Slog
News & ArtsMonday, February 27, 2012
Occupy Occupiers Overtake Mayor's Office
Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 3:40 PM
- OCCUPY THE MAYOR'S COUCH: This is what snuggling looks like.
A Slog tipper reports from the foyer outside Mayor Mike McGinn's office: "Fifty occupiers occupying 7th floor of City Hall demanding removal of Chief John Diaz!"
No additional details as of this moment, but they're taking the right message to the right place. Let's just hope the Occupy Seattle folks can keep it civil, avoiding the "All cops are bastards" chant they've taken to other recent police protests.
UPDATE at 4:00 PM: I've added the photo via a tipper. Meanwhile, another tipper says the Occupiers have poured fake blood somewhere in the building. The group has also issued a statement, which I've posted after the jump.
In consideration of the Seattle Police Department’s abuse of the citizens of Seattle, its violent and unnecessary repression of nonviolent protesters and its disproportionate targeting of the most disenfranchised members of society, we are here to announce that John Diaz does not have the mandate of the people; he will no longer be the Chief of the Seattle police department. We demand the immediate prosecution of all officers found to be repeatedly engaged in misconduct, including Ian Birk, the murderer of John T. Williams.
After the release of the department of justice report, this city government has shown itself to be more interested in diffusing public outrage than quelling the rampant violence of the SPD.
But we also understand that direct police brutality is not the only issue.
Our entire legal system disproportionally targets communities of color, whether by enforcing foreclosure evictions on behalf of the big banks, maintaining enormous Stay Out of Drug Areas, or enforcing mandatory incarceration of those picked up for nonviolent crimes.
So long as some people have to choose between feeding their families and getting their rent paid there is no equality before the law because the law itself embraces that inequality. We will never be equals in ownership, never equal before the police. As our homes are foreclosed on, our wages cut, our futures pulled from underneath us, there is nothing left but for us to disobey, to disrupt.
This police department enforces the rule of the 1%, an untenable, unjust dominion which will not be allowed to continue.
Finally, in honor of all those harassed, beaten and murdered, we ask for a moment of silence.
1
Dont they know the mayor is too busy trying to get funding for 3D iPad controlled double decker monorails? Come on, its all the rage in China!
2
Are you sure it is "the" Occupy movement behind this??
This kinda sorta almost seems to be relevant to something or other...
This kinda sorta almost seems to be relevant to something or other...
6
I sort of like the idea of moveable occupiers. Instead of being camped on one place for too long they move from place to place (when and where to be determined by a current issue) without all the camping gear.
7
Occupy doesn't represent the will of the people. They don't represent anything except a handful of hippies. This "action" and concomitant property destruction harms the effort to hold Diaz and SPD accountable.
9
I only they could have stopped at "... more interested in diffusing public outrage..."
Only a few cops in Seattle are violent towards citizens. It's not rampant. If you want to see rampant violence, I could take you to visit my old hometown of Albuquerque.
And then comes the blahblahblah about banks and legal systems and the 1%. That's where I lose interest, boiler-plate 'stop being mean' gibberish.
Only a few cops in Seattle are violent towards citizens. It's not rampant. If you want to see rampant violence, I could take you to visit my old hometown of Albuquerque.
And then comes the blahblahblah about banks and legal systems and the 1%. That's where I lose interest, boiler-plate 'stop being mean' gibberish.
11
Those don't look like hippies to me, Fnarf. They do look cold though. Maybe Mayor McGinn keeps the thermostat turned down more than they're used to?
12
I hope that the Snuggie becomes the official attire of the occupy movement.
At least the chanting would make more sense then and everyone would think they were adorable.
At least the chanting would make more sense then and everyone would think they were adorable.
13
Occupy lost me last Tuesday at UC-Berkeley when an Occupier wearing his V for Vendetta mask (no hypocrisy in putting $$ in the pocket of Amazon or D.C.?) followed a student tour that I was on with my 16 year old daughter. The inane questions, ("Do you have a velodrome?") and constant spitting were annoying, but didn't rattle the nice kid leading the tour who reminded everyone it was a public university and included the Free Speech Cafe on the tour.. But the total disrespect and sexual harassment of female students by this person was totally out of line. The low point was yelling that all the female Asian students at Berkeley were all prostitutes.
16
@15
OOooh, me! Pick me!
In Occupier Theory, economic inequality can not be solved within the currently existing sociopolitical order. The failed state must be abandoned, and replaced with antirepresentational supermajority-consensus direct democracy.
To that end, the dismantling of the state should be pursued using multiple strategies, one of which is the delegitimization of its institutions and systems of authority, beginning with those that most immediately prevent further progress toward the dismantling of the state.
The institution that best fits that description, of course, is that of the police, and thus an attack on the legitimacy of the police must be Occupy's first priority.
That is why Occupy must produce continuous and escalating propaganda describing the inherent brutality of all police actions, and the culture of brutality shared by all police officers. And that is why Occupy Seattle must declare that Diaz "will no longer be the Chief of the Seattle police department."
If you have trouble following all of this, or perhaps feel that it "doesn't make a goddamned lick of sense," then you are clearly endorsing police brutality. Because you are a counterrevolutionary agent provocateur. And stuff.
OOooh, me! Pick me!
In Occupier Theory, economic inequality can not be solved within the currently existing sociopolitical order. The failed state must be abandoned, and replaced with antirepresentational supermajority-consensus direct democracy.
To that end, the dismantling of the state should be pursued using multiple strategies, one of which is the delegitimization of its institutions and systems of authority, beginning with those that most immediately prevent further progress toward the dismantling of the state.
The institution that best fits that description, of course, is that of the police, and thus an attack on the legitimacy of the police must be Occupy's first priority.
That is why Occupy must produce continuous and escalating propaganda describing the inherent brutality of all police actions, and the culture of brutality shared by all police officers. And that is why Occupy Seattle must declare that Diaz "will no longer be the Chief of the Seattle police department."
If you have trouble following all of this, or perhaps feel that it "doesn't make a goddamned lick of sense," then you are clearly endorsing police brutality. Because you are a counterrevolutionary agent provocateur. And stuff.
17
wow, they look awfully white for oppressed people. Was the People of transgendered cisgendered Caucus busy?
wow, they look awfully white for oppressed people. Was the People of transgendered cisgendered Caucus busy?
20
Diaz should go, but it's worth remembering that the man that actually let the murderer Ian Birk walk free is King County Prosecuting Attorney (and Republican-preferrer) Daniel T Satterberg. This man holds an elected position, so remember not to vote for him next time. A guy that doesn't even care to bring a prosecution in a case of homicide with multiple witnesses and clear video and audio evidence is really weak on law and order. If, like me, you want your prosecuting attorney to be a staunch defender of conservative values, public decency, and justice, Satterberg is definitely not your guy. Just terrible.
21
you want your prosecuting attorney to be a staunch defender of conservative values, public decency, and justice, Satterberg is definitely not your guy."
Yeah…good luck with that. You'll need it.
Actually the problem is with the law, which Satterberg had to follow. That's what needs to be changed. But that would require more than hanging out at SCCC bumming smokes, trying to pick up chicks at your latest anarchist squat and running a debate society at the Convention Center with half a dozen of your fellow bored radicals. It would require actual 'hard work', something most of the Occupy Seattle folks seem to avoid like the plague.
BTW, they're hiring at Wendy's girls…..
http://tinyurl.com/87nhtzs
Yeah…good luck with that. You'll need it.
Actually the problem is with the law, which Satterberg had to follow. That's what needs to be changed. But that would require more than hanging out at SCCC bumming smokes, trying to pick up chicks at your latest anarchist squat and running a debate society at the Convention Center with half a dozen of your fellow bored radicals. It would require actual 'hard work', something most of the Occupy Seattle folks seem to avoid like the plague.
BTW, they're hiring at Wendy's girls…..
http://tinyurl.com/87nhtzs
23
@22 me thinks he's being facetious. But lack of a sense of humor or irony seems to be OS's hallmark.
18
Did you hear? OS is planning a General Strike! Never mind that not a single union supports them, immigrants rights groups are telling them to fuck off and stop using their name and longshoreman tried to kick their ass at that infamous meeting. Besides all that it'll be a fabulous general strike with 100 screaming queers and anarchists shutting down Broadway and Pike before heading off home.
So move along. Nothing to watch here.
18
Did you hear? OS is planning a General Strike! Never mind that not a single union supports them, immigrants rights groups are telling them to fuck off and stop using their name and longshoreman tried to kick their ass at that infamous meeting. Besides all that it'll be a fabulous general strike with 100 screaming queers and anarchists shutting down Broadway and Pike before heading off home.
So move along. Nothing to watch here.
24
@21 You seem very willing to take Satterberg's explanation at face value. While Washington State law does truly make it harder to win a case against a police officer than it would against an ordinary member of the public (and it should be changed), it doesn't actually authorize the police to gun down unarmed citizens. Satterberg *chose* not to prosecute.
I won't bother to address the rest of your comment, since your assumptions are just making an "ass" out of "u" and "mptions".
I won't bother to address the rest of your comment, since your assumptions are just making an "ass" out of "u" and "mptions".
25
Funny watching the Stranger try to now disown their ugly, stupid, lazy and insane step child they so lovingly embraced just last November. Kind of like Jennifer Fox's step parents.
BTW did she ever find that darn fetus or is Slog pretending they never were the boosters that made that story go national?
Was Ian Finklewanker there with that purple gerbil he pulled from his ass and glue to his head to make that faux hawk?
BTW did she ever find that darn fetus or is Slog pretending they never were the boosters that made that story go national?
Was Ian Finklewanker there with that purple gerbil he pulled from his ass and glue to his head to make that faux hawk?
26
Anyone remember when Slog would've had minute to minute coverage of this, as well as rallied local business to provide food for the occupiers? Looks like even the stranger is burnt out on Occupy's bs.
Oh btw Occupy, you don't have the mandate of the people. You are the 1%, just a different 1% then the 1% you rally against. It's kind of sad really.
Oh btw Occupy, you don't have the mandate of the people. You are the 1%, just a different 1% then the 1% you rally against. It's kind of sad really.
27
Now that I think of it, I bet slog commentors have a bigger "mandate of the people" then occupy seattle.
29
@16, so I assume my employer will start paying me a fair salary as soon as the police chief is replaced?
30
Given this is actually a form of protest directed at the correct authority in the correct forum, I assert this cannot possibly be occupy.
31
@29
No, no, you don't understand. You will have economic justice when your failed hierarchical relation with your employer has been replaced with antrirepresentational supermajority-consensus direct democracy.
You might want to let go of that "salary" idea, too. Even if The Revolution makes a consensus to keep a construct like Wages, or even Money, your pay will always be subject to another consensus. A rigid "salary" enforced by "contract law" administered by The State is clearly coercive, an assault on your autonomy, and counterrevolutionary.
You can't begin to understand all this until you start going to the General Assembly. You should stop complaining and asking ostensibly obvious yet deeply uninformed questions on SLOG, because questions and complaints about Occupy are Legitimate only when you do them at a GA.
I hope you like meetings. This will work a lot better if we all like meetings. A lot.
No, no, you don't understand. You will have economic justice when your failed hierarchical relation with your employer has been replaced with antrirepresentational supermajority-consensus direct democracy.
You might want to let go of that "salary" idea, too. Even if The Revolution makes a consensus to keep a construct like Wages, or even Money, your pay will always be subject to another consensus. A rigid "salary" enforced by "contract law" administered by The State is clearly coercive, an assault on your autonomy, and counterrevolutionary.
You can't begin to understand all this until you start going to the General Assembly. You should stop complaining and asking ostensibly obvious yet deeply uninformed questions on SLOG, because questions and complaints about Occupy are Legitimate only when you do them at a GA.
I hope you like meetings. This will work a lot better if we all like meetings. A lot.
32
I'm in Occupy, and this childish letter with it's global statements about the police certainly doesn't speak for me. Yes, there are cops who should be disciplined and others who should be removed from duty because they use excessive violence, but to lump all cops together is the kind of misinformed drivel that discredits the movement. We have active Occupy Seattle members who are educated, employed and moderate. We people who are homeless and struggling. We have retired professors and youth who live on the streets. The letter does not speak for many Occupiers. It has been extremely difficult for the many reasonable members of Occupy to work with the self-proclaimed "radicals" in the group who do little more than drive off potential supporters. Because the movement is open to all, we have had to deal with a lot of garbage that has gotten in the way of focusing on the big issues. This is a huge and messy movement with infiltration, provocateurs, people who are well-meaning but misguided, mentally ill, EVERYONE. It has been hard to work together, to say the least. May the public understand that Occupy is not one set of values and one movement. I hope we can save it so that we can continue as a national movement. Without some boundaries and enforceable consequences, the disenfranchised elements within could destroy it. If so, a movement will be likely be reconfigured, with parameters, with structure, and without people who seek to tear down movements they claim to be a part of.
33
I'm in Occupy, and this childish letter to the Mayor with it's global statements about the police certainly doesn't speak for me. Yes, there are cops who should be disciplined and others who should be removed from duty because they use excessive violence, and John T. Williams killer, Ian Burke should be prosecuted - but to lump all cops together is the kind of misinformed drivel that discredits the movement. We have active Occupy Seattle members who are educated, employed and moderate. We have people who are homeless and struggling. We have retired professors and youth who live on the streets. The overstated letter does not speak for many Occupiers. It has been extremely difficult for the many reasonable members of Occupy to work with the self-proclaimed "radicals" in the group who do little more than drive off potential supporters. Because the movement is open to all, we have had to deal with a lot of disruptive behavior that has gotten in the way of focusing on the truly important issues. This is a huge and messy movement with infiltration, provocateurs, people who are well-meaning but misguided, the mentally ill, EVERYONE. It has been hard to work together, to say the least. May the public understand that Occupy is not one set of values and one movement. I hope we can save it so that we can continue as a national movement addressing income disparity, corporate personhood, unfair lobbying practices, etc. Without some boundaries and enforceable consequences, the disenfranchised elements within Occupy could destroy it. Many reasonable people within Occupy are fighting hard to keep Occupy on track as an effective movement. If we can't figure out a way to deal with the disruptive members, the movement will likely dissolve and be reconfigured in some smaller way, with parameters, with structure, and without people who seek to tear down movements they claim to be a part of.
More...
34
@31, your sarcasm is oppressing this dialogue. I am giving you such a frowning. Please report to the shameatorium.
35
@32/33
You sound kind of counterrevolutionary. Are you a cop?
What do you mean when you say you want to "save" Occupy? You mean you want to kick out or at least silence the True Revolutionaries who founded the movement, don't you? To make Occupy "safe" for your bourgeois-liberal friends and neighbors with their recycled polar fleece vests and the rest of their consumerist "activisim?"
If you were really on the side of the oppressed and committed to the highest human principle, Autonomy, then you'd never, ever, suggest that Occupy should set up its own internal system of policing, to establish hierarchical "boundaries" and coercively administer sinister, unspecified "enforceable consequences."
Who's paying you? The FBI? Cointelpro? You might be "in Occupy," but you're clearly not for Occupy.
You're just another bossy-boots who wants to take away people's freedoms and tell them they're not allowed to peacefully throw stuff at the cops, or break windows, or write slogans on things, or even enjoy a little innocent recreational drugs-use that hurts absolutely no-one.
You sound kind of counterrevolutionary. Are you a cop?
What do you mean when you say you want to "save" Occupy? You mean you want to kick out or at least silence the True Revolutionaries who founded the movement, don't you? To make Occupy "safe" for your bourgeois-liberal friends and neighbors with their recycled polar fleece vests and the rest of their consumerist "activisim?"
If you were really on the side of the oppressed and committed to the highest human principle, Autonomy, then you'd never, ever, suggest that Occupy should set up its own internal system of policing, to establish hierarchical "boundaries" and coercively administer sinister, unspecified "enforceable consequences."
Who's paying you? The FBI? Cointelpro? You might be "in Occupy," but you're clearly not for Occupy.
You're just another bossy-boots who wants to take away people's freedoms and tell them they're not allowed to peacefully throw stuff at the cops, or break windows, or write slogans on things, or even enjoy a little innocent recreational drugs-use that hurts absolutely no-one.
36
@34
My autonomous mode of expression is entirely Legitimate. To question diversity of rhetorical tactics is hierarchical and counterrevolutionary. I reject the authority of the shameatorium.
My autonomous mode of expression is entirely Legitimate. To question diversity of rhetorical tactics is hierarchical and counterrevolutionary. I reject the authority of the shameatorium.
37
@36, okay, then prepare yourself - our hive's next move is to point and laugh at your tiny little percentage.
38
@37
We of the 0.99 Percent embrace laughter!
No doubt you have seen our many large and amusing puppets, enjoyed our mirthful street theater, or grinned and grimaced at our assorted lighthearted japes and mummery, which never fall flat or feel embarrassingly overwrought.
The laughter of the 98.01% is always a sign of solidarity!
We of the 0.99 Percent embrace laughter!
No doubt you have seen our many large and amusing puppets, enjoyed our mirthful street theater, or grinned and grimaced at our assorted lighthearted japes and mummery, which never fall flat or feel embarrassingly overwrought.
The laughter of the 98.01% is always a sign of solidarity!
40
Robotslave, the Mayor turns off the heat in all City buildings at night so it takes all day to get warm, so yes, they probably were cold LOL
41
No, this is the REAL Occupy Seattle. You dummies who read The Slog and sit on your asses eat grease and salt, and do nothing but pay for pleasure (from your Pontiac to pussy) are typical amerikkkans who will help create a second 9/11, due to your passive-aggressive complicity in the super-exploitation of the rest of the world.
Listen, idiots: This event was loud, but NON-VIOLENT, and had a clear, concise message that only the most cave-dwelling knuckledraggers amongst you could not grasp.
Yet, despite all efforts to appease the politically reactionary and profoundly backward liberal class within Occupy Seattle, those who in fact ENJOY (sexually stimulated, actually) seeing blacks and mexicans raped, beaten, and killed as measured and defined by their actual stated worldview and white, middle class, parasite lifestyle, here's an example of the commentary from the Occupy Seattle Non-Violent Group page.
This shithead str8 up LIED and called in a FALSE report to the Seattle Police Department for political reasons. How come he isn't arrest #11? He probably works for them, in a much more direct way than Dominic Holden does.
Again, quoted DIRECTLY from the Occupy Seattle Non-Violence Group page:
"Aaron Elijah I called the assistanct chief of the seattle police department and reported certain people who were making violent threats, or advocating for violence, or the use of violent tactics and NO ONE called me back... kinda makes ya wonder doesnt it?
20 hours ago"
Listen, idiots: This event was loud, but NON-VIOLENT, and had a clear, concise message that only the most cave-dwelling knuckledraggers amongst you could not grasp.
Yet, despite all efforts to appease the politically reactionary and profoundly backward liberal class within Occupy Seattle, those who in fact ENJOY (sexually stimulated, actually) seeing blacks and mexicans raped, beaten, and killed as measured and defined by their actual stated worldview and white, middle class, parasite lifestyle, here's an example of the commentary from the Occupy Seattle Non-Violent Group page.
This shithead str8 up LIED and called in a FALSE report to the Seattle Police Department for political reasons. How come he isn't arrest #11? He probably works for them, in a much more direct way than Dominic Holden does.
Again, quoted DIRECTLY from the Occupy Seattle Non-Violence Group page:
"Aaron Elijah I called the assistanct chief of the seattle police department and reported certain people who were making violent threats, or advocating for violence, or the use of violent tactics and NO ONE called me back... kinda makes ya wonder doesnt it?
20 hours ago"
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