Occupy to petition for right to gather

Occupy Winston-Salem members, saying their rights to free speech and assembly are slipping away, on Saturday began collecting signatures on a petition calling on the Winston-Salem City Council to "respect and uphold the right of citizen groups to conduct open-air meetings on city property."

Members of Occupy Winston-Salem and Walkupy, a group of Occupy supporters marching from Washington to Atlanta, also met Councilman Dan Besse on the steps of City Hall on Saturday afternoon. Occupy Winston-Salem, like other Occupy movements across the country, is protesting corporate influence in politics and inequity among Americans.

"We have a separation of church and state," said Kayla Cox, an Occupy member from Winston-Salem. "We need a separation of money and politics."

The Occupy Winston-Salem and Walkupy members took Besse to task for proposing temporary changes in the city ordinance governing free speech and public assembly. These would have limited open-air meetings in front of City Hall to between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. and kept them off the grass, but not the pavement.

The issue came up in the aftermath of Occupy members being told by police to leave City Hall property early in the morning of Dec. 18, after holding their first overnight meeting there.

On Dec. 19, the council postponed a vote on changes Besse proposed after several council members said they were uncomfortable making such swift changes to city laws without any public input. The council voted instead to consider the changes at its meeting Tuesday.

Nevertheless, Mike McGuire, a member of Occupy Winston-Salem, called Besse's proposal "a slow erosion of free speech."

"Look at this from the inside, not just from the outside," McGuire told Besse. "From the inside, this is nipping away (at free speech). I'm afraid that your proposal ... is more of that nipping away. That's a slippery slope."

Besse offered coffee and doughnuts to the Occupy members assembled Saturday in front of City Hall. Besse calmly reiterated his reasons for proposing changes that would have started Dec. 20 and expired March 27.

"The provision (for meetings), as it stands now, is unclear regarding what a meeting is, when it can be held and where," Besse said. "That un-clarity is what contributed to a dispute with the police last week."

"This is a grass area with trees and plants," Besse said. "If you have it heavily used for meetings on a regular basis, that's going to turn it into a dirt field."

But Debra Demsky, a member of Occupy Winston-Salem, wasn't satisfied with that.

"Public space is public space. I think you're nitpicking," she said. "That's unacceptable to me."

Besse also expressed concerns about public safety, particularly if two groups on different sides of an issue share the same space at the same time and come into conflict.

Occupy Winston-Salem is planning another meeting at 4 p.m. Monday on the steps of City Hall to express grievances.

As for the petition, McGuire began collecting signatures at the Bethesda Center for the Homeless on Patterson Avenue, where he and other members of Occupy Winston-Salem met with their counterparts from Walkupy.

McGuire said he will present the petition to council members on or before the Tuesday council meeting. He said he has no goal of how many signatures he wants to collect.

"It's more about people being given a chance to be heard," he said.

Walkupy members walked to the center on foot from Kernersville, where they arrived Friday.

Most people interviewed in downtown Kernersville on Friday were unaware that the march was going on or what it was about, although they noticed that people holding hiking sticks — one carrying an American flag — were passing through.

Some teenagers who were downtown and saw the marchers said they support the marchers' objections to income inequality, when they learned about it from a reporter.

"I think the people that are doing harder labor should make more money than the people who are sitting down" at their jobs, said Brice Carter, 16.

Jamie Everett, another teenager, said she was surprised that the marchers were young. She said she agreed with their cause but didn't think their tactics would accomplish anything.

"I have never seen protests do much good," she said. "What difference does it make to the fat cats if they just walk around for awhile? It doesn't affect them."

David Myers, who watched the marchers walk past, said he didn't think the marchers had "a whole lot of direction behind what they are doing."

"I think their intention is valid, but they are not focusing on what they should be focusing on. They are picking on one type of industry, but you have many factors involved with the way the country is going."

Margaret Gardner said that if the marchers want more money, they should "get a job."

"I had to work for my money," Gardner said. "They would have money too if they would work."

Although one of the stated goals of the walk has been to spread the Occupy protest message to rural areas, the walkers on Friday kept moving and didn't stop to interact with the local people.

Nathan Stueve, who rode a bicycle ahead of the walkers to scout out the way, said the schedule the group was trying to keep prevented its members from interacting with folks in Kernersville as they had planned.

Stueve said he's taking part in the protest to show that Occupy can be about more than setting up camps.

"Walkupy is a different method of conveying the message," he said. "More than anything, it is about inspiring people."