Occupiers Arrested Peacefully
By Cat Ross— 12-28-11
This afternoon ten voters traded in their campaign badges for handcuffs. Seven occupiers were arrested in front of Mitt Romney’s Des Moines headquarters. Three others were cuffed at a nearby Wells Fargo Bank building. They all were demanding that Romney release his income tax information and return any corporate campaign donations. Wells Fargo had reportedly given Romney’s campaign almost $62K.
The protesters were part of the Occupy Caucus movement. Over one hundred Occupiers first went to the Romney headquarters. Police asked them to leave but ended up arresting those who locked arms at the front door. The arrests went smoothly without any resistance. Actually at times the police posed with pictures of those being detained and allowed a WEBN Boston reporter to interview those arrested.
Others made their way to Wells Fargo to talk to bank officials. They were also denied access and continued their protest outside. Occupier KayLynn Strain believes the arrests will draw more attention to their cause and won’t deter the movement.
“This is the one way of getting our message out there,” Strain said. “We will protest anyway because big banks are wronging people right and left.”
Police and the demonstrators have been touching base with each other so police can prepare for crowd control and the protesters can know their rights. Des Moines Sergeant Chris Scott is hopeful the protests will remain peaceful.
“We don’t anticipate violence based on the communications we’ve had with the leaders of this group,” Scott said.
Occupy Caucus plans to stage more protests at candidate headquarters ahead of the January 3rd Caucuses.