Authorities are successful in denying protestors their 1st & 5th Amendment Rights on October 14th. by Bill Gee
(centrist)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
After a successful day of protest on October 15th, and a successful standoff with police in New York City, the Occupy Movement continues to gain support and legitimacy as it continues to gain strength. While the base camps in major urban hubs have large-scale support by dedicated protestors, smaller occupations are more easily harassed and intimidated by authorities.
The Brief History of Occupy Trenton
On the same day the Occupy Movement was getting organized in Philadelphia, a small but dedicated group of protestors in Trenton, New Jersey set up a camp across the street from the Statehouse in a park belonging to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, locally known as the Trenton War Memorial Park.
Just like the protestors in other cities across the nation, authorities first promised the occupiers that they can stay as long as they like without condition provided that they kept their protest peaceful. The protestors never rallied more than two dozen people at a time, but they had dedicated members that were committed to stay for the “long haul”.
A week later on October 13th, the Department of Veterans Affairs started asked the state police to inform the protestors that they were no longer welcome in the park. They first told protestors that they had to remove their tents, tables and tarps at night, which they did. A few protestors remained at night sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags or in their cars, but they kept a small generator going to keep their laptop computer and webcam going.
On Friday morning some workers in plain clothes and an unmarked truck confiscated the generator, computers and all personal equipment that was not “on the person” of protestors at the scene. Since there was only one or two protestors at the scene at the time, they pretty much took everything they had and apparently took it to the dump because nobody knows where their personal property is at this time. (A clear violation of the protestors' 1st & 5th Amendment Rights) The last official communication from the Occupy Trenton protestors was later that morning as they pleaded with fellow Occupiers to come to the Statehouse to protest the breaking up of the camp, but the lack of news coverage of the event and the jubilation of the New York protestors’ success allowed their pleas to fall on deaf ears.
Down, But Not Out
As of today, there are no protestors of the Occupy Movement outside the Statehouse in Trenton. Apparently, Governor Chris Christie’s current reputation as the Republican Party’s tough-talk fiscal Conservative couldn’t stand having a bunch of protestors in perpetual vigil outside of his office. The lack of news coverage of the Occupy Trenton movement was hardly surprising either as New Jersey’s only TV news station devoted to the Garden State was shut down by Christie on July 1st of this year.
For the Occupy Movement, New Jersey is going to be a tough nut to crack. Being in the middle of two of the largest media zones, Philadelphia and New York, the news out of New Jersey is thin on a good day, and downright absent on most. Of the three major newspapers that serve the Trenton area, two are owned by NewsCorp and the other is owned by Time Warner, so no help there. New Jersey's government is also infamously corrupt - often bowing to both corporate interests and organized crime in exchange for campaign contributions and kickbacks.
What is most likely needed for the Occupy Trenton Movement is for its members to regroup in Philadelphia or New York, obtain some guidance and networking from them, and then try to build another camp on state land with larger numbers of supporters.
The notoriously corrupt New Jersey Government may have won this round, but this is FAR from over!
Correction and Update: The property of the protestors was allegedly taken to a storage facility where they were free to claim them after 24 hours. I'm currently trying to verify whether they actually got their stuff back or if they've re-established the camp, but I've been unable to contact anyone at this point to verify any of the reported facts.
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Posted By: Bill Gee
Date: October 19, 2011 08:22:22 AM
When I thought about it, it seems that Trenton is an illogical place to set up an Occupy camp. A more logical location would be Princeton. Not only do you have the University which has catered and trained the best and brightest on Wall Street and global corporations everywhere, but the number of corporate entities that hold their corporate offices in Princeton reads like a who's who of Fortune 500 firms! These include Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, BlackRock Financial, Princeton Financial, among others. In addition, there is plenty of open state park land there in order to set up a base camp, plus it's the site of the Battle of Princeton from the Revolutionary War and it's the location of the Governor's mansion.
These days Trenton has more in common with Camden and Newark. If the point of the Occupation is to be visable to corporate powerhouses, they should be where they can see them!
