Kasim Reed, Occupy Atlanta, and a fresh wave of history
Derrick Younge of Atlanta holds a sign next to Occupy Atlanta leader Tim Franzen, left, during a press conference at Woodruff Park discussing their next move Thursday afternoon in Atlanta. Jason Getz, jgetz@ajc.com.
Fifty years ago, when Shirley Franklin was still a high school teenager, she slipped away from her Philadelphia bed – without telling her mother – for an anti-nuke march on the Pentagon.
The biographical tidbit is necessary to any assessment of last week’s decision by Mayor Kasim Reed, Franklin’s successor, to clear Occupy Atlanta and its tents from a downtown park – and send the bonded-out protesters against corporate greed and economic disparity on a nomadic trek across the city, like some Lost Tribe of Ishmael.
Atlanta may not have realized the implications at the time, but the city crossed a generational divide when Reed was elected two years ago. Born in 1969, he is the first mayor in nearly 40 years who did not spring from a culture of protest.
However inevitable, it was not a fact that some were willing to ignore last week.
“If he wants to be like Bull Connor, then so be it,” one of Reed’s elders, state Sen. Vincent Fort of Atlanta, said shortly before he and 51 others were arrested at the park.
To call up the specter of Birmingham was a vast – the mayor might argue slanderous — exaggeration. No injuries were reported Monday night. No fire hoses were turned on schoolchildren. No German shepherds were sicced on the defenseless. No skulls were cracked by batons. This wasn’t Alabama. It wasn’t even Oakland.
That said, Fort’s 48-year-old reference point was revealing. As was Reed last Monday, when he put Occupy Atlanta on 24-hour notice.
In front of reporters, the mayor first said grace over his city’s reputation for tolerance and the right to free speech. But Reed – a former music industry attorney – then drew on more recent history.
He pointed to a flawed hip-hop concert that Occupy Atlanta had attempted to stage at the small park. With inadequate security and radio spots that advertised at least one rapper whom concert promoters couldn’t deliver.
“You’ve had people killed in concerts where artists who were promised do not show up all across the country. This happens all the time,” Reed said. The mayor judged Occupy Atlanta to be a danger to themselves and nearby residents, and ordered the impromptu campground shut down.
The Occupy Atlanta decision may be the first real evidence that the city is being governed with its changing, more conservative demographic in mind.
In a recent post on “Blogging While Blue,” Democratic strategist Cabral Franklin, son of the former mayor, noted that the three of the four fastest-growing districts in the city were in downtown Atlanta, Midtown and Buckhead – “areas where people vote more conservatively.”
“Midtown in 2011 is not Midtown in 1990,” he said in an interview. Franklin’s assessment of Reed, who stands for re-election in 2013: “I don’t think he wanted the Occupy movement to be that one thing that he didn’t play right. I think he was trying to govern as close to the center as he possibly could.”
Criticism of Reed has been muted, but it exists. Eric Robertson, political director of Teamsters Local 278 and a Reed supporter, consulted with the mayor throughout the confrontation – and disagreed with the decision to resort to force.
“My hope is that we can get into some sort of dialogue where he can understand what’s happening with the movement,” Robertson said.
But if Reed is new to an era of protests, so is Occupy Atlanta. “There have absolutely been mistakes made,” Robertson said. His union members brought U.S. Rep. John Lewis to speak to the protesters in the first days of their occupation of Woodruff Park – only to see the civil rights icon turned away. “Disastrous,” he said.
Occupy Atlanta’s insistence on unanimous decisions paralyzed any attempts to give the movement a sharper focus that the public could latch onto, the union official said.
One of the more nuanced reactions to the removal of Occupy Atlanta came from Michael Julian Bond, a 10-year city councilman and son of ’60s activist Julian Bond.
“I really don’t know why the mayor didn’t act sooner. I believe in civil disobedience. I grew up in a household full of activists,” said the younger Bond. But he also represents the downtown residential district, and spoke of a recent neighborhood meeting.
While sympathetic to Occupy Atlanta, his constituents “pointed out a stark contradiction to me,” Bond said. After years of complaints, police only recently had swept aged, homeless black men out of the park.
“But when it’s twenty-something white kids, it’s allowed to go on. That kind of stuck with me,” he said. “If [police] had been allowed to go out on the first night when the park closed, there probably wouldn’t have been but about five or 10 people who were willing to go to jail that night, and the cost of it would have been considerably less.”
Bond also said Occupy Atlanta may have a rose-colored view of history. Arrest and jail are central points of civil disobedience, he said.
“I don’t know if that’s been forgotten over time, or just romanticized. But there were real arrests in Atlanta,” Bond said. The difference between Birmingham and Atlanta, he said, was how protesters were subsequently treated by police.
As for the prospect of growing conservatism in the city, Bond was unimpressed. “Atlanta’s always been a conservative place. We have a culture here that’s deeply rooted in church. Atlanta’s always had this very conservative undercurrent, even though – at the same time – it’s been very progressive mentally. But the values have been conservative,” he said.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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243 comments Add your comment
Centrist
October 29th, 2011
12:38 pm
@ yuzeyurbrane – No name calling – just observing that even Mayor Reed is to the right of you politically. Do you deny it? Is there any politician, blogger, reporter, or poster on this board politically to your left?
Georgia is a red state to the right of the political center. The city of Atlanta is very blue (including Mayor Reed), yet you are even “bluer”. That sure puts you on the minority leftist fringe in Georgia.
Smoke
October 29th, 2011
12:39 pm
Pass the pipe and quit hogging it all for yourself. I couldn’t help myself. Just think, if this was Mississippi and the rape is true, and the woman get pregnant…She would forced to have the baby, and Dixiecrats would then be whinning about increased entitlements to care for the child.
Mr Charlie
October 29th, 2011
12:39 pm
They would target BOA foreclosed properties to set up camp.
zgoldatl
October 29th, 2011
12:40 pm
Mike - You are spot on. I was history major at College of Charleston, and was proud of the Citadel and the entire city of Charlestons response to the War of Northern Aggression, or The War for Southern Independence. It was solely a fiscal matter, and that unfortunately is a fact lost to history for many people.
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
12:40 pm
zgoldatl, I don’t agree with a lot the Occupy Atlanta message. I do have a big problem with obstructing their right to assemble protest peacefully.
I also don’t agree with a lot of the Tea Party message, I totally support their right to assemble and protest peacefully.
I don’t agree at all with the KKK, I totally support their right to assemble and protest peacefully.
Smoke
October 29th, 2011
12:41 pm
Centrist is a 1%’er, Centrist is a 1%’er. That’s a liberal way of name calling…Heh…Heh.
Atlanta Native
October 29th, 2011
12:42 pm
Once again, Occupy Wall Street supporters failed to overcome the trivialization and misunderstand associated with their grassroots message. And thus once again, everyone misses the point. It is not just about jobs and “mo money” and such, it is this: Corporate greed is intimately tied to political decisions in this country, and it is what is turning the U.S. government into a sham. The corporate “mob” is being paid off by our government (bailouts, handouts, tax-funded boondoggle projects) to keep the corruption channel flowing. Large corporations are at odds with what is fundamentally ethical; for instance, war is GOOD for companies that build and supply and distribute war supplies and weapons; gas-guzzling vehicles are good for big oil companies; mandated healthcare coverage is good for large health insurance companies; get it???
Mr Charlie
October 29th, 2011
12:44 pm
They should go into high dollar neighborhoods and stay in foreclosed properties. That would:
1. Piss off the rich living in the neighborhoods
2. Force the APD to enforce the laws for BOA, making them look even worse
3. plus they could live in a cool house
4. Try to use squatter laws/the bailout argument to try and take ownership of the homes.
Mr Charlie
October 29th, 2011
12:47 pm
Native, it just goes back to the fact that our entire political finance system is based on legalized bribery.
zgoldatl
October 29th, 2011
12:47 pm
Danny, then we agree on everything, except if they are actually protesting peacefully. I would point you to the 4 rapes, thousands of arrests, millions of tax payer dollars spent, and the businesses that have been stormed across the country. If it was peaceful, I would totally support their right to assemble.
Whoever compared Bush to Hitler on the last page is part of the occupy movements problem.. even mainstream liberals can’t get on board with that kind of talk
Mr Charlie
October 29th, 2011
12:49 pm
If I am a taxpayer, and taxpayer funds were given to BOA, then I own BOA assets, ie, foreclosed home. I have as much right to ownership to foreclosed homes as BOA does. I can see a court case.
findog
October 29th, 2011
12:50 pm
Zgoldatl,
Really, I guess restoring honor does not include Judea-Christian principals like though shall not lie? I don’t even thing that you can squirm by with an exaggeration claim by trying to bump that number up to a million. Maybe those sixty are getting credit for not astro-turfing a grass root cause with free publicity from the 24/7 Fox News
td
October 29th, 2011
12:53 pm
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
12:40 pm
zgoldatl, I don’t agree with a lot the Occupy Atlanta message. I do have a big problem with obstructing their right to assemble protest peacefully.
I also don’t agree with a lot of the Tea Party message, I totally support their right to assemble and protest peacefully.
I don’t agree at all with the KKK, I totally support their right to assemble and protest peacefully.
Well dang there is something we agree on. I am sure you will see this differently. I would add that they must obey the law while they are protesting. This includes leaving the area when time is up and getting the proper permits.
Delonte West
October 29th, 2011
12:53 pm
..occupy ‘brons momma
Robert E. Lee
October 29th, 2011
12:56 pm
Man, being involved in finance must seem too good to be true.
Not only can you make an obscene income that has absolutely nothing to do with your value to society, you can completely screw up the economy for millions with little to no personal responsibility.
And get THIS, some of those millions you screwed over will be your staunchest defenders. Those knuckle draggers will call everyone who opposes your obvious BS a socialist!
You couldn’t write this stuff.
Listen, no one wants to make you fat arsed, over-invoicing rural contractors pay any more in taxes than you have to. Thus isn’t about you.
td
October 29th, 2011
12:57 pm
Mr Charlie
October 29th, 2011
12:49 pm
The only part of your argument you forgot is that BOA has paid all the money back to the tax payers (with interest) so therefore they are again not under government control.
Allyanaz
October 29th, 2011
12:57 pm
The whole occupy thing was a load of garbage. It was a bunch of people who wanted to talk to one another about the frustration of nothing ever changing for them or the frustration of life being hard for them. And maybe their lives don’t change and maybe their lives are hard because they spend their time hanging out in a park talking instead of getting out into the world and working their asses off – like the rest of society. If there any one of those people accomplished something, it was adding another problem to the growing list, i.e., the expense of cleaning up after them, the clogging of the court system with arrests, the use of public officers for control and the expense of it. Y’all don’t even know how to protest properly.
Tom (Independent)
October 29th, 2011
12:57 pm
Tim Franzen, the self-proclaimed leader of Occupy ATL, is a paid Community Organizer. Does that qualify him as a candidate for the Presidency? Think I had rather have a former CEO this time around!
td
October 29th, 2011
1:00 pm
Robert E. Lee
October 29th, 2011
12:56 pm
And who made you the judge to tell a person they make to much money and there skill set is not worth the money? Please tell us what skill sets are worth what amounts of pay?
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:01 pm
“I would point you to the 4 rapes, thousands of arrests, millions of tax payer dollars spent, and the businesses that have been stormed across the country. If it was peaceful, I would totally support their right to assemble.”
Really????? When did any of this happen in Atlanta??
Businesses stormed by angry customers canceling their accounts? Mass arrests from people peacefully crossing a bridge?
Are you counting the unconstitutional mass arrests in Tenn? The break up of the peaceful demonstration in Oakland?
Where in the world does the Constitution limit protest because of cost to the taxpayer. You think those Tea Party rallies were free???? Listen up Tea Party, you can no longer protest because it costs the taxpayer money!!!
As Herman Cain would say, HOGWASH!
findog
October 29th, 2011
1:03 pm
Hey Mason, who paid for those permits?
All of you, “Tea Party is a grass roots movement,” that finally awoke to the problems that the republican RINO’s that were given free reign of our country for eight years caused need to seek counseling for your delusional reality disorder.
Phils fan
October 29th, 2011
1:04 pm
man, al qaeda is missing a golden opp here eh?
td
October 29th, 2011
1:05 pm
Robert E. Lee
October 29th, 2011
12:56 pm
“screw up the economy for millions”
Why are banks the only ones responsible for “screwing” up the economy? Is the fact that people bought way more house then they afford not a factor? Was it not the government rules forcing the banks to loosen the loan application process not a factor? How about the government writing a law telling the banks that all there loans would be backed by the full faith and credit of the US, is this not a factor?
Lucille Anne Jefferson
October 29th, 2011
1:07 pm
Kasim, you can bet your grannie’s drawers you will not be occupying space in city hall in 2013.We made the mistake of voting for you once and we will not make that mistake again.
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:08 pm
td, don’t forget Bwaney Frank. Bawney pinned Tom Graves down and forced a huge 2 million dollar signature loan down poor ol Tom’s throat. Disgusting.
Phils fan
October 29th, 2011
1:10 pm
..the american dream is the problem here. which translates into. got get yourself into crazy amounts of debt to “educate” yourself and then go out and suceed by any means neccessary. even if that means getting yourself into more debt and causing others to get into more debt to do so.
Allen
October 29th, 2011
1:12 pm
For all calling this a peaceful protest, how peaceful would you find weeks of drumming, chanting and p issing and milling around in your front yard. Those of us who work in the area were sick of it quickly – and we work in human services serving poor people. I can only imagine the irritation of those who live in the area. I suggest an occupation of the yards of the occupiers. Not sure if they will be able to hear us from their mom’s basement, but it would be worth a shot. Oh, and thanks for the environmental damage to downtown. Dr. King’s marches, like the movement, always had a destination. These people still have no idea what they want, they just know they don’t want to work for whatever it is.
Walter Little, Jr.
October 29th, 2011
1:12 pm
You folks that are bashing Mayor Reed make me laugh . . . because you’re playing right into the hands of the “Occupyers”. My opinion is their entired “protest” and encampment was for nothing more than to embarass the City. I say lock them all up all up!
Off de Plantation
October 29th, 2011
1:15 pm
@Centrist, 10.22am; Thanks Centrist a million times over! I am going to get this thing going viral. As a Cain supporter (and a CAUCASIAN!), I’m damn sick and tired of the national media and the Al Jazzera Chroincle and it’s idiotic writers (guess which one I’m referring to?) getting away with the nasty, filthy racial epithets, racial innuendos and other biased remarks while denouncing any one who dares to call out the Communist, oops, I meant the COMMUNITY Organizer if we happen to disagree with him.
I hope I can see the day when Herman and Obummer square off in a debate:
Flashy words, teleprompters, hooping, hollering, gushing, gurgling fans versus a good, decent, honest, hard-working black man who made it in society in spite of his color – not BECAUSE of it.
As the bumper sticker says:
If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you’re not a racist, please vote for someone else in 2012 to prove YOU’RE NOT AN IDIOT!
John Doe
October 29th, 2011
1:16 pm
Seriously… Where has Senator Fort been? He only seems to be out on the stump when he has the opportunity to jump in front of a camera.
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:16 pm
” drumming, chanting and p issing and milling around in your front yard.”
At least no one was wearing any of those crazy Tea Bag hats. Now those are a crime.
findog
October 29th, 2011
1:19 pm
Danny, or calling themselves “tea baggers” without understanding what that phrase had already been coined for…
td
October 29th, 2011
1:19 pm
I love it when you libs are fighting with each other. Looks like there is going to be a fight between the plantation owners and the brain washed plantation field hands coming. I think I am going to root for the plantation hands so that they can lift off the yoke and break for the communist.
Jack
October 29th, 2011
1:21 pm
The Facts are These:
1. But for Mayor Reed’s Executive Order, the Occupy protesters would have been violating the law.
2. The city has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars and resources to police this effort.
3. Occupy protesters were shouting that they did not have to obey any laws.
4. The Mayor put everyone on notice that he was revoking his executive order (even when he didn’t have to) and gave the protesters the opportunity to negotiate with clergy members before acting.
5. Atlanta has handled the “occupy” movement with more grace than the majority of other American cities.
Kudos to the Mayor and his team.
Vincent Fort
October 29th, 2011
1:24 pm
Jim, you have written an interesting column but I have a couple of concerns. I wish you would have consulted as you wrote your article. In fact you saw me on Thursday and did not ask me any clarifying questions. Indeed, you have multiple numbers for me and I did not hear from you. From reading the article it is apparent you spoke to the mayor and/or his staffers but not to any Occupiers or their supporters. As a journalist it seems to me you would speak to the subject of your story.
Regarding the Birmingham reference, the core issue remains: Mayor Reed used his authority, at the direction of his corporate masters, to reinforce an unjust economic system. Just this week a US Census study showed that income equality in Atlanta is greater than any other city in the country. I wish Reed would devote as much time and energy to issues of homelessness, poverty and predatory lending. Reed is the first African-American mayor to quash an Occupy movement. I would submit that Reed is in a way worse than Bull Connor-he has betrayed the movement that helped to create him.
By the way the Occupy Atlanta, is a racially diverse movement. If one spent any time observing they would have observed that black, white, Latino and Asian young people coming together to fight corporate greed, joblessness, homelessness, and political corruption.
td
October 29th, 2011
1:25 pm
Jack
October 29th, 2011
1:21 pm
Yes the mayor did everything right except for telling the police to break out the pepper spray, billy clubs and the fire hoses.
Mike
October 29th, 2011
1:28 pm
Vincent Fort is what he is. He is an appeaser, an opportunist, a politician of no good. His intentions are selfish just like the so called protesters. They protest the so called greed of corporations, whereas the difference between themselves and the corporate world is that the corporations will work diligently, intelligently and very hard for their profits and they decide to keep their profits as they choose, the so called protestors are greedy also, they just want to not work for anything and just take from those who work hard. That is stealing. They are liars and thieves. Why are we giving these malcontents so much attention? Mayor Reed screwed up when he allowed them to break the law the first night. It they want to protest, go get the proper permits and for a Representative, Vincent Fort to put his name out there, then he is saying it is OK to break the law too. This is even worse since he should understand that he should have more respect for the laws that he helps to promote. Shame on the protestors for their greed and for Vincent Fort’s lack of self respect.
Dan Daly
October 29th, 2011
1:28 pm
No dogs. No firehoses. No horses. No billyclubs. No National Guard. Occupy doesn’t even have a focus. The Tea Party wants less government. The Civil Rights movement wanted equality. Occupy wants to get handouts and they want to try to capture the aura of the ’60s protest movement that has been romanticized by professors who were there and those who wish they had been. (The dregs of America’s first middle-class generation who grew up without having to work for anything, many of whom still feel entitled.) Kasim did the right thing and he and the police handled it correctly, albeit a couple weeks too late. Perhaps Bloomberg should reassemble his Georgia investigative unit to come figure out how to clean his streets. (Giuliani he ain’t!)
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:32 pm
“Yes the mayor did everything right except for telling the police to break out the pepper spray, billy clubs and the fire hoses.”
Is that what you will be praying for in church tomorrow? .
td
October 29th, 2011
1:35 pm
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:32 pm
Why do you think I go to church? I thought Jim said it was the weekend and to have a little fun. That picture would have been more fun to watch then any football game today.
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:37 pm
“Marine veteran Scott Olsen suffered a skull fracture Tuesday night”
Funny stuff td. Very funny. LMAO!!
Who would Jesus shoot? LMAO!!
Parrick M.
October 29th, 2011
1:38 pm
OFF DE PLANTATION
“If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you’re not a racist, please vote for someone else in 2012 to prove YOU’RE NOT AN IDIOT!”
Please post where I may be able to get one of these! I LOVE IT!!!
Raquel Morris
October 29th, 2011
1:38 pm
Jim, you know as well as I that Kasim Reed led the student sit-in movement at Howard University when they were protesting South African apartheid. Obviously, Kasim has chosen to downplay that portion of his resume as he angles for his statewide ambitions.
Mayor Reed, you barely won your office. Stop governing as if you had a mandate. You may be within the good graces of the business community for now, but pretty soon you will have to choose between pandering to them and standing up for the base that elected you.
td
October 29th, 2011
1:39 pm
It is time for the daily public educational announcement:
For anyone thinking of going to the polls next year in Georgia just to vote for Obama, then you need to know that your vote will not be counted. All 16 votes from Georgia will be cast for the Republican nominee and Obama will receive zero votes from Georgia. Unless you want to vote for local issues then it really is not be worth the time and gas money to go to the polls.
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:43 pm
“The Tea Party wants less government.”
You do know that every single major poll now has the Tea Party approval rating at between 28%-29%.
Since they are no longer popular I guess they should not be allowed to protest any longer.
td
October 29th, 2011
1:43 pm
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:37 pm
“Who would Jesus shoot? LMAO!!”
I think it is very clear that Jesus shall return one day to crush the evil in the world. That would include the communist and the atheist.
Then again this is a guess from my reading of Revelations.
Phils fan
October 29th, 2011
1:44 pm
..occupy people smell show so badddddd. you can can smell them everywhere. i can smell the people of “occupy atlanta” all the way up in here philly. and the people of “occupy philly” smell worse than homeless people. even the subway rats have filed complaints. i get the theme. but just give them whatever they want. as long as includes a bar a saop.
Filthy Rich
October 29th, 2011
1:47 pm
Why do people hate rich peopleso much, yet everyone wants to be rich. The fact is, I work for a wealthy person and provide for my family.
A poor person never gave me a job.
findog
October 29th, 2011
1:50 pm
td,
You need to read George Will’s 10/28 column
Just like with Bush I he is sowing the seeds of discontent that doomed the republicans in 1992
A year from now Will will be writing that if Romney is not elected the world will end, albeit too late…
Nagger
October 29th, 2011
1:50 pm
I hate all of the protesters that are always nagging others – I hate naggers!