This week the Occupy Atlanta protesters found a way to protest economic injustice that may build allies within the local law enforcement community.

On Monday about two dozen activists with the group moved their tents to the suburban lawn of a home where a local policeman and his family are facing eviction.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the group mobilized after learning that the five-member family may lose their home because the bank that holds their mortgage has decided to foreclose rather than allow them to refinance.

“This family is the perfect example of the fraud going on in the mortgage and banking industries,” said Latron Price, one of Occupy Atlanta’s organizers. “We plan to shed light on the foreclosure issue and we look to make a stand here.” …

Tim Franzen, one of Occupy Atlanta’s organizers, said the group had been seeking a good story to highlight the problems with the mortgage industry. He said Rorey’s husband, a law enforcement officer with DeKalb County, sent Occupy Atlanta an e-mail detailing their plight last week and within a few hours they formulated a plan to bring attention to the foreclosure.

“What I envision is a model of protest coming out of this,” Franzen said. “We plan to develop an occupy community in this neighborhood and maybe create something that can be duplicated nationally.”

Police officers have been pitted against Occupy Wall St. activists in many cities where they have been ordered to enforce rules against camping in public spaces, and in some well-publicized instances they have used force against demonstrators.

By working together to illustrate the problems of the mortgage industry Occupy Atlanta and the Rorey family may help build goodwill and common ground.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has arrived in Michigan with encampments in Lansing and Grand Rapids.

Since Friday activists in Lansing have camped out in downtown Reutter Park despite a city ordinance that prohibits use of the park after 10 pm without written permission.

On Monday night, Joshua Lavigne, Kevin Hogan, Steve Hudson and Michael Slamka were sitting in a circle around a lantern, sharing banana bread in front of a large cloth sign declaring, “We are the 99 percent.”

Each of them was there for a different reason.

Hogan wanted to learn more about the state of the country and the economic crisis to share with peers. Lavigne is having a hard time finding a job despite his college degree and Slamka is working a part-time retail job as he struggles to find work in construction.

Though the mainstream media claims that the Occupy protesters have no idea what they are asking for, the group in Reutter Park said they want the economy to be reconnected to the people who are impacted by it.

“I like the fact that this movement isn’t political,” said Hudson. “It’s about social and economic justice.”

These men also say that the movement is about averting a potential civil war and raising up the voices of the people in order to restore democracy.

They shrugged off Tea Party claims that protesters are jobless communists.

“I am sure there are communists in the Occupy Wall Street Movement,” Hudson said. “So what? If they have good ideas they are welcome.”

Occupy Lansing activists said that Tea Party members, and everyone, is welcome to join in the demonstration.

Those in the park on Monday night stressed that while they have begun the occupation of Lansing, they are not the spokespeople for the movement that is expected to establish a much larger presence on Friday.

The final agenda of demands will be established Saturday during a general assembly gathering on the Capitol lawn, they said. There, the group will gather together, and through a variety of hand signals and human microphone they will come to consensus on the agenda and the direction of the movement.

Demonstrators said that Lansing Police officials have visited them in the park and informed that they are not in imminent danger of being kicked out of the park as long as the demonstration remained respectful.

If things change, and the Bernero administration orders the protesters removed from the park, Hudson and Lavigne said they were prepared to be arrested for what they believe in.

Activists also camped out in Grand Rapids over the weekend but were ejected from Ah-Nab-Awen Park by police last night.

Fox 17 in Grand Rapids reports that officers told 75 protesters they had to go, citing a city ordinance barring anyone from being in a city park after dark.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero introduced his 2012 city budget to the Lansing City Council last night. The budget includes an estimated $20 million deficit caused by declining property values and proposed cuts in state revenue sharing.

To close that budget hole, Bernero’s “worst case” budget plan proposes eliminating as many as 78 positions from the police department and 71 from the fire department, reports the Lansing State Journal. The proposal would also cut millions in road repair funds, close three fire stations and scale back on housing and code compliance officials.

Bernero has backed a May 3 ballot move to increase property taxes. That proposal would raise nearly $4 million for the city’s general fund. That could lead to some police and fire officials coming back to the job, he says.

In a press statement released before Bernero addressed the city council, Bernero had this to say about his budget:

“We find ourselves in a serious predicament, one not of our own making,” Bernero said. “We are fortunate that the most profound economic crisis this state has endured since the Great Depression has not hit Lansing as hard as many others. But make no mistake, even as we see unmistakable signs that our recovery is finally underway, the worst impacts of the national economic meltdown are only now finding their way to the bottom line of our city budget.”

Bernero says he will seek unspecified concessions from the city’s union workers. Such concessions could include things like furlough days for the non-emergency workers of city hall.

The proposed budget is the smallest since 2001, and represents a 9.2% reduction from the fiscal year 2011 adopted budget.

In one of the ACLU examples cited by the News, a member of Vegan Outreach was ordered to stop distributing leaflets about animal cruelty on a public sidewalk outside Comerica Park. When the activist asked to see the ordinance against leafleting, he was issued a ticket for refusing to comply with an “order to stop” and interfering with pedestrian traffic.

In another case, a man who was questioned by police as he used his laptop in his parked car asked police what “probable cause” they had to stop and question him and was told that they had grounds to do so because he was parked in “a well known drug zone.” This man was issued a ticket for loitering in a known drug area — a crime that is no longer on the books.

The ACLU says that police retaliation cases mostly go unnoticed because people don’t have the resources to fight back. The civil rights group says it is seeking an acknowledgment by police that it is unconstitutional to retaliate against people who question police activities.

The Lansing State Journal reports Lt. Noel Garcia, public information office for LPD, won’t discuss the number of additional officers assigned, citing security concerns.

While the Journal did not report why increased security was necessary for the event, it could have something to do with past events. Last April 15 a Tea Party event drew an estimated 4,000 people to the capitol. And in February, Tea Party activists protesting Gov. Jennifer Graholm’s state of the state speech clashed with students who were demanding restoration of the Michigan Promise Scholarship and protection of the state’s higher education budget.

The move comes as Lansing Police face a proposed $1.9 million cut by Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, and the city has suffered a barrage of violence. Bernero, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, has announced plans for a community summit on Sunday to address the increased violence.

The Tea Party Express swings into Lansing at 7:15 Saturday night as part of its sweep across Michigan which began Thursday in the upper peninsula. The convoy includes three buses, and features rallies across the upper peninsula, northern Michigan, west Michigan, and Lansing. It moves into Detroit Sunday, before launching into Ohio.

Riding with the Tea Party is Mike Cox, Michigan’s attorney general and a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor. He has become a Tea Party favorite by joining a federal lawsuit against federal health care reform.

And those numbers, the Lansing State Journal reports, have the Michigan State Police and Lansing Police Department beefing up patrols and presence in downtown Lansing.

State Police are adding six state troopers to the Capitol’s five security officers, and the Lansing Police say they will be patrolling the perimeter of the Capitol, but won’t disclose the number of officers they will be assigning.

A diverse set of groups is expected to mount protests, including the Michigan Taxpayer’s Alliance, headed by former state Rep. Leon Drolet; Common Sense in Government, a mid-Michigan tea party group; students angry over the elimination of the state’s Michigan Promise Scholarship; and a group called Tears for the Mentally Ill, which will be protesting cuts to mental health services.

Over the past three months, homicides fell by 23 percent from the previous quarter, a change Evans calls “significant.” Between May and July there were 125 murders reported but over the past three months 96 people were killed in city limits, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Evans said part of his strategy is to target high crime areas and assign 20 more officers to the Gang Enforcement Unit.

Also according to Evans, the police have been closing twice as many murder cases this quarter than in the first two with the closure rate up to 60 percent from 27 percent in the first six months of 2009.

While the fact that 96 people died due to violent crime in Detroit over the past three months isn’t exactly good news, it’s 29 fewer murders than in the last three months. Evans acknowledged at the press conference that the numbers are “short term news.”

The Detroit Police gang squad was called to respond as the situation started to become violent, with some people fainting, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The event’s turnout perhaps is a grave indicator of how badly Detroit residents are struggling to secure dependable housing pay their power bills this winter, as the city’s unemployment rate is hovering near 25 percent.

The event was sponsored by the city’s Planning and Development Department to pass out 5,000 applications for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to get assistance for the winter.

City council candidate Gary Brown, who was at Cobo Hall campaigning Wednesday morning, told the Free Press that the event was dangerous and a “disaster.”

In June Detroit’s homicide rate was the highest in the nation. But the FBI reported a drop in other violent crimes. Mlive posted the numbers:

• Murder, non-negligent manslaughter: Dropped 22.34 percent to 306
• Forcible rape: Dropped 3.2 percent to 330
• Robbery: Dropped 7 percent to 6,115
• Aggravated assault: Dropped 13.9 percent to 10,677

While the drop in crime is promising, the city’s newly appointed Police Chief Warren Evans was warned that crime reporting could rise under his watch because crimes have been underreported in the past.

“We had a peaceful celebration of a great MSU win,” East Lansing Police Chief Tom Wibert said in a statement. “I am proud that our students celebrated with class, and I am proud of the way that our officers handled this situation.”

Police were on hand in Cedar Village apartment complex for nearly four and half hours as a crowd estimated at 2,000 by the police, danced in the street, chanted “Go Green! Go White!” and body surfed — an activity where a person is hoisted in the air and passed atop the crowd.

The crowd took to the streets at about 8:45 p.m. Saturday night after Michigan State men’s basketball team beat Connecticut, 82-73. MSU will face North Carolina on Monday night in the NCAA Final at Ford Field in Detroit.

Wibert told Michigan Messenger on Saturday night that he expects a crowd to take to the streets again Monday if MSU wins.

“You know, if they win I think that they’ll be out here in a foot of snow if they have to,” he said.

Officers from eight jurisdictions worked to monitor the crowd. Police say they had 230 officers on duty.