Occupy Tucson’s Craig Barber outs Mayor and Council on national TV
Speaking with commentator Keith Olbermann on national television , Occupy Tucson spokesman Craig Barber outed the Tucson’s Mayor and Council for “hiding behind” the bureaucrats in Tucson Police Department (TPD) and the Parks and Recreation Department and avoiding to make a decision regarding the legality of the peaceful Armory Park occupation.
Prior to Tuesday’s City Council Meeting— which was flooded with Occupy Tucson supporters– City Council Members told the Occupiers that their “hands were tied” and that the Occupiers had to comply with the city’s anti-vagrancy laws which dictate a 10:30 p.m. park curfew. Since the beginning of Occupy Tucson on Saturday, October 15, 2011, TPD has been arresting protesters and dispensing fines up to $1000 (for breaking the curfew) nightly.
Since it is against state and federal law to step on anyone’s first amendment freedom, the protesters are dubbing the $1000 fine– “The First Amendment Fine”– and their lawyers are investigating legal recourse.
5 comments on “Occupy Tucson’s Craig Barber outs Mayor and Council on national TV”
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Congressman Ron Barber and Pamela Powers Hannley at Cyclovia
Governor Ducey had proposed increasing prison beds and funding, while cutting education. Protesters took issue with that short-sighted idea.
In the 1980s, the Tucson Weekly called Tucson the “Baked Apple”.
Occupy encampment in Armory Park– before it was cleared out in the middle of the night by Tucson Police.
Martin Luther King, Jr. march.
Jobs with Justice marching with Occupy Tucson in support of postal workers.
Pamela Powers Hannley, Progressive Democrat for Arizona House, LD9
Safe Park, downtown Tucson
Jim and I were part of a contingent of Unitarian Universalists who came up from Tucson. Here I am with Rev. Ron Phares from the Mountain Vista UU Church in my district. (Jim is photobombing us.)
Protesters hand deliver symbolic big check from corporate American to McCain.
John Nichols of ‘The Nation’ addressed progressives and unionists at a Tucson event.
Arizonans for New Economy co-directors Jim Hannley and Pamela Powers Hannley with UA Tech Park VP Bruce Wright.
The Oberlin Rescuers outside of the Cuyahoga County Jail.
A homeless man sleeps in the shadow of corporate America.
Visiting with PALF chairman Fred Yamashita at the 2016 Labor Day Picnic.
Despite the sweltering heat, Jim and I had a great time at the Labor Day Picnic. We collected a lot of Clean Elections $5 donations and signatures. Here I am with LD9 chair Michael Dues.
Ironically, I posted this blog post on the anniversary of this election on June 19. 1970ish.
There have been many lively debates in the Arizona House in 2018. This team of House Democrats fought for consumer protections and fought against risky financial deals in a “regulatory sandbox.” (Pictured are Reps. Mitzi Epstein, Kelli Butler, Athena Salman, Pamela Powers Hannley, Ken Clark and Isela Blanc.)
Protesting migrant deaths in the Arizona desert.
Desconocido (unknown)
PDA members, including Advisory Board Chair Mimi Kennedy, protested food stamp cuts in front of Congressman Henry Waxman’s office.
A giant poet’s head made up of stainless steel letters marks the stop near the UA Poetry Center.
Protesting anti-woman laws at the Arizona state capitol.
We often hear that corporations need migrant workers because Americans “don’t want to do these jobs.” When I hear this statement, I picture farm workers picking vegetables. Recently, I toured two dairies and an animal feed packing plant in Pinal County. The photo above from the Zinke Dairy shows a giant cow milking carousel. Nine migrant workers milk 4000 cows three times a day at this dairy. Legislators watched the two men pictured here– working at a brisk pace– bend over and pick up, lift, and attach large electronic suction cups to the cows as they ride the carousel around the giant facility. This level of automation is the wave of the future for industrial jobs.
Giving the LD9 update at the June meeting. What a great crowd!
Rep. Sally Ann Gonzales and I were interviewed by NBC at the Phoenix rally.
PDA Tucson Coordinator Jim Hannley speaks against both the crowd management ordinance and the urban camping ban at the City Council meeting.
Protesting cuts to education
#RedForEd teachers and supporters in the Arizona House Gallery, 2018.
Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley with members of the Tucson Chapter of NOW on opening day at the Arizona Legislature, 2018.
This is a broken sink in the Ladies’ Room at the Arizona State Building in downtown Tucson. One of the elevators also was broken. It’s time to fix Arizona government.
The Living Economy event was very informative; we had a great time hob-nobbing. My husband Jim is a small business owner and a member of Local First Arizona. I have owned two small businesses in the past– Powers/Queen Associates and Wind Dancer Design. We support Local First Arizona and buying/investing locally. We believe that supporting local small businesses with low-interest loans through a public/private partnership between a public bank and community banks and credit unions is the sustainable route to improving our local economy. Trickle down economics doesn’t work; it’s time for new ideas.
I have a background in research. Help me build Tucson’s tech industry and grow our own local businesses.
We are the 99%.
It was truly a honor to meet Nevada State Senator Patricia Spearman (center) in October and to confer with her regarding our efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in Arizona. Spearman led the successful Nevada efforts to ratify the ERA in 2017. Here we are with activist and NOW leader Dainne Post after the ERA workshop at the We the People Conference in Phoenix. There are a lot of Arizona women who are ready to make history in 2018. Watch my blog here and my Facebook page here for ERA updates.
Tucson Progressive 
Craig is very poised and articulate; a noble representative of Occupy Tucson. It is a disgrace that Mayor and Council have been silent or oppositional to the occupiers. This city has been economically stagnant for decades; limping along on construction, the U of A, Raytheon and Davis Monthan AFB while failing to find a solid industrial base. Mayor and Council have offered no solutions to the disgraceful 24% poverty rate. TPD and Parks and Recreation are under the aegis of Mayor and Council; they cannot hide behind ordinances and rules. They need to respect the occupiers since they are standing up to the economic injustice and lack of opportunity for young and old alike.
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This is a peaceful protest and our Constitutional right under the 1st Amendment. The passive agressive approach taken by TPD is a transparent attempt to “squeeze” the protesters financially. Mayor, City Council and TPD will realize as other city leadership across the country have come to realize that it is in their best interest to comply with the civil rights awarded us by the Constitution. 1st Amendment rights trump City Parks & Recreation codes.
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The First Amendment covers speech, not camping. Camping, squating, or parking are NOT forms of free speech. I am embarrassed for Risner.
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Occupy Tucson has revealed that our supposedly progressive city, as it likes to be thought of by the rest of the nation — “an island of blue in a sea of red” — is in fact run by such mildly tinged officials that when push comes to shove, they side with the forces of stasis and reaction. In Atlanta, the mayor by executive order set aside the city, for the next three weeks, as a safe zone for Occupy movement members. In Tucson, the mayor and the council members — and the candidates for mayor and council in the next election — sit quietly by while TPD officers armed to the teeth, wearing riot gear despite not one act of violence by the protesters, arrive in the night to issue $1000 tickets to Occupiers whose “crime” consists of violating a law against sleeping in city parks although none were sleeping when the police arrived. What a mockery of Tucson’s much-vaunted reputation. The whole world is watching Tucson lower itself almost to the depths of such paragons of liberty as Phoenix, Nogales, and the whole of Maricopa County. In fact, possibly lower than Maricopa County, because there even the evil Sheriff Joe Arpaio has come out and said that while he doesn’t agree with them, the Occupiers have every right to exercise their First Amendment rights enshrined in the US and Arizona Constitutions. Has one Tucson elected dared to say as much? Their shrinking violets who not only do a pretty sad job of running Tucson, but can’t even speak out for what most Tucsonans would like to see happen here: economic justice and equal treatment for all residents of the city. What an embarrassment.
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Thank you for your recent article in support of Occupy Tucson.
I spoke to the City Council on Tuesday night. What I said I meant. I am DISGUSTED with Democrats. Republicans, for their support of the apartheid regime, I have absolutely no time. The fact that City Council can sit on their hands, while, the three things I came to this country for, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the First Amendment are, to some degree or another, trampled on by government, is appalling. “We are the People” and occupying Armoury Park is my First Amendment right – to petition the government (Democrats of the City Council) for a redress of grievances. What is that grievance?: Do something, anything, that does not feed your ego nor the ego of corporations – something for us, the People – like how about supporting Occupy Tucson publicly? Well Regina? Karen? Paul? To Shirley… aah yes, “just a bunch of outsider troublemakers and vagabonds….” Nuff said.
— Jack Bybee.
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