Well hi there!

Occupy Worcester and finding a job have taken up most of my day. Also trying to find a doctor. It's not easy! You'd think that the networks listing doctors would keep track of things like "currently accepting new patients" but apparently not! It's especially awesome when the only doctors at a clinic don't take my insurance. So awesome you guys SO AWESOME.

So Occupy Worcester has some ish going down this weekend, like a clean-up for a low-income neighborhood but more importantly this giant skull-thumping solidarity fiesta between all of New England. That's going to rock, oh, I'd say, pretty hard.

Also sold my second cracked article! I don't want to spoil it for you but it features gratuitous photos of man-crotch.

SO anyway, did I mention that I organized an event for Occupy Worcester? Photos and video are forthcoming, along with the pictures from the Steampunk fair, Connecticon, Rome, Japan, and the other 10 months I spent in Korea. Coming right fast, yeah. (i am so bad with photos)

ANYWAY, it was kind of an interesting event! People brought snacks, made posters, the weather pretty much shat the bed and only around 20 people max ever gathered. We had a few wedding ceremonies, had some laughs, ate some snacks, and went our marry way long before our permit expired.

Except no! It was way more interesting than that.

So, when I filed the permit a month ago, I requested the front of City Hall. I was informed that it would be a hindrance to evacuation (later found out that there is only one way in and out of the building!), so the permit location was moved to the Franklin st. side of the front of City Hall.

Or so I had assumed.

The courteous officers milling around the front entryway, after we had been there for about an hour (sitting under a convenient overhang so as to not die of rain) asked us to move to the point our permit suggested, so we packed up and moved off to the side, well out of the way of the front door and the large marble staircase that. . . Doesn't lead to a door. So, we put the table down, and get ready to do one last big marriage event and call it a day.

Except that, no, the police are rather insistent that we move off of main street entirely. We end up settling on the corner between the two streets, we fire off the last video in a hurry, and we start packing things up.

A few of the other Occupiers wanted to go talk to the city manager, because 1) he's a dick, and 2) we felt that our 1st amendment rights were being suppressed.

So, six to eight of us walk into city hall, making it up to the third story before we're stopped by an officer. He demands to know what we were doing (keep in mind that we looked like the ocean had just sneezed on us) and we said that we wanted to meet with the city manager. The officer said the city manager was busy, which is impressive because how could he know that and that he couldn't meet with us today. Apparently the city manager was so busy that we couldn't even talk to his scheduler, we'd have to call in a request for a meeting, preferably making the call from anywhere else on Earth.

Oh! This is a fun thing I learned: Worcester has a Mayor, a city council, and a city manager. The city manager is an executive-wing position appointed by God knows who, who is in no way accountable to the people. It's kind of weird! I kind of feel like maybe a position with as large an area of authority as the city manager should be an elected position, or just not exist at all since they don't do anything other officials can't. Rest assured that this is something I want to fight.

After being told that we can't even meet with the scheduler, or the Mayor, despite the fact that Mayor O'Brien has come to our GA's before and stated his open door policy. Also the city manager declared the front of city hall to be a free speech area. I forgot to mention that earlier, because today has been kind of busy! It is good when governments affirms your basic rights as citizens.

So, the officer at this time announces that we need to leave the building, and that any attempt to re-enter will result in arrest. So, we leave, since we're saving that as a special treat for this Sunday. Myself and a few others talk to folk waiting for the bus about what happened, and the general consensus was that yeah, that's messed up! So, we walk up to a local council member, except he was out to lunch. So we go to see our congressional representative, who keeps an office next to the world's shadiest mini-mall.

While explaining ourselves to the secretary, who should walk by but none other than Congressman Jim McGovern! We talk about what happened, and the whole time he's nodding sagely like some kind of Jedi master, like he's peered into his crystal ball and foreseen the encroaching forces of Bullshit Repression and Jerkwad Authoritarians, and that now is the time to put counter-measures into place.

Right off the bat he blows our minds by revealing that he has been arrested 3 times for protesting the massacre in Darfur outside of embassies, which is the most badass place you can get arrested for protesting, second only to volcanos. He confirms that heinous bullshit had indeed transpired, and put a call in to the city manager while we were talking.

As we were shooting the breeze with an honest-to-God-Congressman like it was no big deal, I get a call from one of the other Occupiers who was there that night, saying that the Mayor has been informed, is pissed, and wants to meet with us and the city solicitor so as to sort out hand grenades from horseshoes when it comes to things like free speech and police nonsense.

So yeah, your average light conversation, you know?

While passing by the front of City Hall, we ask about this meeting, and the guys I had spoken to before inform me that they hadn't heard anything, but they were still under order to arrest us if we tried to go in. I like not getting arrested, so I didn't go in! We met up with the other Occupiers, and the Mayor, and walked back inside city hall. The Mayor vouched for us.

Sit back and consider that for a minute. I disobeyed a police order because the Mayor of Worcester said I could. My life is Awesome.

The meeting with the solicitor was fruitful. The general gist of it is that the space outside of the front of city hall is indeed open to free speech, as it goddamn well should be. We can assemble outside without a permit, and as long as we keep moving, there's nothing nobody can do as long as we keep it nice and legal. However, the event we acquired the permit for involved some standing still, which would have posed a risk since (and I learned this at this time) there was only one door into and out of city hall currently operational.

Ergo, you can't be standing still outside of the front of an important building like city hall, which occasionally gets bomb threats. That's reasonable and completely understandable, and I have absolutely no problem with that decision.

While we were discussing permit laws and such, we talked about some of the points the police brought up, first and foremost that the police considered the permit invalid. I'll get to why that was in a moment, but first I have to explain the permit application process. So, in Worcester, different organizations have authority over different parts of the city. I filed the permit with the department of parks, recreation, and cemeteries (~one of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not quite the same~) because they're the ones who hold sway over the front of city hall. After filling out the application, you take it to the off duty officer at the police station, who reads over the proposal and decides if any police detail is needed to maintain security, and how many officers for how long is required.

If I were to hold a concert on the Common, they'd need to be there for security. The Tea Party rally at Lincoln Square had a few officers keeping an eye on counter-protesters and to stop people from jaywalking, but these are events that could attract upwards of a hundred people.

The officer working at the time told me I'd need two officers for the four hours I reserved the space for. As they would have to be reimbursed for overtime (as you can't drain resources that could be better spent fighting crime) this would add on $393 to the full cost of the permit.

The permit itself cost $150, with a 50% reduction because I lived in Worcester. Keep in mind that applying the discount is up to the discretion of whomever is behind the desk at that day. Same thing with the police presence, it's at their complete discretion.

This was brought up to the mayor and the city solicitor, and nobody could really figure out the magic number for how many people warranted that kind of police protection. It just seems sort of, oh I don't know, arbitrary. After the meeting, the Mayor talked to us about a lawyer who had contacted him about helping out with our struggle. He recommended we bring a suit against the permit process in order to try and clear up this "personal discretion" business, since you could make the case that 15 people applying for a permit to have some silly fun on public property does not warrant $543 in fees. There are reasonable fees involved in having outdoor events (like paying sanitation workers to haul off excess garbage) and then there's using financial strain to quash language you don't like.

The police didn't consider the permit valid was because I didn't pay them their $393, because I don't have that kind of money sitting around, and I don't consider it a lawful request. I talked to the Mayor about it (weeks ago, before any of this started) and he agreed with me when I said it seemed excessive.

I don't know if we're going to bring the suit or even if we end up talking to the lawyer. I will keep you posted, but I think we've found something we can really rally Worcester around. Permit laws are one of the reason direct democracy has become so rare in America, nobody can figure out how to get the damn things, and when they do, they can't afford them anyway!