Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« What's Your Favorite Robyn Song? | Cain Vs. Obama »

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Occupy / City Two Men Charged With Assault Last Night at Westlake Park

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 1:45 PM

Last night was busy for Occupy Seattle: A 20-year-old man and a 23-year-old man were arrested in two unrelated incidents at Westlake Park, both for allegedly assaulting city employees. Here are the Seattle Police Department's accounts of the arrests:

On October 19th, at approximately 8:00 pm, officers were assigned to Westlake Park. While there, they were notified of a man in a sleeping bag who was becoming uncooperative with the park rangers. A ranger with the Park Department had informed the man that camping in the park was not permitted. The man was verbally hostile toward the rangers and later officers. As he began picking up his backpack and sleeping bag, he tossed a lit cigarette at the ranger, striking him near his face. The 20 year old man was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for assault.

Detective Mark Jamieson, a spokesman for SPD, says it's unclear whether this first man was affiliated with Occupy Seattle. "That person was in Westlake Park while the demonstration was going on, that's why they were contacted, but he didn't identify himself as a protester that I'm aware of," Jamieson says. Meanwhile:

A second arrest took place about 8:15 pm. A 23 year old male was confronting demonstrators and assaulting people in the crowd while he was heard yelling racial slurs at the crowd gathered in Westlake Park. The suspect began throwing his arms wildly, like he was throwing punches. He was then heard yelling something about hating police and ran toward a group of officers. As the suspect approached the officers, he spat at them. Officers took the man into custody. During the arrest, he repeatedly spat at the officers. A spit sock was applied to the suspect, but he managed to shake it off. The suspect was also bleeding from his nose, and continued to spit saliva and blood onto and into the officer’s faces. Three officers had to go to the hospital for significant bloodborne pathogen exposure treatment. The suspect was later booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Assault on Officer.

Jesus Christ. My condolences to everyone who had to deal with that allegedly racist, allegedly violent, allegedly spit-filled nutbag.

FacebookShare

Comments (20) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Altamont!

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on October 20, 2011 at 1:56 PM

@1, are you having some kind of brain episode? Seriously. See a doctor.

Posted by Fnarf

on October 20, 2011 at 2:08 PM

I hope that cigarette was an American Spirit.

Posted by kulshan on October 20, 2011 at 2:14 PM

@3, from Wikipedia: "Natural American Spirit is a brand of cigarette and tobacco products manufactured in the United States by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, a wholly owned independent subsidiary of Reynolds American, in turn 42% owned by British American Tobacco. "

Posted by Fnarf

on October 20, 2011 at 2:27 PM

Spit Sock!

(Also, LOL @4 - way to pop a guy's balloon! :)

Srsly, I wish the dirtbags would stay away from all the fun going on at Westlake right now... But I also wish I'd find a winning lottery ticket on the floor of the bus, so what do I know....

Posted by merry on October 20, 2011 at 2:56 PM

Shame the crayon chewing toddlers at Occupy Seattle declared themselves a police free zone last night to appease the lunatics on the People of Color Caucus.

Who ya gonna call?

Posted by Sugartit on October 20, 2011 at 2:57 PM

"nutbag."

Funny, just Monday you were embracing another mentally ill hobo at Westlake, Deborah "show us your tits".

Seems the mentally ill have found a home at OS.

Posted by Sugartit on October 20, 2011 at 3:01 PM

Several considerations:

1) The fastest way to discredit the entire movement is to allow it to become associated with violence against persons or property. Therefore, those who wish to discredit the movement must be grabbing popcorn and cheering on the crazy bastards that show up and do shit like this.

2) The violently imbalanced tend to seek out groups where loudness and acting out in extreme ways is rewarded rather than scorned. A paranoid schizophrenic or a sociopath wouldn't last very long in a library, where the librarians are more likely to have them removed when they start going off on the other patrons. However, they blend in rather well in environments where behaving like an asshole is applauded, such as talk radio, MMA events, Republican primaries and riots.

3) The General Assembly of Occupy Seattle has at it's core one central weakness. Power is apportioned in an unequal manner according to how much attention the speaker in question can attract and hold from the audience. Therefore, highly charismatic personalities and personalities full of bombast and visceral angst tend to predominate. Quiet, mousey rationalists tend to be ignored or shut out of the discussion. Much like the events described in #2, this tends to attract people prone to extravagant displays of either violence or showmanship.

Therefore, the root problem here lies within the structure of the GA itself. A remedy must be found. The GA has to become calmer, deliberative and more rational. Power has to be distributed evenly, and not apportioned according to personality. Bombast has to be shunned, as do displays of showmanship. Reason has to be held up as the ideal.

Until this is done, the GA itself will draw violent and crazy bastards such as these two the way rotting meat attracts flies and maggots.

More...

Posted by Statler on October 20, 2011 at 3:04 PM

I love how people make observations about the GA: Where giant "personalities, bombast and visceral angst tend to predominate"...attracting "people prone to extravagant displays of either violence or showmanship."...

....And then not ALSO see the parallels to how the political right is portrayed by the media (like Stranger).

It is no more fair to characterize the Occupy movement by its the extreme fringes, than it is to characterize conservatism by the fucking wingnuts on which the media chooses to focus. That is, unless someone has an agenda to discredit their opponent, using labels (like "dirty hippies" and "tea-baggers") as cover for a lack of reason and integrity in their political leanings.

Posted by Zok on October 20, 2011 at 3:32 PM

@8, nature abhors a vacuum. The reason the violent or crazy step out at events like this is because there's nothing else going on there to crowd them out. They're just dumbly "occupying" but they've run out of things to say.

Posted by Fnarf

on October 20, 2011 at 3:33 PM

"1) The fastest way to discredit the entire movement is to allow it to become associated with violence against persons or property."

Ya gonna love the anarchists who will show up Saturday for the "Fuck the police rally"

Posted by Sugartit on October 20, 2011 at 4:11 PM

Posted by Sugartit on October 20, 2011 at 4:12 PM

It seems like the second guy was just some random loon (like they're in short supply at Westlake) who opposed the protesters. Or am I missing something?

Posted by keshmeshi on October 20, 2011 at 4:37 PM

While you're giving condolences to everyone who "had to deal with" the blood-spitting nutbag, would it be too much to thank the police officers who actually dealt with him?

Posted by robotslave on October 20, 2011 at 5:08 PM

I notice some known wackos in regular attendance at Westlake.

I also notice they tend to be on good behavior (relative to their own disorderly/delusional/violent baselines).

Not sure what to make of that.

Posted by RonK, Seattle on October 20, 2011 at 5:59 PM

@14: Robotslave, you're suggesting that we thank people for doing a job they were paid to perform, right?

Posted by Phil M

on October 20, 2011 at 6:09 PM

@16: When I get some food from the dining hall at school, I make sure to thank the people serving me and call them "ma'am" and "sir".
Fuck sake, people.

Posted by venomlash on October 20, 2011 at 6:26 PM

@17: Understood. I thank bus drivers when I get off the bus. It's just courtesy, though.

Posted by Phil M

on October 20, 2011 at 6:34 PM

Phil M, have you ever left a tip for a good meal or haircut? If that's not thanks for doing a job I don't know what it is? The firefighters, park rangers, and law enforcement personnel who are required to be the thin line between any and all factions and have to see what falls from the sky on both sides of the line to determine what actions they take... I mean could you do that? Are you able to take insults without recourse, assault without response, and exposure to unknown airborne pathogens without fear? Then meet me at Westlake Park on Sunday and I'll introduce you to a day in my life. Hope to see you there!

Posted by Shakefork on October 20, 2011 at 6:43 PM

@18 - Are you suggesting it would be beneath you to even show courtesy to the police?

I'm not saying for a moment that we shouldn't hold the police accountable if they do very bad things, but can we not at least show them "just courtesy" when they deal with citizens who are doing very bad things to people we like?

Posted by robotslave on October 21, 2011 at 2:02 AM