Links
Photos
Joyce Turner, director of the state Department of Enterprise Services, personally asked the campers to leave Friday afternoon, said Steve Valandra, a spokesman for the department. He said Turner made the decision that morning to shut down the camp. There were no confrontations, he said.
“We’ll accommodate their free speech activities,” he said. “We just feel like the tents have got to go now.”
Valandra said there’s no deadline for people to leave, and there’s no plan for what to do with the campers if they don’t leave. He said the state will re-evaluate the situation early next week.
“We don’t want a confrontation,” he said.
The camp has policed itself “pretty well,” Valandra said, but matters worsened over the past two weeks.
A woman was charged with felony possession of methamphetamine, and three people were charged with possessing drug paraphernalia, said Trooper Guy Gill, a spokesman for the Washington State Patrol. In another incident, a man was charged with assault.
“I think it boils down to we don’t want it getting any worse,” Gill said.
Valandra said a number of people with mental health issues are in the camp. One camper recently estimated that two-thirds of the camp’s residents are homeless.
The camp was still working on an official response to the state’s request Friday evening, said Monte Katzenberger, who helps handle media relations for the camp.
“I myself think it’s a little bit unreasonable,” he said. “This is just considering that illegal activity goes on all over the city.”
Berd Whitlock, an Occupy Olympia participant, said the camp is against aggressive behavior and is asking for the community’s support. The rules of the camp are posted on a sign: no illicit drugs, alcohol, dogs off leash or violence and aggressive behavior.
Gill said troopers have had a good rapport with camp residents, noting that the drug bust was made after a tip from campers.
Residents of the camp had other worries Friday: strong winds that blew away tents as a storm front blew in.
“I cannot imagine that people would agree to voluntarily leave, like as a camp,” Whitlock said. “I think the weather is a bigger threat than the letter from Joyce Turner.”
Occupy Olympia began in Sylvester Park on Oct. 15, but most campers agreed a day later to move to Heritage Park, because the grass is hardier there and there are restrooms. The camp is in solidarity with the original Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, which began in September and since has sparked similar protests worldwide.
The movement has no specific goals, but seeks to draw attention to the growing income disparity between the richest 1 percent and the other 99 percent.
The camp has been allowed to stay in Heritage Park as an expression of free speech at Turner’s discretion, Valandra has said. But a Nov. 4 attempt to occupy the Capitol Campus lawn resulted in five tents being removed and two arrests.
Whitlock said many people would be willing to go to jail if the Occupy Olympia campers are evicted from Heritage Park.
“I think asking us to leave is overreacting,” he said, and “it doesn’t acknowledge the serious reason that we’re there and the serious issues that we’re trying to draw attention to.”
Matt Batcheldor: 360-704-6869 mbatcheldor@theolympian.com
