One Man's Positive Influence on Portland Occupy
Park Blocks Eviction Phase
Due to an increase in crime density Mayor Sam Adams had no
other choice than to schedule a live TV Occupy eviction notice. It was on the evening of the eviction that the priority challenged
Spokscouncil wasted nearly 2+ hours discussing such superficial things as what to bring to the a eviction day potluck. Former Professional Safety Coordinator Tim
Kasey, walking from the camp to Spokescouncil had a major influence
on THAT out of touch agenda. Tim tapped one of the individuals on the shoulder
and asked: "Why are they talking about having a potluck?...Don't these people know about the eviction notice?...They are out of
touch with reality." That rational comment, overheard by others
within that spoke-quickly found its way to the facilitators. The
topic changed from simple minded potluck chat to responsible
discussions around such things as: Clearing the parks of tents,
contacting truck drivers and finding a warehouse. Tim is certain
that had he not done this they would have - irresponsible in the wake of an eviction notice - failed to
begin discussing camp move out procedures. It was critical that they begin discussing camp move out procedures, on account of Tim having luckily crossed paths with chief of police, where Tim gave a key recommendation: "Monday would be a good day for the eviction, they would need a Saturday where the public could come in and help with the clean up. Anarchists don't follow orders." To create double redundancy, Tim repeated this same recommendation to an additional officer. He recalls the officer appearing to be some type of police captain? He's not sure, but was making certain double redundancy was achieved. The complete lack of priority intelligence on the part of the facilitators and participants during eviction Spokescouncil evening gave Tim no alternative but to add one additional task to his personal list of "Things to do for the Occupy transition phase." The details of that additional, yet massive undertaking are given shortly.
Now the
reason for Tim's presence in the camp on that day was on account of the bizarre reaction exhibited by the protesters immediately following the Mayor's eviction speech. Tim having witnessed the
self evident lack of comprehension skills on the part of the
facilitators to explain the details of the Mayor's eviction speech to
the protesters took it upon himself to do what the facilitators were incapable of doing. Tim knew he was dealing with ill informed facilitators and others of impoverished IQ levels. He arranged the Mayor's quotes accordingly, and printed out 60 copies of what he called, "A simplified eviction notice." The document
emphasized the crime density increase, near death, and hope for the
future maturation of the occupy movement. Emphasis even an angry
protester might agree with had they been exposed to such facts. Tim handed
out the document to those individuals who he understood to
be Anarchists, Alpha typs, and followers - easily 'possessed' by
mob hysteria. It was a sense of duty to mentally immunize with the facts as many mislead, or
ill-informed occupants as possible.
It
was Tim's expert opinion that the odd reaction to the Mayor's eviction
notice on the part of both facilitators and camp Occupiers was that: 1) Occupiers don't have TV; 2) Occupiers suffer extreme isolation from rational persons;
3) Impoverished intellectual acuity; 4) Mayor's true points made - substituted with an instantly generated urban myth of: "The Mayor is
trying to stop the movement!" 5) None of the facilitators took
the time to adequately explain the Mayor's intent to the
Occupiers, they didn't fully comprehend what was stated in the eviction notice. 6) Both the Mayor and Chief of Police failed to consider
the communication gap: Homless people don't have TV, or the money to
purchase newspapers. Homeless persons get their news through word of mouth.
One
instance where Tim was sure his efforts were having a major impact was when he confronted an under age female occupant. This young girl made a most unexpected comment: "I can't read it." Tim read the eviction notice to her. It
was Tim's conviction that had these individuals not been presented
with the facts the probability of more inflamed anger: leading to
senseless police confrontation; senseless arrest records, and
senseless injuries would have been greater. It was Tim's belief
that the truth would 'immunize' violent alpha types from inciting
further vain rebellion, and negatively influencing the weaker minded
Occupiers. Tim's last action was during a visit to Occupies nearest convenient store where he handed over the remaining simplified eviction notices to the security guard with the instruction: "Only hand this out to the arrogant Alpha types." The
security guard understood and agreed to Tim's request.
Occupy Eviction - Camp Item Removal Begins to Gain Momentum
Tim moved with the intent of making the transition phase as smooth as possible, and after handing out simplified eviction notices on the evening of the eviction announcement, he returned on Friday to do one additional laborious task. Tim completed a massive undertaking to single handedly remove over 5,000Lbs of garbage, but that was only after he secured the kitchen items first. This massive undertaking began around 4 p.m., Friday evening, and when Tim arrived to asses the eviction transition progress, the following conditions were present: 1) Only the Library had been removed; 2) Trash had piled up near the monument in the North park, and no trash cans were present in that park; 4) No clean up was underway, and no kitchen items were being staged on pallets for load out. Tim initiated the process. He went to the information tent and said: "I've come 10 miles to be here, my time is valuable, and I would rather have one good helper than 10 people who can't do anything." They did send a helper, and Tim worked with this person off and on during the evening. Tim received a small amount of help from others, but for the most part he worked 8 and 1/2 hours on his own. Tim's first priority was to move out all kitchen related items. Kitchen move out consisted of palatalization of kitchen items, staging of items for loading onto trucks, and tuck loading. Once the kitchen items were staged and loaded, and/or brought to the curb for loading onto small trucks, he then proceeded to focus his attention upon removing over 5,000 pounds of trash from both parks. He had one of those 3 foot mechanical janitor tools for picking up papers. The kitchen had dozens of disgusting "things" all over the ground. Tim made no complaint and proceeded to get all of these 'droppings' picked up and taken to the dumpster. This was completed sometime around 11:00 p.m. The volume of garbage was removed through the use of an air filled tire-hand-truck. Full trash cans, sometimes stacked one above the other, were wheeled out to the dumpster and hand lifted over the side. Tim wore an orange vest in order to be better seen by cars passing the dumpsters street side. This was an important factor because he single handedly topped off all other sides of the dumpster, and to over flowing. Tim managed to double stack the trash cans, wheeling as much as over 200Lbs Uphill to the dumpster located at the opposite end of the two adjacent parks. It was Tim's full intent to remove this overwhelming burden of labor from the Occupiers who were, in his opinion, incapable of completing this task. The Occupiers, having been under a great deal of stress following the eviction notice, and without the tools, means, cooperation, or experience to take on such an overwhelming task. Tim's intent was to create clean up inertia. A momentum! The morning following Tim's massive undertaking, the task of a single Occupier removing their personal tent seemed simple. This was precisely the mood Tim intended to provoke in the Occupiers. The Occupiers had all day Saturday to break down their tents, roll them up, and walk away. 99% of the tents were removed before the Sunday 13th confrontation with riot police. There were a few hold out protesters, their few tents were collapsed by police and moved to the curb as trash.
Tim Kasey's additional contributions to public safety include:
"Occupy Field Manual"
...sub section titled
"Combative body language will lead to arrest"
This was written to provide more detail in understanding the meaning of the word: "Combative" from an officer's perspective. It is intended for those who DO NOT wish to be arrested.
