McGinn Speaks Up On Occupy Seattle, Opens the Arms of City Hall

Image courtesy of the Mayor's Flickr pool.

Last night, Mayor Mike McGinn posted an update to his website, clarifying his position on the Occupy Seattle. It seems he heard the many individuals who expressed disappointment and anger at his previous actions, which lead to the the arrest of 25 protesters, and the criminal charges brought against 8.

From the announcement:

We understand that Occupy Seattle wishes to have a sustained presence in Westlake Park for the purpose of expressing their views. From the outset we have been trying to work out a solution that meets the city’s needs and Occupy Seattle’s need to protest against wealth inequality in our country.

Rather than continuing to shoo the protesters away with police presence, McGinn's update outlines his support of the movement moving forward. The announcement welcomes the protesters to City Hall plaza, where they can camp and use the restroom facilities. He has even granted them a permit.

"There is real anger about the unprecedented concentration of wealth and power in this country and the inequality it has produced," the statement continues.

"I share the values and the message of the Occupy Wall Street movement. We want to provide the opportunity for the people of Seattle to express their views. And we are."

Prior to this message, McGinn had stayed mostly quiet following his vague and ill-received initial statement. City Council and Dow Constantine have also mostly remained mum, save for Nick Licata, who told the Stranger that he supported the protesters and would let them camp at City Hall.

We're glad to see that the Mayor has turned it around in favor of the protesters, and we're hoping that City Attorney Pete Holmes will follow suit and drop the charges. It's unfortunate that the police had to get involved (as a result of McGinn's initial order), but it did end up drawing the attention of Seattle's major media, and as they say, any press is good press.

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By hanna brooks olsen in News on October 7, 2011 9:00 AM 0 Comments

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StokeyBob

The root reason for the, “Occupy er’s” and the “99% er’s”. Gaze upon it if you dare. Maybe this will help make the danger of fiat money clear. Imagine you and me are setting across from each other. We create enough money to represent all of the world's wealth. Each one of us has one SUPER Dollar in front of him. You own half of everything and so do I. I'm the government though. I get bribed into creating a Central Bank. You're not doing what I want you to be doing so I print up myself eight more SUPER Dollars to manipulate you with. All of a sudden your SUPER Dollar only represents one tenth of the wealth of the world! That isn't the only thing though. You need to get busy and get to work because YOU'VE BEEN STIFFED with the bill for the money I PRINTED UP to get YOU TO DO what I WANTED. That to me represents what has been happening to the economy, and us, and why so many of our occupations just can't keep up with the fake money presses.