Occupy Seattle and the Seattle Police Department
Occupy Seattle at Westlake Center
SPD officers surrounded a small structure erected in the middle of Westlake Park and told its occupants to leave or be arrested. With arms linked and valuables stored, they were clearly prepared for the latter, and the police began to oblige them. Ten of the tent occupiers were carried away relatively quickly, as a chanting crowd formed a ring around the police cordon. The relatively smooth progression of arrests stopped with five of the protesters left huddled in a ring of officers. The pause dragged on, until finally the police left without detaining the remaining five- transportation problems, according to a Lieutenant. A roar rose up from the protesters as they greeted comrades they thought they'd next see in court. For a second night in a row, an ecstatic outburst of impromptu song, dance and chanting celebrated what many saw as a victory for the cause against the movement's main antagonists.
What sort of victory was this? The five who cheated jail (and their ten companions who didn't) were "representing the entire 99%," in their actions, according to one organizer. Without getting bogged down semantics, whatever they were metaphorically doing, the protesters were literally confronting the Mayor and the police, not the bankers, lobbyists and politicians who are their movement's philosophical enemies. There is a risk in trading in these more distant enemies for the police who gather nightly in Westlake Plaza, or the Mayor whose bungling, dishonesty and political cowardice have made it so much more difficult for Occupy Seattle to operate. If the movement allows its focus to shift, potential supporters could be alienated, and occupiers with no interest in fighting the police and the Mayor could drift away. There is a danger that repeated confrontations with police could leave the crowd at Westlake, supposedly standing for 99% of Americans, populated only with the hard-core radicals who are looking for the martyrdom of jail.
As the police waited in their cordon for the higher-ups to make a decision about the remaining 5 tent occupants, some in the crowd started anti-police chants about pigs and the gestapo. As the situation wore on, a chant which better captured the situation arose: "officers! pay attention! Wall Street will steal your pension!" The chanters moved on to much less polite ways of relating to the police, but they had briefly struck upon the truth. Something seems wrong about people protesting economic inequality by screaming epithets at men who have some of the last remaining well-compensated, blue-collar jobs left in America. "These guys make 70 grand a year arresting us!" complained one protester, as if the young officer in question was some Goldman-Sachs fat cat.
If the protests are to continue to gain in support, Westlake occupiers need to look past the men in blue and remember their real opponents. Average people, the 99% for whom the movement claims to speak, aren't interested in claims about the AmeriKKKan gestapo state. A lot of them identify with the officer who's grateful for his overtime and pension over the professional agitator. If the goal of this movement is to change American society, it's time to have some discipline and stop satiating egos by seeking pointless martyrdom at the hands of the SPD.
