Last night nine protesters were arrested for demonstrating in Marion Square in the progressive, tolerant City of Charleston, SC. Nothing has been more disappointing over the last two weeks than to watch decent, progressive City governments crack down on free speech to serve the agenda of corrupting corporations. Cities in which charity, justice and culture are valued and protected have unleashed pepper spray, tear gas and riot forces on men and women who want the voice of the ordinary citizen to be heard again over the louder sound of money.
We must consider the possibility that our Progressive cities have been deliberately targeted by our Corporate opponents to kill this infant resistance in its crib and our leaders have been turned into their tools by the influence of the oceans of money the private jet set has on hand. It is no accident that the Corporations chose to hit liberal cities first.
I am about to take this letter to the Office of the Mayor of Charleston half a block from the location of my law practice. I believe I understand why this has been happening and I challenge the Mayor of my city and other cities to resist the power of these corporations for the sake of the future and freedom. The full text of my letter is attached. The bond hearing for these demonstrators is a 1 pm at the Police Station on Lockwood Blvd. in Charleston, SC. The Mayor's phone number is (843) 724-3737.
Mayor Joseph P. Riley
City of Charleston
P.O. Box 304
Charleston, SC 29402
Re: Occupy Charleston Arrests
Dear Mayor Riley.
I write to ask the City to reconsider its understandable, but mistaken decision to arrest and prosecute the Occupy Charleston protestors arrested on Marion Square last night. While I have been occasionally disappointed in their lack of political sophistication, we must remember that these are armature public citizens, new to the contests of public life who have stepped into the breach at a time when people more comfortable have chosen to stand by as soulless corporations seize control of our collective destiny as Americans. Arrest and a jail cell are a poor reward for courage and patriotism, even if it is occasionally ill mannered.
I have watched for the last week as a secession of progressively minded Mayors in cities like Oakland, Seattle, New York and now Charleston have cracked down on the occupy movement. I’m convinced that the reason cannot be that their aggregations or protest occasionally disappoint us with criminal acts common to our increasingly disordered society. People will be arrested at this weekend’s Clemson Carolina Football game in Columbia for public drunkenness, disorderly contact and perhaps even assualt and battery. I once witnessed a tire iron fight between two drunks in the parking lot after that foot ball game years ago. No one suggested that the Clemson Carolina Football game be cancelled the following year.
I am forced to conclude that this crackdown is motivated by threats being launched from the corporate boardrooms of the World, where powerful men recognize that the resistance to their agenda to corrupt our governments, pillage our planet and ruin our global ecosystem must emerge from our progressive cities. These wealthy men do not tremble at what might arise in Greenville or Spartanburg. They are not afraid of the crowded voices which may arise in Tampa or Orlando. They know that freedom grows from freedom and that freedom must be exterminated in the places where it lives, our progressively minded cities.
They have the power to reach into cities like Charleston and attempt to force our elected governments to do their will. They have the money our government has lent them to invest where they will, rewarding and punishing where they choose. They can ration out the declining number of precious jobs which support our tax base, economy and non-profit sectors.
Even a decent, compassionate leader like yourself could be forced to choose between silencing protest or sacrificing money for a homeless shelter, auditorium renovation or Spoleto donation. These men believe everything on the planet is for sale and it is their right to purchase what they wish.
These men and the faceless corporations they control are not the friends of our City of Charleston. They were not here the long night of Hugo. They have not labored through the endless meetings to rebuild this city which I have seen you chair. All their acts of investment or charity are calculated bargains to increase their wealth and power. Their eyes are not on the vitality of our common life and the contest of ideas which sets the direction of our futures. They would strip our children of their dignity and quality of life and level the entire planet’s standard of living to the slave wages afforded workers in Chinese electronics factories.
My family has defended this state for 315 years. We rode with Marion. We fought with Lee and Braxton Bragg. We have built towns, churches and schools. We have pledged ten generations of resistance to the proposition that anyone but our neighbors should have a hand in fixing the shape of the future of our communities.
I ask you to choose the side of the people of the City of Charleston. We have survived war. We have raised this city from the rubble of earthquakes. We have resisted the ravages of disease. We have endured poverty, rot and disappointment. I worked with you to comfort, clean and rebuilt after the devastation of Hugo. We are still here, between these rivers and it this land because we have never forgotten who we are. We have never conceded ownership of our destiny to any foreigner or stranger.
I direct your attention to the words you read with such inspiration from the steps of the Customs house in the weary October of 1989, the immortal words of Lincoln set to the great music of Aaron Copeland. It was at the moment that these words were read that I felt the City I love rise up from the devastation under the leadership of its great Mayor.
You read, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we will save our country.”
I ask you to deny these greedy and destructive men and their corporations the victory over our city and planet that they seek. Let us fight them together so that, as you read over 20 years ago, “That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
Reverse your decision. Come to the defense of our cities and country. Stand with our beleaguered President. Release these patriotic Americans and open our city to the energetic debate of their ideas so that an informed and effective resistance to the globe girdling greed of these soulless economic aggregations may be mounted from the streets of this historic city while there is still time and energy enough to do so. If they win now, we may not live to see another chance to defeat them.
I remain your respectful servant, supporter and public citizen.
Yours very truly,
William Jackson Hamilton, III