OccupyCHC
I drove by Town Hall around 8:40pm and it appeared that protesters (Occupy?) were blocking southbound traffic on MLK Jr. Blvd/Airport Road/NC-86 right next to the bridge that leads to the main Chapel Hill municipal building. Last I saw (again, around 8:40pm), a couple of police cars were also in the southbound lanes protecting the protesters from getting run over by traffic. Anyone know what's going on now?
In advance of tonight's Council meeting, Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil sent the email below this afternoon to members of the Town Council, Chief of Police Chris Blue and Town of Chapel Hill employees.
Roger and Chief Chris Blue are conducting an internal review of "the events centered on the vacant Yates Motor Company building." Others might more aptly characterized those "events" as "the deployment of an ~ 25 person SWAT Unit to arrest seven people charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering at the Yates Building."
The Council will consider the Petition that I and 77 other cosignatories submitted to the Council. That Petition requests that the Council establish an independent task force to review the events leading to the deployment of the CHPD SWAT team on November 13th, and report back its findings and recommendations to the Council and the public.
The Town Manager's proposal is neither independent nor transparent. The parties conducting the investigation have conflicts of interest, namely their real or perceived bias to protect the image and reputation of the CHPD and the Town of Chapel Hill.
New press release from Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro:
(Chapel Hill, North Carolina) (November 21, 2011) -- On Monday, November 21st, Occupy Chapel Hill/Carrboro will not be holding its regular 6pm General Assembly at Peace and Justice Plaza on Franklin Street. Instead, we are coming together for a peaceful protest and march in opposition to the repression of, and excessive show of force against, the occupation of 419 W Franklin St.
The protest will commence at 6pm, at Chapel Hill Police Headquarters, and after peacefully demonstrating there, we will walk to Town Hall to participate in the 7pm Town Council Meeting.
Date:
Monday, November 21, 2011 - 6:00pm
Location:
CH Police Headquarters & CH Town Hall
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.
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