PW: Close to 400 people turned up at the United Methodist Church at Broad and Arch streets last night for the first meeting of Occupy Philly—a planned demonstration/camp-in and show of solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in Lower Manhattan over the past two weeks that’s been garnering increasing media attention and spawning similar groups in dozens of cities throughout the U.S. While the Occupy movement—a “leaderless” movement chiefly organized via Facebook and Twitter and inspired by the Arab Spring protests in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere—so far hasn’t presented an absolute, unified message or clear-cut demands, activists camping out and marching on Wall Street have been decrying the chasm between the richest 1 percent of Americans and the other 99 percent, and protesting corporate financing of elections, bank bailouts, Federal Reserve policies, high gas prices, the war, the execution of convicted cop killer Troy Davis and more. About 150 local activists set out from the Wooden Shoe bookstore on South Street, where the inaugural Occupy Philly was initially slated to meet before the ranks of the interested outgrew that small space, and marched to the United Methodist Church (along with a police escort) where they met up with 200 more people waiting outside on the sidewalk at 6 p.m. MORE
RELATED: OccupyPhilly.org
UPDATE: OccupyPhilly General Assembly Meeting Tuesday October 4th 6:30 PM Arch Street Methodist Church
RELATED: The city of New York has been abuzz with rumors that the band Radiohead will perform at the “Occupy Wall Street” protests in lower Manhattan this afternoon. As of this writing, Radiohead’s management has denied that the band will perform, while Occupy Wall Street representatives are insisting that Radiohead will show up at 4 p.m. Eastern. The latter have suggested that Radiohead’s management is seeking to keep the crowd from becoming overwhelming. MORE
UPDATE: Laura Eldeiry, a spokeswoman for Radiohead, said that the band would not be playing a show at Zuccotti Park on Friday that had been announced by Occupy Wall Street’s organizers. “It’s definitely not going to happen,” Ms. Eldeiry said. “It’s a false rumor.” She said that the band had nothing to do with the announcement and that a show “was never planned.” At 3:30 p.m., Occupy Wall Street’s spokesman, Patrick Bruner, sent out a rueful e-mail blast: “I got hoaxed. Radiohead was never confirmed. Completely our fault. Apologies. The band were victims in this hoax as well.” MORE
PREVIOUSLY: POLICE BRUTALITY: The Ballad Of Tony Baloney
PREVIOUSLY: THE SOFT TYRANNY OF AMERICAN LIFE: Yahoo Censoring Emails Referring To #OccupyWallStreet
PREVIOUSLY: U SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION: Occupy Wall St.
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