Occupy Cleveland Protesters Needed Tents, So Who Supplies Them? The Cleveland Police. |
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| By: Ohio Barbarian Friday October 14, 2011 2:14 pm | |
Rain was in the forecast. The Occupy Cleveland protesters had no tents, because the City of Cleveland had not permitted them. So the protesters sent out a cry for help.
Who delivered? The Cleveland Police themselves. Individual officers supplied the protesters with tents.
Now that’s what I call solidarity.
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34 Comments
Wow! 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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrzQedHM6SY
http://t.co/2hEB4BLY
Cleveland must be a very classy city. Hooray for the police for being human and humane.
This movement is closely approaching the 100th monkey!
If you don’t know about the 100th monkey, google it. It’ll be worth your time. Guaranteed.
Also, Michael Hannity, last night, said Soros is sponsoring ALL the #occupy movements.Michael is an idiot. His ilk should jump!
Wow that’s totally amazing !
Thank you for being us !!!
Wow, thank you CPD, here’s to hoping OWS saves your pension (and all PD pensions) from cuts because we HAVE TO bail out corrupt bankers!
More officers that aren’t blind to what’s happen to the Amerikan dream. We’re in this together.
Very good news. Well, assuming those police officers don’t find themselves suspended or fired then it’s very good news.
Speaking of news… *g*, I just turned on Countdown with KO for the first time since he moved to Current. And lo and behold who is he having as a guest? Markos. WTF?
Sometimes I think KO really gets it, but then sometimes I’m equally as sure he doesn’t. With plenty of previous statements and actions, Markos has proven himself to be, not a progressive, but a Democratic Party tribal cheerleader. Keith, you start to lose folks like me when you have as guests someone with ZERO credibility as a true conservative.
Sorry for the OT. Just couldn’t believe the very first time I turn it on and that D Party tribal cheerleader is who KO has as a guest.
credibility as a true conservative. of course should’ve been credibility as a true progressive.
Sure wish we had edit here.
Oh, and the city’s abruptly changed the Occupiers’ permit to allow for tents. Neighborly!
Cleveland has certainly changed from when I was escorted by the police onto a bus returning from a VNW protest in DC. Occupy Wall Street.
The Chief of Police gave them permission. Perhaps the fact that traditional state aid to local governments was slashed by Governor Kasich and his merry band of corporate sociopaths in the state legislature, and some 141 Cleveland cops were laid off as a result, has something to do with it.
Perhaps.
It also didn’t hurt that when the protesters showed up they had signs reading “We Are Fighting for Your Pensions!”.
No need to alienate potential allies, you know.
Dynamite! E-mailed CPD thanking them for the enlightened approach. hope I don’t have to e-mail them on another day to tell them they suck. For now, though, very cool, CPD.
It’s been crushed by corporate capitalism. Most recently, the federal government refused to bail out National City Bank, based in Cleveland, and it was gobbled up by Pittsburgh-based PNC, which WAS bailed out by TARP, at the cost of thousands of local jobs. Just the latest economic disaster here.
What’s VNW?
Classy? Nah, just blue-collar.
Vietnam War, I believe.
I am absolutely impressed beyond belief in how much support Occupy Cleveland has received from the local government and police etc. I even read on Twitter that Cleveland nurses were providing dinner for them tonight.
And Gringo is correct. Cleveland was pretty decimated my the loss of the steel mills and manufacturing and then by the economic collapse. But it has some how managed to NOT become Detroit.
A testament I think to the citizens.
Kudos.
It’s great to see a story where the 99% isn’t being pitted against itself. Bravo CPD!
2 Kewl, right on and thanks for sharing OG, rcc’d.
Wow. That is almost making me tear up! WOW.
Thank you, Cleveland.
Link to 100th monkey effect
http://www.worldtrans.org/pos/monkey.html
Link to email the Cleveland police. I just did. Thanks for the idea, Beerfart Liberal. I thanked them for the permit change, for bringing tents and tarps, and for being a shining beacon for the police forces throughout the nation.
http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home/contact/department?code=6002
athena1,
Know what you mean. The pathos that it is so rare. As it should be. Maybe why it’s called the heartland.
Let’s clarify: It was not the police chief nor even the department that donated tents. It was the President of the Patrolmen’s Association who’s been a standout against SB5 in Ohio (anti-public union law), and many other fights for the working class.
This was a union offering.
Thank you Steven Loomis.
We in the Occupy Cleveland movement started from the get-go with a respectful approach to the police and the city officials. It paid off to grant us the room and time to make what we are doing on Public Square understandable to the people of Cleveland without feeding into a narrative we didn’t feel equipped to handle at this stage.
We also were lucky enough to have one city councilman who signed our permits personally (Green Party shout out) and extend his assistance in many experienced ways. He even brought his own sound equipment early on to the Square.
So it got us so far but remember the occupation is not in a park but on a city sidewalk with strictly enforced footage for clearance. And one possible alternative on the Square – the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission – turned down an appeal to allow our group to occupy the park area around the monument that offered good shelter from the street. One board member claimed George Soros as funding our protest. We lost 6-4.
So we are doing all we can to keep this peaceful and respectful and it was a good choice. We have no idea what will happen this next week. But if it takes a turn toward a confrontation at least we have a mutual experience of each side in the recent past to restrain ourselves from resorting to ugly tactics doing disservice to both sides of the line.
Even worse-MM is a regular contributor, and not just a guest.
Mayor Frank Jackson of Cleveland. Assumed office Jan. of 2006. MA in Urban Affairs, Cleveland-Marshall Law. Along with police, he would have something to do with the kind and humane treatment in Cleveland. Thanks Cleveland Police and Mayor.
As a lifelong Pittsburgher, this is excruciatingly hard for me to say, but…
Cleveland Rocks!
I grew up in Chardon (about an hour outside Cleveland) but we moved away when I was 14.
I’ve been proud of Ohio for Kucinich and right at this moment I am proud to say I grew up in Cleveland, very much so.
Most cool.
Clevelanders are among the friendlies, most hospitable people in the world, I sometimes think.
Thanks for that link. I wrote to them. Sort of the opposite of San Diego where they pepper sprayed people to get at their tents to take them down.
“The Hundredth Monkey Revisited” is more telling though.
This made me giggle!!!
Very nice!
Ohio Gringo, Thanks so much for posting this. I will send a thank you note this weekend. I think we all needed to see a story like this, especially after the news coming out of New York yesterday. Your post helps to remind us that in other cities, the police can still be intelligent and humane.
Public servants for real. Awesome.
I was just thinking about the OWS movement and how it compares to the Tea Party.
The Tea Party has lots of corporate organization and backing, with nice charter busses and professionally made signs and banners. Podiums. PA systems. Speakers flown in by Cato and Americans for Penury- I mean Prosperity. The events are done more like concerts and are over once the weekend is over.
OWS is a true grass roots movement with very little in the way of professional promotion, lots of people on bicycles and on foot, and cardboard signs.
But the big difference I see that must be scaring the crap out of the corporate right is the size of the demonstrations, the number of cities the demonstrations have spread to, and the fact that the demonstrations have GONE ON FOR WEEKS.
The Tea Party demonstrations are miniscule compared to Occupy Wall Street.
The thing that must happen, is that these people must vote in the next election, and the one after that, and the one after that.