14th
Ahhhh! Occupy Cincinnati!
The following statement was written by members of Occupy Cincinnati, a group of protesters who have been occupying Piatt Park Downtown, and was submitted to The Enquirer Thursday afternoon by Erik Crew, a spokesman for the group. We are the members of Occupy Cincinnati, and we have been occupying this city’s public spaces for eight days as of Thursday. Why? Financial power has far too much influence over our political process. We are not against the existence of corporations, banks, or the financial sector. We are against their ability to influence our government to their own benefit but to the detriment of the people. We have been taught to believe in the Constitution since the day we were born. We are proud Americans. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” As of this writing, the City of Cincinnati has charged us over $16,000 to exercise our right to say, “We do not consent, and we want our government to hear us and address these problems.” Many do not know the history of Piatt Park, Cincinnati’s first public park. The Piatt family, wealthy themselves, donated the land to the city in 1817. The Piatt brothers, Don and Abram, were famous during the late 19th century for their protests of Wall Street’s buying out the politicians in Washington, D.C. Specifically, they were enraged that Wall Street was blocking Civil War veterans from their benefits by manipulating elected officials and the U.S. Treasury. We believe the Piatt family would have supported our movement and would have allowed us to stay in their park so long as we respect the space and remain lawful. In the short term, we ask the City of Cincinnati to follow the lead of Louisville and Washington D.C. and grant us permission to assemble and organize our protest against the corrupting influence of money in politics from this park, twenty-four hours a day, until the end of the year. Over the long term, we ask the City of Cincinnati, and the nation, to analyze the corrupting influence of money on our political process, and to make the changes needed to remove that influence. We believe the source of our city’s problems, like those of our nation, liesthere. We invite every Cincinnatian who agrees to join us in trying to right this wrong. Our message is simple, and is neither radical nor extremist: Financial power holds far too much sway over the political process, and the people are being hurt by that influence. We want the money out of politics. The government should be run by the people for the people, not by the dollar. To the people who say we have no clear message, let this be the end of that conversation.
