Occupy costs add up as demonstrators dig in

By msnbc staff and wire reports

Here's a look at the latest developments in?Occupy protests around the country.

At least $13 million spent on enforcement, services
During the first two months of the nationwide Occupy protests, the movement?demanding more out of the wealthiest Americans, cost local taxpayers at least $13 million in police overtime and other municipal services, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

The heaviest financial burden has fallen upon law enforcement agencies tasked with monitoring marches and evicting protesters from outdoor camps. And the steepest costs by far piled up in New York City and Oakland, Calif., where police clashed with protesters on several occasions.

The AP gathered figures from government agencies in 18 cities with active protests and focused on costs through Nov. 15, the day protesters were evicted from New York City's Zuccotti Park, where the protests began Sept. 17 before spreading nationwide. The survey did not attempt to tally the price of all protests but provides a glimpse of costs to cities large and small.

Broken down city by city, the numbers are more or less in line with the cost of policing major public events and emergencies. In Los Angeles, for example, the Michael Jackson memorial concert cost the city $1.4 million. And Atlanta spent several million dollars after a major snow and ice storm this year.

Singers,?filmmaker?to occupy?soundtrack
Occupy Wall Street has a benefit album planned with Jackson Browne, Third Eye Blind, Crosby & Nash, Devo, Lucinda Williams and even some of those drummers who kept an incessant beat at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park.

Participants in the protest movement said Wednesday that "Occupy This Album," which will be available sometime this winter, will also feature DJ Logic, Ladytron, Warren Haynes, Toots and the Maytals, Mike Limbaud, Aeroplane Pageant, Yo La Tengo and others.

Activist filmmaker Michael Moore is also planning to sing.

Plans vary for Occupy Black Friday
Some?Occupy protesters don't want want people to shop at all. Others just want to divert shoppers from big chains and giant shopping malls to local mom-and-pops. And while the actions don't appear coordinated, they have similar themes: supporting small businesses while criticizing the day's dedication to conspicuous consumption and the shopping frenzy that fuels big corporations.

Nearly each one promises some kind of surprise action on the day after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season.

Saul Loeb/AFP - Getty Images

Occupy DC demonstrators receive a pre-Thanksgiving meal Wednesday from volunteers at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.

• In Seattle, protesters are carpooling to Wal-Mart stores to protest with other Occupy groups from around Washington state.
• Washington, D.C., is offering a "really, really free market," where people can donate items they don't want so others can go gift shopping for free.
• The 75-person encampment in Boise, Idaho, will send "consumer zombies" to wander around in silent protest of what they view as unnecessary spending.
• In Chicago, protesters will serenade shoppers with revamped Christmas carols about buying local.
• The Des Moines, Iowa, group plans flash mobs at three malls in an attempt to get people to think about what they're buying.

UC Davis chancellor: Pepper-spraying cops defied?orders
University of California, Davis, police defied orders when they?pepper-sprayed peacefully protesting students last week, says the school's chancellor who is under pressure to resign over the incident.

"We told the police to remove the tents or the equipment," Linda P.B. Katehi told?The Sacramento Bee newspaper. "We told them very specifically to do it peacefully, and if there were too many of them, not to do it, if the students were aggressive, not to do it. And then we told them we also do not want to have another Berkeley."

The 57-year-old chancellor has apologized for Friday's incident and suspended the police chief and two officers, but has no plans to resign.

Los Angeles to evict protesters
The Occupy Los Angeles encampment around City Hall will be cleared sometime next week, a city official and a lawyer for demonstrators said Wednesday.

Attorney Jim Lafferty and Occupy LA organizer Mario Brito made the announcement after a meeting with officials they said included a deputy mayor and high-ranking police officials. Lafferty said the camp would be given 72 hours notice.

Deputy Mayor Matt Szabo told The Associated Press that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, after consulting with police, decided the encampment on City Hall lawns will be closed at some point next week, then cleaned and restored.

"The encampment as it exists is unsustainable," Szabo said.

London eviction plan in court
The City of London corporation took a step Wednesday to evict protesters camped outside St. Paul's Cathedral, insisting in court that the issue is not about protecting banks but protecting the rights and freedoms of others.

The organization ? which controls the area around St. Paul's ? says the ongoing Occupy London protest camp is harming nearby businesses. It also says protesters are drinking late into the night and creating an unpleasant atmosphere. It wants Britain's High Court to issue an eviction notice to force the protesters to move.

Protesters have camped outside St. Paul's since mid-October and say they will fight any legal bid to evict them.

Their proximity to Christopher Wren's 300-year-old icon has embroiled the church in a conflict between bank-bashing protesters and the city's finance industry. The church's position on the protesters has shifted several times, and the cathedral's dean and a senior priest have both resigned over the crisis.

S.C. protesters allowed back at Capitol
Occupy Columbia protesters can return to the South Carolina State House grounds in Columbia after a state judge on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order blocking Gov. Nikki Haley's attempted eviction of the movement. See the full post here.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/23/8981745-occupy-costs-add-up-as-demonstrators-dig-in

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