One of the most heated battles between protesters and SPD during Occupy Seattle’s 2011 activities came as police attempted to haul away five people who had chained themselves together inside the Broadway Chase bank building. The pepper spray-coated Wednesday afternoon fracas in early November came just five days into Occupy Seattle’s stay on Capitol Hill and was part of a day of protest against Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, in the city for a University of Washington event. Tuesday morning, the “Chase 5” are scheduled to appear in Seattle Municipal Court to face trespassing charges and, supporters hope, bring attention to the faded Occupy Seattle effort.
A Support the Chase 5 Facebook event is encouraging a “day of action” and for people to “pack the court room in support” to force the city to drop its case against the five people charged.
The Chase 5 Trial begins on March 13 – Jamie Dimon’s bithday (!). As he roams free, the Chase 5 will be in court facing trespass charges that carry a maximum sentence of one year in jail. Concurrently, #occupiers in Atlanta are calling for nationwide actions against Chase Bank on March 13 to “celebrate” Dimon’s birthday.
Danielle Simmons, Sarah Svobodny, Douglas Van, Michael Stevens, and Hudson Williams-Eynon are charged with criminal trespass of a building for their part in the November protest. They each pleaded not guilty in January.
Meanwhile, the legal fallout from another Occupy-related protest is also scheduled for courtroom activity this week. Hearings are slated for most of the 16 people arrested in the 10th/Union warehouse takeover later this week. The 16 accused face charges of first degree criminal trespass.
…for stoopidity on the other hand…
Occupy a jail!!!!
If stupidity were a crime, you’d be wearing stripes, pal.
…where the banksters’ widespread and well-documented fraud goes unpunished (and even rewarded with six and seven figure bonuses), while those protesting said fraud face jail terms.
It’s about time they occupy a jail cell.
I hope they act as their own attorney and claim that if given a chance for a do-over, they would do it again. That way they can get the full King County lockup experience.
ditto, etaoin!
I agree too, but it’s quite unlikely they will get a year’s sentence…more like a fine/probation.
These self-important people had the choice to protest peacefully and legally on the sidewalk in front of Chase. Instead, they broke the law and should suffer the consequences.
Very clever, Gregg. *cough*
Seriously, while I do my best to respect that people have different beliefs than my own, I absolutely cannot tolerate misrepresentation and half-truths.
Let’s put this communist/socialist/progressive talking point into prospective shall we?
The population of the United States as of July 2011 (according to the Census Bureau) was 311,591,917 (311 Million)
How many people are you saying should be in jail? 5? 20? 20,000? Everyone that works at Chase? Does that include the Janitor?
I keep hearing about the 1%. Which 1%? The financial numbers are quite different depending upon what you look at.
If you’re talking about money you earn from working, based on the Internal Revenue Service’s 2010 database, here’s how much the top Americans make:
Top 1%: $380,354
Top 5%: $159,619
Top 10%: $113,799
Top 25%: $67,280
Top 50%: >$33,048
IF you’re talking about money earned from investments (which is taxed differently from the above) then you get into the millions of dollars.
I have to get to work, so I am not able to continue working on my rant.
It’s Latin for “it does not follow.” As in your comment does not follow from mine. The numerical breakdown is, uh, interesting, but irrelevant to my observation about the irony of banking fraudsters going free while the Chase Five are prosecuted for protesting that fraud.
For example, let’s look at WaMu’s fraudulent behavior before its acquisition by the FDIC and sale to Morgan Chase. Last year’s report from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn, alleges that executives at WaMu dumped its bad loans on clients while misleading them about their value.
“WaMu selected delinquency-prone loans for sale in order to move risk from the banks’ books to the investors in WaMu securities,” Levin said.
The subcommittee also found a cozy relationship between WaMu and its regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision.
And while the Chase Five are looking at a year in jail, not only did former chairman and chief executive officer Kerry Killinger and his bestest buddies at WaMu escape prosecution but they avoided any sort of fine or penalty!
Like I said, it’s a topsy turvy Capitalist world, ERFie.
Now get back to work.
I just take way too long when I write. I had a point when I started but ran out of time for editing. I think I was trying to say something about the reaction of the “people” not being equal to the crime or the focus of the “people” being misdirected for another party’s agenda.
Oh well, back to work. ERFie – I never thought of that. Too funny.
as of 4:30 all five were found not guilty on all counts.