Occupy Tucson Update

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

During the call to the audience at last Tuesday's city council meeting, several members of Occupy Tucson asked the council to address TPD targeting the Occupy Tucson protestors for citations. The council could not take any action on the public complaints because the item was not on the agenda.

It appears that the council has not put the item on this Tuesday's city council agenda for action. Mayor and Council to hold ‘Occupation’ discussions behind closed doors – Tucson Progressive:

No decisions on these items could be made last week because these issues were not officially on the agenda.

These issues are still not on the agenda for tonight’s Mayor and Council meeting. Instead, they are flagged as an executive session item on the  study session agenda. In addition to not dealing with the Occupation in public today– unless, of course, Occupiers speak at the call to audience again– the Mayor and Council are not scheduled to have another open meeting until Wednesday, November 9 (after the election).

Last week, Mari Herreras at The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch joined in my suggestion that the Tucson City Council do what the Los Angeles City Council did, tell police not to dish out citations or make arrests — plus they passed a resolution in support of Occupy LA that you can read here: 69353494-Los-Angeles-Occupy-resolution.pdf.

Apparently the city council is slow-walking this process out of an abundance of caution, with mayor and council elections only two weeks away.

UPDATE: Occupiers get no help from Tucson City Council:

Occupy Tucson protesters didn't get any relief Tuesday from the Tucson City Council, which so far seems satisfied to let the consequences for the protesters to play out in court.

Protesters, who have racked up more than 300 citations since the protests began in mid-October, wanted the city to waive the citations or change its rules on park use to accommodate them. But the council took no action after meeting with its legal staff Tuesday.

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Protesters addressed the council for about two hours in the evening session, with several saying they would cooperate with the city regarding the turf and other scheduled events.

City Attorney Mike Rankin told the council that he's been keeping tabs on how other cities are dealing with the protesters, and the responses vary widely across communities. But, he said, the city's codes are valid and constitutionally defensible.