Ruby Sinreich's blog

Guns over Franklin

I just sent the following to the Mayor and Town Council of Chapel Hill. It somewhat re-hashes my previous comments here on OP, so I'm not going to front-page it, but wanted it to be on the record.

I was extremely disappointed to see the Town handle the anarchist break-in at the Yates Building so poorly after working so well with the activists at Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro for the past month. What happened last weekend played into every simplistic anarcho-fantasy about jack-booted thugs violently protecting the wealthy. That's not the Chapel Hill we know, but there is a vocal group of residents that now may never believe otherwise.

I'm undecided about Jim Neal's specific proposal for an independent commission to study the events of last weekend. Do we really have to empanel a committee to tell us what almost everyone knows (at least in retrospect), which is that the police action was unnecessarily forceful and overly broad? However, I very much want and need some clearer answers from the Town of Chapel Hill.

Official response from Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro to Sunday's police action

This press release was issued today...

The General Assembly of Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro, meeting at Peace and Justice Plaza, expresses outrage and disappointment at the disproportionate and disturbing use of force by the Chapel Hill Police Department.

Chapel Hill Police Violently Arrest Squatters at Yates (University Chrysler) Building

In a series of unfortunate events, a group of folks (who do not represent Occupy Chapel Hill) decided to break into and occupy the abandoned neglected University Chrysler building on West Franklin Street (between 411 West and Lantern). This is one of many properties owned by Joe Riddle that have been left vacant for years on end. While I think their encampment was probably an improvement to the space, I have to admit that if it was my house and someone decided to move in, I'd probably call the cops, too.

So that's what Riddle did, putting the town in the position of having to get the protesters out. I've been hearing a lot of reports about what happened, only some of which can be confirmed right now. But it seems as if the police were unnecessarily heavy-handed. Given that Police Chief Chris Blue has been very open and communicative with Occupy Chapel Hill-Carrboro group at Peace and Justice Plaza, this is somewhat surprising. But it also bears reminding that this group IS NOT the same as Occupy CHC and I doubt they were as interested in maintaining a good relationship with the town.

What the pundits think

Here are the rough results of our Pundit of the Year contest. Please take them with a MASSIVE grain of salt.

Candidates by mail

In the past we have looked at candidate yard signs on OP, I thought it might interesting to do the same with mailings so I did some hasty scanning this week. Since I live in Chapel Hill, they are only for Town Council candidates, and it's entirely possible there were other mailings that were not sent to me. But this is what we got at my house...

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