‘Occupiers’ Shut Down a Preschool
For nine days, Occupiers in Ft. Myers, Florida, took over the grounds of a Unitarian Universalist church and an adjoining preschool, driving out parents, toddlers, and teachers for the week.
Unitarian elders originally invited the group to squat on church property after Sheriff Mike Scott ordered them out of the city’s Centennial Park for permit issues. But not one of the elders felt obligated to inform the staff of Creative Minds Montessori School, which rents permanent classroom facilities there.
School staff and parents were blindsided on Sunday night, when one of the teachers heard about the camp and drove by to check it out. Some 40 Occupiers were comfortably established in tents with a full array of food, coolers, grills, music, and electric lights supplied by the church, and people consumed alcohol and marijuana just feet from the preschool where children were to play outside.
In addition, the arrest records of a number of protesters drew concern from both parents and school faculty, a concern completely overlooked by the church elders who invited the group to camp out near a preschool without thinking to check criminal backgrounds or the state’s pedophile database.
One of the church’s new waterfront guests was Constance Galati, 21, who was arrested the week prior. She was charged with trespassing, resisting an officer, and battery on an officer the night their original demonstration was broken up at Centennial Park.
When Galati posted her disdain for the cops on her Facebook page, fellow 22-year-old Occupier Ryan Komosinski posted on her wall:
I’m bombing the FMPD, f*** them.
Komosinski was subsequently the second arrest that week.
Like their Occupy counterparts in other states, the Ft. Myers Occupy crowd began with a huge dose of blind gusto back on October 15. Erica Martin bathed in idealism:
The thing I love the most about this movement is it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with making what’s wrong right.
Asked concerned citizen Steve White on the Occupy Ft. Myers Facebook page:
This protest is like going to be the biggest day of my life, but I so don’t want to miss Zombicon, so I’m just gonna’ wear my makeup to the march, is that cool with everybody?
Fortunately for Steve, it was “cool with everybody.”
I stopped by one night to see what the “Occupy Movement” was all about in Ft. Myers, and what they thought about a preschool being so near to their latest encampment. What is the point of occupying a church and a preschool, invitation or not?
One of the first people I ran into was Galati, her face painted with colorful designs. With slurred speech, she was eager to tell me the whole story of her arrest, yet her earnest but rambling defense degraded into an announcement that she really needed “to find a tampon.” Off she went.
Just as their Facebook page said, the camp was full of amenities. Said Arete, another Occupier:
What an amazing and crazy journey. … We are safe in our sanctuary found at Unitarian Universalist Church on Shire Lane off of Daniels Parkway. On our first night here, we had many of the church members come out to visit with us as they helped run power lines, lights, and give us a tour. Occupiers are at this moment enjoying lake front property, camp fire pits, and many other accommodations like our newly built shower!
The 15 or so diehards who remained overnight were more than accommodating and almost desperate to explain their angst to anyone who would listen. I decided I would listen, and pulled up one of the many donated chairs to take notes. My impromptu interview was more challenging than I anticipated: the small group is talkative, but it’s hard to get a concise answer from anyone. It seems the word “Occupy” combined with a question mark brings out the philosopher in everyone. Decried Anthony Daniel Leichtweiss, a 20-year-old computer technician and the group’s self-anointed leader:
We sit here in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice.
I grew up in Ft. Myers, and can tell you that the church off Shire Lane and Daniels is located far from the center of the city, out in an area filled with middle-class housing developments and golf courses. They’re “occupying” nothing at this point, and they will only be there until the church gets sick of them.
The people that okayed and condoned this action on the church grounds…should be made to pay for AAAALLLLLLLLLL$$$ the clean up. Every last $penny. Fools.
Just my opinion but I find Unitarians to be about as credible as wiccans.
A pre-school, huh? Well, they are in an appropriate place considering their conduct.
“We can do it forever,” said the anonymous man. “Why does it have to end? We can go on indefinitely.”
So the goal isn’t to actually make a point or change anything, it’s just to be permanently homeless, living off handouts, am I understanding that correctly?
Quote: “We sit here in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice.”
This is the whole point of the global mass uprising.
“Global mass uprising?”
“We sit here in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice.”
This is the entire crux of the global uprising.
You realize using words like ‘crux’ make you sound snooty and full of yourself?
You shoulda just stayed with your original post above–empty and meaningless as it was…
Stephanie,
your article might get you a gig on Fox Spews but if you really want to write about something then try explaining to us why nothing is being done to the bankers, Wall Streeters, and Credit Rating companies who have committed criminal fraud against the American people. Or, how about how the multi-national corporations have destroyed capitalism and replaced it with corporatism? Maybe you can do a story on how ouRepresentativeie Republic has been replaced by an oligarchy.
Did you spend a few hours on the Unitarian grounds? How much time did you spend with them when they were Occupying Fort Myers, before they had their rights trampled on?
TJ: You cannot have a plutarchy without willing politicians. So your anger is misplaced. The only people hurt by the banks themselves would be the investors, but since your pres (and Bush) and the whole Congress okayed TARP, QE1,2 and the other bailouts there is nobody to blame except those who voted for Dear Leader.
The general public is only hurt when I Won diverts their tax monies into ill-begotten-money laundrying, fraudulent, politically motiviated crimes that Odummer commits with his green agenda, job-killing EPA under Odummer, killing the Keystone Pipeline, over-regulating our businesses right out of the country, and the trial lawyers who litigated businesses off shore not to mention the taxation and unions who have killed companies and jobs.
Are you also upset at Piglosi and the others for making $millions off insider trading???
You should see the disgusting mess they made of Centennial Park before they were finally thrown out. Then they moved their “campground” to to the glorious old courthouse downtown. Finally, the great Sheriff Mike Scott took action and Evicted them from there. From the beginning the so called “movement” was being run by a guy that had a very long rap sheet with at least 13 arrests for possession and DUI’s. Good info is available at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Take-Back-Centennial-Park-Fort-Myers/263732806995792 , stop by the page and “like” it…
The angle of this story is pure fabrication. I’ve been following Occupy Fort Myers closely from the beginning. There are some facts in here but the lede is totally false and the analysis has nothing to do with anyone’s reality except a GOPer idealistic fantasy of corporate personhood and tax free exploitation.
You are going to have to try harder, OWSer.
We all realize that actual, intelligent thought is difficult for you, but you are going to have to step up and try again.
Also…ROFLMAO
Lou, just who or what runs corporations? Just askin’.
Idiots squared = Idiots X Idiots. Idiots divided by Idiots equals a complete Idiot. Idiots in the park or churchyard = Idiots somewhere or another. Idiots that have offspring is an exponentionally creepy thought.
Why can’t we figure out a way to mess around with the way they breathe at night when they’re trying to sleep, and let them know that it’s us doing it?
Durn!
Butthead: heh, heh…”Thomas Jefferson said “spew”…
Beavis: “Yeah, and he said “occupy”…heh, heh,..”I am Cornholio and Thomas Jefferson can occupy my bunghole….”