Interspersed between speakers during an open public comment period near the beginning that included requests that the City entice the Rainforest Cafe to set up shop downtown and ratify the Constitution for the Federation of Earth, three members of OLB spoke before a fourth, Tammara Phillips, asked the council whether it was “prepared to hear the 40 or so speakers that we have [here] this evening to discuss a free-speech zone.” When informed by Vice-Mayor Suja Lowenthal (presiding over the meeting in the absence of Mayor Bob Foster) that the issue was not on the evening’s agenda, Phillips addressed the gallery.
“Occupy Long Beach,” she began, “do you request a resolution establishing free-speech zone . . .” — at which point Lowenthal cut her off.
Phillips then led the group in a sort of pledge, over which Lowenthal admonished her that “this is no way to have your item agendized. You are out of order.” When the pledge continued, Lowethnal called for the police officers present to escort Phillips away from the microphone. Chants of “The whole world is watching!” followed, and when Lowenthal’s attempts to restore order were unsuccessful, the vice-mayor recessed the meeting.
As most of the council members vacated their seats (only council members Robert Garcia, Gerrie Schipske and Rae Gabelich remained in the room), roughly a dozen police officers streamed into the room as OLBers chanted “We are the 99%!” and “Your silence will not protect you!”
One officer could been holding dozens of zip ties, indicating that the police were prepared to make arrests if need be, but no protestors were detained at any time, and most of the officers present seemed relatively relaxed, one of them even engaging in cordial conversation with the protestor nearest the front of the chamber. At one point the protestors even broke into a chant of “Cops need a raise!” which elicited smiles from several officers.
But it was the chant of “Put us on the agenda!” that spoke specifically to why the OLBers were there, and when the councilmembers returned to the chamber roughly 15 minutes later, Councilmember Rae Gabelich defused the situation by offering to agendize the issue for the November 15 council meeting. Satisfied, the protestors filed out of the chamber.
Apparently what was the last straw in making the OLBers mad as hell and not willing to take this anymore stemmed from what may have been a misunderstanding involving Gabelich, as OLBers say they had understood her to have promised to agendize the “free-speech zone” issue for Tuesday’s meeting. However, Gabelich claims this was a misunderstanding; and various city staffers have stated that some members of the council received OLB’s “resolution” only Monday, while others had not received it at all.
While the matter is to be agendized for next week, Gabelich stated unequivocally that “the ordinance [prohibiting camping in the park] is not going to change,” and that OLB should “look for an alternative site. … I believe in the Occupy movement. I think the message is a good one. But we have to find creative alternatives.”
Even as OLBers succeeded in getting themselves on next week’s city council agenda, some outside the group feel they did not do themselves any favors. One person in attendance was overheard to say that OLB could have gotten its resolution on the council agenda via means that would not have been as alienating to the city council, while another complained, “These leeches who don’t work and offer nothing to society are going to destroy everyone’s rights. … They only care about their own free speech.”
What is clear is that the 40 OLBers in attendance were quite prepared to face arrest if they had not gotten what they wanted — even if exactly how the evening’s events transpired was not completely scripted. “We had talked about what we were going to do beforehand,” Demos told me after the meeting, “but once these things get going, they sort of go their own way.”
Call it the joys and perils of a leaderless movement. And at least as far as the Long Beach goes, says Demos, it’s a movement comprised mostly of persons with little experience in political protests.
Perhaps that’s fitting, considering that Long Beach is not exactly the most experienced city when it comes to this sort of thing.
What will result from such an unpracticed admixture? Stay tuned.
Video by Occupy Long Beach