Fresh off a surprise win in federal court defying a government order to vacate the Green, occupiers confronted the mayor in City Hall, where they booed his mention of school reform but wiggled their fingers in approval of his stand on immigration.
That was the scene Wednesday afternoon after more than two dozen members of Occupy New Haven celebrated a court victory that will allow them to stay on the upper Green in their tents for at least two more weeks.
The occupiers marched briefly through downtown before storming City Hall. Inside, they filled the split-level central corridor with echoing chants before crowding into Mayor John DeStefano’s office and demanding a meeting.
Occupiers extracted from the mayor a promise of a written response to a list of Occupy demands, and a promise to meet with a group of homeless occupiers looking for a place in the city to set up a permanent camp.
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The meeting with the mayor culminated a day of excitement and activity on the Green, where Occupy New Haven has camped for five months. It’s the last remaining New England encampment of those that sprang up last fall as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has been protesting against income inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of private money in politics.
Hundreds of occupiers and onlookers gathered on the Green in anticipation of a Wednesday police raid, which never came. Instead, a court decision granted a two-week reprieve to Occupy New Haven. (Read about that here.) The city had given the camp a noon deadline to vacate the Green.
News of the court decision hit the Green shortly after noon, in the form of a text message from attorney Norm Pattis to occupier Alex Suarez (at center in photo). The crowd erupted in cheers, and occupier Ben Aubin announced an impromptu march.
“While we do get to stay, let’s not stop here!” shouted Josh Heltke. He announced an afternoon of “skill-sharing” and encouraged people to sign up for educational sessions. He offered to lead one on how to hold a “General Assembly” meeting.
“Shocked. I’m shocked,” said occupier Ray Neal. He said he wasn’t expecting the court to side with Occupy. “We have to just take the energy of today. We have to set an example for the world.”
“I’m so excited,” said Chris Garaffa. He said occupiers are going to discuss concrete steps about how to move the protest forward.
“This is not what we expected,” said Ben Aubin. He said the camp will be further articulating its agenda and cleaning up. The occupation’s black flag of defiance will not come down, he said.
“Hell No, You Can’t Go!”
The Green again erupted into cheers when attorney Pattis (pictured) arrived shortly after 1 p.m.
“All right, here’s the deal people,” he said through a megaphone. “You are now free to occupy the Green. But for two more weeks.”
“I couldn’t be prouder to be your lawyer right now,” he said. “A federal judge told the city of New Haven, ‘Hell no, you can’t go.’”
“But with every silver cloud there’s a dark lining,” Pattis said. “Everybody hold your crotch if you’re ready for bad news. You are not free to pee!” The judge ordered that the occupation needs to come up with $1,000 by the end of this week to pay for Port-A-Potties, Pattis explained.
“The city got their pound of flesh, or ounce of urine,” Pattis said, after a large group of raucous, cheering occupiers set off west on Chapel Street for a victory lap.
The occupy legal team won the larger victory, Pattis noted. He pointed to his colleague attorney Kevin Smith’s (at left in photo) brown cowboy boots.
“Kevin went into court with white boots and came out with brown shoes,” Pattis said. “That’s the city’s ass all over them.”
Attorney Smith quickly collected over $120 in a hat towards the $1,000 Port-A-Potty bill.
“Thank You, Mayor”
At around 1:30 p.m., after marching and chanting on Elm Street, a group of cheering occupiers, still high on victory, poured into City Hall. Some went up the main stairs. Others took the first floor. The gathered in the split-level main corridor and chanted “The people, united, will never be defeated!” and “Whose City? Our City!”
Neal suggested they pay a visit to the mayor’s office, where protesters encountered Chief Dean Esserman, Lt. Rebecca Sweeney and downtown beat cops Officers Matt Wynne and Thomas Benedetto.
Esserman negotiated the occupiers’ withdrawal from the office. The protesters waited in the City Hall atrium for the mayor to emerge.
When he did, Aubin asked for a response to the list of demands they had sent to the city on Saturday. Among demands: Extend library hours, stop gentrification, cut the mayor’s pay, fully fund public schools.
The mayor asked if they wanted to go through the list with him.
No one had a copy. One occupier tried to download it on his phone. Meanwhile, another asked what the mayor would do to support “direct democracy.”
Mayor DeStefano (pictured) said the city has been an “outstanding, welcoming and open place,” he said. He mentioned the city’s embrace of undocumented immigrants. “We spend more on homeless services than any other town in the state of Connecticut combined.”
New Haven is not “ground zero for injustice and unfairness in America,” he said.
The mayor promised to respond to the Occupy demands in writing. He said the city has “seen some real financial constraints.”
DeStefano’s comment that “we’re engaged in one of the nation’s most aggressive school reform initiatives” drew boos from the crowd of occupiers, who said they don’t want schools privatized.
But when the mayor mentioned that he’d visited President Obama at the White House this week and asked him to reform immigration, several hands of waggling fingers went up. That’s occupy sign-language for approval.
Homeless occupier Sara Ferah asked if he could talk to the mayor some time soon about the fact that many homeless people do not want to live indoors. Ferah asked if he and others could meet with the mayor to talk about ways homeless people might be able to camp out in cooperation with the city.
“We’ll meet in the next week or two,” DeStefano promised.
After the meeting wrapped up with a chorus of “Thank you, mayor,” Ferah (at left in photo) and DeStefano continued their conversation.
Ferah said the two-week reprieve gives him and other members of Occupy time to possibly negotiate a site for a new encampment.
When other occupiers get kicked off the Green, they can go back to their houses, he said. But homeless people who are unwilling to live in shelters don’t have the same options, he said. “This is the homeless people’s version of a house foreclosure.”