Letter: Rain washes away city hall occupiers

Letter: Rain washes away city hall occupiers

Lance Thaite
St Augustine, FL

Dear Editor:

Although there had been grey skies and rain earlier in the day, by the 3:00 p.m. scheduled occupation, there were patches of blue and the sun was shining brightly on the face of organizer, Ed Slavin.

It would have seemed that Providence had blessed the event, except for one thing … there was no one present on December 12th to protest.

The Town Crier Committee attended the occupier’s City Hall event, but no one from our organization was interested in approaching the un-used microphone.

There was Ed Slavin standing in the exterior courtyard in front of City Hall with not a single person in sight.

When he saw our approach, Mr. Slavin made a quick turn and proceeded into the enclosed courtyard of the City Hall complex as shown in the photo on the upper right.

At 3:30 p.m. a supporter shows up and then some more. After that, J.D. Pleasant and the sound and video equipment arrives. The audio equipment is set up. Note from the photo that the microphone never finds an audience.

Rhonda Parker a freelance reporter writing on the Examiner website arrived for a photo opportunity. In spite of favorable press releases in the St Augustine Record, Historic City News, Examiner.com and First Coast News, the public fails to attend the event.

In my opinion, the occupier’s program failed to live up to the media hype. The press releases said, “Protestors in St Augustine will gather outside City Hall today to talk about both statewide and local issues in the occupy movement. People in St. Augustine will vote on their support of those points today during their “Occupy City Hall” event. They will also hold their own votes on issues City Commissioners are discussing, including holiday bonuses for city workers.” None of that happened.

At 5:00 p.m. when the City Commissioners meeting started, the occupiers dispersed from their position in the front of City Hall. Some went into the meeting.

The Black Friday event was dismal, though the media failed to cover that story.

This City Hall event must be a great disappointment to Ed Slavin and his core promoters.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News contributed photograph by Lance Thaite