The City Council Public Safety group meeting last Tuesday went about as expected. A city attorney brought up the same sort of concerns that were brought up at the full City Council meeting last week before they sent the petition to the public safety committee. The concerns continue to revolve on two general premises. First, we are somehow a security risk. They actually never really make clear whether we are the cause of the risk or by being there overnight incur risk ourselves. It tends to feel like the former. There is a parking deck next to Upchurch park that apparently we would put at risk in some way. During my short 2 minute response I pointed out that having us there would in fact mean they would have a citizens watch over part of the parking deck thereby making it safer since if we saw someone breaking into a car or committing vandalism we would call the police.
Second they are continually worried that if they allow us to express our First Amendment Rights to Free Speech and Assembly that others may chose to do the same in the future. Of course we see that as a feature not a problem, even if the views those theoretical future groups expressed where different or opposed to ours. If you truly believe in the First Amendment you welcome that or resign yourself to blatant hypocrisy. I suppose its worth mentioning that the cost to monitor us is always brought up as well. We always point out that we have no control over how much the city wants to spend to watch us be peaceful and law abiding. The next time I get an opportunity to ask an individual council member something I am going to ask what exactly do they think we will do in the middle of the day that requires the police to be watching us? Since they police now leave between 3am and 8am, their presence is clearly not about keeping us safe. But I wonder what exactly they think we would do that they would need to be there from the moment it started? The only time the city police have intervened without the call of the Capitol police was around Halloween when someone tried to put a lit candle into a carved pumpkin. Within seconds the police where out of the car and ordering the person to desist. Crisis averted I guess.
The city also denied to issue a permit for that parking lot I mentioned in my last entry. They are against issuing us a permit for anything public. The only positive that came out of the meeting was that they are apparently in the process of working out some private space they may be able to offer. They have not indicated what that space is but perhaps we will learn more details at the City Council meeting tomorrow. Some of the occupation isn’t interested in listening to any options that are private. I understand where that comes from. Part of the philosophy behind the occupation movement is to reclaim public spaces and resources. The mayor elect who is a member of that public safety group pointed out that the OWS protesters where in a private park. I pointed out to her afterwards that at best that was only half true since the park exists under an agreement with the city that it would be public. But I cannot overlook a possible option so quickly that may allow for us to set up a real infrastructure.
It is my belief that our sidewalk occupation is not sustainable and in some ways is starting to hurt us. We cannot set up tents which would allow better rest and protection from the elements. We cannot cook food which is weakening those who spend the majority of their time at the occupation. Even delivery of pizzas and such are not terribly common. The Capitol police continue to harass us about our supplies so its rare to have too many at the sidewalk at a given time. Before we at least had fruit, bread, and snacks like granola bars but that is less common now. There is no ability to use heaters which could be effective in combination with tents.
While our occupation does slowly grow its not being reinforced with people who can stay the nights and into the early morning when we struggle to keep up numbers. We are trying to get a schedule together of people willing to take one night out of the week to remain awake the whole night to keep a watch over those who sleep. That will definitely help as I cannot manage more than one of those shifts every now and then. I had already been starting to feel a little under the weather and then stayed the night late last week and only left at 7am to sleep once reinforcements arrived and people started waking up. While I was able to return a couple times over the weekend for events that were planned, I then ended up taking off Sunday and will likely stay home tonight as well to get healthier. We need a second person to be watch on Tuesday night and that person will likely be me.
Some have developed what is being somewhat affectionately called the Occu-cough. We try to encourage those folks to go get some solid rest and take care of themselves. I find it particularly funny how some people antagonistic to the movement think those of us on the sidewalk in Raleigh do so because we are looking for hand outs, are lazy, or are into partying. While there are things I love about being on the sidewalk, like the amazing people I have met and the incredible conversations that are had, its pretty much the opposite of those gripes. It has cost me substantial money in gas going back and forth to the occupation. So much so that part of my reduced schedule is budgetary, not just about my health. Until recently when I started pulling back a little, I had no free time to do recreational stuff I love like gaming. From the moment the occupation began on October 15th, I probably went close to 3 weeks without playing a single game. That’s probably the longest stretch for me in decades.
We likely have also had occupiers have personal reprisals for being part of the occupation. One person has been laid off and its likely because they started mentioning the occupation at work. They went from not having a single complaint or issue at work raised against them to being laid off suddenly due to vague performance issues. NC is a “Right to Work” state (lovely Orwellian name) so employers don’t really have to be very specific. We also had another occupier demoted which they believe is likely due to their activities in the occupation since there had been no work related issues. When they asked the person informing them if it had to do with them being part of Occupy Raleigh the response was, “It didn’t help.”
In part because of these sorts of struggles and also because of my feelings about the sustainability of our occupation I had started to become rather negative and pessimistic lately about how our particular occupation was going. There have been some new developments lately though that have given me a good deal of hope. I cannot go into further detail now but the next few weeks should prove interesting.
The other way we have been hurt is how we are spending the energy and time we have. We have come to realize that we having been focusing so much on just maintaining a 24/7 sidewalk occupation that we have neglected critical activities in outreach and direct action. Ultimately those sorts of activities are what can increase our numbers the most and get our message out. It seems baffling to me but there are still people who do not even know the occupation movement is happening and countless more who only have a vague awareness of it. So more effort is going to be directed towards those sorts of activities and there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to do so. Small event style actions fit much better into the lives of members of the occupation who cannot occupy 24/7 due to jobs, families, health, or other concerns. We also have adapted our GA process to include more opportunities for open discussion since our working groups cannot spend the sort of consistent time meeting like at occupations where there are more 24/7 occupiers. Just the first time we did this at a recent GA generated many good ideas that got people excited about carrying one more more of those actions.
We are all still new to occupation. Heck most of us are new to being activists in any sense. It’s only a month in and I feel like we have learned a lot and have a much better grasp on how to move forward. My negativity was quickly replaced with optimism. But optimism doesn’t change the fact that I am not 20 something anymore and that I wasn’t leading the healthiest lifestyle before this movement started. So since the first time the occupation started I will be away for two days in a row. If that allows me to return healthier Tuesday to spend the night watching over those who sleep its worth it. I often told others that the Occupation Movement is a marathon not a sprint. I am finally starting to take that to heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment