What It Means To Occupy

The Occupy Movement has spread around the entire globe with actions occurring in over 2,000 cities by people around the world participating in a non-stop 24 hour a day, 7 day a week open dialogue of direct democracy. Since the inception of the Occupy Movement, the term Occupy has come to mean many things to many people. Some participants organize, others protest, others participate in various kinds of direct action and civic actions, while others teach, others come out to talk, and others simply to volunteer or learn. Other participants engage purely in the press aspect of the movement. These participants act as medium to report on the movement various media channels that have emerged through the growth of the Internet over the last two decades, such as blogs, social media sites, shooting and compiling video for sites like YouTube and even broadcasting live video feeds from the various occupations on sites like LiveStream, UStream and Justin.TV. Hence, the Occupy Movement is an autonomous unconventional self-governing structure of loosely associated independent nodes of communities that consist of various individuals engaging the direct exercise of, or indirectly supporting, the various constitutional rights such as the Freedom of Assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of press. To Occupy means participate in the Occupy Movement in a manner, directly or indirectly, to support this newly found cooperative spirit of The People. This kindred sense of spirit has enabled, for the first time in our Nations history, a non-stop public forum which allows citizens to engage in a productive practical dialogue to address the problems in our society that have for too long been accepted as the Status Quo. It is only through this method of facilitation can The People engage in direct democracy in a constructive manner to overcome the general sense of apathy and hopelessness that is felt when The People express their grievances about the business as usual that has caused the widespread and systematic oppression of The People. An Occupation means a 24 hour a day, seven day a week vigil to waiting for the restoration of a government that serves the interest of the people and not corporations, special interest groups and lobbyists that have bought of our politicians. One who participates in at an occupation, directly or indirectly, is participating in form of expression in which there is a need for continuing presence for the presence of demonstrating for community spirit and cooperation. One who occupies is expressing their freedom to assemble, freedom to association and their freedom of speech with the common goal of sending a petition for the redress of a long list of grievances. The movements petitions to address these grievances will be sent with such a powerful voice the voice of the 99% acting in solidarity that corrupt politicians will not be able to ignore our voice no matter whose payroll they may secretly be on. The Occupy Movement not only allows people to Occupy physically on the ground at a physical occupation, but also allows them to take advantage of the latest technology to Occupy as a remote participant. This element is a critical mesh to network together the independent and leaderless

occupations that have been founded all over the country.Online Occupiers host and participate in various webinars and teach-ins online using video conferencing and other technology tools. Civic actions are spread through word of mouth on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Local, Regional and Nationwide conference calls are held on a daily basis to allow inter-occupation communications. Numerous websites and forums have been created to allow The People to participate in the movement and Occupy regardless of their physical location. The core infrastructure of the Occupy Movement depends entirely on the ability to have physical occupations an Assembly of The People who choose to Occupy running 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. First and foremost is the projected symbolism of the expressive nature of the physical occupation.

Why a 24 Hour a Day Occupation Is Critical

Millions of Americans have already been sent the message that our Occupations will not end until things change. Overcoming Apathy A common reaction of a random person on the street who approaches an occupation to learn why we are occupying is flat out laughter, followed by a comment along the lines that things have always been that way and that will never change. They will never let it happen. An occupier able to well articulate the motivation behind the movement will go on to explain Why Here? and Why now? The simple explanation is that while it is true that the oppression of the people due to business as usual has persisted for decades, things are different now. We are in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and we lie on the brink of the 2nd Great Depression. Make no mistake about it, many economic statistics are the worst they have been since the Great Depression era and some are even worse. 68 million Americans live in poverty while the bottom 90% of the population has seen their household income shrink by $900 a year while the top 1% has seen their income grow by over $700,000 per year. While 46 million Americans rely on food stamps to get their next meal and 62 million Americans have zero or negative net worth the top 1/10 of 1 percent of the population has amassed a massive $46 trillion dollars in wealth. The CBO projects that the Congressional super committees budget cuts will raise the number of Americans living in poverty to over 100 million people or nearly 1 in 3 Americans while politicians complain that welfare queens are taking advantage of government social programs. While aid to programs like food stamps, which feeds 46 million people, will be cut by the congressional super committee because of Wall Street pushing the Fiscal Austerity agenda, there are many massive multi-national corporations that pay no taxes. In fact corporate taxes equate for about $1 trillion a year in federal tax revenue which is nearly the same amount paid by Americans through personal income taxes. When you compare the income corporations make to the income individuals make it is immediately apparent there is something direly wrong with the tax system. While the government cant fund simple programs like food stamps you have companies like Apple that make enough money in 6 hours to feed 100 million people for an entire year. Even worse, many of these corporations that pay no taxes actually get massive tax rebates on the order of hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars from the Government. Trillions of dollars are being spent on the industrial

military complex to commit a variety of war crimes, such as 1 in 3 drone strikes in Pakistan killing a child, when Americas infrastructure continues to crumble and nearly in 1 in 20 homes are being foreclosed on. In the endless drive for corporate profits to satisfy Wall Streets greed, entire industries have been outsourced to countries that allow slave labor, such as India and China where workers are paid 10 to 20 cents an hour. Outsourcing of American jobs to slave labor is always a hot topic. I explain how I went to school for computers, networking and security and worked at two major pharmaceutical companies only to be left with a pile of student loan debt as the IT industry was outsourced to slave labor in India and China. The textile industry and in fact most of Americas manufacturing industry have now been shipped overseas and those jobs simply are not coming back. We watched GM get bailed out and use taxpayer money to only to open manufacturing plants in China. I explain how my wife went nearly four years after obtaining a bachelors in Business Administration only to retool herself not once, but twice, to be able to find her current part time job as a Dental Hygienist. The bottom line is our politicians are now owned by corporations, special interests and lobbyists and who live in a bubble that is insulated from the harsh reality of the plight and oppression of the American middle class. Making it illegal to bribe our politicians is only one of many grievances that the establishment with resist all costs and will never be achieved unless the people stand up in solidarity and demand the status quo be changed. Campaign Finance reform is another much needed reform that will not happen because it does not bolster the power of either political party. Wall Streets reckless financial speculation helped cause the current economic crisis and our government refuses to prosecute the criminals for their crimes. Even worse, is we have made it policy not prosecute them and offer them immunity for criminal activity such a running fraudulent mortgage foreclosure mills, which illegally steal homes from millions of Americans. The criminal activities go unpunished to this day and instead of getting real financial reform, we get the Dodd-Frank legislation which does nothing to address the root problem. Instead, it burdens banks with excessive regulations whose cost of compliance will be paid for by the consumer while Wall Street crooks are allowed to continue in their reckless criminal behavior. Articulating facts such as these will usually get the random person to agree with the sentiment that there is a real need for change in our country. The conversation from here most often progresses to the random person illustrating even more examples of the systematic corruption that exists within our government and culminate into a discussion of the persons own story of how they have been oppressed and hindered by the establishment. Regardless of these self evident truths, the conversation reverts to the fact that politicians on both sides of the aisle have been corrupted by and our government has become one that serves the majority of the money instead of the majority of the people. The apathy and the sense that the system will not change still exists as that person shakes your hand, expresses their sincerest support that the movement accomplishes its goals of changing the way things works, and walks off to continue on with their daily life.

Days go by, even weeks, as the person drives by the occupation at random hours, day and night seeing that you are keeping your word. You are still there in the rain, in freezing weather, even in the middle of the odd October snowstorm. You are there communicating your message with others who have seen you there for weeks, at all hours, and finally mustered up the courage to come and speak to you. Finally, the light bulb goes off. The person thinks to themselves. This occupation isnt like anything ever seen in the past. This isnt just some protest or rally that is happening for a few hours or a few days. This isnt some fad or the latest greatest hope of promise to come along, promise you change, and hijack your vote just to push through some cronies political agenda. This is a community of people from all walks of life, from all socioeconomic backgrounds, and from all political persuasions from the Left to Right and everyone in between. These people are just like me. They all suffering and just cant make ends meet even though I make nearly $50,000 a year. Just like me, they are worried about the future of our country. They are worried about their childrens futures. They are right if the people dont join together and stand up against the corruption our children wont have any future. The corporations will continue to ship our jobs overseas until there are none left here in America. The military industrial complex will continue to beat their war drums until we invade Syria, Iran, and whatever other country is need to keep the funds flowing to the war profiteers. Finally, that person overcomes their apathy. They join the Occupation and take a stand to end the corruption that oppresses us all. Without a 24 hour a day occupation, these people will never be reached. Maintaining the occupation day in and day out, is in essence the candle of light in a sea of darkness. That light must be lit 24 hours a day so anyone at any time can chose to seek out the light and come to it. There are hundreds of millions who can only be reached overnight. While it is true that most people are sleeping overnight, many do in fact sleep during the day and their only free time is overnight. Locally, there are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands, whose schedule prohibits them from participating in the occupation during the course of the normal business day, for various reasons from personal responsibilities to job schedules. These people would be prohibited in expressing their rights because the only time they can reasonably do so is during overnight hours. Many local businesses and organizations can only donate food and supplies after their business and organizations close. One example, specific to our local occupation, is a local community organization that prepares and drops off food every night around 11:00pm. Outreach and participation with the local community does occur overnight as well. Many people have responsibilities during the day and have come to the occupation to learn about the movement and find out how to get involved after 10:00pm. There is also the case of the early workers, people who have to be to work by 5 or 6 AM and sometimes earlier. These people will drop by very early in the morning,

sometimes bringing coffee or food and other times reaching out to us for the very first time. While these people may represent a minority, there rights must be protected as well. So does our right to engage in our right to assembly and free speech with these people. Remotely, there are participants around the globe whose day schedule doesnt coincide with our day schedule. Participants in California are three hours behind. Those in other locations around the world, for example in London or other parts of Europe and even in countries like Japan and Australia, tune in during overnights in the USA. For both local and remote participants, it is crucial that our live video broadcast be available from the Occupation so people from all walks of life, regardless of their personal schedules and commitments, can reach out to people physically participating in the occupation on the ground. People can contact those occupying the site 24 hours a day through the live chat on the video feed, through the occupations phone number which is configured to forward phone calls to the cell phone of a volunteer on the ground, or through other social communication tools such as Twitter and Facebook. Whether it be physically or through telecommunication, we need to and have the right to exercise free speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of press with these people. Undue Logistical Burdens The requirement of having to shutdown an occupation at night creates and undue logistical burden along with excessive financial expense that would prohibit those with lower incomes from participating. Having to breakdown information kiosks with fliers and brochures, signs, the media center and related equipment at night is a hassle to begin with. Then there is financial burden of procuring containers to safely transport the equipment offsite and the related transportation costs. Due to the infrastructure required to support a community involvement, it would also requiring renting a storage facility nearby were everything would be transported to and locked up. These are funds the Occupation simply does not have. Even if a storage facility was supplied nearby free of charge the process would still be cumbersome. In the morning a crew of volunteers would have to go the storage facility to pick up the equipment and supplies and transport them back to the occupation and set them up all over again. The amount of equipment that would be required to be moved back and forth would take several cars, most likely requiring several trips for each of those cars. The occupation would be required to obtain volunteers who have a car to be available daily, at specific times, to transport the equipment. Many occupiers commute long distances. Personally, I drive over an hour from Brick Township to the Trenton Occupation. Others commute similar distances and even farther, coming from locations such as Jackson, Browns Mills, Jersey City and Seaside Heights. The amount of equipment and supplies I have brought to the occupation simply cannot fit inside of my car. It would require multiple trips to transport my items on a daily basis. Furthermore being that I supply critical equipment to the occupation, such as computer equipment, cameras, a wireless hotspot, extension cords, other IT and networking gear, tarps, a media canopy, a generator, and other items, I would be required to transport the materials back and forth every single day, which I simply cannot do.

First of all, I have a family and other personal and job responsibilities to attend to. This would prohibit me from delivering things for the start of the occupation in the morning, at least until late morning. Then there is the cost prohibitive aspect of being required to make a nearly 100 mile round trip twice a day. Finally, others have other reasons such a schedule would not work. The occupation is normally manned in shifts with core occupiers to make sure a minimum number of adequate personal is on site 24 hours a day. The introduction of such a schedule would interfere with the ability to keep occupiers on site every day. Many would be forced to commute daily instead of being about to stay on site for 24 to 48 hours, and sometimes even longer. Preventing Illegal Police Actions As we have already witnessed at Occupy Trenton, the police are more than happy to conduct illegal criminal activity and let the courts sort it out later. While the system does allow for a redress of grievances through the civil courts, such actions cause irreparable harm that cannot compensated for. The State Police raid and illegal theft of our personal property without due process has already caused a large drop in participation in our movement, because while many people wish to be able to express their constitutional rights, many are not willing to face becoming a subject of undue police brutality. Occupiers also do not wish get a criminal record for some frivolous charge that would otherwise never have been enforced but is enforced only to stifle the voice of the movement. For example, we have seen obscure laws be used to issue criminal charges at other occupations that havent been enforced since the 1800s that make it illegal for more than one person to be wearing a mask at a time. Even more alarming are several incidents of police brutality nationwide, in which peaceful non-violent protestors are pepper sprayed and assaulted by police, who in turn file felony charges of resisting arrests against those who the attack. Many incidents have been videotaped proving the innocence of the accused yet an untold number more have no proof of their innocence and now face jail time and a criminal record. There is a nationwide pattern in which police force occupiers to vacate a site for one reason or another telling the occupiers they can return on a given date and time. In many cases, like in this specific case, the police have stolen personal property from the Occupiers. In just about every single case, some portion of the stolen property is not return. Often, the police destroy the personal property even while the event is being streamed for the entire world to watch. When the occupiers are allowed to return to exercise their First Amendment rights there is excessive security in place. The police claim it is not to stifle the constitutional rights of the occupiers, yet such illegal search and seizures do not occur in any other public place, just at these occupations. Upon attempting to renter the occupations, the police search those entering and prohibit just about all items from being allowed to enter back on site Including, tarps, chairs, pillows, umbrellas, tables, and other Occupy related equipment. While, I personally feel there are several aspects of the constitution being violated, each of these instances is being resolved through litigation in various state and federal civil courts. In the mean time, the police are undoubtedly causing irreparable harm to each and everyone one of these occupations and clearly causing harm to movement nationwide. The final punishment in each of these instances of criminal behavior will be nothing more than monetary settlement for any

civil claims a given Judge agrees, which of course will be paid out by an insurance company whose premium has already been paid for as part of the Polices annual budget. This is all relevant to the need to be allowed maintain a 24/7 overnight occupation for many reasons. Only by prohibiting police from evicting an occupation in the first place, can civil rights violations of the people participating in Occupations across the nation be protected. In any instance where the government is given the power to force occupiers to leave an occupation there is the possibility that the police will barricade off the occupation of the Occupiers have left and subject the Occupiers to illegal search and seizure upon their return. The police will continue their illegal activities until they are given a court order prohibiting them from conducting such activities which were illegal in the first place. In between that time the damage to the movement has already been done, and the voices of those attempting to participate in Free Speech activities have already been muffled if not silenced.

In Conclusion
The rights of speech and assembly are guaranteed as rights, not privileges which cannot be limited by the government to specific times whether those times be from 10 AM to 11 AM, 1Am to 12 midnight, or 6 AM to 10PM. Once any restriction in time is permitted then such expression and assembly become not a right but a privilege open to arbitrary permission or denial, with the commons for physical and political space of the people no longer guaranteed.

As for speech, this takes many formsas SCOTUS has said when ruling that even money is speech. Actions are speech, and the action of occupying an area full time is qualitatively different than merely speaking, demonstrating, or being an area for a permitted time. Its a statement that the people have an inherent right to public space.

Yet another form of expression and assembly is the forming and developing a community as a full time activity, including meetings and discussion within the group, and also transmitting messages worldwide, via electronic communications, during the local daytimes of people around the world, as well as electronically chatting with other people at any time, regardless of whether that chat is day or night for one participant or the other. By being in an area full time this allows others in the world to perceive the occupiers as a community, not merely a group of demonstrators.

Also, full time occupation is an internal, as well as external form of expression and assembly. It is not merely telling other people things in some sort of outreach, but developing the unity and internal culture of the group, which is necessary to develop and refine the messages given externally. It is both a demonstration of a different sort of community that can formed then by just coming together in a march or sit-in, and the forming and development of that community itself.