Front Page  »  

County orders Occupy SLO to leave courthouse grounds

October 30, 2011

By KAREN VELIE

County officials ordered Occupy SLO protesters to stop spending the night at the San Luis Obispo County Courthouse property, where they’ve been encamped for the past two weeks.

Officials posted letters signed by SLO County Administrator Jim Grant at the encampment on Friday which ordered the protesters to evacuate the area daily from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. County officials listed issues such as urination in the area, protesters plugging into county electrical outlets and attaching hoses to courthouse water lines as the catalysts for the order.

Many of the protesters took off late on Friday evening with a handful waiting to be arrested. Meanwhile, the local Halloween celebration carried on unimpeded and at times spread into the encampment.

County and police officials, however, did not take any action against the campers other than to arrest a bystander who lifted his shirt to expose a knife stuck in his belt. Another attendee alerted police who descended on the encampment at about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday and arrested the man who was also carrying an open container of alcohol.

The courthouse protest has been plagued with altercations from homeless bystanders who have moved from encampments next to local creeks to the courthouse.

Steering Committee Occupy SLO chair Evan Sylvester said in an email that illegal activities at the encampment include:

•    Drug and alcohol use
•    Theft
•    Illegal solicitation of funds
•    Urination, piles of human feces, and trash littered around the County building
•    A man urinated on a tent that two little girls were sleeping in
•    Indecent exposure
•    Someone broke their arm the other night in an altercation
•    Several other altercations
•    Abundant dog feces in the grass

During the past week, the originators of Occupy SLO withdrew their support for the courthouse occupation amidst heavy infighting from different factions of the group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Loading...
Subjects:                 
Related:


48 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

It’s interesting to note that some of the biggest ass kissers and brown nosers in SLO County are now claiming outrage over a piece of poop on someone’s lawn.


Pooping is a human necessity, that is why it used to be common for communities to provide adequate public bathrooms. Remember, before “Big Government”, we could poop pretty much whereever we wanted. It wasn’t really all that long ago when people, good people, pooped all over the place in this great state. There probably isn’t a square mile anywhere in SLO County where someone hasn’t laid a fresh turd in the great wide open at one time or another.


Pooping. That’s what people do. Deal with it. If you’ve got a problem, YOU show us the bathroom to use and MAYBE we’ll poop in it for your sake.


Just because sit on a toilet each day doesn’t make you a king!


Quit your whining!


0

Pooping, just anywhere, cause people to get sick. That is why “Big Government” had to make rules about pooping. Sitting on a toilet certainly does not make you a king, it makes you intelligent, it makes you healthy, it makes you decent, it shows that your parents taught you respect for others.


There is no bathroom on the lawn of the Courthouse because it is not a place intended for camping / living. Even vagrants (the original Occupy SLO movement) have the self respect to not defecate on the Courthouse lawn.


The next story we read will undoubtedly be about someone getting sick (from Bacteria, viruses and parasites) from fecal contact and then they will sue the county, so all of us who actually go to work every day and pay taxes (like a lot of taxes, like most of the taxes) will have to then pay for their medical care. I would rather pay for your girlfriends birth control. It is a much better investment.


You have less right to defecate on the lawn than I have to walk down the street and not have to smell or step in it. Thank you for proving to all of us what your “movement” is all about. And for the record, I am complaining, legitimately. You, are whining on mine and every other actual tax payers behalf. So now you have our permission, you may go home, your parent hate paying rent for an empty dorm room.


0

I agree darwin. Wiseguy, sometimes I agree with you but on this one,,,I think that perhaps we should send you out to clean it up. I can’t think of anything more disgusting then some poor gardener having to clean up people poo.


0

“your parent hate paying rent for an empty dorm room.”


Are you perhaps a Chinese immigrant, they too have trouble with English.


How do you know it is a student, to assume makes an ass out of you and me.


0

WiseGuy, please forward your physical address. I’ll be over in the morning to drop a big deuce on your lawn after a couple cups of coffee.


0

Side Show that was great I gave you a point, but stay away from my lawn , I know how big your ass really is!


Hell you might be able to take out the CSD bunker with one launch.


I have your back, I mean ur,,, well great post.


0

I had the pleasure of being personally accosted by these whiners in front of the courthouse. I think if you are going to complain about banks taking advantage of you, you should have some money in those banks first. I know this is a shock, but going to college on mommy and daddy’s dime for four years doesnt entitle you to anything. Hard work earns respect. Respect earns a fair living wage. You cant skip a step, there is no free pass just because you spent four years doing homework. If you want to know why you are camping in front of a courthouse instead of going to a good paying job, think about this … you are camping in front of a courthouse.


0

The idea a student, a citizen of the United States, should not speak up against fraud committed by the largest banks in America because they don’t have a savings or checking account at the bank, or aren’t working yet is ludicrous. At least they are SMART enough to complain.


0

Interesting take on the role of the next generation coming from a darwin follower.


Let’s see what evolves for these kids. Those banks have stolen from their futures and likely that of their children. We’ve left them with a country teetering on bankruptcy and with little hope of that good paying job of which you speak. Can’t decide what’s more mystifying — your comment or the 24 “likes” it received.


Lib or Con, belief in the camping method or not — your comments re: who has a right to object to the status quo are beyond ignorant. Wow.


0

Damn shame these folks (many of them, not all) have highjacked the occupyslo movement’s public face. They have done far worse in their tantrums to have a voice, while living like just what they look like. They are part of the 99% but they have claimed to represent the legitimate movement here with their single issue (homelessness) and less than stellar living conditions that outrage much of the public. For the very reasons put forward by Mr. Sylvester the movement has denied any connection to this unwelcome mob.


So, for the public, those folks sleeping till noon on the sidewalk DO NOT REPRESENT Occupyslo. They wave signs to claim moral authority but they have none. Tell your council and supes to kick them out; it is a crash pad, not a movement.


0

There is no County “order,” it is a “request” because the County has no laws specifically governing the use of the assembly area in front of the courthouse, and because the county supports the use of the space for public protest and doesn’t want to initiate a 1st Amendment confrontation.


The state has laws protecting health and safety in public areas, and these are the ones Jim Grant is using to request that the occupiers leave at night (detailed in the PDF, link below)


Here is a link to the county REQUEST:

http://occupyslo.org/documents/County%20Notice%20Seved%20Courthouse009.pdf


In sum, the county cannot expel protesters from the area unless they are caught violating specific laws, as illustrated in the examples in the article. If you are a protester lawfully protesting in the area, whiter it be at 3 pm or 3 am, the county has no legal basis for forcing you to leave. They can only request it.


My impression is that the county views the overnight occupation as an attractive nuisance in the sense that it has attracted individuals who have no intention of complying with basic public health & safety laws. Whether these individuals are self-identifying as being part of a political protest or not is irrelevant as far as the county is concerned.


0

Excellent points, and I’m glad that there is no legal basis forcing anyone to leave. That’s the way it should be. Even if it’s inconvenient for a bit, it will work itself out. Ultimately there will only be a few people left who are just their to squat and it is likely they will break a law which allows them to be removed for a reason that does not violate the first amendment….which was written in absolute terms for a reason.


0

Fascist infiltrators.

Check with the Southern Poverty Law Center, if anyone gives a damn.


American 3rd movement , Aryan Brotherhood, Paul Singer. Conservative enemies of mankind.


0

Seventy-five years ago TODAY, October 31, 1936; President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his Second New Deal. I recommend reading the whole address, but

Here are a few excerpts:


“For twelve years, this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf, and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker, and three long years at the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage, and thre long years of despair !

Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that THAT Government is best which is most indifferent.


…They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs.

We now know that Government by organised money is just as dangerous as Government by organised mob.


Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are UNANIMOUS in their hate for me …and I WELCOME THEIR HATRED ! ”


Today, this Nation is suffering under assault from the same type of backward, destructive, conservative Republican INDIFFERENCE. It is a willful neglect of selfishness and greed so replete, that we witness a similar kind of hate when ONE person dare speak the truth.


I stand with FDR and WELCOME this hatred !


The right-wing mob repeats the slogans and nonsense from their revolving echo chamber of bigmouths and blowhards. I hear their phony straw men arguments and red herrings all the time.

Doesn’t change thye TRUTH.


But, even if you think I’m full of it and refuse to believe me …at least respect yourself a little bit and check things out. It’s really easy today: If you are reading this here, it means you are already on a computer with access to multiple sources of information. Go to Google, or Bing, or Yahoo. Type in “Patrick Howley” and “The American Spectator”, and “Smithsonian”. You will find numerous articles detailing how he BRAGGED about instigating the pepper spray incident there. NOT the occupy protestors !

Check out “Oathkeepers” a rightist militia group made up of militant police officers and military united in their hatred of anything “left” . They have infiltrated much of the occupy Los Angeles crowd, and are no way in agreement with the principles of economic justice.

The Oakland riot that resulted in the Iraq war vet getting his skull smashed was agitated by a consortium of reactionary plants.

Here in SLO we have some crazy offshoot of uber-Libertarian and hidden racist Ron Paul cultists that have recruited brownshirts dressed up as ‘homeless’ from the white supremacist prison gangs. They then rounded up some of the genuine homeless to provide cover for them.

The compound ‘leader’ is someone we call ‘camera boy. He uses a name that is most likely an alias, as the last name is the place where the real Tea Party occured just before the American Revolution. This dime store general then went around barking orders and annoying others with multiple flash photos using a camera worth almost a thousand dollars. This clown claims he is an “economist”. He’ll probably tell you he’s an astronaut, too.


Some of the people that initially grouped as occupySLO, solid people with long ties to the community, did not at first want to believe me when I cautioned that infiltration had happened. Most of them have since seen the light. . I would imagine that some of them may be among the ‘like’ people.


To the ‘dislike’ crowd, it won’t be long before you are proven wrong, ….once again..


0

You are missing something. “We now know that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.” HOW is money organized? VIA the power of the government, with the Federal Reserve. The speculation of the 1920 did not start itself, it was not caused by “animal spirits.” It was caused by the government taking control of the money supply…. everything after that is just an attempt to mitigate the power this brought to the oligarchs.


0

It was caused by interest rate manipulation by the FED and by rampant speculation in commodities, among other things. The FED was working hand-in-glove with the Wall Street speculators. There is no money vacuum.


0

Wow.


0

Who in the world would want to associate with a bunch of people who act like this:


   Drug and alcohol use
•    Theft
•    Illegal solicitation of funds
•    Urination, piles of human feces, and trash littered around the County building
•    A man urinated on a tent that two little girls were sleeping in
•    Indecent exposure
•    Someone broke their arm the other night in an altercation
•    Several other altercations
•    Abundant dog feces in the grass


What has society become?


SLO County had no other choice but to act as they did.


0

Sounds like fun to me!


0

Dog poo piles, people poo piles, trash, drugs and alcohol…say it aint so!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what happened to SLO’s environmentally anal youth.


0

Unfortunately, These many of these marauders have unwittingly put a face on the OccupySLO movement and it leads one to first wonder if they are really wanting a job or more social services. Then second, one has to wonder if they are even capable of holding down a job. It’s a shame that the movement was infiltrated by those who have attempted to represent the 99% in this fashion.


0

I sometimes think that it was these dirt-bags that snookered *some* decent folk in with their complaints. Sure, complain about enough and point to the “fat cat” and everyone can find commonality. However, it is when we dig a little deeper that many realize there often isn’t much in common with each other, 99% or otherwise, other than hating a common “enemy” (which is how all dictatorships and closed societies survive: focus your population’s anger externally so they won’t see how crappy they have it).


0

Please don’t spoil your perfect score by saying anything positive. We appreciate that there is someone capable of always referencing to the dark side of things, and we look forward to your consistency.


Thanks


0

You’re very welcome!


0

This should have been done in the beginning and none of these things would have happened.


0

That’s what Eve said.


0

Bah!


0

Fair enough. Pack up, clean up at night and don’t give the authority a reason. But don’t quit. Call the police on the bums causing the problems.


0

Excellent post. Preserves the right of assembly while addressing underlying problems. While I don’t necessarily agree with everything they are standing for or doing, I 110% stand behind their right to do what they are doing.


0

I also stand behind their right to peaceful assembly and protest. I do not necessarily agree with their voice, but they certainly have my respect for speaking out.


Word of advice…do not “poo” on the lawn! This makes another kind of statement that detracts from your cause.


0

I would doubt anyone has issues with peaceable assembly; rather, many have issues with taking advantage of that. Seems to be a recurring theme in our society: take advantage of generous laws, or kindness.


It’s the old putting the bowl of candy out while away during Halloween: some kids are just going to take them all, others will just take the one or two pieces and be honest and honorable. These kids want the whole bowl of candy AND wish to egg your house.


0
1 2