Tag Archives: News & Observer

Police arrest Occupy Chapel Hill activists at derelict Chrysler building. Raleigh News & Observer.

Why in the world would they need assault rifles for a peaceful demonstration?

Think Progress

Wielding assault rifles, about 20 police in riot gear stormed a derelict commercial property in the heart of Chapel Hill, NC, on Sunday afternoon, arresting activists who had taken over the space the night before. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, dozens shouted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as the arrests were made. The Chapel Hill Transit bus used to transport the arrestees had a Wells Fargo ad, prompting the chant, “Who do they serve? Wells Fargo! Who do they protect? Wells Fargo!”

Watch amateur video of the arrests:

The occupied building on Saturday night.

Members of the Occupy movement had marching from the Carrboro Anarchist Bookfair to enter and occupy the 10,000 square foot building, the former University Chrysler-Plymouth dealership at 419 W. Franklin St., on Saturday afternoon. Banners reading “Occupy Everything” and “Capitalism left this building for dead, we brought it back to life” were displayed in the windows and roof. By that night, about fifty people, many of them self-identified anarchists, stood in front of the building or milled through the open garage door into the cavernous space. One person set up a computer and projector system, playing Jean Luc Goddard’s capitalist critique Tout va bien. Another handed out flyers to passersby going to local restaurants and bars, explaining this “experiment” as an extension of the Occupy Wall Street movement:

All across the US thousands upon thousands of commercial and residential spaces sit empty while more and more people are forced to sleep in the streets, or driven deep into poverty while trying to pay rent that increases without end. Chapel Hill is no different: this building has sat empty for years, gathering dust and equity for a lazy landlord hundreds of miles away, while rents in our town skyrocket beyond any service workers’ ability to pay them, while the homeless spend their nights in the cold, while gentrification makes profits for developers right up the street.

Related articles

• Chapel Hill sends SWAT team to arrest Occupy “anarchists” (boingboing.net)
• Police arrest Chapel Hill protesters who occupied vacant business – Source: News & Observer (curmilus.wordpress.com)
• Police Continue To Arrest Reporters And Photojournalists At Occupy Encampments (pixiq.com)
• NC police arrest protesters at vacant dealership (sfgate.com)