- Violent lefty Janette Wenzl prepares to wreak havoc outside Chase Bank at 23rd & Jackson
Okay, it wasn’t exactly violent, and you couldn’t really call it an “attack,” but a couple dozen members of the Washington Community Action Network and other community groups did peacefully picket outside the Chase Bank branch at 23rd and Jackson in the Central District this afternoon, and I gotta say the response bordered on the absurd.
The fourth in a series of protests aimed at shaming Chase and other big banks into giving up $174 million in out-dated tax breaks at a time of devastating cuts to essential public services, the event generated little press coverage and even less heat, yet somehow managed to draw the kinda oversized show of government force that haunts the black helicopter populated dreams of paranoid teabaggers. Six bike cops and a patrol car were on view, for a total of ten police officers altogether, plus a team of plain-clothed security guards brought in by Chase just for the occasion. The Washington CAN members still outnumbered police and security by about two to one, but the latter had guns and billy clubs and paper spray, while the former only had hand-drawn signs, a bullhorn, and the apparently frightening force of their convictions.
- Seattle’s finest risk life, limb and bicycle in defense of capitalism
Still, just to be on the safe side, bank employees locked the front doors promptly at 5PM, an hour before closing, I suppose in an effort to keep customers out of harms way, or perhaps, to keep themselves from being put in the uncomfortable position of having to actually talk to the protesters. These precautions proved a resounding success, preventing even the remote threat of an informed dialectic.
So what explains this bizarre overreaction? I asked Washington CAN organizer Jill Mangaliman if the group had a history of violence, and she said no. “One of our own members was attacked at Chase’s Winter Schmooze Fest,” she offered, but not the other way around. “We’re not a violent group,” Mangaliman insisted, and the Google provides no evidence to the contrary.
- It was like WTO all over again, except without the violence, without the tear gas and without the protesters
I’m guessing this melodramatic show of force was a response to Washington CAN’s use of the phrase “sneak attack” to describe today’s action in their press release, and since they are a bunch of disgruntled lefties fighting for profoundly anti-American things like health care, immigrant rights, and economic justice, well, you never can be too careful. I mean, WTO, and all that.
(Kinda like the time State Attorney General Rob McKenna ordered his offices on “modified lockdown” in response to a post on HA in which I wrote about an upcoming protest that “I don’t particularly want to see any actual violence“—prose McKenna cleverly parsed to mean the exact opposite. When I asked McKenna spokesperson Janelle Guthrie if she could remember the last time a gathering of progressives turned violent, all she could come up with was, of course, “WTO,” and oddly, the “May Day riots,” apparently reaching all the way back to 1919 and the Wobblies.)
So yeah, I suppose it would be best if progressive bloggers and advocacy groups didn’t feel like they had to resort to using provocative words like “attack” in the hope of grabbing a little media attention. But in an era when a handful of angry teabaggers promising “2nd Amendment remedies” can draw a bevy of TV cameras, while a several thousand strong pro-health-care-reform rally at Westlake Park garners absolutely zero press coverage, what’s a passionate advocate to do?
The millions of dollars of nonproductive tax breaks going to big, out-of-state banks, could keep tens of thousands of Washington children on the health care rolls, but the editorial page editors at newspapers like the Seattle Times refuse to even broach the subject, instead insisting that the sole solution to our state’s budget woes are cuts and only cuts. So children’s advocates are reduced to performing stunts, while the big banks spend extra money hiring security to protect their employees from being directly confronted with news of their corporate overseers’ cold indifference.
The result being that, because there was no violence, there was no property damage, there were no arrests, and there wasn’t even the hint of anger, the only place you’re likely to read about today’s “sneak attack” is here… and even then, honestly… only because it happened to conveniently take place at a time and location directly only my commute home.
Holy shit, paper spray!!! RUN!!!
The Seattle Police Department and plainclothes security Chase flunkies are powerless against the Silver Liberation Army. I’m CRUSHING your bank! I’m CRUSHING your bank! Buy an ounce of silver, buy a pound if you like. Pass it along.
What if people with carry permits showed up on the sidewalk in front of the bank to exercise their second amendment rights?
Funnier and more apt illustration of typical Silver Liberation Army member
Normally I’d agree with you, but there was this thing that happened in Tucson last month…maybe you heard about it? Now, you know and I know that this protest had its heart in the right place, and Chase deserves to catch shit for their money-grubbing assholery. But no police or security body, faced with even a hint of potential violence (and yes, “sneak attack” qualifies) can take chances in the current political environment. Which sucks. But there it is.
And the WTO protests turned violent because of the non-progressive anarchists of the type that tried to disrupt that SPD forum last week and threw a tantrum when John T. Williams’ brother asked them to leave.
…and the police obviously sent out the a-team on this one. Wow that looks like the special olympics of bike cops.
Thanks, Goldy, I needed a good laugh.
The caption under the picture should read “…in defense of corporatism.” There is a huge difference between capitalism (where you can open your own business, if you like) and corporatism (where the government protects the biggest companies from competition in exchange for campaign money).
Confusing corporatism with capitalism is no different from confusing socialism with communism. And it’s why you see similar equations from reflexive ideologues on the right and the left.
Media attention or inattention aside, the main thing is that there’s a bill working its way through the State House to end the tax breaks and shore up Basic Health.
I am sorry CAN didn’t get a chance to engage in “an informed dialectic” with the branch staff. Chase usually loads its branches with inexperienced young workers grateful for any job, so the dialectic might have been educational for CAN as well as the staff.
Uh, Goldy, Ms. Guthrie might have been referring to more than one incident in Olympia. In 2008, some banks had bricks and stones thrown at their windows (it was hardly a ‘riot,’ more like a ‘tantrum’), or another one in 2000, which was more of a rave/party in the middle of a busy intersection. Both of these are easily in the memory of various officials, and quickly called upon to demonstrate the disgusting lack of respect the Youth of Today show towards their elders.
Of course, I’m just guessing here on what she *really* meant. You could have asked her.
Hah…I knew you’d open up this unregistered comment.
Sure, at first you thought…only losers write unregistered comments, I’ll skip those.
But here you are…with absolutely nothing to do…except read this comment.
Well…who is the loser now….Loser!!
@10 Um, actually Corporatism means something very different. Corporatism generally means the government recognizes official representatives from various spheres of civil society, e.g. Industry, Labor or Agricultural interests.
Germany is one of the clearer examples of a governmental system that incorporates Corporatism. In Germany, the government will mediate between official representatives of Industry and Labor, in a tripartite system of representation. Corporatism is generally seen in societies with deep divisions as the negotiations and various representative structures promote buy-in by the various groups involved in the decision-making.
Corporatism has a very specific meaning, and it does not mean mere rule by incorporated business entities.
@14 Yes, Germany is very different from the USA. Labor representatives are directly involved in corporate governance. Imagine the different responses of human nature when everyone is a stakeholder instead of an adversary.
Goldy, to answer your question: “Passionate advocates” includes the teabaggers. If you are left of them the same rules of getting noticed apply. Take a page from their street theater playbook instead of solely relying on the reasonableness of your arguments. In other words get noticed first then make your case.
@14 “Corporatism generally means…”, “Corporatism has a very specific meaning…”
Hate to burst your bubble, but there’s certainly more ways to define corporatism than the way you have and Germany is not the first example I’d bring up when talking about corporatism in the United States. As @15 pointed out, labor has more than a vestigial role in their effective constituency. American labor clearly does not.
Can we get this man a better camera? Or a phone with a better camera?
At least the cops didn’t shoot or beat up anyone.
care bear @17,
Yes, by all means. My iPhone 3G is out of contract, so if you’d like to step in and buy me an iPhone 4 with its much improved camera, I would gladly upgrade.
Iwas part of this Havoc lol the author is a little snickity I wish everyone would wake up and smell the coffee and not the Tea People now days are letting the government do what it wants along with banks who are mostly owned by China and other foreign countries who are now forclosing on our land and we are Blind
Chase and BofA are eeeeeeevil. I just got rid of them two weeks ago. Money sucking maggots.