Public Space Liberation Day was only a partial failure. Occupy Tampa didn’t get a park, but most occupiers who’d been clashing with police daily didn’t expect the group to meander out of tents late Friday morning and set up a kitchen for their new encampment.
Even those who’d been clashing with police were swept with optimism in the hours beforepolice raided the new occupation and arrested 29 protesters. Many in the group, nearly bursting with excitement, seemed to forget they had just occupied a Tampa park and that the police would surely clamp down.
The police response was inevitable because Occupy Tampa showed their cards about a month in advance.
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By: Mike Madison
Tampa police waited for Saturday’s holiday events in Curtis Hixon Park to end and for most citizens to clear out before they moved in on Occupiers shortly before 11 p.m. Five officers, led by Capt. Dugan in plainclothes, played the regular “pick up all your supplies and don’t you dare set anything down before we leave” game with protesters.
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By: Mike Madison
Tampa police arrested 29 protesters at Julian Lane Riverfront Park Thursday night around midnight. Occupiers came to consensus and selected Riverfront Park as their new home, then came together on the top of a hill to set up camp. Occupy Tampa was in high spirits as about 15 police vehicles pulled into the park’s parking lot. Almost 30 officers, led by Capt. Dugan, flooded the hill and instructed protesters to leave.
After the main group of 27 locked arms and refused, police circled them and moved to arrest observers filming the scene. From the sidewalk and the park entrance, protesters continued peacefully demonstrating.
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Open Letter News’ Mike Madison is targeted, detained, and trespassed from Tampa parks.
The story can be read here: http://www.wmnf.org/news_stories/videos-29-occupy-tampa-members-arrested-while-camping-in-riverfront-park
(Source: wmnf.org)
By: Mike Madison
Thursday night’s general assembly broke into three groups and marched over the river to Riverfront Park before reconvening. Facilitators proposed adopting this park as Occupy Tampa’s new home, and after a brief Q&A, occupiers reached consensus.
After a tour of the bathroom and shower facilities, occupiers met on the hill in the center of the park and rejoiced.
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By: Mike Madison
Fat cats who attended Mitt Romney’s $2,500 per plate fundraiser in Tampa Tuesday night were subjected to the masses by one of their own luxuries: valet parking. Republican one percenters had to wait for staff to fetch their cars on a public sidewalk. While some engaged protesters in conversation, others appeared very uncomfortable as they were surrounded by Occupy Tampa, who verbally berated them for their gluttony.
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By: Dani Bronson
Today is Public Space Liberation Day and the rumor mill is working overtime. Will everyone show up? Are the people who are coming really ready to commit to holding a park? What are the cops planning? Will there be mass arrests? Will there be any arrests? Will the cops warn us first? Will they use excessive force? Are they really planning on spraying occupiers, already shivering from the chill of the morning and lack of proper sleeping supplies/warm clothing (since the Tampa Police Department did a fine job of confiscating it all in the past few days) with ice cold water to wake them up in the morning?
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By: Mike Madison
“Protesters swarmed the Tampa Museum of Art Tuesday evening and did everything they could to crash the opulent, $2,500 per plate Mitt Romney fundraiser held there. An elite cadre even managed to infiltrate the event, but security threw the group out before their mic check could make it to Romney.
Coming soon: A Look at Real Republican One Percenters.”
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By: Walt Byars
“It ain’t 1913. Capitalism’s M.O. is as clear as its rap sheet is long. For some reason, its apologetics are considered a pretty foreboding edifice. Good thing the system’s totalizing imperative makes it easy for the critic. Prices in New York depend on those in Mumbai. With the tendency towards a uniform rate of profit, we can watch the drama of global accumulation unfold in five or six acts rather than a thousand sub-plots. Scan the dynamics of the capital/output ratio in the four cycles of boom, bust, and stagnation since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Note the millions of dead bodies and you’ve got a devastatingly reductive indictment.”
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