I unpublished this diary briefly to work out the problems with some photos not showing up and to change the title.
Here is Jesse AKA Ministry of Truth at Occupy Seattle in Westlake Park 12 days ago.
Occupy Seattle moved its camp to Seattle Central Community College last Saturday and I joined them on Sunday. Here's what Occupy Seattle looked like on Monday. It has grown since then.
Monday was also Halloween. Here I am in my costume with S.C.C.C. and a double rainbow in the background.
On Wednesday afternoon Occupy Seattle marched up Broadway to a nearby branch of Chase Bank on Seattle's Capital Hill.
As we marched we chanted: "Seattle to Oakland, We're not joke'n!"
Before our march arrived at the Chase Bank 5 protesters entered the bank and linked their arms together inside sections of PCV pipe and layed down on the floor inside the bank. The Bank's managers then locked the doors and drew the blinds so what was going on inside the bank could not be observed from the outside. When the marchers arrived they blocked the Bank's entrances.
The protesters included some with their families.
After close to an hour SPD forced their way through the crowd to bring the 5 who were arrested inside the bank out to a waiting van.
Then protesters tried to block the SPD van from leaving
Police struggled to clear a path for the SPD van.
Without much success.
Then came more arrests.
Police were able to move the van out into the traffic lane only to by blocked by even a larger number of Demonstrators. The police got rougher with those trying to block the way in but the demonstrators were determined to resist. Then SPD hosed the demonstrators in the front line with a continuous blast of pepper spray. A couple of minutes following that they van was able to leave.
Those arrested while trying to block the van were loaded into a police car, which was promptly blocked from leaving by Occupy Seattle demonstrators. Another rugby style scrum ensued that failed to . More protesters were then hosed with pepper spray. This time even pepper spray couldn't clear a way forward through the determined protesters. Suddenly the police car gunned the engine in reverse speeding backwards through a narrow gap between another police cruiser and a parked police motorcycle barely clearing them, then turning down a side street.
The Occupy Seattle protesters then marched downtown to a planned and permitted rally at Westlake Park at 5 PM.
During the rally a cold drenching rain started to fall. I was glad I had a waterproof camera because the cold rain just poured down on us outside the Sheraton.
Then Occupy Seattle marched over to the Sheraton where Morgan Chase C.E.O. Jamie Dimon was scheduled to make the keynote speech to the University of Washington Foster School of Business’ annual business leadership dinner.
Here are some of the Occupy Seattle in front of the Sheraton's main entrance. Above the entrance we could see the cocktail reception for underway in Jamie Dimon's honor.
The elites sipped their drinks and took photos of the soaking wet peasant rabble in the street below with their phones.
It was an extraordinary scene with the cold wet protesters looking up at the expensively dressed elites and their wannabees clamoring for their place at the trough. It reminded me of a scene out of Dr. Zhivago. When I saw that film as a boy I never imagined that I would find myself in the role of the peasant rabble. How could I have known that the American dream would unravel so completely? As corporate power would grow to dominate the United States to the exclusion of the interests of the vast majority of its citizens during my adult years.
JPMorgan’s Dimon Draws Seattle Protests as Demonstrations Spread
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon was targeted by protesters during a keynote speech in Seattle last night, with activists picketing and chanting “banks got bailed out, we got sold out.”
More than 100 participants weathered pouring rain and temperatures in the 40s to air frustrations as Dimon, 55, addressed the University of Washington Foster School of Business’ annual business leadership dinner.
Less than a dozen graduates protested in silence by removing their caps and gowns during his speech.
Later at at the Sheraton's side entrances the SPD's use of Pepper Spray became indiscriminate nailing most of the people gathered near the front including Kossack JustJennifer. Police allege that a beer bottle was tossed at them but nobody I talked to saw any beer bottle thrown at the police. Three more were arrested.
The very idea the Chase C.E.O. Jamie Dimon should be held up as a model of business leadership to students aspiring to become corporate leaders themselves is obscene beyond words. This is an prime example of the ethical decay America's elite Business Schools, that now promote Amorality as good bushiness practice. They teach that morality has no place in business, and train their students to become amoral technocrats perusing the maximization of profit as their only metric. Ethics are just an inconvenience to be ignored whenever they reduce profits for too many of today's corporate leaders.