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3 Protesters Hit With Taser at Occupy Protest at Washington State Capitol
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Thousands of protesters greeted lawmakers beginning a 30-day special session to address the state's budget woes, with a rowdy group disrupting a hearing Monday and police later using Tasers in a skirmish as a large crowd refused to leave the Capitol building at the end of the day.
A protester is removed from the Capitol rotunda by Washington State Patrol troopers after he refused to leave when the building was closed for the night in Olympia, Wash., Monday, Nov. 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) By 7 p.m., a crowd of several hundred that had gathered in the state Capitol building had thinned to about 100 people. State troopers let people leave voluntarily but began physically removing those who refused to go after the building was closed to the public at 5:30 p.m. Troopers picked up several people by their limbs and removed them from the building. The remainder of the protesters left the building on their own accord shortly after 8 p.m., slowly backing out of the building while singing "whose side are you on?"
A total of about 3,000 people protested at the Capitol throughout the day, though the number of protesters on campus at any one time varied, said Washington State Patrol Sgt. J.J. Gundermann. The protesters came from various groups, including Occupy Olympia, unions and social service groups.
Gundermann said that 30 people removed from the Capitol Monday evening received a trespassing citation and will not be allowed back on the Capitol campus for 30 days. Four people were arrested Monday, three at the Capitol Monday evening, and one earlier in the day at a committee hearing, Gundermann said.
The Washington State Patrol had locked the doors to the building Monday evening, preventing more people from entering. Earlier, hundreds of protesters, most associated with the national Occupy movement, had vowed to stay, and many brought sleeping bags to the building's rotunda. Dozens of troopers were also in the building, standing at entrances.
Dan Coon, a State Patrol spokesman, said troopers used Tasers on three people when demonstrators trying to enter the Capitol building advanced on the officers. He said the troopers were trying to protect themselves from being trampled.
"They weren't trying to disperse people," he said.
Gundermann said a fourth person, one of three arrested during the evening protest, was tasered outside on the other side of the building. In that incident, the three were arrested when they tried to enter the Capitol from a different entrance. Coon said a scuffle broke out between troopers and protesters, and one trooper was bitten. Two people were arrested for assault, obstruction and resisting arrest, and one was arrested for obstruction and resisting arrest, Coon said.
The protests defined the opening day of a session that is to focus on budget cuts. Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed reducing funding to areas like education, public safety and health care to deal with a $1.4 billion deficit.
The crowded responded: "This is not a protest. It's an occupation."
Earlier Monday, more than a dozen people burst into a crowded committee room and began chanting in opposition of deep cuts. They shouted in favor of taxing the wealthy.
Security escorted one of the protesters out while some continued yelling and others banged on doors outside of the room. Lawmakers eventually suspended the hearing, but it resumed about 30 minutes later.
The panel was scheduled to begin considering Gregoire's proposal for close to $2 billion in cuts, reductions to local governments and fund transfers, leaving $600 million in the bank.
Gregoire wants the Legislature to send a temporary, half-cent sales tax increase to the statewide ballot as early as March, with the levy pinned to "buying back" cuts that could be made to areas like education and public safety.
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate will produce their own plan in the coming weeks. A packed House hearing began that process Monday afternoon, though the meeting was disrupted several times with people inside the hearing chanting several phrases, including, "We will not be silenced."
Other groups crowded inside the Capitol rotunda, and a small group of protesters in the House gallery unfurled a banner over the chamber and shouted for lawmakers to tax the rich and fund schools. They chanted that the plan to further cut education will hurt families, children and teachers.
"It is immoral. It is illegal," they shouted. A few lawmakers watched the protesters while others ignored them. Troopers managed to quiet the crowd and escort them out of the chamber.
About 200 protesters, chanting "We are the 99 percent" and carrying signs like "They Cut, We Bleed," later filled the Senate public galleries after the Senate adjourned for the day.
Mark Arras, acting captain for the Capitol campus for the State Patrol, told protesters Monday evening that the building was closed and asked them to leave.
"We respect your right to free speech and protest. We ask you to do so within the building hours," Arras said.
Outside of the building, Albert Postema, of Snohomish, was wearing a rope noose tie to signify what he said was a "collective economic noose around us."
Postema, a produce and nursery stock farmer, said that he went to his first Occupy protest in New York in September. He said he considers himself a conservative but is concerned about "economic and political corruption."
"The poor and underprivileged have been taking the brunt," he said. "How do you make cuts when others have been so greedy?"
Karen Washington, a Spokane home care worker, said she's worried about how cuts could affect her clients' ability to pay for medication, as well as their impact on her as a worker. Washington said that while the state needs to raise revenue, the sales tax increase proposed by the governor would hurt low-income workers like herself.
Washington said she hopes lawmakers consider other taxes, including removing tax exemptions for some businesses.
"It's not an either or situation," she said. "It's not sales tax or cuts. It's not education or health care. They have other options."
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52 Comments so far
Show AllThe beginnings of revolution are scary at first. We will become hardened to their brutal attacks and never never ever use violence back at them. That is what they want in order to prove we mean harm. Never EVER. Our continuing non-violence will only serve to make the ugly look uglier to the whole world and make everyone know that they do have something to hide and we are slowly uncovering all the facts to end their reign of terror.
TRUE ! Yes, non-violence is subtle and almost quiet, but very powerful...it IS the WAY !
"Our continuing non-violence will only serve to make the ugly look uglier to the whole world and make everyone know that they do have something to hide and we are slowly uncovering all the facts to end their reign of terror. "
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Indeed. I'm thinking of those "livestock" animals whom we "raise" and violently kill for our enjoyment who are all defenseless non-violent beings. Example of our violence against non-violent beings: _________________________________
Contrary to assertions, ritual slaughter (e.g. Kosher, Muslim) does not ensure a humane death….anymore than urgent surgery for an aortic dissection ensures the patient’s survival (my aunt died in the OR). Regarding handling, the British Farm Animal Welfare Council found that the demand for ritually acceptable birds "can lead to rejected poultry being left overnight in transport crates without food and water. Individual treatment, advanced as an advantage of religious slaughter, often meant in practice 'callous and careless' handling with birds being thrown or rammed into bleeding cones after their throats were cut".
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Accordingly, such standard treatment of defenseless non-violent "livestock" animals serves only to make "the ugly look uglier." We do have plenty to hide from ourselves:
We advocate non-violence OUTSIDE the slaughterhouse when it concerns US, but not leading up to and INSIDE the slaughterhouse when it concerns "only" THEM.
Yep, and as the old saying goes, "you are what you eat" is essentially true.
I have deep respect for each and every soul who has the courage and conviction to fight OWS fight peacefully.
Violence never EVER? I can think of some mother bears that would disagree. Or how about a woman being raped, should she just look her rapist in the eye and tell him that she won't fight back because her morals just won't allow her to be violent? If you saw a man beating up another or better yet a bunch of guys kicking the crap out of an elderly woman, would you just sit there and protest that it's happening knowing fully in your heart that your superior morals will teach those men a lesson? Non-violence has it's place but to think that sitting there getting tear-gassed and tased and arrested will show those in power that they're in the wrong is fruitless at best. Do you really think the the 1% don't know what they're doing to the environment? Are you absolutely sure that they do what they do with their money because they haven't seen the errors of their ways? Those in power do what they do because they can. They've got the law, police, weapons, courts and government on their side and no amount of sitting in and chanting will change that. Especially if what you're doing is within the limits of what the state has set and to be a "good pacifist" is to stay within those boundaries and not rock the boat. What the hell are you protesting if you're going to follow what those you protest tell you what you can and cannot do?!
I'm not saying to start shooting, bloodshed will not solve anything. But go outside the boundaries. Don't wear a Guy Fawkes mask as it gives money to those you protest. Don't go to the protests with a Starbucks to go cup filled with money for the 1%. Don't assume that you have the moral high ground. Because they don't care. And don't don't DON'T stay within the boundaries.
People will walk willingly into the gas chamber as long as they're told it's a shower.
Very well said.
Last I checked "man" was not a "bear".
As to your two examples: the police council rape victims not to resist for the reason that violent resistance may well lead to increased violence on the part of the attacker. With the elderly woman all one should be doing is removing her from harm not trying to mete out retribution on the attackers, which would most like result in further harm to her. Teaching the attackers a "lesson" does nothing to help the old lady.
you've obviously missed my point entirely. There are times when defensive violence is justified and necessary. No man is not a bear, but a mother will defend her child's life with violence if necessary. For the police council rape victims to not resist is a flawed procedure at best. If a woman has the choice to either be raped or not, it's best to take the action that will stop it from happening. If you can only remove the elderly woman from harm by violently stopping her attackers, wouldn't you do that? Or would you wait until she's practically dead then passively help her? You seem to be one of those that puts the blame on the victim if something happens to them. Look beyond your pacifist dogma.------- Do you think those in power give a damn about your dogma? From their point of view, you're in the wrong and you need to be changed. If that's done with tear gas or bullets, so be it. They don't think their actions are ugly and will never budge by putting daisies in the barrels of their rifles.
Resolve to participate in emergence of democracy through the dark night of transforming greed into the capacity to learn beyond the strangling narrowness, in resilience, gratitude for the creative strength of each other throughout the creation. This already gently opens the future by being present - in the present - ever present.
"Dan Coon, a State Patrol spokesman, said troopers used Tasers on three people when demonstrators trying to enter the Capitol building advanced on the officers. He said the troopers were trying to protect themselves from being trampled.
"They weren't trying to disperse people," he said."
No film of this? Sorry if I am not buying the police version. That last line is just too close to a "cya" to be believed.
If it's wearing blue (green in Wa?), and it's mouth is moving. it's lyyyying!! OCCUPY!!
The State of Washington has the most atrociously regressive taxation in the US. With no income tax and relying on sales taxes and fees largely paid by wage earners, the lower 20% pay 17.3% of their income in taxes and fees, while the top 1% pays 2.6%. Yet, the only new tax they are considering is a raise in the regressive sales tax.
http://www.itepnet.org/wp2009/wa_whopays_factsheet.pdf
Well, that's the 'American Way'.? The cream (in this case, the wealth) must always rise to the top - even in this homogenized country.....
I sure hope more of the people of WA stand against this sales tax nonsense.
*Comment deleted by site administrators as spam: identical, repetitive comments posted on multiple articles*
see: http://www.commondreams.org/comment-policy
*Comment deleted by site administrators as spam: identical, repetitive comments posted on multiple articles*
see: http://www.commondreams.org/comment-policy
The need for a progressive income tax to supplement state revenues in a fair way is stunningly obvious to many of us here! But a recent initiative to create such a tax was overwhelmingly rejected by voters (only passed in Seattle). The right's anti-gov't rhetoric has been catastrophically successful. And folks in WA feel so burdened by close to 10% sales tax getting added onto every transaction already that any additional taxation just seems odious.
One of the few economic positives in Washington are the tribal casinos. People with money walk in, seven days a week, and hand over their cash willingly. Here, on the Olympic Peninsula, the Seven Cedars casino has turned a waterfront ghetto into a waterfront park without taxing anyone. Let's give it all back to the indigenous people. They certainly can't do any worse.
The "public servants" in the state capital can't think of anything to help the poor and middle class, struggling with ever higher health and education costs, and ever lower quality of life, than to raise the sales tax, which (surprise!) finds the money in the pockets of those who can least afford it.
"This country does in fact have a serious deficit problem. But the reality is that the deficit was caused by two wars that were unpaid for. It was caused by a recession as a result of greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street. And if those are the causes of the deficit, I will be damned if we are going to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the sick, the children and the poor. That's wrong."
-- Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Senate Budget Committee, 11-18-2011
Our police officers are armed with some pretty nasty weapons now...and if those in power ever actually DO feel threatened, we will be appalled at the violence they can do without actually killing.
I honestly believe that to be a two way street. I hope it does not happen but the "authorities" are doing all they can to make it happen. I believe that our Military would step up for the correct side in the event of need and personally would like to see NATO here now.
All of this about $1.4 billion dollars deficit. Why not just pause the war in Afghanistan for 2 weeks? That would save more than $1.4 billion.
Pipelinistans, dear. Got to keep to schedule, as Syria/Iran "humanitarian intervention$," and full-blown war in Pakistan, are all set to begin shortly, and the pipeline$ don't build themselves, ya know?
The government of the state of Washington has nothing to do with the Afghanistan or any other wars.
Your post reminds me of what Carl Levin yelled, in a senate hearing about the national debt and what to cut from it a few years back. When a protester stood up in the forum and yelled "End the wars!" Levin screamed out against the protester's words, yelling "The wars have absolutely nothing to do with the debt!"
troll
When I facilitate theft by misleading the persuit by authorities, it's called aiding and abbetting. WA state gov't in concert with other state gov'ts has to do with the wars and profiteering the same way. It's wrong.
Prison Planet is an apt description
Over three hundred people have died from tazers! Cops are killers!
Yes, they are. When it comes back to their families, THAT"S KARMA!! No threat here, just a wish for JUSTICE!
When it comes to their spouse, I have no compassion for someone that marrys a macho bully with little boys syndrome, but unfortunately they breed and their children have to answer to the actions of their parents sooner or later.
A common play on words by vendor and users is: less lethal is misquoted to less than lethal. They lie! Statistics abound.
Wow, the crazys are coming out in force. I guess this particular site is geared towards giving them a forum. Fair enough - still doesn't mean I'm not reading crazy comments. And I 100% support your right to say nutty, crazy, nonsensical things.
Yes we do allow crazies, yuppies, and you, but if you are saying that my comment about tasers killing people is faulse, I suggest you do your home work, tasers kill frequently. Are you really this much of a jerk.
""We respect your right to free speech and protest. We ask you to do so within the building hours," Arras said."" Capt. ArrAss is a Fascist Swine. There are NO time or place limits on the 1st Amendment! These people can not escape Karma/JUSTICE! No threat implied, only hope!
We respect your right and duty to administer your office. We ask you to do so within the confines of fairness.
You're absolutely right, AVDM. No one can escape karma. We humans cannot threaten with it because it is not within our power to use against another. We can try to change our own by living on a higher plane. We can burn bad karma seeds.& build good karma by doing good, etc. Otherwise, there is no escape. It follows us from one life to another.
Despite its well-deserved sociological notoriety as a present-day cultural backwater -- a slough of vindictive xenophobia and aggressive anti-intellectuality -- Washington state was once a model for effective socialist radicalism and may well become so again.
Note its former reputation as "the Soviet of Washington," which originated in Seattle's general strike of 1919 – the only real general strike in U.S. history – and the state's long connection with the Industrial Workers of the World, the nation's most defiantly Marxist union ever.
Today however the state not only has the most viciously regressive tax structure in the U.S., it has in the Puget Sound region what is undoubtedly the most anti-transit electorate on the entire planet -- a 43-year record in which eight of 10 regional transit proposals have been overwhelmingly defeated.
As a result the sprawling Puget Sound metropolis – colloquially “Pugetopolis” – has the worst, most automobile-centric public transport of any metropolitan area in North America, nearly a half-century behind any comparable region in the U.S.
More damningly, opinion research indicates every one of the transit defeats were fostered by carefully closeted bigotry. But the economic contraction has brought the bigotry into the open. Mass transportation has been redefined as a form of welfare, complete with claims governmental indebtedness make it an intolerably expensive pampering of the poor.
Given how these same definitively hateful voters smugly view themselves as the nation's most environmentally conscious electorate, the state's political hypocrisy probably has no peer anywhere in the universe.
Nor is this an accident. As Seattle's own Watergate felon John Ehrilichman testified during Congressional hearings, by the Nixon era the state had become the plutocracy's favorite rat-maze, the lab in which the Ruling Class tested and perfected its methods of oppression.
It should surprise no one the state is now a stage on which the Big Lie of U.S. democracy is becoming ever more undeniable. Note for example the emergence of Gov. Christine Gregoire as a closet Republican, fiercely defending the state's obscene exemption of its resident and non-resident capitalist aristocracy from meaningful taxation.
Obviously Washington's nickname “the Evergreen State” applies more to the wealth of its Ruling Class than to its ecology.
The governor thus mimics the president: Barack the Betrayer and Christine the Cruel united in their fealty to the One Percent and their savage indifference to the rest of us, the 99 Percent. It is a similarity I have noted many times on my blog, Outside Agitator's Notebook, whether on TypePad or in its present incarnation on BlogSpot.
Washington state's revenue crisis perfectly defines capitalism -- infinite greed elevated to maximum virtue – the rejection of every principle or ethics and morality our species has ever uttered. Such too is capitalist governance: absolute power and unlimited profit for the Ruling Class, total subjugation and deliberately genocidal poverty for all the rest of us.
But as the emergence of the Occupy Movement in Washington state cities indicates, the (long-deluded) population is finally waking up angry.
Enthusiastically aided by the state labor council and its local counterparts, substantially bolstered by the newly militant union rank-and-file, the state's Occupy Movement is deftly sidestepping attempted sabotage by a handful of venomously anti-union “progressives” – solidarity-wreckers apparently associated with MoveOn.Org, the Green Party and defiantly bourgeois elements within the Democratic Party itself.
Meanwhile Occupation activities at the state capitol demonstrate an example of 99 Percent solidarity the entire Occupy Nation should nurture and propagate – newly emergent proletarian consciousness amongst workers, students and impoverished peoples of all races and ages.
What is evolving here – a movement transcending conceptual obstacles that surely have no peer anywhere else in the United States – should give us all renewed determination to persevere in the struggle.
(Disclosure: permanently ousted from my native New York City by gentrification, I have lived in Washington state since late 1986. I also lived here, first as a GI Bill student, then as a journalist, from mid-1970 through early 1983. Though I have been associated with Occupy Tacoma since its beginning, in the above essay I speak for myself only. To my great regret, physical disability – I am nearly 72 years old – often limits my participation in Occupy Tacoma activities and has thus far prevented me from participating in the protests at Olympia.)
Typical neo-marxist rhetoric that I would expect for Seattle's ultra radical left. I don't even know where to start here. There are too many destructive things mentioned in this post, and I would be typing all night to use FACT to refute them. Sorry no time for that, not enough folks read this site to make a full post worth while. But keep dreaming your Soviet dreams....
"Typical neo-marxist rhetoric"
- what are you talking about ??
"I don't even know where to start here. "
- huh ? how about specifics you f*cking lazy yuppie, maybe b/c you don't care about the poor or maybe you just don't know how to refute loren's points. or maybe both ?
"too many destructive things mentioned in this post"
- for example ???
"no time for that, not enough folks read this site to make a full post worth while."
- b/c you can't read or have zero reading comprehension skills ?
"sorry no time for that, not enough folks read this site to make a full post worth while. But keep dreaming your Soviet dreams..."
then why did you post, i don't post at neo nazi/libertarian sites - why do you post here ?
...peace...
"then why did you post, i don't post at neo nazi/libertarian sites - why do you post here "
I wondered the same thing.
loren,
your post is spot on. every word. i've always appreciated your words/thoughts/reflections that you post here at CD (i wish you'd post more). i know you can take a bus down here to oly for about $5 round trip. if you ever need a place to crash (w/ food/hospitality and good spirits) please send me a message at my facebook account (- iowa blackbird @ facebook.com) and we can talk/arrange accommodations. i like your blog and your truthful spirit.
also, your reflections about the masses here is very accurate. it's so sad that these microsoft millionaires feel the welfare of the people is beneath them - to hell w/ them.
best wishes and...
...peace...
I'm just fine with tasing the protesters. They were actively breaking the law, were being intentionally disruptive of the legislative process (which may also be illegal), and needed to be removed. The rule of law must be obeyed. Its simple, its what we do in a civilized society...
that's b/c you're a friggin fascist who never was concerned about the welfare of the poor. you know what, i'll be fine when the revolutionaries burn down your house and redistribute the ill gotten funds in your bank account. oh right, not too many folks read this blog so why should i elaborate further.
...peace...
You may be fine with it, but none of those instances are grounds for using a taser. I hope you are also fine with the municipality having to pay out costly awards for the misuse of police force.
"The weapons should be used only on people (1) actively resisting or exhibiting active aggression or (2) at risk of harming themselves or others, according to PERF. And the fact that a subject is fleeing should not be the sole justification for police to use the weapons."
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/rpt/2007-R-0068.htm
(Police Executive Research Forum/PERF)
Yup, tiny viewership, so you're best to keep it short. Your first smart move...
I see a few members of the Puget Troll Troupe are out tonight, no doubt brought from their palatially Antoinette dens by momentary cessation of the monsoonal winter rains.
Nevertheless these deft practitioners of the Seattle Freeze (for which Google) and archetypal examples of why Seattle Sucks (for which also Google) are themselves indeed useful...well, you know.
Hence they deserve at least as much thanks as scorn or pity. They give us a true glimpse of the human pathology that besmirches this region's incomparably beautiful geography.
"They shouted in favor of taxing the wealthy"
The wealthy aren't really wealthy. When one says the wealthy is wealthy, one is really saying the people are hooked on production owned/controlled by the wealthy, and love to lavish their hard-earned bucks onto those known as "wealthy". This implies that all we have to do to take the wealth back, is to unhook ourselves from the production owned/controlled by the wealthy. I guess that about says it in a nutshell. That is the essence of localism, of course. Demand from the local market. Supply to the local market. Boycott the far-flung monopolist thug scum-bucket. I guess when times get tough enough you'll do it.
Tasers are intended only to be used if the officers life or that of another person in the vicinity is in danger. I doubt very much that beefy, armed, well padded police officers were in any real danger from Occupiers.
This is more wanton brutality to try aimed at silencing protestors and breaking the back of a movement that is gaining real traction. Tasers are not harmless. People have died from being tasered. I hope these file a lawsuit.