Occupy Delaware GA

Meeting Notes
Spencer Plaza
2012-05-16

meeting start: 1915 hr

REPORT-BACKS

Actions

At the Wilmington rally on the Delaware Ave. bridge over I-95 we had 4 people and we got a lot of power signs and a lot of support. 4:30-5:30 Wednesdays, there’s always somebody there.

Mayor-Wants-To-Kick-Us-Out Committee

We’re keeping a diary to have a group memory when we go to trial. When officials come to site, send info to Jen. Everyone should have their own journal as well.

There was an L&I person here Friday, complaining that we didn’t have any pallets! L&I (not the fire marshal) is concerned that the tents would blow away. So we went out and got cinder blocks. L&I also wanted documentation on the command tent, we sent them a 300 page report. And we haven’t heard from them since. Our military experience was valuable in this case.

Remember, no direct phone, email, correspondence with officials, all through our lawyer (except conversations, which should be recorded in your journal notes).

Fiduciary/Web

We have a PayPal account set up for donations. And we’ve already had a sizable donation!

We ordered the fire-retardant tarps Sunday night, 5 10×12 tarps, @ $30. We can order more if we want. Delivery should be 5-10 days.

$ Report: We have $581.35 in our DACA account.

Site Activities

2 days ago a guy showed up and said he took pictures of the camp from about 2 weeks ago and he took them to the mayor’s office (“negative” pictures…)

A car last week cruised by and didn’t stop, taking pictures.

Bus Hub

I talked to a lot of people on the street, and if the bus hub is not restored as the hub then there will be hundreds of people willing to boycott.

As a disabled person there are no benches at the new stops. We’ll need benches at Rodney Square.

We will have to file paperwork.

They’re doing 2 sides of Rodney Square by October and the buses should be back then.

There is a movement to start harassing us politically. Because of my activism and registering people to vote I’m being followed (and I’m not paranoid), police and county agents. So don’t let them intimidate, this is free speech and free association. Look for subtle things that they’re doing.

My email was infiltrated 3 times, twice in PA and once in DE. If you think it’s ridiculous, don’t, because they have the technology to screw with you.

When I attended the 99% Civil Disobediance training, there were 2 unmarked cars, and sime bikers. They were in suits and they were at Shenanigans later. They let their presence be known. As did I. Don’t be intimidated. This is what happens.

The bus thing, we need to bombard the newspaper with the people who are complaining. Re ADA, there was no time to talk to anybody. We’ll call them.

The bankers association has allocated money to put pressure on legislators against us. We had a recent disclosure through the FOIA that Homeland Security works closely with fusion centers to coordinate an attack against occupations across the country. They’re probably working with the mayor, wondering why we’re still here.

I have been getting phone calls from strange numbers, 708, 709, 201 area codes. They’ll stay on the line and then hang up when I say something. When I call back the number has been disconnected or doesn’t exist. Daily, or twice a day.

There are many technologies that can be used to invade your privacy. Synthetic telepathy. May sound bizarre, but the government has been known to be tampering with inmates’ thoughts, some of the technology has been patented, it goes back to the Cold War. Look it up. Prisoners have been trying to put together a class action suit against being experimented on. A Stalinist trick that’s been used before.

The garden project, are we still interested in fixing up the fence? We’ll need some money for this. We can take a project description to take to Lowes et al. to see if we can get materials donated. Press release…the certificate we got from the mayor.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

This upcoming weekend is the Grand Prix. Friday it’ll be the Monkey Hill Time Trial, frmo 4-8. Saturday street festival noon to 5:30 downtown. Sunday, finish line at DE Art Museuum 10-2. We can make positive signs to encourage them!

Hannah’s ordination is this Friday, 7 pm. Some of us are going, it’s open to the public. Let’s talk after the GA about carpooling to Phoenixville, where it’ll be.

Today there was an incident with the buses. We were going to Newark to sell some papers and the 33 passed us by, we ran to catch it but it kept going. This happened twice! The driver of the 35 walked by us and ignored us. The drivers were completely arrogant.

I tried to get the 9-12 people to support Occupy. There was some interest! I’m running against Markell as a Tea Party Occupier!

We’re going to have a sign at the next rally that invites people to the GAs. The sign has to be big enough so they can read it! We need more poster board.

DART is not customer friendly. The drivers don’t care how they treat you. And ParaTrasit sucks. The DART buses are unsafe, they need to be refurbished but they aren’t being replaced. Some are taped together. Tape on the floor! These buses are dilapidated, 15 years old. Elderly women slip and fall because the drivers take off too soon. When I lived in NYC the MTA drivers were civil, and followed the law. The buses routinely skip their stops. As a disabled person DART is the only way I can get around. All DART people need to learn how to treat their customers right.

I’ve been registering people to vote, I’ve been hitting the 18-19 year-olds up and we’re getting a crowd of them on site to stay. We’ll show them what it’s like to live on the street. All 18-plus are welcome. This is a start at a regular “Homeless Stay In” to give them a taste of what it’s like.

I miss Steve F*ckin Fox.

I have surplus heirloom tomato plants if anyone is interested (Laura). I’ll bring them by the site Saturday.

Commenting on the bus drivers, I don’t think it’s their fault in all cases as it is the tight schedule they have to keep. Yes it’s unsafe but it goes up above the drivers.

The DART bus drivers, every one, waves to us at the rallies. And they bring us doughnuts. A driver stopped for us between stops and when we got on he told us he’s “one of the good guys.” DART treats the drivers like crap and they communicate that.

Perhaps we need to get a DART committee started. We’ve focused on Rodney Square, but there’s a bigger issue. It’s bus safety. Public transportation is a vital, necessary service. There will be no public transport in or out of Delaware City. It’s state-wide.

Occupy Boston has an Occupy Public Transit. Reach out to that national call to action and have another. Do a quality auditing day.

“Occupy DART” under the Action committee. We can recruit drivers to participate in GAs.

We have the demand that speaks to that. This’ll be the next topic of Action meetings.

Action meetings are at the site, Tuesdays at 6 and Saturdays at 1. We need enough people to plan, research, do the actions. This is a call out to everyone who’s interested in doing these actions come to the meetings. To follow up from the ideas generated at GAs and Shenanigans.

Meeting adjourned: 2008 hrs

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