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
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:51 pm
Right td, one only needs to open their Bibles. It’s full of references based on those evil Occupy protesters.
“Poor people should sell all of their belongings and give the money to a job creator.”
“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a poor man to enter the kingdom of God.”
“The rich shall inherit the earth.”
“Blessed are the tear gassers.” Just for you td.
Smoke
October 29th, 2011
1:53 pm
A person and their Blackberry. Canton Mayor Hobgood and all those great Cobb folks have shown Reed how great they do things. $80 million down the drain so far and still no water
Dan Daly
October 29th, 2011
1:55 pm
Not a Tea Partier, but they did it correctly and left no footprint. Sad that you want this Occupy movement to make a lasting impression. Remember Woodstock? Jimi Hendrix? Of course you do. What do we remember about Woodstock 2? Not enough bathrooms, riots, burning and looting. Don’t even remember what bands were there and I think they don’t want to be connected to it anyway. Take your own path!
Independent voter
October 29th, 2011
1:55 pm
Teaparty is racist they call the president hitler
Phils fan
October 29th, 2011
1:59 pm
i guarantee you all the tea party people are sitting home thinking. “yeah, the occupy people do stink. how do they expect anyone to take them seriously when go around occupying everything and smelling like that. i’m glad we were smart enough not to smell like that.” riigghhht…..
Patrick P.
October 29th, 2011
1:59 pm
Mr. Jim Galloway got it right. His article sums up the truth about Occupy Atlanta (OA).
I am a resident at the Muses Lofts across the street from Woodruff Park. From the first day of the occupation, I watched and listened very closely to the OA protesters.
In the first week of the occupation, I wrote Mayor Reed a letter offering my views and possible solution. I suggested he request the protest move voluntary to the location where the Civil Rights museum would be built in Centennial Park. I also encourage Mayor Reed to enlist the help of the more established Civil Rights organizations to mentor the “children” of the protest.
I call the OA protesters “children” because of their naiveté. The groups age range from teens to senior citizens. I estimate the average age of the group to be between 25 and 35.
The OA protesters are diverse and have different levels of commitment; The core group of about 75 persons who participate in there General Assembly, A group of about 75 followers made of up of persons who just want to be involved in something, and the homeless witch numbers from 50 to 75 who are just there for the free food.
I was dumbfounded by the group’s ignorance and arrogance. OA downfall is that its core group has no practical organizational skills and is extremely ignorant of past civil rights, economic, social moments, general American history, and basic law.
I was in the park when Rep. John Lewis came and was turned away. I am 41-year-old white man. I explained to a group of OA black protesters who Rev. Lewis is and what he had done in his life. They had no clue! They said, “He was what they were against, that he was part of the establishment and had the establishment’s interests at heart”.
Any advice, move, request, or suggestion made by Mayor Reed was immediately rejected. Any advice from established Civil Rights, Religious, Labor and Progressive groups was dismissed. They were unable to make or consider compromises until they were arrested. Jail did them some good.
I predicted no good would come of the Hip Hop concert. I knew of the planed concert before OA began its protest. The Hip Hop concert gave me concern because of past problems when Woodruff Park was used for similar type of events. During past events with good organization and security, I have seen fights, drugs, panhandling, and prostitution. The concert was a powder keg that just needed a spark to ignite a riot.
I commend Mayor Reed and the Atlanta Police handling of the situation. I believe Mayor Reed handled the situation correctly and at the right time. In comparison to other Occupy Protest in the US and worldwide, I believe Atlanta has handled the occupation better than anyone else has. The actions, discipline and restraint of the Atlanta Police was most impressive to me. Their good handling of this problem has raised my respect for them in light of past mistakes.
Independent voter
October 29th, 2011
2:04 pm
The teaparty show so much hateful and they have signs say leave our country Obama they call him hitler. If the teaparty dont like our president pack yall bag and leave our country.
Independent voter
October 29th, 2011
2:06 pm
Td are you going to march with the teabaggar
td
October 29th, 2011
2:06 pm
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:51 pm
You just had to make me pull my Bible out to give you a little more food for thought:
“In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty”
“Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense”
“The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor”
“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.”
Phils fan
October 29th, 2011
2:10 pm
they tried to leave. but no one would have them. so they came on back, mated with each other, ate some bar-b-que and then yodolled themselves to sleep.
LizBeth
October 29th, 2011
2:20 pm
Who was the man with the AK-47? Was he with Occupy Atlanta or one of the many people who came down to argue and recruit within Occupy Atlanta to more extremist points of view?
JWC
October 29th, 2011
2:21 pm
Its gotta be tough spreading 50,000 people around the entire country and calling it a grassroots uprising. Yeah right….
I only wish NATO hadn’t zipped Gaddafi last week or Obama’s numbers would be even lower this week. Now he’ll have to buy votes with free student loans and cheap refi’s for underwater homes.
Keep it up tin hatters. Wave hello to the mother ship for me.
See you in November 2012.
td
October 29th, 2011
2:23 pm
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
1:51 pm
A couple more of my favorite:
“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” -2 Thessalonians 3:10
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…” -Genesis 3:19
bob from account temps
October 29th, 2011
2:24 pm
jim’s lack of marble juice must have caused him to forget that reed spoke of a potential for violence due to a “person”, wandering thru the park with an assault rifle as some of the reasoning for running the people out of the park.
findog
October 29th, 2011
2:26 pm
Yo Dan, that was Woodstock 3
bob from account temps
October 29th, 2011
2:26 pm
you know atlanta handled the situation properly because the media didn’t write about it.
mike
October 29th, 2011
2:28 pm
I guess the occupiers are rebelling becasue they have repressed rage over too many wedgies in gym class, lol
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
2:29 pm
“A couple more of my favorite”
That must be why Jesus fed the hungry. Try bringing up some Jesus quotes on the poor td. Just one. Can you do that td?
Just one?
Jim Sutherland
October 29th, 2011
2:30 pm
But he IS aware of Atlanta’s history. This was shot ONE week before he cleared the park: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fj7-3R3gxQ
pete
October 29th, 2011
2:31 pm
nothing to do with right or left,thats why you do not get it.Wake up people and drink some coffee.
Independent voter
October 29th, 2011
2:32 pm
Cain tells Paul supporters to ‘be respectful’ during speech
Posted by
CNN’s Kevin Liptak
(CNN) –- Herman Cain spoke to a rowdy crowd of supporters in Alabama
Filthy Rich
October 29th, 2011
2:33 pm
DannyX: Please quit posting quotes from a fictional book.
DR GONZO
October 29th, 2011
2:34 pm
Did Tim Franzen recently escape from Team Zizzou?
Independent voter
October 29th, 2011
2:34 pm
I just found that on cnn.com that Ron Paul supporters booed Cain at a republican rally.
DR GONZO
October 29th, 2011
2:36 pm
Independent Voter…
Get a life and feel free to brush up on your grammar.
Independent voter
October 29th, 2011
2:37 pm
Td we know you have around 300 names on here since 2009
Independent voter
October 29th, 2011
2:39 pm
Why the republican party going agianst each other and some of the republicans are turning to democrat because of the bickering.
Nick
October 29th, 2011
2:39 pm
What I learned….That there are people who are very intelligent in this world who will never contribute at all to society. Who will waste much of their life complaining about everything. There is no doubt that there are many things wrong in this world but there are ways to work for change and there are well occupy ways.
freddie
October 29th, 2011
2:41 pm
Give them what they want..line ‘em up and knock em off
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
2:41 pm
“I guess the occupiers are rebelling becasue they have repressed rage over too many wedgies in gym class, lol”
Did you even go to school? lol.
Actually it is the cool liberals giving us the modern culture that conservatives eat up. The Tea Party types are giving us the likes of Pat Robertson and Justin Beiber, Glenn Beck, Victoria Jackson and the Fox News morning crew.
Liberals are giving the world things like Apple products, the internet, Google, popular music, computers, Facebook, tv, and Hollywood movies.
Conservatives are not cool. Name one cool conservative contribution to modern culture. Just one. Can you do that mike?
Just one?
Kino
October 29th, 2011
2:43 pm
The advent of a generational divide in city politics is a connection that most people won’t make. The mayor and I are about the same in age and I’ve often wondered what would happen when politics began to be populate by those from Gen-X.
Now we know.
Realist
October 29th, 2011
2:44 pm
Occupy Atlanta was nothing but a bunch of HOMELESS PEOPLE being paid to hang out together.
Reed gave them time to make their point, then move on.
Filthy Rich
October 29th, 2011
2:45 pm
Walmart is a conservative contribution.
DR GONZO
October 29th, 2011
2:46 pm
DannyX…you obsession with “cool” shows a certain level of intellectual nihilism and immaturity. Good luck with that…
honested
October 29th, 2011
2:48 pm
Filthy Rich
One reason I never, ever go into a walmart.
honested
October 29th, 2011
2:49 pm
realist,
How dare anyone question the authority of the moneyed oligos in this country!
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
2:49 pm
“Walmart is a conservative contribution.”
They sure are, you can get one of those made in China Tea Bag hats on sale all this week.
Walmart is sooooo cool.
Willie B
October 29th, 2011
2:50 pm
Occupy Atlanta is the most trash we have had in Atlanta since the last Freaknek.
td
October 29th, 2011
2:51 pm
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
2:29 pm
There is nothing wrong with feeding the hungry for a day, a week or a year when they are down on their luck. There is everything wrong with feeding a person for their entire life.
honested
October 29th, 2011
2:51 pm
dr gonzo,
I think DannyX is simply pointing out that liberals are now and always have been pointing the way into the future.
Conservatives on the other hand, seem paralyzed to accept change and would sacrifice their brethren to hold onto whatever warped view of the past in which they find comfort.
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
2:53 pm
“DannyX…you obsession with “cool” shows a certain level of intellectual nihilism and immaturity. Good luck with that…”
Lol. So far one poster has come up with Walmart. What is next? Exxon Mobil?
Conservatives are not cool. They sure try, bless their hearts.
td
October 29th, 2011
2:56 pm
honested
October 29th, 2011
2:48 pm
Filthy Rich
One reason I never, ever go into a walmart.
You also have never purchased anything made by the Koch brothers. LOL
Willie B
October 29th, 2011
2:56 pm
conservatives or conserative because they have Something worth conservative. Liberals or liberal because they want something worthwhile without having to work for it.
td
October 29th, 2011
2:57 pm
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
2:53 pm
Well Danny, you could not wipe your a$$ if it were not for the Koch brothers. That may not be cool but it is important to the civilized people.
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
2:59 pm
Exactly honested.
Conservatives hate liberals but couldn’t go one day without liberal contributions.
Try it Dr Gonzo. You conservatives wouldn’t last a day. I can’t imagine the agony of a Rush Limbaugh marathon, followed by 12 hours of the 700 Club.
DR GONZO
October 29th, 2011
3:02 pm
Henry Ford…conservative…We like cars.
Thomas Edison…Light is good…
GE has generally been a conservative company and their current green initiatives are fairly good if not fully developed.
IBM is a VERY conservative company with some good inventions…such as the computer.
Coca Cola…conservative company…people like COCA-COLA no??
I agree that “liberals” have some excellent ideas and tend to be creative…my point is that conservative people do.
Your black-and-white arguments show a lake of creativity and open minded-ness…oddly enough.
Lots of people lead in different ways and come up with different ideas.
Can we please get past race, politics, etc???
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
3:03 pm
“Liberals or liberal because they want something worthwhile without having to work for it.”
Sure, Google, Apple, and the whole Silicone Valley are made up of lazy non producers. Because liberals only sit at home waiting for their food stamps.
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
3:04 pm
Wow, you sure are stuck in the past Gonzo.
Thogwummpy
October 29th, 2011
3:04 pm
What we’ve learned is how biased city governments and journalists are. There is NO WAY that the kind of behavior we see daily from the Occupy demonstrations (many being held illegally without permit) would have been tolerated from the Tea Party (although the Tea Party was slandered with a blizzard of false accusations). To heck with all you snotty “objective” propagandist enablers!
td
October 29th, 2011
3:04 pm
DannyX
October 29th, 2011
2:59 pm
Sorry guys, I gotta take a porn brake. Be back in a few!