It’s Day 18 for Occupy Seattle’s camp on Capitol Hill at the corner of Pine and Broadway in Seattle Central’s plaza. Here’s what’s new.
- We reported last week that Seattle Central is talking with the State Attorney General’s office about how to legally remove the encampment citing the cost of cleaning up after the campers and complaining about behavior and drug use. If you missed it, we heard back this week from the AG but the office didn’t offer anything substantive on what comes next. “We are not able disclose legal advice or whether we have given specific legal advice to our clients,” a spokesperson told us via email. “When contacted by our clients, our practice is to outline the applicable law and provide option-based advice.”
- Occupy issued a press release Tuesday morning refuting Seattle Central’s claims:
Occupy Seattle is disappointed that SCCC would level allegations against Occupy Seattle in the media as opposed to discussing the details of those concerns in the regularly scheduled meetings Occupy Seattle has with SCCC administration. Occupy Seattle understands the deep funding cuts facing the school, in fact our work is focused on changing the economic inequity in this state so that schools are adequately funded. We are committed to being respectful of the school and the community and look forward to continuing what we thought was a good working relationship to address all concerns.
Members of Occupy Seattle have not been vandalizing the school’s bathrooms. According to faculty member Kimberly McRae “I have worked in the building for 13 years and the south end bathrooms have been considered the worst. With the continued defunding of Community Colleges, SCCC was forced to cut custodial staff again, so the bathrooms have been even worse”. Occupy Seattle provides its members with the necessary sanitation facilities and members agree to abide by the tenets of Occupy Seattle’s Good Neighbor Policy which include respecting the learning environment and the buildings at SCCC.
Occupy Seattle is not the source of the drug paraphernalia found in or around a community college in the heart of a major urban area with well known drug problems. Athena Marsden, former teaching assistant at the daycare on campus said “Every day as part of our jobs, we picked up drug paraphernalia, needles, used condoms, cigarette butts, anything that threatened the safety of the kids. All that stuff was there way before Occupy Seattle”. Long time Capitol Hill resident Cathy Hillenbrand joking said, “If I had a dime for every hypodermic needle I’ve seen in that area over the years, I’d be in the 1%”.
Occupy Seattle adheres to its non-violence policy (as stated in Occupy Seattle’s Accountability Principles). In response to a movement dedicated to nonviolence, hiring of additional security guards is unnecessary and excessive, particularly in a time of severe budget constraints.
We request a full accounting of the dollars the school alleges has been spent as a result of our encampment so as to assure ourselves and the community that we are not being blamed for spending that is either unnecessary or inaccurately attributed to Occupy Seattle.
Formed on October 1, 2011, Occupy Seattle is a leaderless movement of concerned Americans who have taken to occupying public spaces in order to focus our nation’s attention on the undue influence of large corporations on our government, elected leaders and our democracy itself. It is inspired by and modeled after the Occupy Wall Street movement.
- Occupy campers and school officials have been meeting every Tuesday to discuss status of the camp. UPDATEBut not this week — and maybe no longer. This just in via Twitter from @pmocek: “Alyssa from #OccupySeattle Supply&Storage reports that weekly 11am mtng w/ SCCC faculty was canceled, college has discontinued contact.”
- Monday, the Seattle City Council approved Resolution 31337 “recognizing and supporting the peaceful and lawful exercise of the First Amendment as a cherished and fundamental right in the effort to seek solutions for economically distressed Americans at the federal and local levels.” Here’s what the Seattle Times had to say about the support:
The resolution was a grab bag of proposals meant to provide a local response to the concentration of wealth and abuses in the financial sector that the Occupy Wall Street protest and its regional offspring have called attention to in encampments and rallies around the country this fall.
“Working together, we can fix our broken economy and fix our broken social contract,” said Councilmember Nick Licata, who sponsored the legislation. He said that, at the very least, the city can make sure public funds are reinvested in the community.
- Regardless of Occupy’s message and the City Council support, expect to hear and read more pressure from the Capitol Hill business community this week.
- Also, it might not take state law to remove the camp if Seattle looks to “public safety closures” as a potential model for removing Occupy from Capitol Hill. Here are the details on the overnight sweep of the original Occupy Wall Street camp in New York.
- Licata moderated Saturday night’s Stranger-sponsored Town Hall forum that you’ve probably heard by now was taken over by Occupy Seattle activists. “Their stunt replaced what was supposed to be an informed discussion of the movement with an uninformative, shout-a-thon about process that consumed most of the evening,” wrote the Stranger’s news editor Dominic Holden about the Occupy actions. In the scheme of things, Occupy Seattle’s monkeywrenching of a forum held to supposedly discuss their movement hardly qualifies as a major concern. And, besides, not everybody agreed that the event was ruined.
- CHS was sent the video Seattle Weekly is shamelessly hyping of a man defecating on the Broadway sidewalk outside the Occupy Seattle camp but we haven’t posted it. For one, a man taking a shit outside the camp does not make the man an Occupy Seattle protester. For two, it’s gross — yes, to look at but also to hear the video shooter’s glee. The video is shot from the Broadway Building and the residents and tenants are probably tired of Occupy Seattle so it’s hard to judge them for a lack of compassi
on. But deciding to post it to Youtube is a different decision altogether.
Have they done ANYTHING? At what point does this stop being called a “peaceful protest” and start being called what it is…a tent city full of the homeless? Didn’t the city shut down a tent city under/near I-5 last year? How is this any different than that, except these gross ass bums are trying to act like they’re “protesting.”
Seriously, these people are fucking embarrassment to our neighborhood and city.
Unfortunately, as someone who lives very nearby, I can tell you that they are, indeed, the overwhelming source of the drug use there. You cannot deny it when it is the people IN THE TENTS – just a fact. They also frequently disturb/cover up the sign which advertises school events (usually, for the theatre). They stopped being respectful after the first week. They often hold large flag-like signs in the middle of the cross walk, making people have to walk out in the street to get around them, or in the middle of the intersection to cross the street. I once respected/supported them. However, now, most of them are just not there for the same reasons.
Now that we have press releases, Occupy has officially gone corporate. Welcome back to the real world tent people.
When someone shows up at the camp, pitches a tent, does not participate in Occupy Seattle direct actions or general assemblies, then violates Occupy Seattle policies, what would you have people do about it?
Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution that:
* Supports Occupy.
* Calls for the city to review its banking and investment practices to ensure that public funds are invested in responsible financial institutions that support our community.
* Calls for the city to review its tax exemptions and waivers.
Among other praiseworthy points.
This in response to a movement not yet two months old. I’d say Occupy has done remarkably much in its infancy.
If you’re going to make a statement like this I know you won’t agree with what I’m about to say anyway, but I would argue it’s a bigger embarrassment that our society allows so many to go without basic shelter.
And I’m sorry, but nothing is going to change overnight. I can’t vote away economic injustice, unfortunately- and I *do* vote. This movement has kickstarted a national conversation, and that is the point. If there weren’t a real need for safe shelter then the encampment wouldn’t be attracting the homeless population. Without stable shelter, many sleep alone in doorways and alleys and risk assault, sexual or otherwise. Being together doesn’t take away this risk entirely, but it does make it more difficult to perpetrate. Having even the little protection that a tent affords can mean the difference between dying of pneumonia or not over a winter.
A different world is possible, and maybe with a little more community support it wouldn’t have to be so distateful to you.
i have to agree w/ you on this one. while i find it fascinating that some of the people there are camping in REI tents that cost $500, it’s kind of over. please occupy from your homes. or your toilets. b/c using broadway as one isn’t really that cool anymore. or was it…ever?
In other words, anybody who does anything wrong that’s part of the camp, is no longer part of the camp? That’s convenient. “Does not participate”. That’s B.S., and you know it. I’ve seen them. It’s even – quite often – on OS’s own Livestream of their GAs. …I wonder if that stuff’s saved on there. Perfect evidence the school needs.
Occupy is totally making its point about economic equality by camping/shitting on a community college. But it’s not enough. Occupiers, how about moving your encampment every three weeks so the rest of the city can get the Occupy experience? Try the dog park in Belltown next. Then the CD. And on to Queen Anne. Then Ballard. Love to see what happens when you get to Magnolia.
The dog park. Seriously?? That’s just dickish.
@ Glasses
As much as I support the idea behind the Occupy movement, I am just utterly embarassed by the lack of anything actually happening within this movement. No, it has not started a substantive national discussion. The only discussions that are happening now are about the negatives (i.e. homeless encampments, vandalism, uncleanliness, disrupting the natural flow of neighborhoods and cities that would otherwise support their movement).
These guys are unforunately doing nothing of worth. Like I have said before, if they had actually taken real political action, then maybe the nation (and Seattle and Capitol Hill) would have some respect for the Occupy folks. Protest at the headquarters of big banks. Organize weeks long bank runs. PROMOTE local business. PROMOTE and/or lobby for local jobs programs. Do something. Otherwise no one will care.
There’s not a national conversation going on. There’s a national argument over what to do with Occupy encampments. The real activists have left. The movement has stalled. I would suggest that the original activists start over. New label. New tactics. It could work?
Student, I did not, as you implied, try to restate your words. I asked you a question. Would you please answer?
Sorry, I thought that was implied with the rhetorical question about the video being evidence to boot them out. What I would have them do, is leave. They don’t have to stop all together. They can come out and do daily protests, or, I don’t know, go back to where they were occupying, where it made sense. What, they’re afraid of being arrested downtown? That’s what civil disobedience is all about. Sadly, they’re not being disobedient where it counts, and they’re not being civil to their neighboring 99%ers.
Just to be clear, Student: You’re suggesting that when someone shows up at the camp, pitches a tent, does not participate in Occupy Seattle direct actions or general assemblies, then violates Occupy Seattle policies, everyone else should leave, right?
The Capitol would also be a wise choice. In any case, take it to somewhere logical. Don’t stop the 99%ers from trying to get to work. Don’t make me sick from walking through their fog of cigarette and pot smoke (frankly, I couldn’t care less about the needles; at least that doesn’t enter other people’s bodies). Don’t disrupt students from their activities and being able to let the public know about said activities (blocking the billboard with their own 99% messages). Get in the way of people who actually have something to do with the problems. I keep hearing things like, “That’s the point, to be disruptive”. Well, they’re disrupting the wrong people and letting the others go on with business as usual – talk about irony.
To be clear, I’ll just paste my first response: ” I’ve seen them. It’s even – quite often – on OS’s own Livestream of their GAs”. That is what we call participating. I believe I also mentioned being the very ones putting up the giant signs, with doobies hanging out of their mouth; that’s why I was actually walking through the smoke, just trying to pass by.
Yes, it is the same people who left syringes in the playground before the camp moved there who are leaving them there now. It is the same people crapping on the sidewalks and taking their frustrations out on public bathrooms and shoplifting. They are the same homeless people who have always been a problem for society and have always faced their own problems with addiction, depression and other serious physical and mental illnesses. If they weren’t doing it next to SCCC, they would be doing it elsewhere.
Having a bunch of social justice activists to hang out with instead of just other junkies, cops and hospital staff has got to be an uplifting experience for the homeless people who have either joined or hang out on the fringes of the Occupy camp–that is just about the only way anyone pulls themselves out of homelessness, btw. It has also got to be a very down to earth experience for the activists who camp there. I think the line between out of work activist and depressed homeless person must get pretty blurry, and maybe that’s a good thing. I know I can’t tell them apart when I walk past…
My point is, even though I don’t want to hang out with the Occupy folks, I think they are doing more good than harm. Having people upset the status quo is necessarily going to be annoying. I suggest trying to find something good in it instead of trying to make them go away because they ruffle your feathers a little.
I also want to clarify what I mean by giant signs. The kind I mentioned explicitly is the ones put up to block the school’s own sign. The other kind is kind of like what runners break through at the end of the race, but going across and blocking the side walk, and by the crosswalk. That’s why people were having to walk out into the street.
They are ruffling the wrong feathers, leaving the politicians free-range.
I keep hearing people make these comparisons of OWS to the Civil Rights Movement. One main reason the Civil Rights Movement was so successful was because it had a clear set of goals and a strong leader in MLK that could act as a liaison between the people and policymakers. The public forum on Saturday night was a chance for Occupy Seattle to gain expert liaisons who could actually be their ticket to getting things done (the panel was pro-OWS!). Instead they blew that opportunity and are yet again left without a clear direction.
People are going to start getting sick of this movement if it doesn’t evolve soon. Each day there are more arrests for drugs, violence, and disorderly conduct. Whether it’s the actual OWS protesters doing those things or homeless people that have taken refuge in the encampments, its horrible PR. Just as the media has given this movement momentum, it so quickly can label OWS as a nuisance. This movement needs concrete goals and it needs them fast. They also need to stop pushing away the supportive people of power that can get things done just because they are “people of power”. If this movement doesn’t evolve soon it will be remembered as a bunch of “anarchist kids” that lived in tents for a couple of months, tore up the public parks, and took shits on the side of the road.
Hey, jseattle! Where’s the “like” button? ;)
Politicians only do what they think will get them re-elected.
If you’re a voter and the Occupy people get you talking about their issues enough that you respond to a poll and say you’d vote for someone who was pushing financial and lobbying reforms, well that would ruffle a politician’s feathers pretty substantially.
When: THURSDAY, November 17th. Rally at 4:00, march to the Montlake Bridge at 4:30.
Where: Rally will take place in the plaza at the corner of Montlake Blvd NE & NE Pacific Street, immediately across Montlake Blvd from Husky Stadium.
There are about 13 bus routes that go through there–I hope the marchers are going to be aware and considerate of the people working at the hospital and the UW who are just trying to get home at the end of the day, especially since it’s supposed to be cold and rainy on Thursday…
*Supports Occupy’s right to assembly because the right to assemble is um, I don’t know, in the constitution.
Are they saying Occupy has squatters’ rights? I don’t think so.
Maybe i’m ignorant, but when do the protestors actually protest? Every time i’ve been in the area and gone by, all I see are tents and signs propped up against the wall or tents. Compared to the number of tents set up I often see very few people present.
If they were going to be considerate, they wouldn’t schedule it for 4:30 p.m. They are looking for maximum exposure. And they are going to get it. From an audience held hostage. Maybe they’ll use the time to offer up some actual points they are working toward.
BTW, I tried to buy a cup of coffee this morning with a unanimous, nonbinding Seattle City Council resolution of support. The counterperson told me I was a little light.
There have to be better ways to protest. This is now a full on homeless camp. Why pick on a school? The only people who care about not moving off the campus are the usual street punk crew who don’t want their tent city with an upscale address to go away. After all, the junkies just got a much better zip code! I’m sure SCCC is way more comfy than under the bridge.
I’d say a high percentage of Broadway’s “homeless” population are exactly where they chose to be. It’s so Punk Rock to be a squater. I had one tell me he makes upwards of $45 an hour panhandling and it is all “tax and child support free!” Nice.
This occupy thing just gave them a new/cooler place to pitch a tent.
Occupy may have been a good idea to start but now it’s just a money pit to us 99% that work and have to pay to support your vacation from social economic reality.. As for our elected officials don’t expect any leadership from them as their only concern is passing the buck to some other agency while playing both sides of the fence. You have a better chance of winning the lottery then getting real leadership from our mayor and city council on this matter.. But rest assured if the tents, trash and honeybuckets were camped on their front yards or public right of way the police would’ve been ordered in to to their job…time to get off your lazy pass the buck butts mayor, city council and sccc admin., and return the public parks and public school grounds to all of us. Way to go Portland and New York!! And yes I live on the hill and have for several years and I walk by this mess daily only way to WORK! Time to occupy a job and move on. You no longer have my support.. You have no focus, direction or meaning other than to whine and complain..
Are Occupy Seattle and Occupy Wall Street even the same thing? Don’t answer, they are not.
Occupy Seattle should change their name to Occupy SCCC to better reflect the scope of their impact.
Oh the irony of Phil asking somebody to just answer the question.
All I know is that whenever I walk by there it looks and smells like a barn.
“The dog park. Seriously?? That’s just dickish.”
Why not? They’ve made the Seattle Central campus a dog park- a nasty, off-leash dog park.
It’s really sad that we cannot support Occupy Seattle anymore. And believe me, I want to! I did! Although I still support the Occupy Wall Street movement, Occupy Seattle has run it’s course. I work very close to the encampment and I am routinely harassed at my job by “Protesters”. They are rude, vulgar, loud, and quite honestly, smelly. I’ve tried to engage them in conversation about the movement (as I do support OWS) and all I get in return is watching them blame everyone else, from government to corporations, for their own situation. They aren’t protesting, they are living in their own filth. The allegations of drug use are ABSOLUTELY TRUE. This isn’t what OWS is about and I am tired of OS giving OWS a bad name.
If anybody seriously thinks that this is not a homeless encampment, I strongly urge you to walk through the area. As a parent of a child in the childcare center, I have walked around the outside child care space many times and before Occupy never had dogs, cigarettes, people’s junk, smoke from who knows what within 25 feet of the iron fence. Now it is all there which is why even the Department of Health, who visited on Monday will probably not allow the children to play there. Really, if you had a 1 or 2 year old, would you want them playing there?
Occupy is NOT being a good neighbor and not upholding its good neighbor policy. PERIOD. I’ve asked them to be mindful of the childcare space several times to no avail. Sorry OS, I’m not coming to one of your GAs because I have a child who I have to feed and put to bed.
For all of you who have homes and support Occupy Seattle, I suggest you allow these people to organize and sleep in your back yards. What? No takers?
A quick Redfin search yielded this list of foreclosed and bank-owned properties in Seattle. Put a roof over your heads *and* screw over the banks–two birds with one stone! Win back the moral high ground!
The Montlake bridge area is a traffic mess at rush hour even on the best days, so this event will create a huge nightmare for commuters, and as a result piss off people even more about the OS protests. How exactly is this a good tactic for the movement?
Also, ambulances frequently move over the bridge on their way to emergency rooms at Children’s and the UW. If they are blocked by this protest, and there is a good chance that will happen, then the OS people will be responsible for the medical consequences.
SCCC just needs to turn on the automatic sprinkler system. After all, the grass by now is brown and needs water.
The Walgreen’s store across the street from the “Occupy Camp” has had to close its public restrooms permanently (or until the protests are over) due to numerous vandalism instances. Also, the store is experiencing major increase in shoplifting as well.
Walgreens doesn’t provide a public bathroom anyway, and only stupid people believe anonymous commenters who cite “increases in theft” like this.
It appears this rally is actually put on by Working Washington, not OWS:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=313871968640071
I still think the timing is lousy, though. But if it rains, it might not matter.
ALL Walgreen’s stores nationwide have public restrooms…. typically located adjacent to the Pharmacy. They just don’t have any store signs advertising it, etc… and you usually have to ask an employee to give you access as well. You might want to visit an actual store before assuming something without facts. Also, the store at Broadway/Pine has POSTED SIGNS at the front entrance, letting customers know the restrooms are closed to the public for the time being, so you must be blind or illiterate.
There are many of us who work at the hospital why pick this time and place!? Many hard working people will be trapped and unable to get home , was seven pm too reasonable? Really a major intersection during rush hour how clever.
I saw the video of the guy taking a dump on Broadway and right away knew he was a transient and not part of the occupy group because I recognize him from the hill where he is often seen wandering drunk, or passed out on the sidewalk. What that video does do is point out a problem that is often not spoken about. And that is that the homeless on Capital Hill especially in Pike/Pine have no problem taking a dump in someones hedge, or yard, and peeding they will just do that wherever they please. I’m getting grossed out by it and think the police need to start cracking down on that sort of thing.