From out here in the cheap seats, the Occupy Cleveland movement, while adding a local voice to the big guttural shout of nation displeasure with the Way We Live Now, has also had its fair share of issues on the home front, from their struggles to get the proper permits to accusations of less-than kumbaya behavior in the tents. Last night, the local team took another bad PR hit when a protester tweeked out and was arrested by Cleveland police.
News Chanel 5 has the details on the arrested of Johnathan Bowen, a 24-year-old from Medina. He was allegedly sleeping under a table when he was approached by the cops. Bowen and others were informed the movement’s permit doesn’t allow for camping. The officers asked for everyone’s name, and Bowen was tight lipped with the info.
This article appears in Nov 2-8, 2011.
This is bad for PR? How?
Umm bad because he got arrested for being an ass, not for making a point or taking a stand.
This is bullshit. I was there right before he was arrested. He was awake. He wasn’t tweaked. The police were searching through our camp and he asked them why and pulled out our permits. They asked him for his id and he gave his name and said his id was back by our info tent and he offered to go get it. They arrested him without telling him why. We caught the entire thing on video. It will be uploaded later today.
@Zachy the event you described was indeed very true, a friend told me the same thing. Just another attempt by the establishment to discredit the movement. Just be on the lookout for agent provocateurs. A shadow anarchist group infiltrated the Oakland movement last night, becareful out there friend.
Viloence, drug usage, overdoses, rapes, etc. these people are great examples of humanity….
So I was right next to Jonathan the ENTIRE time. Great job on complete false info. (: He wasn’t even at Tom Johnson. I was at Tom Johnson, he ran over and asked what was going on. He asked if our permits being revoked. He was the only one asked for a name. He definitely was not ‘tweaked out’. They asked for his name, He told them, They asked again, he repeated, then 2 cops grabbed him, Walked him to the police cruiser, Got him on the ground when he didn’t resist, Handcuffed him and put him in the cruiser. he was released 30 hours later with no charges. This article is completely wrong!