Last night—Thursday, December 1—in accordance with a request by the Board of Health and the Fire Marshal, Occupy Boston attempted to install a new greywater sink for our food tent. The City said in court yesterday that we need to increase safety and sanitation here at our encampment.
We have allocated large amounts of funds for the fireproofing, winterization, and sanitation of our community. However, even as the city tells us that we are a public safety hazard, they have been actively thwarting our efforts. We are being blocked from replacing our tents with flame-retardant, winterized tents; from adding stability to our fraying walkways; and from protecting the health and safety of our community. Meanwhile, the City, the Fire Marshal, and the Board of Health testify that we must address these issues. We’re still figuring out how to make sense of this.
Blockaded “contraband”—their word, not ours—includes construction materials, pallets, winterized tents, and apparently, sinks.
When our shiny, new, stainless steel friend—built for us by one of our rockstar occupiers—was brought to Dewey Square last night, the Boston Police Department immediately surrounded it, indicating how threatening this shiny, sanitary device is. Since the restraining order from Judge McIntyre prevents the Boston Police from dismantling our camp except in the case of a fire, violence, or other emergency, we are puzzled by this police action. Considering that the sink was neither on fire nor beating anybody up, we can only assume that it intended to do something sinister. Seeing as how our irate residents really want to wash their dishes, we sat down in front of the truck containing the detained sink. It took about 40 minutes for the sink to be hauled off to jail, and three others were arrested in the process. The occupiers stayed strong and nonviolent throughout the ordeal. See the full 40-minute video here:
So, as the police truck sped off into the sunset, with our sink hanging out of the back (it put up too much of a fight for the door to close), and three of our friends hauled off to jail along with it, we calmly and nonviolently resumed our occupation without the promise of clean dishes for the 99%. Our jail support team is currently expecting the sink’s phone call, and will notify = the police station to let them know if it has any medical conditions that they should be aware of.
Free our Sink!
42 Responses to “It’s Official: The 1% Have Taken The Kitchen Sink”
Hey, I came up with that line!
“Imitation is the sincerest of flattery” — Charles Caleb Colton
I wonder how much more favor OB could curry if they checked the snarky sarcasm at the door.
not much more. it isn’t polite conversation that the 1% want from the 99%!
No i agree with accountability. And it’s not 1% that OB needs to gain favor from. If you want this to go anywhere, the public needs to identify with the protest, not just think we’re a**holes
I <3 snarky sarcasm when it's applied well. 🙂
Was the sink selling drugs?
All joking aside, besides fighting for your right to protest which based on your own blog seems to take up nearly 100% of your time, what exactly is OB trying to accomplish? I looked through your daily schedules but it seems nearly all of the events are geared toward keeping the occupation going and little about making real changes. I saw this item yesterday, “3:00pm Finance and Accountabilty [sic] Working Group Meeting” which looked interesting. Is there any mechanism in place to disseminate the results of these meetings to the general public? I would be interested in reading and contributing to the conversation there.
I’m behind the idea of what you’re all doing, but posts like this are going to make you lose the middle ground. Sure, I’ll go ahead and watch a 40 minute video of your camping sink being taken away – totally reasonable. A total outrage I know. Meanwhile, people in other countries and cities are being gassed, shot at, and beaten. Where’s the perspective? You had a sink taken away. Get over it. To expect the city to allow you to set up permanent residence in a public park is naive, but their cooperation has been one of the best in the country.
I wish all of you no harm and all the luck in the world, but seeing posts like this make me lose hope in where everything’s gone. You need to re-adjust your priorities, and setting up a permanent camp should never have been the end goal – it should have been raising awareness while sparking conversation and change. This camp means nothing in the long run.
My two cents, again health and happiness to all involved, I just think you’re getting a little out of touch with real life.
What “exactly” DO they want? Also, how do they think living in a park will get it? Movements are just that “moving towards a goal or to a point”. I dont see any movement with the Occupy Protesters…
The goal is to Occupy your Brain! And, boy, is it working!
“Free our Sink!” That’s better than “Free Bieber”! Someone needs to make a website!
(http://freebieber.org/)
The snark is awesome—and, really, how serious can you be when dealing with nonsense like that? I’m not an Occupier, but I am totally against the bureaucracy abusing people trying to make their voices heard.
on December 2nd, 2011 at 3:05 pm #
[…] was a little, umm, confrontation at Occupy Boston last night. For more context, see the post at OccupyBoston’s website or at ThinkProgress Below is less than a minute of the forty minutes of video I took. I’ll […]
How can a sink be dangerous? Maybe they were afraid the water coming out of the faucet would catch fire! They’re fracking in Boston!
Basically anyone who disagrees with Occupy Boston is the 1% now.
Keep using humor guys! If you can make the cops smile at their own ridiculous actions, you have won. Make em laugh! 🙂
Aren’t you violating the TRO by bringing in permanent gear? You’re supposed to be able to bring in camping gear, not build a house. A stainless steel kitchen sink is something that you would never take camping – along with palettes, Korean War era permanent tents, and other such items.
You’d do your movement much more good if you’d be completely honest with why the police are preventing you from building up the encampment.
Barry, the Boston Dept of Health approved the sink and the camp was following orders. The police were simply trying to incite a violent response so they could ignore the judicial extension on the restraining order.
We use to call these people bums. If we allow all the bums to build structures wherever they please there would be little forts all over beantown. Filled with drug addicted, sometimes violent, do nothing bums. But wait, what if the bums chant nifty slogans and claim they’re starting a bum revolution. Ha I’m not even sure where I’m goin with this.
God forbid the homeless people of America make themselves visible and known. That would make all the well off people uncomfortable!
“I was here [in Dewey Sq] for 20 years before they showed up.”
— Homeless guy at OB.
Yes, I would be very uncomfortable if I had to be around filthy drunk homeless people. Yhat is why I have a job, keep that job, live within my means and not put my economic life at risk.
At least they’re trying, bum.
What are you doing to better the world?
This yo is an imposter please identify yourself. I would never type such things. Maybe… Don’t steal my thunda sucka. I’m much more smahtah
Do you have proof that the sink was approved by the Health Department? Also, why do you have to camp out? Why can’t you all get up at 6:00 a.m., travel into Dewey Square, protest all day, then return to wherever you started from. Think of it as a job.
I agree with parts of your protest, specifically getting special interests out of government. And I mean all special interests…corporations, unions, wall street. What I don’t agree with is the way you dismiss anyone who criticizes your movement. You do not need to camp out to have a meaningful demonstration, in my opinion. And your lawyers comment after the hearing on 12/1 about free speech trumping public safety is ridiculous. You can’t yell fire in a crowded movie theater if there isn’t a fire. That’s because your right to free speech does not trump my right to not be trampled.
Well, that’s enough rambling from me. Let the insults begin! 🙂
“…you can get up at 6:00 a.m.”
.
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA. That’s good, Beth. No insults from me, though.
If the city cared about the safety of the camp, it would not block people from bringing in flame-resistant tents.
They are caring about your safty by wanting you gone.
“why do you have to camp out?”
camping out is just a tactic. breaking up the status quo to bring attention to important issues and to put pressure on gov. If we all just hung out in dewey sq everyday and then went home it would be really easy for us to be ignored
civil disobedience is never convenient for anyone. but if everyone participated then we might actually be able to accomplish some of these goals
Is that you Josh? Where you been? You figure it out yet
Sink still detained huh. That’s just bizarre, sure hope they didn’t throw Sink into some skankey holding cell with some old rusty,chipped up cast Iron, bath tub named Bubba! Sink is much to new, shiny and pretty for that.LOL Just checkin in from Texas here, will check in again on any new news about sink. Keep on Keepin on!
Scary that it has taken 2+ months for them to want to wash their dishes – I don’t usually last more than a day or two.
WAY TO REMOVE COMMENTS. THANKS FOR BEING SO OPEN OCCUPY BOSTON
If your comment was removed it must have been pretty dang stupid.
on December 3rd, 2011 at 12:17 am #
[…] The Occupy Boston blog explained on Friday morning: We are being blocked from replacing our tents with flame-retardant, winterized tents; from adding stability to our fraying walkways; and from protecting the health and safety of our community. Meanwhile, the city, the fire marshal, and the Board of Health testify that we must address these issues. We’re still figuring out how to make sense of this. […]
on December 3rd, 2011 at 1:18 am #
[…] The Occupy Boston blog explained on Friday morning: We are being blocked from replacing our tents with flame-retardant, winterized tents; from adding stability to our fraying walkways; and from protecting the health and safety of our community. Meanwhile, the city, the fire marshal, and the Board of Health testify that we must address these issues. We’re still figuring out how to make sense of this. […]
on December 3rd, 2011 at 4:04 am #
[…] The Occupy Boston blog explained on Friday morning: We are being blocked from replacing our tents with flame-retardant, winterized tents; from adding stability to our fraying walkways; and from protecting the health and safety of our community. Meanwhile, the city, the fire marshal, and the Board of Health testify that we must address these issues. We’re still figuring out how to make sense of this. […]
What don’t you people understand. You cannot bring an industrial sink into a public park. Your self righteousness blinds your common sense.
This post is a great example of the ways in which the physical encampment is sucking the energy of this movement into absolutely trivial, self-created dramas. It’s seriously time to decamp so we can focus on our long-range goals. Those who know me know I have been an active supporter from the beginning. Please read my blog post on why it’s critical that we now change tactics.
http://andykittross.blogspot.com/2011/12/its-time-to-decamp.html
Mic Check
– Mic Check
Our time has come
– Our time has come
To return to our parent’s basements
– To return to our parent’s basements
And to stop wasting the hard working taxpayer’s money.
– And to stop wasting the hard working taxpayer’s money.
So who took the sink the 1% or the cops? Cops aren’t the 1% most work over 50hrs a week and don’t make millions.
Are they 1% because they don’t agree with you? Also do you see the irony of you making them richer by camping out and forcing a detail.
Pro movement? http://jonathanhall.bandcamp.com/track/move-to-wall-street
Anti movement? http://jonathanhall.bandcamp.com/track/talking-wall-street-blues