This is my latest at AlterNet about Occupy Wall Street:
As Occupy Wall Street protests spring up in cities across the country, authorities are thinking up creative ways to contain this peaceful and inspiring uprising. Although laws and municipal ordinances vary from city to city, there is a consistency in the tactics being used to stifle the movement. More importantly, as demonstrated by the protesters at Zuccotti Park who kept strong in the face of a looming eviction that never came to fruition, these maneuvers are not working.
Still, there is no shortage of justifications and rationales behind the constantly evolving schemes being implemented to destroy the spirit of Occupy Wall Street. Here are 12 desperate and unsuccessful measures the authorities are using to discourage, deter and crack down on peaceful protests.
1) No Snoozing In Public
Most cities have an anti-camping ordinance on the books that prohibits camping or sleeping in public spaces, particularly public parks, to minimize the risk of nighttime criminal activity. But the ordinances are frequently used to cleanse cities of the inconvenient and uncomfortable scenery of homeless people; police in San Francisco are known for enforcing the city’s camping ordinance primarily against the homeless.
But now, all over the country, anti-camping ordinances are being used to arrest and deter protesters from occupying public spaces.
Local news stations covering Occupy Dallas report that police plan to begin enforcing the city’s ordinance against sleeping in public, first with warnings, then tickets, and eventually arrest. Due to a city ordinance that prohibits sleeping in Los Angeles public parks, Occupy LA activists move their tents to the sidewalk every night, and move them back to the park every morning. Occupy Chicago protesters have resorted to staying awake in shifts, then switching with one another to sleep in cars or someone’s home nearby to get around the ban against sleeping on the public sidewalk.
2) No Umbrellas
Officials in various cities are citing ordinances that prohibit the erection of permanent or semi-permanent structures, referring to tents, tarps, sleeping bags, and in one city, umbrellas.
According to Seattle’s newsweekly, The Stranger, the Seattle Police Department warned protesters that, “You can’t have an umbrella open unless you’re standing and holding it,” otherwise they are considered structures and will be confiscated. Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn later clarified the reasoning in a statement, saying, “As for umbrellas, police were concerned that protest participants were using umbrellas and tarps to create makeshift tents to evade the no-camping rule.”
In a city known for its heavy rains, it’s rather extreme to ban the use of umbrellas. But the absence of tents, tarps and even umbrellas during downpours in New York City and Washington DC has yet to discourage protesters.
3) Curfews
Fortunately for the Occupy Wall Street protesters in NYC, the privately owned Zuccotti Park is open 24 hours a day, unlike city-owned parks that are usually closed in the late night to early morning hours. In city and state-owned parks occupied by protesters throughout the country, authorities are using park curfews to their advantage. Just after 3am on the morning of Friday, Oct. 14, Denver police raided the Occupy Denver encampment citing an 11pm to 5am curfew at state parks, making at least 21 arrests. A similar 11pm curfew in Iowa led to 32 arrests on Oct. 9. The same thing happened at Occupy Sacramento.
4) No Open Flames
The “burn ban” generally applies to outdoor cooking, like grilling in the park, and is strictly followed by Wall Street protestors who refuse to give NYPD any reason to evict them. In the early days of Occupy San Francisco, SFPD issued protesters a notice of the local laws and ordinances they were allegedly violating, to justify a pending police crackdown. Included in the list was a “fire code prohibiting open flames that applied to outdoor cooking setups.” The lesson here is no barbequing.
5) No Sitting or Lying Down
SFPD’s notice also informed protesters that they were in violation of a sit-lie law that prohibits sitting or laying down on San Francisco sidewalks between 7am and 11pm. This criminal offense can result in a fine starting at $50 and possibly lead to jail time.
6) No Obstructing the Pedestrian Walkway
Occupy Chicago faced major obstacles early on but has managed to remain intact. The group initially had trouble finding a place to occupy due to the city’s lack of publicly available land. Occupiers ultimately chose to set up camp on the public sidewalk surrounding Chicago’s Federal Reserve building. At first, police warned them not to lean up against the building, but that quickly evolved into a ban on the area 6 feet from the building (almost the entire sidewalk), followed by the enforcement of a Chicago city ordinance preventing people from blocking the public way, aka sleeping or sitting on the sidewalk. (In NYC this is called “impeding pedestrian traffic.”)
7) No Private Belongings in Public Space
Chicago’s spur-of-the-moment version of San Francisco’s sit-lie law was made to apply to the private belongings of protesters as well. According to In These Times, this forced them into “packing their gear into backpacks or putting it onto mobile carts for temporary relocation.” An update on the Occupy Chicago Web site alerted activists to “Occupy Chicago, Phase 2 – Mobilization,” a new plan that would “make all things there 100% mobile, all bodies must be constantly moving, and absolutely no sitting/sleeping.”
8. Unaffordable Fees
The city of Dallas, Texas, demanded that Occupy Dallas fork up $1 million for liability insurance if they want to keep their permit and continue occupying Pioneer Plaza past 5pm Friday (Oct. 14). That’s quite a hefty price for to pay the working class, jobless and indebted students who make up the majority of protesters. As a result, Occupy Dallas took the city to court for unconstitutionally restricting their “right to peaceably demonstrate in traditional public forums.”
Ultimately they reached a deal that allows them to stay in Pioneer Plaza until Sunday (Oct. 16), then relocate to a spot behind City Hall until mid-December.
9) No Potties
Occupy Dallas protesters have been walking a half-mile to use the nearest toilet since they started camping out in Pioneer Plaza because they could not afford the $1 million permit that would have allowed them to bring in a Porta-Potty. Now, that is commitment!
10) No Masks
In NYC at least five protesters were arrested for violating a state statute that dates back 150 years and prohibits masked gatherings of two or more people, with the exception of masquerade balls. With Halloween just weeks away, it will be interesting to see how the NYPD handles masked elementary kids hopped up on Sweet Tarts and Gummy Bears.
11) No Amplification…Mic Check?
After hearing that NYC protesters were required to have a permit to amplify sound, I would never in a million years have imagined a way around the bullhorn, microphone or speakers. I’m still mesmerized by the brilliance of the human microphone, in which listeners loudly repeat a speaker’s words in unison. I don’t think anyone, especially the NYPD, saw that coming.
12) Mass Arrests, Excessive Force
Weeks ago, the nation watched as the NYPD trapped and arrested over 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge. Protesters accused police of deliberately leading them to march onto the bridge only to arrest them hours later, suggesting that the move was coordinated from the top. Prior to the arrests, many Americans watched in disgust as videos surfaced of officers indiscriminately macing protestors in Zuccotti Park. More recently, an officer was caught on tape aggressively attacking protesters, including journalists, with a riot baton. Early this week, almost 150 people at Occupy Boston were arrested following a police raid that left some injured.
While the purpose of these tactics is to scare protesters and those who are considering joining the movement from participating, the opposite has occurred, galvanizing protesters’ solidarity and resolve.
When I spoke to Chris Hedges in Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza last week, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist remarked, “Those white-shirted cops in New York are the best publicity department those protesters have, because the vast majority of Americans sympathize with the movement, and when they see those cops coming in and whacking defenseless people, it just makes them angry.”
just a quick note parking spots are available for general public use a person could camp in a parking spot during non metered hours or protesters could take up parking spaces during metered time and pay for the metered time just like they were a car and like a car if there is a time limit to how long a single space can be occupied by a specific car then people could all switch spots thereby not occupying the same people in the same parking space for any amount of ticketable time.
October 16, 2011 at 3:19 amin addition to imaginative get-arounds and court challenges you can help by signing the change.org petition to stop police interference in the right to peacefully assemble. Yet one more pressure point to apply to a government determined to protect only itself and its 1%
http://www.change.org/petitions/occupy-america-petition-to-stop-police-interference
October 16, 2011 at 4:01 amAnother thing to watch out for if you are going to help OWS people stay warm by having them hop into your car is idling laws. Many states and cities have 3 minute (automobile) idling laws that can carry hefty fines, like $2,000.00.
October 16, 2011 at 4:12 amThese three ordinances were read by title twice last night and paessd by the required number of votes in each case, making these ordinances now paessd unless the Mayor were to veto one of them. Don’t forget there is a work study March 27th at 5:00 p.m. on the Commercial Inspections proposed ordinance as well as the Water Billing procedures proposed ordinance.
May 21, 2012 at 9:05 amThis OCW movement/protest/rebellion- is bound to turn into a fierce, bitter struggle to the death between the people and those in the seat of power, and it is high time that it came. I think of the first battle of the Civil War at Bull Run when the huge crowd that turned out to watch the fight brought their food, blankets and picnic baskets , as if they were going to a Sunday picnic. By the end of the day , the crowds had fled , leaving the baskets and blankets and food behind. They knew that afternoon that the war was going to be no Sunday picnic.
Neither will regaining this Democracy.
October 16, 2011 at 1:35 pmI think you got all of them. I’ll add one or two more, Noise Ordinance in Chicago, 8-8 and we are in a business section. So we can make noise while people are there but not afterwards. And that all the things you mentioned are happening somewhere is at the least unfair. And they should check out the word mobile, capable of being moved, and not always being moved. Peace.
October 20, 2011 at 12:38 pmOne of many great articles you’ve written . . . Do you happen to have the “citations” for the underlying ordinances, so-called “laws” allegedly being violated . . . Thanks and “Thanks” again for ALL that you do . . . Robert rjmcn@yahoo.com
March 25, 2012 at 3:50 pmNo one that I have spoken to at any of the ocpucy movements I have been to (in NY, LA & Oakland) have ever asked for a handout from the government. These are simply false assumptions being made. I think you see the movement as a left aligned movement and therefore believe that every far left agenda is automatically a part of the movement. This is not the case.Furthermore, the vast majority of us do not believe that wealthy INDIVIDUALS are inherently bad (with the exception of the few wall street crooks who led us into this financial meltdown). Rather, it is the collective purchasing power of the few mega rich/corporations that are bad. The role they play in shaping policy in government through lobbying and unlimited/ undisclosed donations to campaign funding is bad.As far as taxation, most are not angry that “Joe self-made millionaire” found his fortune. We believe that GE should not be able to make record profit and not pay a dime in taxes. People that accumulate their wealth through capital gains should be subject to the same taxes as the rest of us. NOT more taxes. the SAME taxes.Finally, it is not our goal to come up with one demand to unite under simply because the problems that plague our nation are many. There is no silver bullet that will cure all. The problems are systemic and in order for us to devise fundamental change, discussion and collaboration must be had on a national scale. Not discussion between political ideologues in washington, but between citizen who, I believe, unanimously agree that our system is broken. Yes, we each possess different opinions on how to go about fixing things and it is precisely this reason that open and candid communication between citizens is essential for change. Ideas and solutions spring forth through creative collaboration.Don’t you see. Our proposal has been to promote dialogue between all, and in that respect we have been successful since day one. Please. Open your mind to new ideas. I’m not saying you should agree. I simply encourage to have conversation as to why YOU believe the things that YOU do, rather than cut down and attempt to discredit the things that WE believe. There is nothing constructive about that.
May 21, 2012 at 2:39 am[…] 12 Most Absurd Laws Used to Stifle the Occupy Wall St. Movement Around the Country This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. « occupywallstreet: Solidarity from Pakistan. peaceblaster: #OWS (x) » […]
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March 17, 2013 at 10:48 amInstead of waiting to get kicked around by the cops, the OWC crowd needs to go on the offensive with a simple unifying goal- a push for economic democracy in the country.
This can be acheived only by getting rid of all unjust taxation and taxing land values alone.
Read Henry George’s “Progress and Poverty” , published in 1885. It got the endorsement
and support of some of the best thinking minds of the time- Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, Leo Tolstoy and Albert Einstein, to name a few. Of course today the book is completely ignored by mainstream economists, and for a big reason. They work for the very system that the OWS protesters are fighting and seeking to dismantle.
We cannot simply talk our way into a true demoracy- it will take genuine action, a bitter fight to the death as profound in nature and in consequence as the Civl War of 1860.
March 17, 2013 at 2:24 pm