Following last week’s tangle with police in which one marcher was arrested and in the wake of the confrontation between SPD and Pride weekend protesters on E Madison, #miccheckwallst is urging restraint and law abiding as the weekly Student Debt Noise Brigade marches continue tonight on Capitol Hill.
The group has posted this map of the planned route for the Wednesday 8p march — and a list of requests for participants:
!!IMPORTANT!! PLEASE READ:
On behalf of the organizers (and as fellow participants), we want to reiterate: It is our sincere desire that this march is both peaceful and safe for all those who wish join us. This is especially true for all the families and parents with small children and the elderly who have been in attendance. While we are not expecting a problem, please consider them and their well-being at all times.
This week we are asking you to join us in doing the following:
1) Comply with the law and reasonable requests from law enforcement, such as moving to the sidewalk.
2) Obey crosswalks at all major intersections to the best of our ability.
3) On Broadway Ave., to keep to the sidewalks so as not to impede traffic.
4) Remember that our fight is with student debt, not with the police.
Finally, and possibly most importantly: This route kind of looks like a bunny.
We thank all of you in advance for your cooperation in helping to keep this a safe and community friendly event.
Meanwhile, organizers are expecting a large turnout Friday night for a protest against the weekend’s arrests and use of pepper spray on a crowd of protesters marching in the street through Capitol Hill early Sunday morning. CHS has posted new, reportedly unedited video of the confrontation on our latest report on the incident. We’ve also reported that the protester facing the most serious allegations in the incident was released from jail and has not yet been charged with a crime. Meanwhile, SPD has begun an internal investigation of officer conduct in responding to the march. Friday night’s “Remember Stonewall Demonstration” is slated to begin at 8p at Seattle Central. Thursday, a “guerilla” screening of the film Stonewall Uprising is reportedly planned for Cal Anderson Park.
I really would not care to hear this in my neighborhood. I work hard for a living and am up early and to bed early. Take it to your congressman. What are the cops going to help you with your debt? People that live in the neighborhood are going to help with the debt, go and protest and speak, make nosie what ever to them, not in my neighborhood.
So let me get this straight, the cops use excessive force and violate your first amendment rights, so now you are going to comply with them?
Even though I don’t particularly agree with their protest, I stand by their right to do it and I’m really pleased with their choice to do it safely and off the street. This goes SO FAR towards reaching sincere and productive discourse. Great job!
It all boils down to folks using the Pride celebration to act irrational, and someone to post a video of the cops using force. I am not saying what they did was right, but that doesn’t mean that folks should just run crazy all over the city. We are talking about you making a stand on college debt? Right? Not bashing the cops because they used force right? I am not saying the cops haven’t messed up before, but this is just another mean for folks to act like idiots and blam the cops. If you want a resolution about college debt, that is what we are talking about right? Take it to the people who can make a difference instead of causing problems with the cops, and using tax payer dollars for them to waist time watching these groups disrupt quiet neighborhoods.
That’s all I am going to comment on we are speaking about STUDENT DEBT not cops/excessive force……I rest my case.
I agree, every person should have a right to speak their mind and safetly.
I could have sworn it was the cops who caused trouble. You liberals disgust me.
Well said I agree! Feel the same way. Take it somewhere it’s going to make a difference.
Well stated and totally agree! Take your message to elected officials and the banks. Quit disturbing my neighborhood.
I live here and I love it. I get up at 4:30 in the morning and if something gets too loud for me I pop a pair of earplugs in my ears, and…problem solved. But since this event is happening around 7:00pm to 8:30pm or so it’s not even an earplug issue for me. In fact, I’m participating. Have a nice day.
Until enough people like your care nothing is going to get done. Because people like you don’t care, therefore your congressmen don’t care. How is that so hard to understand?
The police used force, AFTER they asked the protesters to get out of the street. Most complied, some didnt and that how we ended up with a few arrests and a cloud of pepper spray.
Miccheckwallstreet is an offshoot off Occupy Seattle, mostly because they had grown tired of the tactics that OS used, which were to block street traffic, provoke and taunt the police in a very public high traffic area and hope innocent people got caught in the crossfire.
I also have a boatload of student loan debt, which I aquired with my full knowledge and participation. Marching up and down Broadway as a “protest” only completely illustrates how STUPID our local activists are.
What on earth is this going to accomplish? You’re “creating awareness” about student loan debt amongst thousands of people who already have it (or had it and paid it off!) ?
This is the dumbest thing ever. Whomever thought of this should be pelted with rotten eggs, err…fired as activist “leader”. Ha ha.
I think the reality of the situation is that these people are just addicted to filming themselves and posting their “protest” videos on activist blogs and web sites. Even better if the police show up and they can prod them into arresting someone or pepper spraying.
There appears to be no other logical reason for these marches on Capitol Hill.
Good work. The organizers have made it clear that their intent is not to engage the police with this protest and that those who do are acting against their wishes. Clear, productive, smart. This is great.
Exactly. What IS the point of the protest? Is it to engage and taunt the cops? Or to protest burdensome student debt? This obsessive focusing on the cops tends to give some insight as to what the real priority is of the protestors.
If they’re seriously trying to make a statement about debt, there doesn’t need to be this constant focus on police. Protest peaceably– don’t block traffic, don’t pull garbage cans into the street and break windows– you can be pretty sure the cops will not bother you. As soon as you pull out black bandanas to cover your faces, you give yourselves away.
Bravo.
It’s just the self-absorbed iGeneration playing with their toys, addicted to seeing themselves online, on video, and Facebooked-up-the-ass.
Has anyone else ever seen the pictures of the gay group protesting in front of the white house in the 60’s? They did their best to look sharp: suits, ties, skirts, etc. They had simple messages on signs and marched without destroying property or goading cops into arresting them. While that’s not always the best approach, (some things do call for outrage) it does lend itself to a subject like this. Put on a suit and tie and go picket the DOE office downtown.
And how about some actual ideas aside from “forgiveness”. I sympathize that you have a ton of loans from art school and that you can’t find a job at a non-profit making tons of cash. I have a pretty worthless degree myself, and the debt to show for it, but blanket forgiveness? How about allowing payments to be made from pre-tax income? That’s an actual realistic idea you could get behind.
VERY quiet in Bellevue.
This is great news.
and those protests totally worked…
oh wait no, maybe it was that riot that happened 43 years ago today?
Remember all those suits and ties at Stonewall? Me neither. The suit and tie tactic wasn’t what got remembered.
And…if you have a worthless degree, you CHOSE that degree path knowing that it was for your pleasure, rather than to get rich. I did degrees in English Lit and Phil. Knowing that my degree path would not lead to riches as medicine or computer science might have in those days, I still chose what I chose and the loans that went with it. That was my choice, just as someone with art school debt CHOSE to incur that debt knowing that it would take perhaps decades to pay back, and that very few people earn a decent wage going to art school!
Sir, your common sense logic will not be tolerated in a place like Seattle. Take this attitude elsewhere immediately.
… with 11 motorcycle cops in the lead, at leasts 7 bicycle officers flanking on parallel side streets and scouting intersections in advance, and 3 patrol cars bringing up the rear.
The patrol cars were from the DUI (demonstrating under the influence?) unit, according to the their markings…
The distinct impression was that SPD was bored and any units not otherwise assigned were tagging along to see what might transpire.
I counted 17 marchers and one dog. The officers appeared to be escorting the march tonight, reserving intersections for their passage. Quite interested to know what happens once they hit Broadway again.
Nor is it effective at doing much. What is the message? “My life sucks and its not my fault?” I couldn’t quite make out megaphone hippie’s ranting, he sounded really upset at everyone else though.
Just go away.
I heard him pretty clearly: his refrain was “unfair!” Yawn.
and his video footage?
Yeah, it always is.
The march was in the street for it’s entirely. I guess you must’ve forgotten to update your update. It was around 75 people, so smaller than usual. Great bunch of people, too bad you missed it ~
https://www.facebook.com/MicCheckWallSt
I realize I’ve caught only bits and pieces of all this protest information, from tv, CHS and various print media, but I still can’t figure out why a noise parade (violent or not) through residential streets will get tuitions lowered. I’ve aged beyond the energy to protest pretty much anything these days, but when we took ACT-UP protests places, we did so to locations of our oppressors…CDC, NIH, City Hall, Governor’s mansions, Catholic churches, the Cardinal’s house, etc, in many cities…especially D.C.
We didn’t take our rage to the suburbs or residential areas because they were not our oppressors. Why are these students/protestors NOT going to Olympia, Washington DC, congressman’s homes, City Hall, the Universities, the deans office…hell, even the bank headquarters?
None of this makes sense to me. Now the issue is bleeding away from tuition hikes towards police brutality. I haven’t seen a statement on tuition hikes anywhere.
and on a side note, being the victim of assault tonight (no injuries) in Pioneer Sq., with the cop admitting “We’ve lost Pioneer Sq.”, I’d rather see cops patrolling Pioneer Sq, 3rd and Pine, Belltown, the CD, etc…with focus on gang activity and drug distribution.
But thats just me.
75 people involved? Maybe 20 max. Oh, and one dog.
75 if you include the police.
Maybe the students should have a parade/celebration to give thanks to all the things the universe, parents, god, whoever they believe in provided for them rather than bitching about what things cost. Gee Whiz today I want to make a TON of money and then expect everything I buy to be super cheap!!! If you complain about something that you think is unfair then you are only going to get more of it. Stop being a victim, be at peace with what you cannot change, and take rersponsibility for changing the things you can when you have the opportunity.
The good news is that this demonstration seemed to be quite peaceful, at least when it passed by my house at about 9PM….and the police seemed to be facilitating the event. Yes, it was a little noisy, but for only about 10 minutes.
However, did the organizers of this student debt protest not hear the national news yesterday? There is an agreement by our House/Senate leaders to NOT increase the interest rate on Stafford loans for at least one year…it will remain at a very-low 3.4%. Therefore, this protest is moot….unless those with student loan debt actually think their loans should be totally forgiven, which is a ridiculous notion and is not going to happen.
If there is angst about rising tuition rates, the place to address that is at the state Legislature in Olympia, because higher ed institutions are getting alot less money from the state these days. But, hey, that would take some serious organizing and time committment…much easier (and more fun!) to march around the streets of our neighborhood, even though that has zero effect on the problem.
The march was clearly limited to the sidewalk when I saw it as it left SCCC.
Actually, I read all the news.
and if you actually read what happened they are robbing pensioners to give this problem another year ‘probation’ essentially. They are going to open up pensioners to robbery by a quasi-governmental agency in order to save enough money to forget about this problem for another year.
That’s not ‘solved’, in my book.
Getting a huge amount of people mobilized to go to Olympia is a gigantic undertaking that cannot just be ‘done’ by neighborhood-based Organizers like myself. We have to build up to these things, build community support around issues and then talk with our neighbors and begin to formulate a plan.
These things take time and careful planning, and for me, at least, this is just one small beginning step in a longer term plan to make a lasting change.
Thanks.
We still have a lot of work to do.
They’ve been coming by Belmont/Republican at 8:30. If you expected quiet on Cap Hill at 8:30 PM, you shouldn’t have moved here; until your lease is up, invest in some earplugs. Don’t expect the neighborhood to conform to your schedule.
You kids get off my lawn!!1
All that was missing were the 76 trombones.
Also, you read this article and wrote a response last night. The protesters couldn’t have interfered with your sleep schedule too much.
One-hundred percent agreed.
Thanks, Travis. Keep up the good work!
See my comment below.
“build community support”. OK, once again, how does a noise parade build community support? Logistics of getting folks to Olympia…what logistics? You get on transportation and go. If protestors are passionate for their cause, as we were in the ACT-UP days, you FIND a way to get there. You switch that $7 you spend on cigarettes toward expenses…or the money you spend on clothes, food, what have you. If the cause is THAT important…you just find a way. I was unemployed for much of the 80s and still found ways to get from NYC to DC or Albany. I have to dispute with the cause, but it, so far, wreaks of laziness and lack of focus. Then again, I may be misinformed.
my mistake typing…I have NO dispute with the cause. Tuitions ARE insane these days.