
{"id":21986,"date":"2011-11-17T13:19:54","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T18:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=21986"},"modified":"2011-11-17T13:19:54","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T18:19:54","slug":"questions-linger-after-occupation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/11\/17\/questions-linger-after-occupation\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions linger after occupation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_21987\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21987\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Occupy.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"332\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21987\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Occupy.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Occupy-113x75.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Occupy-150x99.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Occupy-100x66.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21987\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amanda Ashley, a member of the Occupy Chapel Hill movement, gives a visitor to the Occupy camp information about the movement on Tuesday. \tPhoto by Duncan Hoge<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong>By Taylor Sisk<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><br \/>\nIn the aftermath of an incident in which a group of some 70 people occupied the former Yates Motor Co building at 419 W. Franklin St., questions have been raised about these individuals\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 connection with the Occupy Wall Street movement, and a broader dialogue has ensued about the aims of those in this community who identify with the movement. <\/p>\n<p>Concerns have also been raised about the police\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response to the occupation of the Yates building.<\/p>\n<p>The incident at the building, a former Chrysler dealership, began Saturday night, led, reportedly, by attendees of the Carrboro Anarchist Bookfair, and resulted in a dramatic encounter with police Sunday afternoon, with seven arrests.   <\/p>\n<p>A statement issued by Occupy Chapel Hill said the takeover was neither discussed nor authorized by Occupy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s general assembly; rather, it was an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153autonomous action by a group of people, many of whom do nevertheless identify as part of the larger Occupy Wall Street Movement.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The statement also expressed outrage at what it called the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disproportionate and disturbing use of force by the Chapel Hill Police Department.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>At a press conference held at Chapel Hill Town Hall on Monday, police Chief Chris Blue read a statement that said, in part, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153According to the intelligence we gathered, there were concerns that our law enforcement officers would be met with resistance, including possible violence. Individuals who have engaged in the take-over of private property in other cities have been known to barricade themselves in, place traps in buildings and otherwise destroy property.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The press conference drew a number of the protesters who occupied the Yates building, and both Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Blue were heckled repeatedly as they read statements to the crowd and answered questions. <\/p>\n<p>Protesters held signs reading \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cops: Army of the 1%,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Civility? Not with police on our streets!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are not intimidated\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as they stood in the back of the room, shouting at Blue and Kleinschmidt that the police raid was violent and caused psychological injury. <\/p>\n<p>When asked about the detainment of those outside the building, including a <em>News &#038; Observer<\/em> reporter, Blue said police detained everyone at the scene, as a number of people had been observed going into and out of the building. Blue said police determined who was related to the break-in, and released those who were not. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153[The reporter] was treated like anyone else who was outside the front of the building at that point,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<br \/>\nKleinschmidt said he was concerned about the detainment of the reporter and that he had asked the town manager to investigate it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chosen weapons<\/strong><br \/>\nKassandra Ofray, one of the protesters who was arrested on Sunday, said police made no attempt to contact the group before rushing into the building. <\/p>\n<p>Blue confirmed that police did not attempt to have a dialogue with the people inside the building prior to entering, other than the police\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s initial entry into the building and encounter with the group on Saturday night, which police determined to be threatening.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had no sense of what threat might lurk in that building, although we certainly did have concerns based on the \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 materials we had gathered,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were operating on the information we had gleaned from watching the group as well as the encounter we had.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>When asked about the weaponry used, which included long-range rifles, Blue said various weapons are selected for certain tasks based on the situation. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That is a tool that we use in a variety of applications, thankfully in this community not very often,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton said he might approach such a situation differently.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would have gone for providing a little more warning to the people inside the building,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, while adding that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know all the details.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, he said, Chapel Hill responded in a manner that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in accordance with the law. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There were certainly people in the Yates Motor Company building that believe in the nonviolent struggle for social change, but there were others who expressly do not,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very difficult problem for the Occupy Chapel Hill General Assembly to deal with,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The ground rules of the general assembly call for the broad inclusion of people who have a wide array of political and philosophical beliefs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Differences<\/strong><br \/>\nReactions to the occupation of the building among Occupy Chapel Hill members have been varied.<\/p>\n<p>Amanda Ashley, an Occupy Wall Street protester and Carrboro resident, said that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ideally these sort of approaches are reconciled within our general assembly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As in any political movement, there are differences of approach,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ashley said. <\/p>\n<p>However, she noted, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all one group. We are united.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If the open dialogue between the police department and Occupy had continued, I think this could have been resolved in a much more peaceful manner.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Occupy Chapel Hill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relations with the police had been positive, she said. <\/p>\n<p>Michal Osterweil, a lecturer at UNC, longtime Chapel Hill-Carrboro resident and an active Occupy Chapel Hill participant, said she believes the occupation will help bring a discussion of certain issues to the table, among them, the use of public space and abandoned property. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Out-of-town landlords can hold on to private property, incurring very little costs, while buildings that could be put to potentially good uses that would better serve the public good stand abandoned,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Osterweil said.<\/p>\n<p>While certainly legal, she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Given poverty, homelessness and a general need to have vibrant communities accessible to all,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a question is raised of whether \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the legal corresponds to the moral or ethical.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The occupation of the building has sparked a lot of conversation at the Occupy Chapel Hill camp about differences within the Occupy movement, said Lila Little, an Orange County resident who said she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been coming to the camp for three weeks. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given Chapel Hill more opportunity to talk,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Little said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and people are more willing to stop by here and talk with us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think they got off kind of light considering what they did,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d an occupier who goes by the name Sign said of those arrested. He said he believes the police did what they deemed necessary to secure the building. <\/p>\n<p>But, he added, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel comfortable saying that I associated with a number of them that were in the building, and even now I am not going to disassociate with them because of what happened. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They are going to do what they are going to do, and there is a certain amount of rule breaking that is going to take place.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe cusp\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><br \/>\nOsterweil characterizes Occupy Chapel Hill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s connection with Occupy presences in other cities as significant but largely informal, one of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sharing news, ideas, stories, information, tactics and lessons.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hearing about things that have worked or not worked in other occupations, both in the U.S. and globally, has been an important part of our process.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would also say that we stand in solidarity with these movements,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Osterweil said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153although we obviously recognize that each occupation has its particular strengths and weaknesses, and even problems.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She said efforts have been made to meet and network with nearby occupations.<\/p>\n<p>Issues raised by occupiers across the country include a lack of oversight of Wall Street, wealth disparity, unemployment, the high cost of education, foreclosure rates and globalization.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the movement faces criticism, and concerns from many who are generally sympathetic, that it has failed to clearly articulate a policy platform.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When we think about movements, we tend to think of mobilized people fighting for a clear set of objectives, usually demands they place on those in power,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Osterweil said. That, she said, is not the case with the Occupy movement. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is in large part because the broader movement sees the failures of the economic system to be closely linked with a dysfunctional and even corrupt political process, especially at the national level.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Making demands of the political system would suggest that the movement has faith in that political system, Osterweil said.<br \/>\nBut one of the reasons the Occupy Wall Street movement is thought of as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153agenda-less,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, is because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concerned with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153systemic issues and, at this point, the most necessary and potentially radical thing the movement can do is to simply reveal the systemic nature of those problems and get people talking about them and potential solutions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Many in positions of influence are taking note. In an op-ed piece last Sunday for the <em>New York Times<\/em>, economist Jeffrey Sachs wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those who think that the cold weather will end the protests should think again. A new generation of leaders is just getting started. The new progressive age has begun.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are on the cusp,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Osterweil, not simply of a social movement with a clear-cut set of demands, but of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsociety in movement,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in which ideas, problems and the unjust practices of corporations and politicians cannot simply take place without hundreds of thousands ready to respond.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><em>Susan Dickson and Rose Laudicina provided reporting for this story.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the aftermath of an incident in which a group of some 70 people occupied the former Yates Motor Co building at 419 W. Franklin St., questions have been raised about these individuals\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 connection with the Occupy Wall Street movement, and a broader dialogue has ensued about the aims of those in this community who identify with the movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":21987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21988,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21986\/revisions\/21988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}