Occupy Seattle is ‘thankful’ for arrests

With a bit of sarcasm, members of the Occupy Seattle group say they are thankful for arrests on Wednesday.

Seattle Police arrested 25 members of an anti-corporate greed movement, after they refused an order to fold up their tents.

Member say they’re encouraged by the arrests because it will result in more attention for their cause, which doesn’t have one unified message other than they are angry and tired of inequities in America.

They call themselves the 99 percent, opposing the one percent of wealthy people in the country. Demonstrations on this theme started on New York’s Wall Street in mid-September.

The Seattle protests began last Saturday with a few dozen people. At one point Wednesday there were up to 300 demonstrators at Westlake Park.

Occupy Seattle issued this statement:

We, the General Assembly of Seattle, thank the mayor for ordering our arrest. Though the arrests were made on the false pretense that the occupation would be in conflict with future scheduled protests–when, in fact, these protests have all expressed their support for the occupation–though we have a right to peaceably assembly, and though we have done nothing to agitate the police: nevertheless, we thank the mayor. Our numbers will only grow stronger as the public contemplates the unjust arrest of thirty workers raising signs and tents, while the corporate thugs remain pampered in their private villas.

But the hand of justice is not long delayed. Let the strength of our resolve today serve to put Corporate America on notice that the ninety nine percent in Seattle will no longer bow to the will of the one percent.

We will not relent. We will not retreat. We are the ninety nine percent.

Officers began peacefully taking protestors into custody and began removing unclaimed tents late in the afternoon. Members of Occupy Seattle tell me they’ll meet tonight to figure out what to do next. One demonstrator told me, “We’re not going away.”

(Photo by 97.3 KIRO FM’s Tim Haeck)