From Stark
In a lengthy post on Facebook, Mayor Dan Pike explains his rationale for warning Occupy Bellingham protesters to leave their Maritime Heritage Park campsite by 9 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28, or face eviction.
“For better or worse, I accept responsibility for the decision, which was a challenging one to make, and not one made lightly,” Pike wrote.
“People ask me why do this now? Some suggested I could leave this for Mayor-elect Linville. In fact, I could not. For four years I have prided myself on taking what I felt was the right course for Bellingham, regardless of what it meant to my personal image with some groups or individuals. The test has always been, ‘What is in the best interest of the entire community, on a sustainable basis.” I am not going to switch standards now.”
Pike’s term of office ends Saturday. He could easily have walked away from this situation.
Eviction is a term for a decision not an action undertaken.
Hoo knows what the results will be of a police action ordered by Pike on his last days of authority.
Suppose the peaceful demonstrators are unswayed by Pikes personal responsibility in favor of their own determination and ideals?
How about we let the new mayor-elect judge for herself how dangerous the camp is to ‘the entire community’?
Maybe she has a different idea of free speech and its dangerous imposition on the rest of us.
Rights under the Constitution do not include unlawful squatting on public or private property.
Free Speech does not include creating an eyesore and inconveniencing fellow citizens.
Maritime Park is a public venue meant to be enjoyed by everyone.
It was wrong for the squatters to take over the park and make it into their personal campground.
It was wrong and cowardly for the mayor to allow the squatters to have their way all this time.
The decision to evict now comes too late to send a proper message to the squatters.
I will be at on the scene at 9: am to watch our police officers take back our park.
@ Concerned Citizen. Will see you there. Nobody is going to leave without a fight. Take your smartphone; film everything.
They are speaking for you. There is no goal. They just want us all to know that we are not going to take this anymore. We need to keep talking about it all the time. But to sleep in the cold because the government is run by corporations is absolutely noble and wise.
ruth n.
Bellingham Wash
Ruth, if there’s no goal to the Occupy, what is it they’re saying for me? And what is “it” they want us to all know they aren’t going to take anymore? And please PLEASE explain how sleeping in the cold is noble and/or because the gov’t is run by corporations? Believe me, your logic is NOT obvious.
After the Citizens United case, we must have a more liberal interpetation of actions that constitute free speech. If “buying” elections through campaign contributions is protected speech, then surely, camping in a public park must be free speech.
Encampments serve to elevate awareness… they need not do anything else to accomplish this goal then to simply be….surely, this is as worthy of 1st amendment protection as corporate campaign contributions.
The “park” was created with Federal Block grant money. Nice to see it being used in the middle of the winter for such an important issue.. Look across the creek to see what our fine city has done with the old Sash & Door /Restore site if you want to see a place that reminds me of the “PIT”. Public owned land fenced off from the public.
This is a bigger eysore than tents at the edge of a park.
Poster Suzanne might find solace in that the poverty expressed by the demonstrators who ‘sleep in the cold’ reflect the current state of taxpayer’s concern about the Americans left behind by our budding oligarchy.
Camping in a public park represents the true nature of fully half of all citizens now in our wealthy land
and so too bad that having it in your face distresses you or Mayor Pike because that personal shame and annoyance is surely meant to be the end result.
If government policies were based on humans and need instead of dollars and greed,
maybe the demonstrators would have no need of such an embarrassing display of their nobility.
Pike ends his tenure with a horrible mistake in a heedless fashion that speaks volumes about his own lack of awareness since public dollars have enriched the man for his entire career.
@rubie,
You and I differ in opinion about Mayor Pike, but the rest of your comment was well-said, as is most of what you write.
Thanks for the kind word
and I’ve been mostly a Pike supporter – even the traffic cams – though I’m not in his constituency.
Acting confrontational because you can isn’t at all the same as acting confrontational because you must.
In this case,
a major character flaw was revealed that surprises me.
Coffee and Prosperity in 2012!