In a meeting today between members of the Occupy Tampa movement and Tampa Police Assistant Chief John Bennett in the office of Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern, Bennett (who is coordinating security for next summer’s Republican National Convention) stated that he supported “the aims of the occupy movement” and that “the widening income gap between the rich and the poor in this country” is of grave concern to him. “If something is going to change in this country, it may come from this movement.”
Councilwoman Mulhern requested the meeting between Bennett and members of Occupy Tampa due to concern over recent arrests and after hearing complaints about alleged police harassment of the occupiers including police helicopters hovering nightly over the overnight occupation in downtown Tampa. Bennett said he was unaware of the hovering, (which he estimated costs $600.00 per hour) and would look into. Additionaly, he maintained he wanted to keep “open lines of communication” with the protesters and avoid further arrests and the kind of altercations that have marred other Occupation protests around the country. “You might think it’s corny,” Bennett said at the meeting, “but I like to think ‘Policing with Love’ is the best way to handle these situations…When we’re delivering a box of coffee to you all on a cold and rainy night, we know we’ve reached a good relationship.” (editor’s note: this hasn’t happened).
Members of Occupy Tampa also voiced concerns over what they viewed as heavy handed police tactics and an ever changing set of rules regarding the sidewalk occupation. Police have repeatedly confiscated personal belongings and stated that besides one literature table, each protester is allowed only one sleeping bag and one personal item such as a back pack at the over night occupation. After some deliberation, Bennett and the Occupy members agreed that the protesters should come up with their own proposal for how many personal items (or occupation “foot print” as Bennett referred to it) that should be allowed and present it to him within 3 days for consideration. The Occupy Tampa folks said they’d take it to the group for discussion.
Another contested issue for Occupiers is whether their First Amendment right to Freedom of Assembly is being violated for arresting them for sleeping in a public park. Bennett said he had to weigh these concerns with every group that may want to sleep in a park as a form of expression if a precedent is set.
Although it has been widely reported that Tampa Police Captain Brian Dugan is leading local crowd-management planning for the Republican National Convention in Tampa next summer, Assistant Chief Bennett made it clear that Dugan will answer to him and that he intends to avoid the kind of blanket arrests that took place at previous Republican Conventions in St. Paul (2008) and New York City (2004). “We will take a more surgical approach,” said Bennett, a devout Catholic, “though we won’t tolerate smashing up buildings.”
…………………………
Here is a short Days of Struggle video with members of Occupy Tampa explaining exactly what they are upset about…
Why are any of us still humoring the police? Talk about getting the run around. This is what they do, and the policians too. They give you ho-hum answers, and sooner or later a crisis or natural disaster happens and shifts the convo. Or the people debating them simply get distracted and give up.
As far as protesting during the RNC, its not his call. The feds are running it, and they dont give two shits about this guy, or they would stop spending so much fuckin money (which is eventually going to lead to his pension getting cut, then his benefts, then his salary).
Stop wasting your time with the police and the politicians. The main focus is the message, and getting the word out, creating REAL supporters. If you dont have this, nothing else matters. Of course they arent going to give us anything, we cant even pull more people on a Saturday than a freakin ice rink (in the middle of an economic collapse mind you).
Come on guys, get it going!