First let me introduce you to Seattle's Professor Gizmo, who set up his makeshift shelter across the street from Occupy Seattle's Westlake Park site. giving it a presence on both sides of Seattle's busy 5th Ave in downtown Seattle. Professor Gizmo has been an energetic presence at Occupy Seattle. On Saturday he was helping to keep marchers together during our march on Saturday to the King County Courthouse with his flute in hand or at his lips.
Above is Professor Gizmo's solo shelter. Here is a photo of the Professor in front of his shelter in the Guardian.
Occupy America: protests against Wall Street and inequality hit 70 cities
Professor Gizmo was the victim of an assault and robbery sometime in the early hours of Sunday Morning. He awoke to find himself shacked in a pair of handcuffs with is flute stolen. I talked with Professor Gizmo just before departing Occupy Seattle for the 90 minute trip home. He told me after awaking in his solo shelter in the handcuffs he was able to ggo across the street and find a police officer who could use his key to unlock them. He is hoping to raise money for a new flute. If you can help here is his email address: ProfessorGizmoLive@at.com.
Occupy Seattle Homepage
Occupy Wall Street has spread to 250+ cities on every continent except Antarctica In my last posts I described the events at Occupy Seattle last week when Mayor McGinn ordered the Seattle Police to remove all of the protesters tents arresting 26 people who resisted on Wednesday, and a follow up post on Friday
Update #4 Occupy Seattle: Police remove tents from Westlake Park 26 arrested w Video
And among other things how protesters who sleep under an adjacent awning would be subject to arrest.
Occupy Seattle update and more
On Saturday Occupy Seattle numbers swelled considerably when we joined with the organizers holding an observance of International Indigenous Peoples at Westlake Park. Then at 5 PM we Occupy Seattle marched to the King County courthouse for a rally. On the return as we came to the last intersection before returning to Westlake Park we saw a line of bike police blocking 5th Ave about 1/4 of a block past the intersection just past the South end of Westlake Park. This provocative show of force seemed to elicit some defiance from some of the demonstrators who atayed in the intersection of 5th Ave. and Pike St. in Downtown Seattle. SPD cleared the intersection about 20 minutes later arresting one man who would not move, for a total of 3 arrests on Saturday.
Saturday evening eight bicycle police officers took up positions under the awning that runs along the east side of the park to insure that none of the protesters took shelter under the awning as part of Mayor McGinn perverse effort to deprive the protesters of any form of shelter. This was the same awning that I dragged my sleeping bag and gear under at 4 AM on Thursday night to get some shelter in the middle of a rainstorm. Now Occupy Seattle protesters are sleeping under umbrellas. or in groups under tarps laid out flat along the ground. A few protesters got Jackpacks an overcoat that converts into a small tent like shelter. This somewhat dark video shows how a Jack Pack works:
Here is a CNN photo of my sign next to International Indigenous Peoples banner (I'm not viable). I originally made this side of the sign for the 1999 WTO Protests in Seattle. The issues are the same now as they were in 1999.
Reuters photo of Occupy Seattle