EPD officer and protester clasp hands. Photo by Tracy Sydor.
Here is a transcript with Occupy Eugene organizer Samuel Rutledge on KUGN Morning News with Storm and Grant on November 14 (download .mp3):
Storm: Why this all started and what are you actually protesting?
Sam: The Occupy movement started back in September in New York City and a group of people came together to start camping out at Wall Street to protest basically rampant corporate greed and a financial system that’s gotten completely out of hand and that benefits one percent of the people in this country at the expense of the other 99 percent. And I think most of the folks listening here today are members of the 99 percent, and that’s the reason that we’re all out there.
Back in October you may remember we had a huge march in Eugene of 2,000 people that was part of a nationwide, even a global day of action that brought folks out in solidarity with that Wall Street protest.
Storm: What made you decide to come together and find a camp out?
Sam: Well the occupation in a certain sense is part of the message. The group in New York City feels this way as well, that politics is so dominated by big money, as is the media. Most of the radio stations that folks listen to, most of the television stations that folks watch today are owned by just a small handful of companies and part of the result of that is that our civic dialogue is limited to just a few issues. And we may have robust disagreements about those issues, but things like corporate money, things like the role of corporations in public life (and I mean large corporations, not small businesses, but these huge, mega corporations in public life) just aren’t discussed in as robust a way as we’d like to see happening. And so by occupying a public space with our bodies, we’re able to also bring that discussion into the public dialogue, and that’s an essential part of how this protest is working.
Grant: So you’re occupying the Washington/Jefferson Bridge Park right now. Who all is camped out with you right now?
Sam: Well there’s, and I don’t have good head counts, frankly, because it’s kind of up and down depending on the day, but there are a lot of activists, people who are taking time off of work who are coming down there one or two nights a week to camp out and there’s also a lot of folks who are able in their lives either because they’ve been laid off or because they have some kind of, they are able to be there seven days a week and they’re living there full-time and we also have a large number of the homeless population who have been in Eugene and have been in the streets here for years and years and years and who have found that this is a safe place to camp and that they resonate with our issues as well and we welcome them in as well.
Storm: So how is that going? We’ve heard reports of it being a little trying between the Occupy Wall Street protesters and the homeless coming in.
Sam: You know there are challenges I think in every place in the country where we are occupying public space. There are challenges because there are huge problems associated with homelessness: problems of addiction, problems of untreated mental health issues, and these are problems that have not been adequately addressed by the larger society. By being physically in public space, we’re compelled to address those issues. They’re right there with us and we’re doing everything we can around the country to try and find humane ways to address those issues that don’t dehumanize and that don’t marginalize people who are already at the edges of society.
Grant: Eugene Police Chief Pete Kerns is very impressed with the behavior that has been executed by the Occupy Eugene protesters. How has that relationship been for you guys in regards to the police and with the city?
Sam: It’s been really, really positive. One of my favorite images that’s come out of Occupy Eugene is a photograph that was taken on the day of our march and it’s just two hands, it’s just a police officer who’s obviously in uniform and wearing a police-issue bicycle glove giving a high-five to somebody who’s got sort of bracelets and looks like a citizen’s hand, and I think that image is emblematic of everything that we’ve done in the entire sense of cooperation between the police and the city and Occupy Eugene. We’re hoping to be a model, frankly, for the rest of the country in ways to have cooperation rather than conflict between the powers that be and the folks who are wanting to change the system to be better for everyone.
Storm: Speaking of conflict, I’m sure you’ve heard of the conflict they’re having in Oakland with Occupy Wall Street also in Portland, Oregon, just to the north of us. Any problems that you see here happening?
Sam: I would hope that the sorts of things that have happened in Oakland and Portland, I think it’s actually been very different. Oakland’s police department cracked down with incredible brutality on protesters recently and then I haven’t heard the details of what’s happening right now, that they’re clearing it out again but the last time that they tried to clear out, I’m not sure if y’all are aware but Scott Olsen, a United States Marine I believe who served in Afghanistan was critically injured during that action by a police I think it’s a tear gas canister that was tossed into the crowd and so that kind of thing I would desperately hope that we avoid. Portland – I hear that the police officers by and large were remarkably peaceful. I wish that Mayor Adams had decided to spend those resources trying to help the organizers deal with the very real problems that were causing unsafe situations in the camp rather than just spending all of those resources on overtime for police officers to shut the camp down, and I would hope that in Eugene, the same thing can happen, that to the extent that we have any unsafe situations arising I’d hope that the city continues to cooperate with us and help us with resources to deal with those situations.
Storm: Volunteer organizer Samuel Rutledge, thank you so much for joining us and we hope to keep in touch.
Sam: Well thank you, Storm, I hope to keep in touch as well.