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Good morning, everyone! And how are you all this fine Saturday morning?
Thanks to OhioGringo and Reddit, I have a fine video link and story to share with you from last Thursday:
CLEVELAND – Occupy Cleveland protesters have obtained a permit from the city of Cleveland for what they are calling a “public event.” The public event permit will allow the protesters to erect tents and other structures as long as each structure does not take up a space larger than a 10 foot by 10 foot area.
Since receiving the permit, the protesters have set up nearly 50 tents with large tarp coverings that span the entire length of their makeshift homes.
What spurred the change of permit? A change in the weather — and the generosity of the Cleveland Police:
The City of Cleveland said “No tents!” It started raining, so we errected tents anyway. They changed our permit over-night so we are now considered a “special event” and tents are permitted. Then the Cleveland Police Department came and donated their own personal tents and tarps to the movement.
The Occupy Cleveland folks were quite grateful to their law-enforcement-community benefactors, and showed it:
If anyone would like to express their appreciation for the CPD, the officer I spoke with this morning said the absolute best way to show your gratitude is to write a letter.
Michael McGrath Chief of Police 1300 Ontario St. Cleveland, Ohio 44113
T: 216.623.5000 F: 216.623.5584
Quite a contrast to New York, where Bloomberg and his police chief Ray Kelly have pretty much told the cops to be as nasty as possible:
A reminder to us all to obey the Golden Rule. Be like the cops in Cleveland, not the cops in NYC — and especially not like the white-shirted NYC cops, who have a habit of violence, it would seem.
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Speaking of NYPD being as nasty as possible: if you haven’t seen this video – or even if you have – prepare to be appalled and outraged.
Note: you might want to turn your volume down because at about 10 seconds in it gets really loud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxZ8_JdKm0Q&feature=player_embedded
Good morning and thanks PW.
Sounds like the Cleveland police are going the way of the Austin police. Supportive and peacefull. Thank dawg.
thank you Phoenix Woman
anyone wishing to can email Chief McGrath on this page — select “Department of Public Safety” I did.
the last thing I expected to do this week (or ever again) was to commend a Law Enforcement entity for simply doing the right thing – but good behavior must be reinforced and commended –
I really like the idea of the Occupiers setting up a goody table for the coppers, will try and get some pizza sent out their way at some point today.
Cleveland, who knew ?
Nice piece, PW. Thanks for taking the time to look into this. One thing’s for sure, Cleveland ain’t New York. The Cleveland City Council endorsed the Occupy Cleveland movement last night:
http://occupycleveland.com/2011/10/12/occupy-cleveland-media-alert-city-of-cleveland-supports-oc/
From that story, there’s this little jewel: “All in all, City Hall seemed pretty excited. One Councilman was even heard singing John Lennon’s “Power to the People” in the hallways after the meeting.”
I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there. Also very encouraging.
This old city has been through a lot over the last few decades. Its economic base has been crushed by the corporatists, but they have failed to crush its spirit. Right now, I’m very proud of my city.
PW–Thanks for update. Thank you message sent to Cleveland Dept. of Public Safety.
Good morning PW. It warms my heart to hear about Occupy Cleveland and how supportive the police are. I grew up in the suburbs of Euclid and Wickliffe about 15 miles from downtown.
Spent 4 wonderful days & nights at Freedom Plaza in DC, and the federal park police around the plaza were as a whole supportive and hospitable. They were very approachable. One of them even offered $20 to help purchase some bottled water.
What a nice compare and contrast story. Well, nice for Cleveland. Not so nice for NYC.
I’ve been following Lisa’s coverage of Occupy LA and it sounds like the police are being pretty cool here too. The Mayor visited the crowd and distributed rain ponchos the day it was raining.
PW – I like this version of the Golden Rule – I want to be like the Cleveland Cops. Not those other ones.
‘Public Event’. Gotta like the framing. ‘Assembly’ has a good ring, too. ‘Citizens’ and ‘Petitioners’ work better than ‘protesters’, imo.
I think we should reference the constitutional sources of our actions, like ‘peaceful assembly’, ‘redress of grievances’, and lose the ‘protest’ stuff.
So Europe and Asia are calling for a world wide protest October 15th. Is there going to be one in the U.S. today?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyziG5bUuBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLIOVqAMeMo&feature=related
A better version of the video is here. The victim is also correctly identified.
Your city is showing us the way to go, OG. :-)
I delivered a serious note of thanks to police chief….members of my family have died to preserve..”right to assemble” well done chief….damn well done sir
Aside from the fact that Cleveland (like Detroit and many other cities in “fly-over country”) has been decimated by the actions of the banksters, might there be another reason for the Cleveland cops to be nice? — i.e. lots of folks in blue-collar Cleveland and the surrounding area might not be quite so able to restrain themselves to non-violence in the event of police misconduct? I’m just making a wild ass guess, but might a big occupy protest in Cleveland have a large contingent of guys in work boots and hard hats, with big forearms?
Honestly, those guys you mention aren’t present in Occupy Cleveland, at least not yet. Having been down there myself, I don’t get the feeling the Cleveland Police are acting the way they are out of fear, but rather out of genuine sympathy for and agreement with the protesters.
It could be, however, that the Cleveland politicians are acting that way out of fear of potential repercussions. After all, the Mayor’s office DID change its position on tents, but only AFTER his own police department defied the ban. At least that’s how it appears, but I could easily be wrong. Mayor Jackson is no Governor Kasich or President Obama.
This entire area, all of northeast Ohio(hell, the whole state), has been decimated by corporate greed. It’s really not all that surprising that local officeholders are in agreement with OWS. Why shouldn’t they be? Most are natives, and have seen their cities and towns decline, all in the name of “free enterprise” and “globalization.”
That said, you still have a valid point. If push comes to shove, those guys in work boots and hard hats with big forearms could show up before you can say “Jamie Dimon.” They’ve been screwed. Hard. And they’re getting more pissed off by the day. And not at OWS.