People from Occupy Asheville have a moment of silence after City Council voted to oust them from their camp on Lexington Avenue. The city had 16 uniformed police officers there to keep us in line.
Last night, Asheville City Council voted to boot Occupy Asheville out of the space under I-240 on Lexington Ave. as of Friday.
We had an hour to offer comments, and I suggested that this movement is democracy in its purest form and that members of City Council had a chance to be on the right side of history as part of the 99 percent. We pay taxes to create and maintain public parks, and we deserve the right to occupy a piece of public place as long as we remain peaceful and keep the place clean.
Councilman Cecil Bothwell was the only one who voted to allow the camp to remain; the others voted to be on the wrong side of history. Bothwell made a motion to offer the movement another public space, but no one offered a second.
The space the city gave Occupy Asheville as a temporary camp wasn’t the best — there are air quality issues, and it had been a place where people drank and did drugs. But it has become a space where people look out for each other and there is a real sense of community. It’s decorated with potted chrysanthemums and peace flags. and everyone willing to abide by the rules of the nonviolent Occupy movement is welcome to stay.
One member of that community is Wayne McWreath, a homeless man who hasn’t been part of a real community for a long time.
McWreath choked back tears after leaving the City Council meeting, as he talked about finding a place to call home and people to call friends. He has found respect and caring, people who care whether he lives or dies, whether he has enough to eat and clean clothes to wear. He feels fully human again after a long, long time being treated as trash.
After the meeting many of the 35 or so people who attended with Occupy Asheville were angry. Really angry. I don’t blame them; I was too. But a nonviolent movement has to find a way to respond without uncontrolled anger.
We stood outside City Hall and worked to regain our calm so we could deal with the situation in a level-headed way. We gathered into a circle and voted to have a moment of silence and then to burn off some energy chanting, “Tell me what Democracy looks like … THIS is what Democvracy looks like!”
To handle about 50 people who gathered for General Assembly, the city assigned 16 uniformed police officers. This was moments after Mayor Terry Bellamy complained that the city has had to spend all kinds of money on police overtime. When we began to chant, “Give the cops a raise!” we got waves from the cops. I guess Mayor Bellamy doesn’t understand that a nonviolent movement isn’t going to start a violent protest.
Eight members of the movement spent the night in Pack Park, which has a 10 p.m. curfew; all eight were arrested. I hope there’s a lot of room at the jail because the Occupy movement isn’t going away.
We have the right to assemble. We have the right to petition to address grievances. We have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The documents that gave us these rights have been perverted by greed and corruption; we want them back. I, for one, am willing to be arrested, beaten and even to die to accomplish that, and I am not alone.
