List of Demands by #OCCUPYWALLSTREET

Occupy Wall Street – Official Demands  UPDATED SEPT 28TH 2011

Written by Occupy Wall Street

The Sovereign People’s Movement, represented nationally through the people occupying the various Liberty Square locations across this great country, have laid out and democratically submitted and are currently voting on the list of following Demands to then be distilled into one Unified Common demand of the people. Special Note!!!  Read this before you comment or vote of comment! This document is a living breathing document updated daily but solely based on the votes for the items included within it. This is how it works:  After reading the list of publised proposals, if you have a point that is not already proposed that you would like added, simply submit it in the comments section at the bottom.  The Suggestions are added to the ballot found Here so that they can be voted on by the people. This may take up to 72 hours for our legal team to dedupe and combine to exixting demands due to overlapping proposals. Proposals remain on this official page as long as the vote maintains a 2/3 majority. You may vote once per IP address and view the current results Here  Proxying IP addresses in attempt will not work, so do not attempt it. If you disagree with any of the items below, or think they should not be included please click Here to voice your vote and lobby among your friends and contacts to drop the majority below 2/3 majority. Do not add it in the comments section. Vote HERE for Proposed Demands to be included in a The Formal Occupy Wall Street Document below. Proposed Demands   1. Eliminate Corporate Rights as Persons           Click Here to Vote to Include   Revise the intrepretation of the famous 1886 case where the U.S. Supreme Court supposedly ruled that corporations are “persons” having the same rights as human beings based on the 14th Amendment, which was intended to protect the rights of former slaves. As most lawyers know, the Supreme Court made no such decision. In the case in question – Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the court itself never rules on personhood. A court reporter by the name of J.C. Bancroft Davis (a former railroad president) snuck that “ruling” into the books.   What most people don’t know is that after the above-mentioned 1886 decision, artificial persons were held to have exactly the same legal rights as we natural folk. (Not to mention the clear advantages corporations enjoy: they can be in several places at once, for instance, and at least in theory they’re immortal.) Up until the New Deal, many laws regulating corporations were struck down under the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment–in fact, that clause was invoked far more often on behalf of corporations than former slaves. Although the doctrine of personhood has been weakened since, even now lawyers argue that an attempt to sue a corporation for lying is an unconstitutional infringement on its First Amendment right to free speech. ( Nike v. Kasky.) 2. Repeal of the Patriot Act               Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” — Fourth Amendment to the Constitution Forty-five days after 9/11, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act without reading it. This new law was supposed to protect you from terrorism, but it has really left you unprotected against lawless federal agents. The Patriot Act contains numerous violations of the Fourth Amendment. It gives federal agents vast new powers that have been abused to investigate innocent Americans. Vote Here     3. Forced Acquisition of the Federal Reserve for $1Billion USD by the US Congress              Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands No Congress, no President has been strong enough to stand up to the foreign-controlled Federal Reserve Bank. Yet there is a catch – one that President Kennedy recognized before he was slain – the original deal in 1913 creating the Federal Reserve Bank had a simple backout clause. The investors loaned the United States Government $1 billion. And the backout clause allows the United States to buy out the system for that $1 billion. If the Federal Reserve Bank were demolished and the Congress of the United States took control of the currency, as required in the Constitution, the National Debt would virtually end overnight, and the need for more taxes and even the income tax, itself. Thomas Jefferson was concise in his early warning to the American nation, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” Article I, Section 8, Clause 5, of the United States Constitution provides that Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof and of any foreign coins. But that is not the case. The United States government has no power to issue money, control the flow of money, or to even distribute it – that belongs to a private corporation registered in the State of Delaware – the Federal Reserve Bank. Learn More about How Congress has the Right to Take control over the Federal Reserve Here:  How to Gain Control over the Federal Reserve   4. Restructure Campaign Finance Legislation Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands Proposal One: Ban corporate donations to political campaigns while limiting individual campaign donations to $100. Background:Corporations in the U.S. exercise an inordinate amount of influence over the government. The amount of corporate money in elections makes it virtually impossible for people want to serve the public’s interests to be viable candidates. Lowering the individual maximum donation to $100 ensures that the rich won\’t simply buy elections. This demand is offered in order to eliminate the rich’s dominance of elections and subsequent effect on public and foreign policy. America has never had a popular democracy. It began as a country controlled by a handful of white land-owning men. Throughout its history, gains were made in achieving some level of democracy to American citizens. The age of rule by an elite 1% (a tiny minority) can be forced to an end soon.The majority of the American population sees the U.S. as a reasonably fair country and as a popular democracy. This demand challenges that assertion. America is a corporate democracy and it will be eye-opening to many people to witness how undemocratically big business and their political flunkies will fight to deny popular democracy even though those are the values that the elites have professed for so long. This demand forces them to put up or shut up on their fucking principles. The public will support restructuring of campaign finance as the tiny minority has recently collapsed the economy, wasted resources, and destroyed millions of lives in it pursuit of its wars for its own narrow interest. In the past they have been able to point to relatively high wages, a relatively high standard of living, and increasing growth (regardless of the reason) as reasons to uphold the status quo, but these conditions are deteriorating and people are again searching for a remedy. Taking away the tiny majority’s ability to buy every election will usher in popular democracy and with that new policies that may affect all issues and grievances moving forward.</span></p> more donations to a single person that is seeking or has a position in congress that exceeds $5,000 (five thousand) dollars within the time period of 1 (one) year. And no donations exceeding $25,000 (twenty-five thousand) to a single group, PAC, or super PAC within the time span of 18 (eighteen) months. Also, when a donation is made the persons employer must be listed. And if 25% (twenty-five) of all employees of the stated company donate to the same person or group then the company will stand to be investigated as to whether it is giving its employees the money and</p> All members of all governments, Federal, state or local, must remain free of influence from outside factors.&nbsp; Lobbyists must remain at arm’s length and not be allowed in any way to provide free meals, trips or gifts of any kind to any politician.&nbsp; All contact must be in written form to prevent influence peddling.     5. Forgive Student Loan Debt and re construct the education system           Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands Redraft education financing legislation.  Lower educational expenses for students instead of raising tuition costs.  Pull money form the “WAR” system to refund education and continuing education. 6.  End the War on Drugs           Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands The war on drugs has been going on for more than three decades. Today, nearly 500,000 Americans are imprisoned on drug charges. In 1980 the number was 50,000. Last year $40 billion in taxpayer dollars were spent in fighting the war on drugs. As a result of the incarceration obsession, the United States operates the largest prison system on the planet, and the U.S. nonviolent prisoner population is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska. Try to imagine the Drug Enforcement Administration erecting razor wire barricades around two states to control crime and you’ll get the picture. According to the U.S. Dept of Justice, the number of offenders under age 18 imprisoned for drug offenses increased twelvefold from 1985 to 1997. The group most affected by this propensity for incarceration is African-Americans. From 1985 to 1997, the percentage of African-American young people put in prison increased from 53 to 62 percent. Today, 89 percent of police departments have paramilitary units, and 46 percent have been trained by active duty armed forces. The most common use of paramilitary units is serving drug-related search warrants, which usually involve no-knock entries into private homes. Because this is a Movement by the People and For the People, We are accepting proposals below in the Comments Section to be added to this formal list of Demands.  Our Legal team will review and formalize those that are selected by a vote of 2/3 majority by the movement.  Please remember you are only voting to include the available Demands into the Formal Demands Document 7. Free Education Kindergarten Through College    Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands Currently Accepting proposals for actual plan 8. National Repeal of Capital Punishment Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands Currently Accepting proposals for actual plan   9.  Equal rights for women Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands Judge Antone Scailia has stated, and the Supreme Court has reinforced on numerous occasions, that women, by the virtue of the fact that the founding fathers did not specifically use the terms woman, women or female in the Constitution, are not recognized as having the same rights as men.  In a statement last year in Oregon, Judge Scailia specifically addressed this issue and stated that if the founding fathers wanted it, they would have included women in the Constitution.  We want equal rights to men, including equal pay, equal benefits and equal standing under all laws and in all courtrooms where it has been proven in study after study, women are regularly denied their rights.  This does not have to be an issue that requires a Constitutional Amendment, this can and should be ruled on immediately by SCOTUS and deemed to be the law of the land which may not be revoked or overturned by order of the court.  Further, there must be an Amendment to the Constitution insuring these rights and all states must also include these rights in state constitutions.   10.  Office of the Citizen Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands Corruption begins at the local level.  The FBI and the DOJ refuse to investigate matters of local corruption when it is their sworn duty of the Federal government.  State and local governments work hand in hand thwarting any investigations of corruption, and do not investigate.  Courts must be investigated for the evidence of local corruption, including drug dealing, protection of criminals, etc. It has been shown that 60% of police readily falsify police reports at the behest of higher ups. Repeated calls, filings in writing, and personal visits produce no investigation, even when evidence is given to them.  Where there have been investigations, it almost always produces a guilty verdict, but those investigations are few and far between and usually limited to situations where those peddling their influence did not share with others in slush funds.  Most of the time it is the public who gathers the evidence leading to prosecution, not the FBI or DOJ.  We want complete investigations of all allegations of corruption, including those allegations at local and state level.  No citizen should be placed in the dangerous situation of having to investigate crimes and collect evidence.  That is the job of the government and one it does not do.  The office of the citizen must be fully funded before funds may be allocated for any department supporting  war, engaging in war or spying, either internally or externally. 11.  The United States must sign and ratify all human rights agreements with all other countries Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands Human rights should be the right of everyone, inside and outside our borders.  When the US knowingly engages in, or allows others to engage in torture, that is a violation of everyone’s human rights, not just the target.  We want prosecutions for torture, not only of government officials, but those who commit this heinous crime on others within the US. 12.  Rights of victims must take precedent in courts. Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands Courts in the US not only allow, but expect that human rights will be violated in certain types of cases.  Mental torture is the tool of many sleazy attorneys who intimidate both victims and witnesses. This must end now and the rights of the victim upheld.   We want all Bar Associations investigated and the hold they have on judicial nominees removed.  All judges should hold bench for limited terms and must be subject to ongoing judicial review and all hearings involving judicial reviews must be held in public to insure that human rights as well as Constitutional rights have not violated.  Judicial immunity must be removed, or at best, limited.  Victim blaming  must be limited and strictly investigated before it can be used as a defense.  Rape kits must be provided at no cost to victims claiming rape and any police officer who does not photograph all crime scenes shall be deemed incompetent to act as an officer of the law and shall be removed from duty without possibility of reinstatement in any police department in the country.  Falsified police reports shall also result in immediate removal and barring from any future law enforcement position.  All court rooms must insure that all proceedings are videotaped and that video tapes of all proceedings are given to all plaintiffs, their attorneys, all defendants and their attorneys within at the end of each hearing and without delay and prior to leaving the courtroom.  Videotapes of the judges, to include their desk tops and computer screens, must also be made available. 5.Restitution for previous wrongdoing by courts and police. Restitution by the US government of property of victims of violence seized by the courts must be made at 100% of value on the date victimization first occurred plus a fine of not less than `100% of that value be imposed on both the court ordering the property removal and the person who benefited from that removal.  All courts must furnish the cases and this restitution is retroactive for the lifetime of the court.  Courts are given no more than 5 business days to produce all files.   Any file not produced or shown to have been tampered with will result in immediate removal from office or employment of any person who had direct contact with that file. 13.  Prosecutions of the guilty Click Here to Vote to Include in Demands We want indictments and prosecutions of all crimes committed by banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies.  We want a clear message sent to the entire financial industry, this will no longer be tolerated.  All financial industry executives who had even the remotest of connection to the collapse of our system, must be prosecuted. Those who are or have been involved in torture, whithersoever dispersed around the globe, weather personally or directing it’s use,  must be prosecuted for their crimes. Voting Access to all Demands For Inclusion Into the Formal Document may be done HERE.   Legal evaluation in reviewing and formalizing this document is provided pro-bono by law-international.orglaw-international.org