Occupy Santa Rosa vows civil disobedience

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Occupy Santa Rosa vows civil disobedience
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Richard Canini, 62, of Santa Rosa listens in on the daily general assembly, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011, during Occupy Santa Rosa at Santa Rosa City Hall.
KENT PORTER/ The Press Democrat

By MARTIN ESPINOZA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 12:10 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 6:25 p.m.

With an eye on re-energizing their movement, Occupy Santa Rosa organizers are planning a “full-scale occupation of City Hall” this weekend with tents and sleeping bags, items that are banned by the city.
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At the Occupy site at City Hall on Wednesday, demonstrators began distributing a flier that called for supporters to “bring your Halloween costume, sleeping bags, tents to support erecting a tent city.”

The move, which invites a police response, is intended to bolster sagging participation in the protest that has being going on round-the-clock for 12 days.

In other cities, including Oakland and Atlanta, encampments have prompted clashes with authorities and mass arrests.

“What we've noticed here is the presence has been dwindling,” said Thomas Cooper, an Occupy organizer. “It's hard to sleep here. It's cold and we really need to re-establish a space here for people to stay in, and also be kind of an organizing hub for what we're doing with Occupy Santa Rosa in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street.”

The movement is directed at the nation's widening wealth gap, with a goal of curtailing the ability of the super rich to influence politics and the economy.

Some of the half-dozen participants described their plan as an act of civil disobedience that will follow a rally and march planned for 2 p.m. Saturday at the steps of City Hall. Demonstrators have maintained a presence there since Oct. 15.

The action would represent a break from what has been for the most part a cooperative relationship with city officials and the police.

Demonstrators have been allowed to maintain a 24-hour presence at City Hall as long as they do not violate ordinances that forbid them from sleeping, cooking or setting up a camp. They were denied a permit for such activities.

Occupy protesters said Wednesday that they are trying to drum up support and participation in the coming days in anticipation of a confrontation with police.

On Tuesday evening in Oakland, Occupy protesters clashed with officers clad in riot gear. In numerous videos circulating on the Internet, officers are seen using tear gas on demonstrators and demonstrators throwing objects at police.

Santa Rosa Police Chief Tom Schwedhelm said Wednesday that his department will continue to “encourage the voluntary compliance with the law.” He said officers will take whatever action they deem appropriate on Saturday.

There have been no major conflicts between local Occupy protesters and police, though a number of citations have been issued for such things as camping and cooking at City Hall.

Schwedhelm said that as of Tuesday, police had issued 11 citations, eight of them for camping.

Another five citations had been issued at nearby Comstock Mall and the 300 block of Third Street for violations including possession and use of marijuana, smoking, possession of alcohol and for camping.

The area across the street from the Occupy site at City Hall has attracted a number of people, some of them transients. Protesters say that while they sympathize with this group, their presence has become increasingly problematic, with some of them using drugs and alcohol.

Occupy organizers have reiterated a zero-tolerance policy they established last week that forbids any drug or alcohol use at the site.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or [email protected].

The link below goes to the archived interview with Santa Rosa Chief of Police, Tom Schedhelm on KSRO's Morning News.

https://www.ksro.com/Programs/KSROAM...tryID=10306881

As always, I am grateful for a place to occasionally share interviews that I think will be of interest to WaccoBB.

Thank you,
Tony Landucci
KSRO News Producer

Curtiss Kimn of KSRO did an interview with Occupy Santa Rosa organizers Sage Keaton and Karyl Averill this morning (Oct 28) to talk about the plans to illegally camp out at City Hall this weekend. Here it here.

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete" ~Buckminster Fuller

Dear Occupy Santa Rosa,

I want to put this out to you as an alternative to setting up a tent city at City Hall.

It's about energy. Your energy.

How much better would you be able to come up with real solutions and implement them if you went home each night and had a good night's sleep, and warm food to eat and came back every morning?

This is not a tree sit where the tree might be cut down in your absence.

Just because other cities are setting up tent cities doesn't mean you have to.

If you do, the majority of your focus and energy will get diverted into dealing with the police.

What a waste!

A devoted group of people who show up every day is just as, if not more, effective.

As it is now, the general assemblies I've listened to via your ustream are mostly about how to camp as a group, keep the place clean, and deal with physical logistics. (I have not listened for the last week, because it is BORING, so please forgive me if you've had some great ideas I've missed).

What we really need is people becoming educated, and then building, creating and implementing new systems to replace the old, and then spreading the word.

Do you have a community currency?

How much more effective would you be in getting to the education, ideas, and action phase of this movement, if you had a good night's sleep every night, good food, good sex, internet access to spread the latest education and ideas, and were not getting colds because of your exposure to the elements?

I feel disconnected from being able to have a think tank with you, because I can't get there, and you have no internet access.

Please see my posts in the Occupy Everywhere category here at www.waccobb.net That's a starting place for what I want to talk about.

Please take my message to the next general assembly.

Thank you,
Liz:waccosun:

The following is from an email that was forwarded from Occupy Ukiah to my email network. I do not know the original author but I do know the two forwarders, very well. I have forwarded it to my political email lists.

The original email was written yesterday. I do not know the specific context for this information (i.e. When Sgt. Celli spoke with OSR, or where.) and it is not indicated in the Occupy Santa Rosa feeds I have been using to keep up on matters as relayed by OSR core participants. (Two FB accounts and an OSR! website.)

"Sergeant Celli of the Santa Rosa Police Force, some of whom were participating in police violence at Oakland 2 nights ago, informed Occupy Santa Rosa that the Santa Rosa Police will be arresting ALL, (no citations) who Occupy at City Hall. He also promised that they would use 'all necessary force' to make the arrests, including tear gas and pepper spray. I suppose this also means they will employ their 'rubber bullets' if necessary.

Please consider calling the Mayor of Santa Rosa and City Clerk,
so that the mayor does not order war on peaceful protesters, as did the mayor of Oakland.

Mayor: 707-543-3010
Santa Rosa City Clerk: (707) 543-3016

Thanks so much"

I also have to ask: What's the point? What will you prove or accomplish by challenging the police to enforce relatively innocuous laws against camping on the city hall lawn? There are, as ubaru says, much better things to do with your time and energy. Like sitting down together for dialog, and inviting others to join you. Take a look at the whole situation, recognize that it's been this way for decades, if not centuries. At some point we have to stop trying to get them to change the game, because they won't. It's their game, it's working for them, why would they change it?

This is not something as plain and simple as a war we want to end. This is a vast, deeply entrenched, unjust and corrupt institution that has been centuries in the making. It's a dysfunctional dinosaur, and it's replacement is way past due. We are neither ready or able to dismantle it, however, until we come up with another way to live and a social structure to support it.

At some point, we have to stop playing their game and figure out ways to meet our needs that don't support their systems. As long as theirs is the only game in town, we're in big trouble! So let's not waste time "kicking against the pricks;" we'll just end up with very sore toes. Let's instead design a new system based on what we really want: peace, justice, all basic human needs met and ecologically sustainable technologies.

CSummer

Quote:

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Posted in reply to the post by CSummer:

I also have to ask: What's the point? What will you prove or accomplish by challenging the police to enforce relatively innocuous laws against camping on the city hall lawn? There are, as ubaru says, much better things to do with your time and energy. Like sitting down together for dialog, and inviting others to join you. Take a look at the whole situation, recognize that it's been this way for decades, if not centuries. At some point we have to stop trying to get them to change the game, because they won't. It's their game, it's working for them, why would they change it?

This is not something as plain and simple as a war we want to end. This is a vast, deeply entrenched, unjust and corrupt institution that has been centuries in the making. It's a dysfunctional dinosaur, and it's replacement is way past due. We are neither ready or able to dismantle it, however, until we come up with another way to live and a social structure to support it.

At some point, we have to stop playing their game and figure out ways to meet our needs that don't support their systems. As long as theirs is the only game in town, we're in big trouble! So let's not waste time "kicking against the pricks;" we'll just end up with very sore toes. Let's instead design a new system based on what we really want: peace, justice, all basic human needs met and ecologically sustainable technologies.

CSummer

---

If you have to ask it may be because you haven't been at the General Assemblies where people sit and dialog and make decisions by consensus. I, for one, think it would be better challenge the big banks that are at the root of the economic crisis. This nation was founded by an elite class of land owners (rather, thieves of the land).

There are good suggestions offered here but it doesn't have to be either/or. There is a world-wide movement calling attention to the great disparity between the wealthy elite and the rest of us. The encampments are demonstrative of this disparity. The City Hall and streets are public commons for citizens to exercise their First Amendment Rights.

Although I agree that challenging the system may do nothing to change what is perceptibly self-destructing, I believe there is an underlying purpose in demonstrating and gathering. At the same time we are complaining about the abuses being perpetrated, we are connecting with others of like mind and creating a network of new direction. Who cares what knee-jerk reactions the system has to our displays? The unity of our outrage, our determination to fix things, and our good intent is magnified by sharing it with others in gatherings, and I see us creating the new world with these positive goals and the magnitude of our network. Thumb your noses at the 1% and the rest of us will unite to make a more enlightened world.

Quote:

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Posted in reply to the post by "Mad" Miles:

The following is from an email that was forwarded from Occupy Ukiah to my email network. I do not know the original author but I do know the two forwarders, very well. I have forwarded it to my political email lists.

The original email was written yesterday. I do not know the specific context for this information (i.e. When Sgt. Celli spoke with OSR, or where.) and it is not indicated in the Occupy Santa Rosa feeds I have been using to keep up on matters as relayed by OSR core participants. (Two FB accounts and an OSR! website.)

"Sergeant Celli of the Santa Rosa Police Force, some of whom were participating in police violence at Oakland 2 nights ago, informed Occupy Santa Rosa that the Santa Rosa Police will be arresting ALL, (no citations) who Occupy at City Hall. He also promised that they would use 'all necessary force' to make the arrests, including tear gas and pepper spray. I suppose this also means they will employ their 'rubber bullets' if necessary.

Please consider calling the Mayor of Santa Rosa and City Clerk,
so that the mayor does not order war on peaceful protesters, as did the mayor of Oakland.

Mayor: 707-543-3010
Santa Rosa City Clerk: (707) 543-3016

Thanks so much"

---

I've heard recently that the SRPD (Santa Rosa PD has been upset w/ rumors of their attendance to Oakland - evidentally they were NOT there and that it was probably some other department w/ SRPD on uniforms (perhaps San Rafael?). But it is important to call the city to express your support for the occupation.

Quote:

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Posted in reply to the post by someguy:

I was there last night and there was a serious lack of any connecting with others or creating of any networks... It was a bunch of seemingly apathetic people trying to look cool.... Nobody was interested in dialogue, nobody cared if anything actually changed. We all just sat around with our face in our hands while a dozen or so "peppy dancers" waved signs at cars, desperately pleading with the drivers for a honk of their horn, as if it were a big accomplishment. I felt like standing up and yelling at these people. "What the F are we doing here!!!" But I could tell that their was no fight in these dogs. It was pointless.

---

Here is an interesting article forwarded by Peter Phillips to the racial justice allies group that has several links to other articles that touch on the concerns that Barry is bringing up here:

----- Original Message ----- From: Peter Phillips
To: dansc ; Ann Tompkins ; Liz Basile ; Racial Justice Allies of Sonoma County
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2011 7:31 PM
Subject: [Anti-Racist Allies SC] For Sharing with Occupied Folks: #SomeThingsAreBiggerThanAnyOfUs



Occupy Participation (part 2): #SomeThingsAreBiggerThanAnyOfUs
Mickey Z.


https://www.fairsharecommonheritage....erthananyofus/

"There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

- Anais Nin

As the eloquent Ms. Nin explains above, there is such a thing as a pain threshold. In the struggle for social change, this may be the point at which inaction become more agonizing than the fear we all harbor about stepping up and challenging this destructive culture.

I've often wondered when we will collectively decide that we're less afraid of the State than of living on a planet without trees, without drinkable water, without arable land, without a hint of justice. Thanks to Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and all related efforts, this moment is getting closer with each passing day and in that spirit, I'll say ssssshhhhhhh…

Silence your cell phones, your TVs, silence the noise in your head...and just listen. Listen carefully. Can you hear it? It's a cry from the future, a mournful plea begging us to capture this moment. Can you hear it? Will you hear it? Or have you gotten so accustomed to losing that you choose instead to cover your ears, bury your head—finding endless excuses and myriad methods to ignore and/or discredit the effort?

Listen again. Listen closer. This is probably our last, best chance...it's nothing less than the call to global revolution. How will you answer?

Some perspective for the 98%...
Up till now, perhaps only 1% of the 99% have even heard the call and I'll get to them in a minute. This is for the other 98%:

There was a time when human slavery was believed too deeply entrenched in American culture to ever be abolished. But the movement to end this "peculiar institution" was made up of individuals willing to recognize that some things in life are bigger than any of us.

Whether they literally risked their lives by rescuing slaves and running the Underground Railroad or played a role by sewing clothes or blankets for escaped slaves or lending financial support or handing out pamphlets or even writing books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the effort needed every single one of these brave humans doing their part—small or large.

What seems impossible and irreversible today can be addressed if we're willing to wake up and do the hard work. If we’re willing to stop making excuses for the reprehensible leaders (sic)—both political and corporate—who profit from our complacency.

So, the next time you’re about zone out to a Will & Grace re-run, why not do some deep contemplation instead? Take a good, long look into your heart and an even longer look at the choices you make all day, every day—not from place of guilt and shame but with a sense of revelation. Accept the challenge to be better a human being, a more responsible earthling.
Nothing will change until we change our minds but it takes courage to perform self-examination. It takes courage to accept everything you know just might be wrong. For the record, it takes far more courage to do this than to willingly enlist to be paid to wage illegal and immoral wars.
It's not the volunteer mercenaries in places like Afghanistan who are fighting for our freedom. It's OWS.
Some perspective for the other 1%...
Maybe 1% of the 1% who have heard the call are opting—for a variety of reasons—to discount its urgency for reasons ranging from isolated incidents of sexism-racism-classism to word usage to (possibly) being bitter and jealous that their hard work never captured the public's attention as OWS has. There are even some activists expending energy hating on the drum circles. #huh?

You spend much of your life contemplating social change but when the revolution makes an unannounced appearance, you choose to downplay it? Perhaps the noise of displaying superior vision is drowning out the desperate call for help. If so, I suggest:

De-occupy the grad school dissertations, reject the fascism of semantics, kick the habit of cynicism disguised as cleverness, scrap the resentment and the rivalries, ditch the dated doctrines, risk imperfection, and simply—for at least a little while—choose feeling over thinking.

Get quiet and listen to your allies in Egypt, when they pronounce:

"We stand with you not just in your attempts to bring down the old but to experiment with the new. We are not protesting. Who is there to protest to? What could we ask them for that they could grant? We are occupying. We are reclaiming those same spaces of public practice that have been commodified, privatized and locked into the hands of faceless bureaucracy, real estate portfolios, and police ‘protection’. Hold on to these spaces, nurture them, and let the boundaries of your occupations grow."

Experiment with the new…

Of course, OWS is not perfect and some occupants act like assholes and mistakes have been made (and will continue to be made). I'm not suggesting anyone march in lockstep but jesus-occupied-christ, how about a little more patience and cohesion on the Left?

The future doesn't send text messages
We can’t be as indifferent or leisurely as those who came before us. They didn’t think urgently enough about future generations so now we have to work twice as hard. It sucks, I know, but this not an issue of fairness. It’s about survival.

Returning to Anais Nin and the opening quote: It's time to blossom. Even with all the fear, pain, dread, and uncertainty we may (or may not) experience while blossoming, remaining tight in the bud is no longer an option…for us or for the planet.
So, please ask yourself: What unique gifts do I possess that I can share—as soon as possible—with the growing OWS movement? The call has been made so surrender your list of preconditions and just leap. Who knows, a net may even appear.
Listen again to our compatriots in Cairo:

"Our only real advice to you is to continue, keep going and do not stop. Occupy more, find each other, build larger and larger networks and keep discovering new ways to experiment with social life, consensus, and democracy. Discover new ways to use these spaces, discover new ways to hold on to them and never give them up again. Resist fiercely when you are under attack, but otherwise take pleasure in what you are doing, let it be easy, fun even. We are all watching one another now, and from Cairo we want to say that we are in solidarity with you, and we love you all for what you are doing."
On that note of solidarity, I beseech you to rise above your urge to critique, your need to be right, your fear of the unknown…and just listen. It's not about purity. It's not about who did what or said what first. It's not about following a predetermined game plan. It's not about waiting for the ideal time to jump on board. It's a fuckin' revolution—in the name of all life on earth—so shrug off the excuses and get involved.
The anti-slavery movement recognized that some things in life are bigger than any of us. Today, the entire planet is enslaved…to profit-seeking, landbase-consuming corporations and the corrupt politicians they own (yes, including the vaunted Pope of Hope). Thankfully, this generation’s abolitionists are choosing to take a stand and create change. Not ask for change, create change. And they need your support. They need you.
Silence the sirens of archaic archetypes, open your minds to new configurations, and heed the call of the future. I promise it'll be a lot more fun that you ever imagined.
#OccupyImperfection. #OccupyUrgency. #OccupyParticipation.
Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook

The latest interviews on Occupy Santa Rosa. I attended the City Council meet meeting along with what I counted as 100 Occupiers, protesters and supporters. There were several speakers that had headline making comments that included: "These problems can't be solved during normal business hours" and "It costs a lot to be poor" and much more. These are the interviews with Mayor Ernesto Olivares and Councilman Gary Wysocky, "the morning after:"

https://www.ksro.com/Programs/KSROAMNews/Interviews/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10309140

https://www.ksro.com/Programs/KSROAM...tryID=10309139

I agree with one of the posts above...
If people are going to protest, I think it would be much more effective to go home at some point. Protest 16, 18 hrs. a day if you want...But, no need for tent 'city's'...
I bet there's a lot of yards to clean up, and things people can do to help those people out who did donate free stuff...(How much of 'return the good favor' is going on?)...
I'm gettin' the impression it's just a lot of taking free stuff, and wanting more free stuff, and it looks just as greedy as the banksters...Just on a 'lower' level...

I'm very disturbed that local businesses in Oakland are suffering because of the occupiers, and who knows where else...That sure seems like shootin' yourself in the foot.
I attempted to tell an 'occupier' about this the other day...and they denied it was even happening, and if it was - who cares...'they have to join us'...
Yeah, that's a nice caring stance regarding people's 'liberty'...and a good way to not feel responsible about anything...
Maybe, some of the 'righties' are right...
'They don't want more 'freedom', they want more oppression...

I 'ran into' a security guard that was at the bank when a bunch of 'occupiers' tried to bust into the bank in S. Rosa...He stated that they were pushing on the doors, and he was trying to keep 'em out - and they kept pushing...At some point he could see the glass 'waving' and got worried it was going to break, and there were customers in the bank, so he had to let them in...
They had a bullhorn, and shouted through it...The manager, and others were 'freakin' out'...And the manager didn't want to but had to call the cops...

This is no way to have a 'peaceful' protest...You aren't suppose to keep pushing on glass doors that can break, shout through bullhorns in a space like that and freak people out...
Aren't you suppose to go in quietly and sit down in the middle of the bank until they come to arrest you, and then go limp?...
------------------------

All the while....While people are hangin' out for hrs. and hrs. at parks, and all...
The tea-party people are workin' hard to get into offices and change legislation...
They have it right...That's where their energy is going, and that's what creates the change...Hard work...