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Eight Occupy Santa Barbara protesters arrested

October 6, 2011

Santa Barbara Police officers arresting a protester

Santa Barbara Police officers arrested eight people on misdemeanor charges after they refused officers’ orders to leave De la Guerra Plaza on Tuesday evening. [Noozhawk]

The Occupy Wall Street movement began on September 17. People are protesting corporate greed and inequality.

A video of the arrests, available on Noozhawk, shows Santa Barbara Police officers asking protesters to leave the plaza because of a 10 p.m. park curfew or risk receiving a citation or arrest.

Eight protesters refused to leave the plaza and were arrested and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail.

The video shows officers holding dozens of plastic zip ties, now familiar to anyone who has seen pictures or footage of the mass arrests of the Occupy Wall Street movement when protesters tried to march across the Brooklyn Bridge, Noozhawk said.

Several protesters had their hands bound and were taken to the police van, while others merely stepped off the grass, crossed the street and stood on the public sidewalk. Two people chained themselves to objects, and the Santa Barbara City Fire Department had to use the Jaws of Life to disable one of the chains, Noozhawk said.


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Well, this is the kind of overwhelming support that the media has been telling us about?


What a joke.


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This is quite possibly the funniest story I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Eight people? Wonder how their party would have fizzled if everybody would have just gone home and left those 8 in the cold protesting for each other…..those little chants….spelling each other for a turn carrying “the sign”!


We should make movies and each take turns being the star!


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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”


period, no if ands or butts…. those of you whose primary concern is that the protesters are idiots outght to reconsider your position, if you give a damn about the United States of America. the inability of the government to follow its own rules is at the heart of this protest and i hope it spreads like wildfire.


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And before you go on about how this was not a federal action against the protesters.. fine, but then the federal government must immediately cut off all funding and grants to the Santa Barbara police department.


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Free speech is not curtailed by keeping protestors out of traffic or by asking them to obey other accepted laws—I’m pretty sure Santa Barbara can legitimately enforce it’s ordinance that parks are closed at night. Practically every city has a similar ordinance.


Did you read they actually reported themselves in violation?


“The police had asked protesters at about 5 p.m. to leave the grassy area in front of City Hall before 10 because of the municipal ordinance. When the deadline arrived and no arrests were made, one protester called the police department to ask if they were still going to be prosecuted for violating the city code or if their right to assembly was being acknowledged. Shortly after that, about 20 uniformed police officers arrived to vacate people from the plaza.”


Source: http://www.independent.com/news/2011/oct/06/occupy-sb-protesters-get-arrested-and-go-record/


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My issue is not that on free speech but of the right to assemble. I realize that almost every city has a curfew on parks, that does not make it right and I can tell you right now that it is one of those laws that is selectively enforced. But in particular, when it is not an individual but a group who has assembled to protest something, it becomes a clear violation of the first amendment.


Again.. I do not question the right of a community to pass ANY laws they see fit. But the federal government is bound by the constitution and should not be providing federal funds for any such community.,


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Well, it’s an interesting proposition you make, and I certainly oppose selective enforcement. I am opposed to youth curfews as well. I’m not sure the right to assemble includes parks after closing hours. There are other public spaces.


I am attempting to find a corollary example to the inference that protests should be exempt from park hours. How about protests that block traffic? I don’t see a first amendment violation in arresting protestors blocking traffic (or other places).


Sure, people in the park aren’t having the same effect on others as blocking traffic does, but they are surely causing more of a stir than if I decided to have a nighttime family marshmallow roast. How could any park closure ordinance ever have teeth if a protest is exempt? And wouldn’t it be selective enforcement to kick out nighttime picnickers but not protesters?


I also don’t believe federal funds should be generally be going to communities in the first place. It gives the feds too much say. Local tax should pay for local things, and federal tax should pay for federal things. With exceptions for certain big things, of course, but not in general.


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I don’t think they should have park closure ordinances at all, as roasting marshmallows is just as much of a peaceful assembly as protesting. I think that blocking protests might be construed as non-peaceful, in the sense that it creates problems for other people.


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I can pretty much agree with that. I can’t think of much reason to close parks at night other than to keep out the homeless and druggies, but I don’t like selective enforcement. Plus, the group in Santa Barbara seemed to want the attention by calling and reporting themselves. If they hadn’t called maybe nothing would have happened and the guy chained to the flag post would have just sat there for two days of free speech.


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Here’s the video of the JAWS-O-LIFE episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeWZNXarytA


Cindy, I agree with you about being too old, but I know if I went I’d have to take it all the way to being booked. As my mother used to say, “If you’re in for a penny, you’re in for a pound.”


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I hate that “Jaws of life” term. First, “Jaws of Life” is a trademark of Hurst Performance, which is the auto racing entity that invented and got rich off hydraulic rescue tools. Hurst is owned by IDEX Corporation which is ironically what these people are kinda protesting, no? So the big Wall Street Corps busted up their protest… har har…


Anyway, the tool used was not the “jaws” (properly called hydraulic spreaders). It was a similar rescue tool improperly called “hydraulic cutters” by the industry–in reality they are “shears” which believe it or not is a pet peeve of mine. If you care to know the difference between “cut” and “shear” look it up. For the record, it also bugs me when “canceled” is spelled with two L’s as “cancelled”, which unfortunately Webster has allowed to become acceptable use.


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Lol, Webster was the guy that got rid of all those British vowels in our words, too… you mad at him about that, by chance?


Labour, colour, etc. He just decided we didn’t need them and should have our own version of spelling (which most people back then couldn’t do, even highly educated folks – spelling was not a concern then). Just a little side-bar / FYI thing…


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Hhahahhah, I’m so incorrigible. I hope you and I don’t meet up at a protest. I hope the SLO court house doesn’t have an ordinance. Heck it’s raining in A-Town, that means it’s probably raining in SLO, maybe I’ll stay home.


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“Two people chained themselves to objects, and the Santa Barbara City Fire Department had to use the Jaws of Life to disable one of the chains, Noozhawk said.”


Now THAT’s what I’M talking about. Those protesters did such a good job chaining themselves to stuff that the fire department had to use the JAWS OF LIFE to disable one of the chains. This reminds me of my youth.


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Mary you’re making me laugh, I’ve got the biggest grin on my face. It reminds me of my youth too and like I said, I’m getting too old for that $hit. I like sleeping in my bed and if all it takes is stepping off the plaza grass and onto the sidewalk, then that’s what I’m gonna do. BUT YEAH, I did get a kick out of the people that chained themselves. Good thing it wasn’t LA, the cops would have sprayed them with mace until they gave up the key.


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How does one DISABLE a chain? I did not know chains were ENABLED to begin with… Ah… memories of George Carlin and the phrases we use…


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Hot-dang, those po-lice came loaded for bear, didn’t they?


“Eight protesters refused to leave the plaza and were arrested and booked into Santa Barbara County Jail. The video shows officers holding dozens of plastic zip ties…”


I’m sorry. I think this is just a hoot. Why does this remind me of “One-Bullet Barney”?


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Don’t leave me hanging, Reporters! What were they protesting? Since when are curfews constitutional? I thought curfews went out with the Nazis!


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oto, They were doing the same thing that a bunch of us are going to go and do at 5:PM today in front of the SLO court house. Apparently, a bunch of folks were out there yesterday too. Check out the story below about Occupy San Luis Obispo.


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Hey Cindy I’ll be there.. dark blue jeans and brown sweatshirt with a small “slotown” logo on it. Hope I get a chance to meet you and anyone else that wants to come up and say hello!


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I thought that one of the tenets of OWS is to assemble peacefully – not provoke arrest.

I’ve no doubt that confrontation has (in NYC) and will be provoked in some places, but so far, it looks to me that this could have been avoided in Santa Barbara.


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What a drag, I’m getting too old for that $hit. I would have stepped off the grass and onto the side walk!


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