's,
I mean, it's plugged into an Energizer external battery. And that's pretty much it? That's it.
No big camera rig or anything like that? No. How big was your crew? Just me. Just you? No,
you didn't have a sound guy. You didn't have a lights guy. Basically, it was a one-man operation.
Now, okay, tell us how you got the idea to do this in the first place. Well, I mean, the live stream,
the Ustream stuff has been around for a little bit, and Occupy Wall Street's had the live feed
going for a while now. So I actually was setting up the live feed. I was going to choose between
the two major formats, live stream and Ustream. And Ustream has the mobile app, so versatility
was kind of the no-brainer to choose. And it was essentially going to be for scheduling political
theater that I was going to do with my friend, Henry James Ferry. And when the police action
started heating up, it sort of just changed what our plan had been. And I thought, I can film on
my phone, I can shoot video, but the police can destroy that should they do something wrong.
If I broadcast it live, anyone can see it whenever, and I can send out a tweet. And then things just
started taking off until that Tuesday and that Thursday. Well, I mean, it's an incredible
combination of the use of technology here to actually bring the message out. Now, I had been
following live stream, watching the various, and I was amazed by that. In fact, Kyle and I had been
looking at this weeks earlier when the Occupy movement just began. But I think, actually, Kyle,
you were watching the same footage I was watching out there in Seattle, and I think we both were
seeing it all unfold on the overnight hours Tuesday morning, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty
incredible. I remember seeing the other 99% come up, and then people started switching over and
watching that. And I kept following along live, I guess, from here, because I think there were
similar actions going on. The University Bridge in Seattle was shut down, I believe, for a little
bit, and they're blaming it on traffic, saying they caused a bunch of traffic out here in Seattle.
But I wanted to know what was going on in New York, and this channel was up, and you were telling
me about it. And so we just sort of stayed tuned. I was up really, really late that morning, too,
trying to make sense of it all. I think a lot of us were up all night that night. It was really
incredible seeing that start to unfold. And also, the amazing thing was that the mainstream media
was not covering it at all. First of all, overnight hours, so nobody's around. Second of all, story of
civil unrest, the United States don't really want to sell commercials for that kind of thing.
Slowly, though, they started to get the story. But first, it was outlets like Al Jazeera and
Russia Today and BBC that started to actually tell the people what was going on downtown in New York.
But it was interesting seeing it develop because, as I said, we were watching live stream to start
with, livestream.com slash global revolution. I think that's the national feed. Is that correct?
And then there's Occupy NYC. So there's all these different feeds going on of live coverage,
and that's only in one city. And then we found out about ustream.tv slash the other 99, which was
Tim's feed. And we started watching that one, or I started watching that one myself. And it was
different because it had narrative. It had not just the pictures, not just the chanting, but
actually had a guy walking through the streets explaining what he was seeing, talking about
various things like that. Tim, have you ever done anything like this before?
Never.
You just jumped into this.
Yeah, yeah.
And wow. When you first started, I mean, the first hour or so, what did you think you were
going to do? Just for a couple of hours and then just do something else?
I had no idea what was going to happen. And as long as there was action, I was going to stay online.
Now, while you're doing this, you can see how many people are watching.
I can see the simultaneous viewers. I can't see how many people have viewed it.
Okay. And at what point did that number start to make some kind of impact on you?
After, you know, when I started broadcasting, I had 12 people, 12 viewers. And then half an
hour later, I had 50. And then a half an hour later, I had 2000. And so I kind of, you know,
my eyes opened up and I was like, whoa, whoa, like, everyone's jumping in on my channel. I
didn't really know why. But someone came up to me and told me, everyone else is down. You're the
eyes right now. You're the only one who's broadcasting.
It wasn't just everybody else was down. It was that what you were doing was a lot
more interesting because you actually had that narrative going. And also, I mean,
no offense to the livestream feeds, because they're quite good and very riveting and
inspirational. But a lot of times it's a lot of jumping around and freeze frames and things like
that, all kinds of technical issues that, at least at the beginning, I didn't see on the Ustream
TV feed. It seemed like you almost had a steadicam. You were walking down the street and were able to
focus on something, explain what that was. It was in your voice. So I suppose in that regard,
maybe it's biased to one perspective. So it's not just open to interpretation. But for what
was happening on Tuesday morning, I think that's what we needed to see. We needed to see
what are we looking at? What's happening? What just happened half an hour ago? Recap things for
us. And also, as we heard in this clip, you have a sense as to what happened in other cities as
well. You're able to compare and say, this is like what happened in Oakland, or this is what
happened in North Carolina, or something like that. So it's good to come into this with that
kind of background, which I think is educational. Yeah, I guess.
Uh-huh. So now, okay, there's one incident. And I think this is probably what got a lot of people
tuning in and talking about it. And Kyle, I know we both saw this without realizing we were both
watching it at the same time. We talked about it the next day. Basically, you were walking down
the street and you came upon these people that really didn't want to be filmed. And there was
a long, tense standoff between you and them. And it was being broadcast live, I think, to what,
about 12,000 people at that point? Was it more? Well, that was just on the ustream.tv slash
the other 99. We were actually at that point already on Al Jazeera.
You were on Al Jazeera when that was happening? Yes.
Because Al Jazeera started covering it live with you as the source. And that goes to show
how the mass media failed here. Because the mass media was told, you can't cover the story. The
police said, you can't go past this street. But you already were in. You were able to just walk
down that street yourself as a person. The mass media just turned around and obeyed the rules that
were given to them. I wasn't actually in the park. This was at Broadway and Pine. And I was actually
standing out there with CBS, CNN, and New York Times. And we were all in the same place.
Except they weren't covering it and you were. I mean, pretty much, they didn't have the live
capabilities that I had. So tell us about the encounter.
Well, it's funny if you watch the highlight, because I walk around a police car and I'm
explaining the name. I'm just nonchalantly speaking about, so we're with the other 99.
And the name comes from. And then I turn and I see this person yelling at another, essentially,
a photographer. And I can't tell what they're talking about. And then all of a sudden, someone
runs up to me and he tries hitting my camera phone and he puts his hand over it. And I start
backing up and I'm like, whoa, whoa. And he's like, turn the camera off. And I try to say
there's 10,000 people. And then he yells, no one cares. And then, you know, another guy comes up
and starts just real big guy leans over me, puts his hand over the camera. A woman then runs up
and swings the camera. I'm backing up. I refuse to back down. These aren't cops. No, these these.
I think this was these are cop tactics, but they're not cops. I don't want to offend anyone's
political beliefs, but I think it might have been an attempt at a black block, although they
weren't really doing anything other than draining police tires. You're like, that's really going to
make a big difference in a militarized city like this with the NYPD flat tires. There was really
no strategy behind what they were doing anyway. But I mean, you know, like like you said, people
have different tactics and we don't want to diss anybody for for taking things in a particular
direction. And I can understand why people would be very frustrated doing and resort to tactics
like this. But the thing that is offensive to all of us is telling somebody to stop filming,
telling somebody to shut up, to not talk about something. Now, your response to that, you
basically and I was watching this live, you were basically standing up to these people who are
physically threatening you and refusing to turn your camera off. What was what was going through
your mind when you were doing that? I had an obligation to the twelve thousand people on my
channel to to keep the window open. As I as I say, I'm not going to allow four people to
take that away from everyone who relies on me to show them what's happening.
Yeah, I mean, if they're going to attack me, I was backing up. In fact, I was actually trying
to walk away. I didn't know. That was the amazing thing. They kept putting themselves
on camera by walking up to you and saying, turn the camera off. If they had just walked the other
way, they wouldn't have been on camera in the first place. They weren't the brightest bulbs
in the bunch. Well, that's that's really funny because the woman who was was yelling at me and
trying to get me to turn the camera off and swung at the camera. She's, I guess, immortalized in a
sense. Her photograph is on the Internet and you can see the tattoos on her arm. Oh, boy. So
I mean, if you don't want to be filmed, walk away from the camera and don't say anything. Don't run
up to it and wave your arms around. Now, could they tell what you represented, that you weren't
just somebody walking around with a camera phone, that you actually were part of something big?
I mean, they earlier in that night, one of the guys came up to me and said, we don't like you
filming over here. Don't film. And I said, look, I'm going to keep filming. I don't know. No more
care what you're doing. I'm worried about the protest. And he argued. I told him there's 10,000
people right now relying on this. And he argued with me. And it actually. What is the argument
against filming? Exactly. Other than than people letting air out of police cars. Why else would
somebody not want to be filmed? Because they were committing a crime, I suppose. And, you know, it's
after this happened. There's this guy, Daniel, defended what I was doing. And he said, if if
what you're doing needs to be hidden, you're not very creative. You know, there's no strategy.
There's no creativity behind what you're doing. You should be able to walk up to the police and
hand them a written document of what your plans are and succeed. That's what, you know, what the
O.W.S. is trying to do. I mean, that's the way I think what I think they're trying to do.
Well, seeing this unfold, I think this is what you have to show everybody who doubts
what the Occupy Wall Street movement is all about. This is about transparency. It's about
doing things above above board and standing up for your convictions
and being proud of what what it is that you do and and showing the world. And I think that runs
counter to how the mass media has been portraying this as a bunch of of renegades that are intent
on causing chaos and mayhem and and God forbid making traffic jams and things like that.
Yeah, it's something that I think everybody everybody needs to see.
What's what's interesting about that on Friday morning after the N-17 action,
I was reading the New York Daily News and in there they said hundreds of protesters marched
to dwindling numbers when the official NYPD estimate was 32,650 people marched.
32,000. That's higher than I had heard. Yeah. So it was incredible. And, you know,
I was talking about this on my other show yesterday that if it was a third world country
where we found out that the son of the police commissioner was the main anchor for the morning
news program on the TV station here, we'd say, yeah, this is the typical two bit dictatorship
move to have, like, you know, the spokespiece there talking to the people. But that's exactly
what you have. The son of the police commissioner does the Fox morning show and he spends all his
time mocking the demonstrators. And really, that's that's that's the tactic they use,
that transparent. It's it's unbelievable. Well, it's really funny about that is I guess
Jay Rosen, the NYU professor on journalism, wrote an article how I have brought the Max
Headroom prophecy to life. Yeah. For those who are familiar with it. Yeah. Well, you want to
explain for people that might not be because. Yeah, it was a television show about a dystopian
future ruled by a major media corporation where this character, Edison Carter, would seek truth
and justice through his, you know, through his camera, essentially. And then Max Headroom was
his alter ego who would pop in on the on the television at inappropriate times. Yeah. And
we've gotten we've gotten almost to that world, I think it's it's getting kind of kind of weird
and scary. So, wow. Again, though, you know, after seeing what happened on Thursday and tell me how
you feel about this. People were being attacked and not the people who were who were causing
damage, not the people who were vandals or who were trying to do things that that we could
probably condemn, although I could certainly understand why they would want to, how frustrated
they could get. I don't agree, but I do understand. So how is it that more people haven't gone that
route after seeing what happened here and what's happened all around the country and at UC Davis
with the pepper spraying of peaceful people sitting on the sidewalk? How is that people
aren't throwing rocks at the cops like they do in other parts of the world or lighting cars on
fire, things like that, because that's what the rest of the world does. And they meet a similar
response from their security forces. We seem to be getting the response without the the aggressiveness
from the demonstrators. So how long do you think it can it can it can stay peaceful? I don't know.
I was really surprised that we didn't see. I mean, look at Oakland. They had a black block form and
just protesters were attacking protesters at that point. The the occupiers were defending buildings
from this, you know, the black block and they were fighting each other. And it's it's crazy to me to
see the people fighting for the same thing in different ways, fighting each other instead of
fighting against the, you know, the Oakland police who use military tactics. They injured two vets.
They, you know, lacerated Kayvon's spleen. I mean, tell us about that. There's there's a video out
now of I don't know his last name, but he's an Army Ranger veteran named Kayvon. Right. And he was
somewhat confrontational with a wall of police officers in Oakland. And they started marching
at him going, huh, huh, as they marched. And he would jump back every time. And then eventually
one guy just started beating him with a club. And once they, you know, took him down, they all just
started wailing on him and put him in. I think he was in intensive care. I know he had a lacerated
spleen. But aside from that, I'm sure everyone's familiar with Scott Olson, who took a projectile
to the head and lost the ability to speak. I believe I'm not sure if he's gotten that ability
back. But, you know, I actually asked one of the I asked an officer in New York on Thursday when
they had closed off the park and were arresting Brendan Watts. They somewhat one of the officers
stomped on his head. And I heard he fractured a skull. I can't confirm that. But I have pictures.
Everyone's seen the pictures. His head's covered in blood. And I asked an officer, what's your
breaking point? You know, you are a protector of the people and you're watching these officers
do this. At what point do you stand up and say, I can't do this anymore? And they just said,
they shook their head and said, move along. Well, they don't talk to to people, do they?
No. They've been instructed not to do that. Yeah. Now, the way the mass media covered,
I think the story that you're talking about is that, well, that guy was throwing batteries at
cops or something like that. Is that is that how the mass media pretty much dismissed that?
Perhaps. I didn't see him throwing batteries. But if you watched the feed, he was he would walk
up to the barriers and he would put his he was put his boot on the bottom legs and then he would
kick the barriers out while just eyeballing the cop, essentially defying the authority of the
police. And then what I was told is he did it again. And then the police jumped over and chased
him down and punched him in the gut a few times. I interviewed a witness. He said he was a direct
witness to what had happened and they had tackled him. One of the officers put his foot on his head
and, you know, squished it around while the other other officers started punching him in the stomach.
I saw some videos of cops whaling on people with their fists, and it's incredible how
something like that just happened and get dismissed by by the general public. And I
think this is something kind of important. And maybe people when they're with their families
tomorrow at Thanksgiving can can have this be part of the discussion. You might not agree with
where people are coming from. You might be conservative, right wing, whatever isn't what
we saw in this country last week. Something that we should all be scared of that this kind of
response to people that aren't really doing anything that's threatening or violent in any
way. People who are sitting where they're not supposed to be or standing where they're not
supposed to stand or not listening to authority, having being met with such violence and with such
overwhelming military force. And for all intents and purposes, the NYPD is a military force now.
They really are. And in fact, many police departments in this country are might as well be
branches of the military. There is no difference. I mean, we even have a tank here in New York City
and apparently we can shoot down airlines. So there's really little difference.
One thing that's really interesting to me when it comes to you just mentioned the conservatives,
we see these conservative websites and pundits talking bad about Occupy,
is that they say they don't want government intrusion. They don't like big government,
but then they praise the police, which are essentially agents of the government taking
away the rights of those who are expressing the First Amendment. And I can't really understand
that. But at the same time, we have a lot of the socialist or communists out in the park who are
praising government. And then when they get attacked by the police, denounce the government
agents. So it's a weird, confusing thing for me. And a lot of people go down to the park.
You can still go down to the park. I went by there just before the show. There's only a dozen or so
people there and about a hundred cops. And it looks like a disco dance floor now with all the
lights that they've turned on. It's sad, but I think a lot of people are seething and I think
there's a lot that's going to still be happening. But basically, I forgot what my point was.
But when you went down to the park, you would see all different viewpoints from different
perspectives everywhere. Far left, Ron Paul always had a stand someplace. But it was an amazing place
to exchange ideas. And I always came out of there feeling pretty good and feeling like, wow, this is
going someplace. I think that's what people need to understand is that it's not just one voice,
it's many voices. And that's why you might not see statements with a very firm list of demands
because they're still listening. They're still gathering information. And I think that's something
everybody can play a part in, no matter what part of the political spectrum you're part of.
What I see the point of Occupy Wall Street being, and many people might disagree,
is that it's creating a space for people from all different backgrounds to try and
understand one another. Encourage more general assemblies so that no matter where you fall on
the political spectrum or no matter what your religious background is, we can try to work
together because we have to live together. Our audience is basically into the technology,
so we want to focus on that as much as possible. Now, you explain what it is that you use,
and it's very simple and basic, but what enables you to use it easily? What services
do you subscribe to in order to get this to work? You mean Sprint? Well, I guess that's the answer.
Yeah. Well, they really are the... Well, I should say this. I'm not a paid spokesperson at all,
but they're the only service provider that has unlimited 4G data. And in the past week,
I've used 15 gigs of 4G and three gigs of 3G, so that's not possible with anyone else.
Wow.
Yeah. And then obviously Ustream.
You mentioned a battery pack. Was that something that you could keep putting more batteries into?
It wasn't something rechargeable, right?
No, it's rechargeable.
Oh. So how did you charge it?
I heard him say this, that your phone was charging faster than it could discharge.
Yeah.
How is that possible?
It's the... Well, another product plug, I suppose. It's the Energizer XPAL 18000,
and it can charge a laptop. You plug it into the wall, it takes about three hours to charge up,
and it's an 18 amp battery. And then I can plug in USB or it's got a 16 to 20 volt output or a 6
to 12 volt.
What's the longest that you went without having to recharge anything except yourself, maybe?
I haven't... Well, on Tuesday, my batteries were only partially charged. So I made it about nine
hours. But on Thursday, off of one of the XPAL batteries and my phone, I made it 12 and a half
hours. And the external battery still had one bar left. It has four bars. And my cell phone was
still at 100%.
How big is the battery? Is it something that attaches to your phone or do you have to put
it in a backpack?
It fits in my back pocket, but it is... I don't know. I mean, maybe about 10 inches long and
six inches wide.
Oh, is it heavy?
No, no, it's really light.
Yeah, it's like a laptop battery.
You're able to walk around pretty much unencumbered by anything physically or by the
weight or anything like that. Yes, go ahead, Bernie.
I just want to point out that he said he was using Sprint's 4G network. Actually,
using a set of frequencies in a 2.5 gigahertz band. Sprint sub-licenses that part of the
spectrum. And it's using the WiMAX technology at 2.5 gigahertz. And Tim was right. Sprint
does not have any limits on how much data you can transmit and receive in that band.
So it was really the only mobile service he could have used to accomplish that.
And so it worked out really well.
Any other companies you'd like to give compliments to or tear apart?
I mean, I don't want to just sit here and promote companies, but I do have a solar panel
on my backpack, and that's sort of my last resort. It's a three amp battery
that generally just charges throughout the day. And I can also charge it off of a USB port,
but I actually have three of the Energizer 18000s. So they're light, maybe about a pound or two.
I've, at this point, I'm never going to run out of electricity.
You could teach a lot of people something about that. We're speaking with Tim Poole
from uStream.tv slash theother99.
What resolution were you broadcasting at, just out of curiosity?
I'm pretty sure that uStream displays it in 240p, but my camera is actually 1080,
so there might be some way to actually shoot high def.
Tell us something about uStream.
They are essentially a do-it-yourself live broadcasting. It's kind of like YouTube,
except you broadcast it yourself, and it's also the letter U, stream, not the word you.
I don't know much about it, except that they've been amazing to us.
They've provided us with the URL, slash theother99.
They have helped format our page for ease of access for the viewers.
And they don't really have the technical capabilities that live stream does when it
comes to editing video in the cloud or having scroll bars and stuff like that.
But just the fact that they have the mobile app, that's the important technology in this day and
age, because one thing everyone has is a cell phone. And if you've got a camera on that cell
phone and you're running iOS or Droid, you can broadcast live.
Now, as far as what it is that you've already recorded, I know you said there was a repeat
broadcast, I think a day or two after. So all this is saved someplace.
Yeah. After you broadcast, it saves automatically. Whether you want it to or not, you can actually
choose to have it save in a way that people can view it again or save it privately. So all of
the videos from those days are actually on the page.
How can people find them? Are they just there, listed?
Yeah. The URL, we actually simplified it. It's theother99.tv.
Oh, okay.
And on the right side of the page, there's a list of videos. And if you scroll down,
you can see all videos. And I think we've got about 500 on there. So we're working really,
we're trying to figure out how we can archive this in a database that can be navigated.
Well, is this something that maybe listeners can help with?
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
What are you looking for? Somebody who can just go through a lot of video and archive things?
Yeah. Add tags, essentially build the database so that people can search for certain keywords.
And then the videos range from one minute to two hours. So I guess someone who's good with
any of those fields could get in touch with us.
Okay. Go ahead.
Is there any way for you yourself to get a copy of the video that you can archive? Or is it just
Yeah, I can actually download the FLV files. It's just with everything that's been happening,
there's just not enough time to sit through 500 hours.
We're going to try to take phone calls. 212-209-2900. I'm not sure about the condition
of this instrument here, but we'll give it our best shot. And you know what, I got to open this
letter. It's driving me crazy here. I have to find out why I'm always detained at the border
whenever I come into this country, whether it's from Canada, whether it's from Europe,
whether it's from Asia, doesn't matter. If I was on the space station, I'm sure I'd get
interrogated when I landed. So I filed a complaint online and they sent me a reply. I've not yet
opened it. I'm about to do it right now. I'm nervous. Okay. Does anybody want to guess?
Well, Kyle, you've been with me a couple of times when I've done this.
What do you think they're going to say?
They're going to make you aware of a ceremony that's taking place. They're going to roll out
a big red carpet. I don't know. That's what they're going to say in the letter?
Right. They're just going to announce that you have to show up at this date to...
What, I'm going to get a hearing?
...give a formal apology. Yeah.
I have to apologize or they're going to apologize to me?
No, they're going to apologize to you.
I hope so. Redact.
I'm going for form letter. I hate to be pessimistic, but I think it's a form letter.
You said it was a very thin envelope. It's not that thin. You too, Jim?
Jim votes form letter.
All right. All right. Let's get this over with. Have phone calls waiting and...
Okay. I'll try and leave out any specific identifying information or anything like that.
Okay. Redress control number. Thank you for submitting your traveler inquiry form and
identity documentation to the Department of Homeland Security Traveler Redress Inquiry
Program, DHS TRIP. Thanks for spelling it out again. DHS's mission is to lead the unified
national effort to secure the country, including U.S. border and transportation security. We take
requests for redress seriously, and we understand the inconveniences that additional inspections
may cause. DHS strives to process travelers in the most efficient and professional manner
possible without compromising our mission to safeguard the United States' people and visitors.
When DHS receives a redress inquiry, we conduct a thorough review of the matter.
We consult and share information with other agencies when appropriate to relieve you from
the burden of seeking redress on an agency-by-agency basis and to address the issue that
you identified in your application. Security procedures and legal concerns, however, mandate
that we can neither confirm nor deny any information about you, which may be within federal
watch lists or reveal any law enforcement-sensitive information. We have found that less than 1%
of the DHS TRIP complainants actually have some connection to the terrorist watch list,
which they capitalize, by the way. Complaints most often arise either because the traveler's
name and personal information is similar to the name and personal information of another person
in systems which contain information from federal, state, local, and foreign sources,
or because the traveler has been delayed in travel for reasons unrelated to such data,
such as by random screening. The U.S. government has completed our review of your case. Your
experience was most likely caused by a misidentification against a government record or
by random selection. We regret any inconvenience that you may have experienced, and where appropriate,
made updates to our records that may assist in avoiding future incident of misidentification."
Really? This is what they're going to give me? This loaded garbage here that is misidentification
or randomness? Oh my God, I can't believe they would just lie like this.
So it's a form letter.
It's a form letter. They said absolutely nothing.
Well, you don't know that. So I think the real test is going to be what happens the next time,
right? Because maybe they've done something. They may not have. And I think you should bring
that letter with you. And then if it happens again, you should show it to them and be like,
look, they said they were going to update it. What the heck?
Yeah. I agree with Red Hag. I think you should laminate it. Get a lanyard, get five lanyards,
and wear it.
But I mean, in all truth and honestly, obviously, they didn't tell you exactly why,
but they may have done something. So you really can't know until the next time they harass you.
Very disappointed in this. I wanted to see something printed out saying, yes,
this is because you mouthed off to somebody five years ago and they took an instant dislike to you
or something like that. Just something that humanized it a little bit. But absolutely
nothing. Okay, great. So that's how it's going to be. All right. Yes, go ahead, Bernie. Please
tell me. Tell me what to do.
It goes back to the terminology I used before called sources and methods. The DSA does not
want to reveal their sources and methods. And if they were to tell you what you wanted to know,
they would feel that they compromised their sources and methods. So
that's why they're not going to say anything to you.
Tim, the next time I go over the border, I want to be all decked out. I want to record
every minute of this. What would you recommend?
A cell phone.
Uh-huh. But they tell you to turn your cell phone off. Then they take it from you.
Well, that's, well, then how are you going to broadcast?
Yeah, that makes it rather difficult. I know. I got to think of something. Let's take some
phone calls. 212-209-2900. And good evening. You're on Off The Hook.
Good evening, Emmanuel. This is Bobson from Bulgaria.
Hey, how's it going?
All right. I'm happy you received your answer from the DSA people and the homeland people.
Yeah, it's real thrilling, isn't it? So tell us from Bulgaria how you view the whole
scene here. Were you able to watch any of the streams yourself?
Well, I haven't watched any of the net streams, but I've been following up on Democracy Now!
and whatnot. And I am disappointed in how things are going in places such as Egypt and
New York and UC Davis and things like that. It's not a good thing, I don't think.
Do you think it's all related?
Well, planet-wise, it's on the same planet, and I'm on the same planet,
and it's not making me happy to be on the same planet with all this stuff. And it's
like the old lady, former teacher, was she in New York, or sprayed with some...
It's interesting to me how reports from Egypt say they use tear gas, and they
get canisters from the manufacturers. And I looked up the manufacturer's catalog online and
found the same 50-ounce pepper spray weaponry that I saw in the videos from UC Davis.
And I'm curious if the pepper spray can be used for, you know, the food aspect of the pepper.
Yeah, if you tune to Fox News, I'm sure you'll get advice on that.
There was a piece on Fox where they called it a food product.
I hear it goes great with your Thanksgiving meal. I mean,
not that you have one in Bulgaria, but for here, anyone who's planning on having one.
Can anyone just buy pepper spray? Is that easy?
Yeah, you can buy that. The one that was used at UC Davis on Amazon,
I mean, among other places. But the funny thing is if you actually look it up on Amazon,
the reviews are pretty hilarious. It's one of those things where people have gone and made...
So they're five-star, and they say, this is great for breaking up a line of peaceful protesters who
have their arms linked and stuff like that.
Thanks. Thanks for that call. Now, let me just ask, were you
subjected to... I mean, you already told us about your confrontation with the people who
are vandalizing things. Why don't you turn the camera off? How about with cops, though? Were you
subjected to pepper spray or the threat of such things as you were moving through the streets?
Just arrest, pretty much. I mean, I was pushed by a cop into the street, which, I mean...
Isn't that where they don't want you to be? They want you to be on the sidewalk?
Yeah. I don't understand. I guess I wasn't moving quickly enough. So they just sort of
pushed me. I've been grabbed. I've been thrown. I was... I don't want to say I was full-force
elbowed, but essentially an elbow was placed in my ribs, and then I was shoved. I mean,
by now, I'm sure they all mostly know who... Well, I don't want to say that. I know that
a few of them do know me by name.
Do they? The cops actually know you by name now?
Yeah, I've been addressed by name. But I think they're also aware of all of the guys who,
whether they know the names or not, who are doing the live feed, and they try to, you know,
they don't want to be confrontational in front of however many thousand people.
But the thing is, these thousands of people, they're all part of the media now themselves,
too. They've got their camera phones, they've got their documentation equipment,
so that if anything happens, like a cop pepper spraying somebody peaceful or beating somebody or
anything that's worthy of note, it's going to be documented. They can't deny it anymore.
We're all of a sudden empowered with all this technology that allows us to do all kinds of
incredible things. I think you were talking about something that we actually were discussing
earlier, a new bit of technology that they're using over in Europe that allows you to get an
aerial view of what's going on. I don't think it was used in New York City, but it has been used
in various places overseas. What is it called?
Well, in Poland, it's called the Robocopter. We got a lot of emails from people who are
interested in us getting a quadrocopter drone. One of the members of Hackerspace in Los Angeles,
who's my friend, he's in Italy right now and there's another person they're working on,
they call the OcuCopter Sky Witness. They're going to set up, they're going to hack it,
make it really awesome and allow the other 99 to get aerial views of what's happening on the ground
wherever we may be.
That's incredible.
Until the police shoot it down.
It's made of styrofoam. They're small, light.
It's just one of the ways of, I guess, outwitting the rules and things like that.
Let's try and squeeze in another phone call because we're almost out of time.
Good evening. You're on off the hook.
Yes. Hi, this is Rick from Chicago, Illinois.
How are you doing?
Good. Hi, Tim.
Hey, how's it going?
Good. I have to admit, I was pretty naive when it came to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
And before I discovered the other 99 and Tim, and it was just a coincidence that I was on Twitter
the night that Liberty Plaza got raided.
Someone posted the link to Tim's stream and I, like many others, did marathon sessions.
I watched him for maybe like 12 hours on Tuesday, another 12 hours on Thursday.
And through his superior narrative, through his interviewing of people on the scene,
I feel like he's educated me and given me an unbiased view of what the people there
in New York City believe the Occupy Wall Street movement is all about.
And I have to say that I'm a complete supporter now.
And having witnessed some of the live streams from, say, cities like Portland or San Francisco
and Oakland before the New York events, I was a little bit sort of soured on the movement.
Tim, you've completely changed my mind.
I'm a huge supporter.
I've donated to the other 99.
I've donated to your Occumentary.
And so my question, I guess, would be, if you were, let's say, offered a job,
what would be considered mainstream media, whether it be current TV or something like that?
We have like 10 seconds, so please wrap that up.
Do you think you would take a job with the mainstream media?
Okay, you got to answer that really quickly.
No.
Okay, that's about as quick as I can imagine.
Very fast, any kind of contact info, projects that you'd like people to support?
Yeah, if you want to get in touch with me for business, email, I mean, business or interview,
my email is tpool, P-O-O-L, at W-A-T-O-9-9.com.
Our website is WeAreTheOther99.com, and our live channel is TheOther99.tv.
And also follow me on Twitter at TimCast, T-I-M-C-A-S-T.
All right, well, Tim, congratulations on empowering yourself and taking technology,
using it for good, and sharing the word with so many people.
And I think we can all learn something from that.
Our email address, O-T-H at 2600.com.
We're going to go out with another Occupy-related song.
Keep mailing those in to us if you know of a song that we should feature at the end of one of our programs.
This one comes from Fresh Juice Party.
We'll see you next week.
Good night.
It's cause making real projects is what it's all about
Man of the free, I'm off the break
This is the street, our labor paid
September 17, 2011
That's the day we took it back
No prisoners, man of the free
I'm off the break
These are the streets, our labor paid
Whether we're protesting or holding
Wall Street in D.C., you won't notice
Censor and arrest, fall press
Amy Goodman and Alternet give us the facts
Even though we wear our anonymous masks backwards
Doesn't mean we're not on track
Society with solidarity
And occupation with dedication
Now look around Liberty Plaza and Wall Street
There's no stopping us in Gotham City
Man of the free, I'm off the break
This is the street, our labor paid
September 17, 2011
That's the day we took it back
No prisoners, man of the free
I'm off the break
These are the streets, our labor paid
Whether we're protesting or holding
Wall Street in D.C., you won't notice
Occupy New York
Occupy San Francisco
Occupy Chicago
Occupy Atlanta
Occupy Los Angeles
Occupy Houston
Occupy D.C.
Occupy the world
Occupy
Occupy
Occupy
Occupy
Occupy
Occupy
Occupy
Occupy
Occupy
Occupy