Occupy Orlando, Day 8 - An Aftermath
Website: http://www.occupyorlando.org/
Facebook Link: http://www.facebook.com/OccupyOrlandoFL
There's a lot you miss when you don't hang around, especially after dark. Sometime around 2am, on Saturday, 22 October, day 7 of the Occupy Orlando movement, Orlando police swept into the area in force and arrested 19 protesters. By the time all was said and done the 19 were taken to the 33rd street station and charged with misdemeanor trespass on property after they'd been with warned. Many of the protesters arrested are being held on a $500 bond, which is steep if you've got little to start with.
Transcribed from the Trespass Warning Authorization
As I think of what these brave folk, both young and old, are trying to show us, I think about certain elements of the establishment that should be out supporting them, specifically the Christian churches in the area and the Democratic party. They are quite noticeable by their absence.
Central Christian Church is just down the block from Occupy Orlando on West Ivanhoe, right on lovely Lake Concorde. It wouldn't take any time or trouble to walk down from their beautifully trimmed and well-kept church property to provide something as simple as food, water, and comfort to the protesters. They wouldn't even have to discomfit themselves by standing with them. What about other Protestant groups? I'm a Methodist. I've yet to see any official Methodists (i.e. with the UMC emblem held high for all to see) as part of this group. As a visiting member of First Methodist (two consecutive Sundays now), I think it's nigh past time to join and to bring this up before the congregation and get some righteous fire burning in support of these folks.
As for the Democrats... There's absolutely no excuse not to be there officially. Not slinking in to hide around the edges. But right in there, front and center, every minute of every day. It's not enough for Official Democrats to show up for a quick in-and-out and a few sound bites. I can understand the Republicans and their Teabagger brain-damaged radical wing. Their's is a good honest hatred for social issues. But the Democrats have become political jellyfish, disintegrating at the slightest political resistance from the Republicans. The cowardly Democratic party has lost its moral and ethical compass, its own sense of true righteous indignation. Instead of standing shoulder to shoulder, unified and facing down the corrupt philosophy of a corrupt Republican party, they cower like sheep, hiding away from the Republican wolves in the vain hope that somehow they will survive in what has now become a wild and lawless political wilderness, ruled with corrupt impunity by the Republican party. And when political seasons come and go, and the Democrats loose, then sit around licking their wounds and bleating their looses. The City Ugly needs to rename Senator Beth Johnson Park to something more appropriate, such as Senator Marco Rubio I-Lied-About-My-Parents-Being-Cuban-Exiles Park.
We live in such sorry times in this state. We have an official crook for a governor, a rubber-stamp Republican state house that is getting ready to strip another $1.6 billion out of our state budget to balance it (and you can guess where it'll all come from), and then we stand around and wonder why 99% are so bloody angry.
Update 24 October
When I talk about the police being the enemy, I am not speaking of violence. The police are backed by the force of law and the force of arms which any sane and rational person would be a damned fool to test. My comments are with regards to trust, and right now I don't trust the police any more than I trust the slouching shambling Republican zombie mob they appear to serve.
A full link to all Occupy Orlando entries in this series: http://blogbeebe.blogspot.com/search/label/OccupyOrlando
Facebook Link: http://www.facebook.com/OccupyOrlandoFL
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| Sunday 23 October 2011 - Day 8 |
There's a lot you miss when you don't hang around, especially after dark. Sometime around 2am, on Saturday, 22 October, day 7 of the Occupy Orlando movement, Orlando police swept into the area in force and arrested 19 protesters. By the time all was said and done the 19 were taken to the 33rd street station and charged with misdemeanor trespass on property after they'd been with warned. Many of the protesters arrested are being held on a $500 bond, which is steep if you've got little to start with.
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| Trespass Warning Authorization taped to the oak on the vacant lot |
Transcribed from the Trespass Warning Authorization
Case Number: 2011-467351The gloves are off. The honeymoon is over. The police, in league with the powers-that-be in Orlando, the City Ugly, twisted the law to their own use and forced their will onto peaceful protesters to protect a vacant lot and building across the street from the Chamber of Commerce, next to a park named after a former Democratic state senator (more on that later). Whatever positive attitude I had towards the Orlando police has been effectively destroyed by this particular action. They, along with the Teabaggers and the Republican party in general are now the enemy.
Rebecca Camacho, General Manager World Trade Towers LLC
Business Name: Vacant building/lot
Located at: 68 S Ivanhoe BV
Property description: Gray building w/boarded up windows and property
Witnessing Officer: OFC Alan Kelley #12607
Authority (print): Lt. Timothy E. Crews
Expiration date: 10/22/12 (one year from today)
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| The highly valuable "gray building with boarded up windows" |
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| The highly valuable vacant lot the day after the police action |
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| The vacant lot on Friday 21 October, Occupy Day 6 |
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| If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Questions for every generation |
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| We hold these truths to be self evident |
As I think of what these brave folk, both young and old, are trying to show us, I think about certain elements of the establishment that should be out supporting them, specifically the Christian churches in the area and the Democratic party. They are quite noticeable by their absence.
Central Christian Church is just down the block from Occupy Orlando on West Ivanhoe, right on lovely Lake Concorde. It wouldn't take any time or trouble to walk down from their beautifully trimmed and well-kept church property to provide something as simple as food, water, and comfort to the protesters. They wouldn't even have to discomfit themselves by standing with them. What about other Protestant groups? I'm a Methodist. I've yet to see any official Methodists (i.e. with the UMC emblem held high for all to see) as part of this group. As a visiting member of First Methodist (two consecutive Sundays now), I think it's nigh past time to join and to bring this up before the congregation and get some righteous fire burning in support of these folks.
As for the Democrats... There's absolutely no excuse not to be there officially. Not slinking in to hide around the edges. But right in there, front and center, every minute of every day. It's not enough for Official Democrats to show up for a quick in-and-out and a few sound bites. I can understand the Republicans and their Teabagger brain-damaged radical wing. Their's is a good honest hatred for social issues. But the Democrats have become political jellyfish, disintegrating at the slightest political resistance from the Republicans. The cowardly Democratic party has lost its moral and ethical compass, its own sense of true righteous indignation. Instead of standing shoulder to shoulder, unified and facing down the corrupt philosophy of a corrupt Republican party, they cower like sheep, hiding away from the Republican wolves in the vain hope that somehow they will survive in what has now become a wild and lawless political wilderness, ruled with corrupt impunity by the Republican party. And when political seasons come and go, and the Democrats loose, then sit around licking their wounds and bleating their looses. The City Ugly needs to rename Senator Beth Johnson Park to something more appropriate, such as Senator Marco Rubio I-Lied-About-My-Parents-Being-Cuban-Exiles Park.
We live in such sorry times in this state. We have an official crook for a governor, a rubber-stamp Republican state house that is getting ready to strip another $1.6 billion out of our state budget to balance it (and you can guess where it'll all come from), and then we stand around and wonder why 99% are so bloody angry.
Update 24 October
When I talk about the police being the enemy, I am not speaking of violence. The police are backed by the force of law and the force of arms which any sane and rational person would be a damned fool to test. My comments are with regards to trust, and right now I don't trust the police any more than I trust the slouching shambling Republican zombie mob they appear to serve.
A full link to all Occupy Orlando entries in this series: http://blogbeebe.blogspot.com/search/label/OccupyOrlando
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