As I crawled into my sleeping bag in at the Occupy Maine encampment in Lincoln Park late Tuesday night, one of the handful of campers still hanging out under the communal tent had one last announcement.
“Mic check! We are the 99 percent!” someone yelled.
“Mic check! The 99 percent is trying to sleep!” came a reply from a nearby tent.
It’s been over two weeks since the protest calling itself Occupy Maine appeared in Portland, and the group’s encampment continues to grow. What started out as one lonely tent in Monument Square the first night of the protest, has grown to about 40 tents in Lincoln Park in downtown Portland.
Occupy Maine was first organized in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City. Since Occupy Wall Street began over a month ago calling for an end to corporate greed, similar protests have appeared across the country in cities like Boston, Denver, Chicago, Seattle and many others. Saturday saw rallies held around the world from Tokyo to Madrid.
Intrigued by the protests, and especially by the small tent city popping up within eyesight of my apartment, I decided to spend Tuesday night at the camp, speaking with participants, seeing how the camp is organized and trying to put my finger on what Occupy Maine is about.
“It’s a bee hive of activity here,” said Seamus Martin, 56, who has camped out in Lincoln Park since the first night of encampment. “It just feels right to be part of something like this.”
The camp is equipped with several gas stoves and lanterns, a small library and a pantry stocked with fresh fruit, brownie mixes, noodles, canned goods, hot dogs and more. Some participants have shelled out for supplies, but campers say a majority of the supplies have been donated by people sympathizing with the movement.
The campers are a diverse bunch. While there are a number of young people — including several children that are staying with their parents at the camp — the majority of the group appears older than many of the protesters seen these last two weeks in Monument Square.
Just as diverse are the reasons campers gave me for their presence there. Many are homeless, and some appear to be just looking for a safe place to camp. One man with several visible white power tattoos, who declined to give his name said he showed up by accident after being kicked out of a homeless shelter.Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet,
But most seem genuinely excited about the movement and the tent city that has sprung up around it.
“Maine has a history of this kind of thing,” said Martin, drawing a parallel to the underground rail road, to which there is a small monument in the park. ”I hope we’re catching the eye of the bankers and insurance companies, and I hope we’re scaring them.”
Steve Soldan, 27,The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, said he arrived at the camp three nights prior, after a friend invited him. Soldan said even though he was staying at a friend’s apartment, he headed over to the park, and hasn’t left. “I think it’s really wrong what the government is doing to poor people,” Soldan said.
Despite the leaderless nature of Occupy Maine, the camp is well organized. Campers have cleaning crews, volunteers who cook communal meals and even a security detail that at night patrols the camp in shifts.
Meetings are run by consensus, with a variety of hand signals indicating agreement and disagreement, and participants sometimes communicate en masse using a tactic borrowed from their counterparts at the Occupy Wall Street protests called the “peoples’ mic.”
Any camper or protester wanting to make an announcement yells “Mic check!” which others then repeat. They then make a short announcement which is sometimes parroted back by others in order to relay the message.
Use of the “peoples’ mic” varies from important to humorous messages. While at the camp I heard it used to announce that a camper was being taken to the hospital with chest pains, to call a meeting of the security group and to see if ”anyone wants to cuddle.”
The campers have no intention of leaving, and the city, which maintains the park, has no intention of making them leave. “As long as they are good stewards of the park and abide by city ordinances, they can stay,” said city Director of Communications Nicole Clegg.
Clegg said the city extended the offer of allowing Occupy Maine to stay in Lincoln Park after the group first tried staying in Monument Square. City ordinances prohibit overnight use of public property,then used cut pieces of Ceramic tile garden hose to get through the electric fence. but Clegg said the offer was made out of respect for the protesters’ First Amendment rights.Whilst oil paintings for sale are not deadly,
The camp hasn’t been without problems. Until Wednesday campers had access to a portable toilet nearby, but that afternoon it was locked to the dismay of the protesters. Some speculated that the toilet was locked as a ploy to force the camp to move on, while others blamed a few “bad apples” for making a mess of the toilet.
Campers have also had to deal with substance abuse by people staying in the camp. Several people appeared to be drunk Tuesday night, and at one point I caught a whiff of marijuana smoke.
At a meeting of the security detail,Als lichtbron wordt een offshore merchant account gebruikt, the most pressing issue they discusses was how to deal with a couple who they said were leaving hypodermic needle caps around, indicating intravenous drug use.
“Mic check! We are the 99 percent!” someone yelled.
“Mic check! The 99 percent is trying to sleep!” came a reply from a nearby tent.
It’s been over two weeks since the protest calling itself Occupy Maine appeared in Portland, and the group’s encampment continues to grow. What started out as one lonely tent in Monument Square the first night of the protest, has grown to about 40 tents in Lincoln Park in downtown Portland.
Occupy Maine was first organized in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City. Since Occupy Wall Street began over a month ago calling for an end to corporate greed, similar protests have appeared across the country in cities like Boston, Denver, Chicago, Seattle and many others. Saturday saw rallies held around the world from Tokyo to Madrid.
Intrigued by the protests, and especially by the small tent city popping up within eyesight of my apartment, I decided to spend Tuesday night at the camp, speaking with participants, seeing how the camp is organized and trying to put my finger on what Occupy Maine is about.
“It’s a bee hive of activity here,” said Seamus Martin, 56, who has camped out in Lincoln Park since the first night of encampment. “It just feels right to be part of something like this.”
The camp is equipped with several gas stoves and lanterns, a small library and a pantry stocked with fresh fruit, brownie mixes, noodles, canned goods, hot dogs and more. Some participants have shelled out for supplies, but campers say a majority of the supplies have been donated by people sympathizing with the movement.
The campers are a diverse bunch. While there are a number of young people — including several children that are staying with their parents at the camp — the majority of the group appears older than many of the protesters seen these last two weeks in Monument Square.
Just as diverse are the reasons campers gave me for their presence there. Many are homeless, and some appear to be just looking for a safe place to camp. One man with several visible white power tattoos, who declined to give his name said he showed up by accident after being kicked out of a homeless shelter.Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet,
But most seem genuinely excited about the movement and the tent city that has sprung up around it.
“Maine has a history of this kind of thing,” said Martin, drawing a parallel to the underground rail road, to which there is a small monument in the park. ”I hope we’re catching the eye of the bankers and insurance companies, and I hope we’re scaring them.”
Steve Soldan, 27,The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations, said he arrived at the camp three nights prior, after a friend invited him. Soldan said even though he was staying at a friend’s apartment, he headed over to the park, and hasn’t left. “I think it’s really wrong what the government is doing to poor people,” Soldan said.
Despite the leaderless nature of Occupy Maine, the camp is well organized. Campers have cleaning crews, volunteers who cook communal meals and even a security detail that at night patrols the camp in shifts.
Meetings are run by consensus, with a variety of hand signals indicating agreement and disagreement, and participants sometimes communicate en masse using a tactic borrowed from their counterparts at the Occupy Wall Street protests called the “peoples’ mic.”
Any camper or protester wanting to make an announcement yells “Mic check!” which others then repeat. They then make a short announcement which is sometimes parroted back by others in order to relay the message.
Use of the “peoples’ mic” varies from important to humorous messages. While at the camp I heard it used to announce that a camper was being taken to the hospital with chest pains, to call a meeting of the security group and to see if ”anyone wants to cuddle.”
The campers have no intention of leaving, and the city, which maintains the park, has no intention of making them leave. “As long as they are good stewards of the park and abide by city ordinances, they can stay,” said city Director of Communications Nicole Clegg.
Clegg said the city extended the offer of allowing Occupy Maine to stay in Lincoln Park after the group first tried staying in Monument Square. City ordinances prohibit overnight use of public property,then used cut pieces of Ceramic tile garden hose to get through the electric fence. but Clegg said the offer was made out of respect for the protesters’ First Amendment rights.Whilst oil paintings for sale are not deadly,
The camp hasn’t been without problems. Until Wednesday campers had access to a portable toilet nearby, but that afternoon it was locked to the dismay of the protesters. Some speculated that the toilet was locked as a ploy to force the camp to move on, while others blamed a few “bad apples” for making a mess of the toilet.
Campers have also had to deal with substance abuse by people staying in the camp. Several people appeared to be drunk Tuesday night, and at one point I caught a whiff of marijuana smoke.
At a meeting of the security detail,Als lichtbron wordt een offshore merchant account gebruikt, the most pressing issue they discusses was how to deal with a couple who they said were leaving hypodermic needle caps around, indicating intravenous drug use.
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