Occupy Phoenix Update
Ben Garcia
On Nov. 18, Occupy Phoenix stirred the pot which resulted in the arrest of seven occupiers. These seven occupiers have been deemed the “Sleepy Seven.”
Up until that Friday evening, the Occupy Phoenix scene, which is coming up on its third month of occupation, had caused little fuss for the Phoenix Police Department.
The evening started with a march of 100 to 150 occupiers through downtown Phoenix. The rush-hour-timed march wasn’t big enough to cause major traffic delays, but did draw its share of car honks coming from supporters of the movement who drove by.
Once the occupiers made it back to Cesar Chavez Plaza, ground zero of the Occupy Phoenix movement, police had already started to set up a human perimeter on one side of the square.
Seven occupiers, in an act of defiance towards Phoenix’s city ordinance 23-30, an “urban camping” ordinance, laid down on sleeping bags and blankets under pop-up canopies in the middle of Cesar Chavez Plaza.
Dianne Post, a member of the Occupy Phoenix legal working group, described the group’s actions saying “they are not camping here to live, they are here to send a political message.”f the National Lawyers Guild, said the city ordinance baning camping does so by not allowing camping on government-owned property.
Post argues that since government-owned property is purchased with tax-payer money, by default, it should belong to the people.
As the group of sleepy occupiers made their stand by lying down, the number of Phoenix officers on scene grew until it reached a sufficient number to impose its will on the less-than-hostile crowd.
As the police moved in, those who didn’t wish to be arrested were instructed by officers to stand back from the occupiers who had laid down.
It took more than 80 officers less than 30 minutes to swoop in, secure the area around the occupiers laying down, make the arrests, and take the “Sleepy Seven” off in a police van.
Once the seven were charged with breaking the city ordinance 23-30, they were released the next day.
Moving forward with judicial process, a pretrial conference will take place Dec. 9 where both sides will attempt to reach a deal, and if a deal isn’t reached, the case will then move on to trial.
“I cannot predict what will happen with the case. What I want to happen is that Phoenix police and all police and government authorities follow the Constitution and enable rather than restrict Free Speech,” Post said.
