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In America, the First Amendment doesn’t apply if the free speech upsets a bank. Jeff Olson, a 40-year-old man from San Diego CA, is facing prosecution for scrawling anti-bank messages on a sidewalk. He faces a 13-year jail sentence. RT quoted the San Diego Reader, which reported that a judge barred Olson’s attorney from “mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial”, in which Olson faces charges on 13 counts of vandalism. The judge ruled, “The State’s Vandalism Statute doesn’t mention First Amendment rights”. It isn’t surprising that the judge’s decision flabbergasted Olson’s attorney. He told the press, “I’ve never heard that before, that a court can prohibit an argument of First Amendment rights”.
Jeff Olsen, a political activist and a member of the Occupy Wall Street movement, faces trial for scrawling thirteen anti-bank messages using children’s chalk on a sidewalk outside of three San Diego CA branches of Bank of America. The slogans on the sidewalk were quite innocuous and included no profanities or strong language. Bank of America took offence at slogans such as “Stop Big Banks!” and “Stop Bank Blight!” It initiated legal proceedings against the activist who used a public sidewalk as a means of spreading his message.
The San Diego Reader obtained records of the criminal case and found out that Darell Freeman, Bank of America Vice President of Global Corporate Security, pressured members of San Diego’s Gang Unit on behalf of the bank until they forwarded the matter to the City Attorney’s office. Instead of fighting local gangs, the San Diego Police Department Gang Unit is trying to jail an activist whose only wrongdoing is ticking off a big bank with messages written on a public sidewalk. Bank of America received a 54 billion USD (trillion Roubles. billion Euros. billion UK Pounds) bailout from the taxpayers, yet, its Corporate Security unit is fighting an activist. During the last couple of years, several former employees testified that Bank of America, as an institution, was involved in numerous instances of securities fraud and mortgage fraud. Why aren’t they charging the bank executives? Where’s justice?
30 June 2013
Voice of Russia World Service
Valentin Mândrăşescu
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_06_30/Anti-bank-activist-prosecuted-for-sidewalk-graffiti-9658/
Editor’s Note:
Bank of America does many other questionable things. They’ll catch up with it… it’s becoming a political liability to Obama, and he’ll gladly throw some red meat to the lions. Bank of America has forgotten that it’s not above the law… it may find out otherwise in short order… and no one will cry for it. I can testify from personal experience that Corporate Security departments of large corporations believe themselves above the law. A Corporate Security sort at a former employer searched me for no good legal reason. He had no grounds for it. That’s kosher in post-Bush America. That’s what you get if you vote Republican… that’s what you march for in “Pro-Life” Marches. Show some grit and brains… you should NEVER vote for ANY Republican candidate under any circumstances… they’re the Party of Repression and Greed.
BMD
Voices from Russia 
American Craptialist Filth to Rape the Western Ukraine for Shale Gas… The REAL Reason for the Coup and the Civil War
Tags: business, Business and Economy, Chevron, Chevron Corporation, corporations, economics, economy, energy, energy corporations, Environment, environmental destruction, gas pipeline, hydrocarbons, Ivano-Frankovsk Oblast, Lvov Oblast, Lvovshchina, multinational, multinational corporations, natural gas, Nikel, political commentary, politics, pollution, Russia, Russian, Ukraine, Western Ukraine
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Editor:
The TRUTH is out… the American oligarchs wanted to topple V F Yanukovich and instigated the Ukrainian Civil War so that they could come in and destroy the Ukrainian countryside in their perpetual search for energy sources (domestic and Canadian sources have peaked out and they want MORE). Note well that Chevron is only going to operate in the Western Ukraine… I believe that the oligarchs have written off the rest of the “Ukraine”… however, the Lvovshchina appears headed for Polish occupation, so, it’s safe for American Corporate rape. Note well that the Americans don’t care if they turn the Western Ukraine into another moonscaped Nikel… and note well that the Uniates, schismatics, and “Evangelicals” just slobber their approval of it all. One wonders how much Langley is paying them…
If you wish to see the Western Ukraine before American crapitalists rip it apart… go now. Otherwise, you’ll see a devastated shell.
BMD
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Rossiya Segodnya, citing Ukrainian media sources, reported that the American oil company Chevron would open a subsidiary in the Ukraine to exploit shale gas, and that the National Bank of Ukraine gave the green light to the deal. To exploit hydrocarbons in the Western Ukraine, Chevron plans to invest about 10 billion USD (400 billion Roubles. 62 billion Renminbi. 614 billion INR. 11.2 billion CAD. 11.4 billion AUD. 7.9 billion Euros. 6.2 billion UK Pounds), with production centred in Lvov and Ivano-Frankovsk Oblasts. According to the NBU, Chevron opened a domestic bank account for its operations. In November 2013, Chevron signed an agreement with “Nadra Olessky”, 90 percent owned by the state enterprise “Nadra Ukraina” (composed of 13 exploration and specialised enterprises). On 3 October, Yaroslav Klimovich, the head of “Nadra Ukraina” board, said that next week the Ukraine intends to approve the final version of an operating agreement with Chevron to produce shale gas.
8 October 2014
Novorusinform
http://www.novorosinform.org/news/id/11309