Debunking the OccupyLondon "empty tents" story

[n2doc]

By Cory Doctorow at 8:04 pm Tuesday, Oct 25

Writing in the Guardian, Patrick Kingsley debunks the attempts to smear Occupy London protesters as "part-timers." Local councillor Matthew Richardson has been widely quoted in the press saying that the police's thermal imaging showed 90 percent of the Occupy tents are empty overnight -- but when Kingsley tried to verify the statistic, he discovered that it was unverifiable. The police denied having originated the number, and the Councillor then changed his story, saying the statistic didn't come from "official sources." The Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, is using flaky thermal cameras trained on the tents before the protesters' normal bedtime to "prove" that it's all a Potemkin village.

Kingsley, meanwhile, stayed out overnight, spoke to organizers, and suggests that "more than three quarters" of the tents are full at any time. Organizers have a well-managed system that assigns vacant tents (whose owners are taking a day or two off to catch up on family and work) to protesters who "occupy" them.

http://boingboing.net/2011/10/25/debunking-the-occupylondon-empty-tents-story.html