The Seattle police arrested four Occupy Seattle protesters yesterday: two at city hall after 500 protesters marched down from Westlake and occupied the main floor at the 6:00 pm closing time; and two more after ordering a group of about 200 protesters to clear Westlake Park at the 10 pm closing time. The majority of the protesters at the park—closer to 100 after the arrests—scattered across the plaza while a small group drummed and danced on the arch at Pine St., remaining put for the night. Local unions announced they would join the protesters at Westlake this morning.[pullquote]"We voted  with our feet to go confront the mayor," 23-year-old Phillip Neel, one of those arrested at city hall, said.[/pullquote]

The arrests at city hall took place after students from UW joined the protesters at Westlake late in the afternoon on Wednesday. The protesters voted 155-4 to reject the city's offer to move the protests outside city hall, deciding instead to march on city hall as a show of defiance.

"We voted  with our feet to go confront the mayor," 23-year-old Phillip Neel, one of those arrested at city hall, told Fizz afterward.

Once the protesters arrived at city hall, they entered the building and filled the main floor demanding to see the mayor. They were told the mayor was not in the building. The protesters considered using their big numbers to force the police to make mass arrests, but eventually backed off that ploy with the majority of protesters obeying the orders to leave at the 6 0'clock closing time after the brief sit-in.

However, two defiant protesters remained, including Neel, who explained to Fizz, "Every time when we have big numbers, the moderate and centrist elements in the group say it's not right time. I had a problem with that. When is a better time than when we have 500 people?"

Neel, along with a cohort named Carson, were cuffed and taken to King County Jail for criminal trespass.

The SPD released a brief statement about the city hall arrests:

On October 12th officers arrested two men at City Hall for failing to leave upon the 6:00 p.m. closure of the building.  Both adult males were booked into the King County Jail for Criminal Trespassing.

Neel was released without charges and headed back to Westlake at about 9:30, just in time for the next confrontation with the SPD.

About 20 bicycle officers, a police carrier, and a few officers in uniform—none of the officers were wearing riot gear—lined up across the street from the park as the 10 0'clock closing time approached. The SPD stayed in place for about fifteen minutes while protesters across the street in the park, mostly somber and quiet, got ready for the confrontation. A few demonstrators were drumming and one Native American protester could be heard chanting.



An unmarked cruiser rolled into the north end of the plaza and the uniformed officer inside made an announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is 10:15. Westlake Park is closed."

At this point, 12 bicycle officers crossed the street in formation and headed to the middle of the park near Occupy Seattle's food and supply distribution shelter—a large white tent that the city said could stay if protesters moved their night occupation to city hall. Senior SPD officers, cordoned off by bicycle officers, talked with protest leaders at the tent.





After the Geneva conference ended, presumably in failure, the bicycle officers headed for another tent that was set up in the middle of the group of protesters. There, the bicycle officers formed a ring around the campers using their cycles. Officers then pulled one protester out of the tent, handcuffed him, and took him to the waiting van with bicycle officers riding in formation around them. The officers arrested the second protester using the same tactic.[pullquote]"Ladies and gentlemen, it is 10:15. Westlake Park is closed." [/pullquote]

The police did not return to the protest site after arresting the second demonstrator. The unmarked cruiser remained in place, and a few officers milled around, but the biggest group in place apart from the protesters seemed to be TV news crews. The crowd stayed and shouted slogans—"Pigs go home" and "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Mike McGinn has got to go" along with their main refrain, "We are the 99 percent," the protesters' class war reference to the concentration of wealth in the top one percent of the population. After about twenty minutes, SPD's cars and bikes headed west on Pine, away from the plaza.



When the police left the scene protesters cheered for a few minutes before a speaker won a "mic check" and encouraged everyone to go "chill" in the plaza following the "victory." The protesters did just that, eating food from a impromptu soup kitchen, beating drums, strumming guitars, and talking politics.

Overheard from a protester to a TV reporter who was trying to get the young man to admit that TV was helping their cause: "The mainstream media are the problem. You know who started all this? Adbusters. Do you even know what Adbusters is?"

Neel was among those who lingered. Asked to explain the Occupy cause, he said: "I work making organic artisan sandwiches that sell for more than my hourly wage "



Neel was arrested at city hall. He returned to Westlake later that night to continue protesting.

Neel sees a highfalutin economic metaphor in his job at the fancy sandwich shop. And we quote:

It's a good example of real class based oppression that's going on. It's not always police arresting you that constitutes the oppression. It's also things like not having a livable minimum wage—having to create products with added value and not getting the value back equal to [the] work it takes producing that value.

A crowd of passersby and media hung around for a long time after the police left; many were expecting a second wave of riot gear-equipped police to come and clear out the square, but no additional officers had shown up by the time Fizz left at midnight.



Occupy Seattle has called for a Saturday demonstration. The group's web site says:

Here's more coverage from: The PI.com and The Seattle Times.