Inspiring photo. Clergyman arrested today fighting for economic justice of Walmart workers.

[Fire Walk With Me]

Last edited Sat Nov 24, 2012, 02:31 AM - Edit history (1)

Occupy Congress ?@OCongress

Inspiring photo. Clergyman arrested today fighting for economic justice of @Walmart workers.
#WalmartStrikers pic.twitter.com/vb8r5m5j
Retweeted by Occupy Wall Street

https://twitter.com/OCongress/status/272135660998123520/photo/1

I believe he was one of the nine arrested at a California location today.

Pardon me please for only having a ink; my internet connection was pitifully slow this afternoon and hosting a photo was out of the question.

[yellerpup]

1. Very moving.

[spockeye]

2. One of the cops was shooting a video of the arrest. n/t

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Two, actually, not to nit-pick. You can see a flipcam in the hand of one of them, partially obscured

in the pic. I watched this on Cross_X_Bones' ustream coverage and you could easily see it. Thankfully, the arrests were peaceful so I doubt any judge would accept trumped-up charges due to the recordings!

[Cal Carpenter]

4. Wow. What a moving photo.

No matter one's religion, or lack thereof, this is some powerful stuff.

I believe one of the women who was arrested there today was a 9 year employee at that Walmart. For some reason that hit me really hard too.

Today will be remembered for a long time as a huge step in the resurgence of the US labor movement.

[pinboy3niner]

5. I took 127 photos there

The protest was AMAZING, with more than 1,000 protesters (some estimates were as high as 1,800). The Paramount protest was one of the largest, if not the largest, across the country.

Of the 9 arrested, 3 are striking area Wal-Mart workers (including one from the Paramount store), 1 is a worker's family member, 1 is a former employee and the 4 others are clergy members.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Good, we had 10 stores

about 200 people overall, and one where sixty plus showed up.

It was low key. But hey, that just led me to a long day of policy reading... I know, lucky ducky. We included the WHY IT MAKES SENSE FOR WALMART to raise pay...

The economy would grow and 100,000 or more new jobs would be created.Families living in or near poverty spend close to 100 percent of their income just to meet their basic needs, so when they receive an extra dollar in pay, they spend it on goods or services that were out of reach before. This ongoing unmet need makes low-income households more likely to spend new earnings immediately – channeling any addition to their income right back into the economy, creating growth and jobs. This “multiplier effect” means that a higher wage standard for retail workers will also generate new jobs. Our estimates of the job creation effect are derived from widely accepted multipliers on consumer spending.4 It includes the benefits of a raise on disposable income and accounts for the impact of any additional costs to the firm and the potential for businesses to pass-through the cost of decent wages onto their customers through higher prices. In order to account for uncertainty regarding the firm’s willingness to pay for the raise out of profits, we offer both low and high measures of the total impact of the raise. Estimating both low- and high-end estimates, our study finds that:

A wage standard at large retailers equivalent to $25,000 per year for full-time, year-round workers would increase GDP between $11.8 and $15.2 billion over the next year.
As a result of the economic growth from a wage increase, employers would create 100,000 to 132,000 additional jobs.

http://www.demos.org/publication/retails-hidden-potential-how-raising-wages-would-benefit-workers-industry-and-overall-ec

Have you read the Atlantic story, or Professor Reich? I am in good company, I am using that material too.

[pinboy3niner]

9. I haven't begun to catch up yet

I only got home less than 90 minutes ago. The trip turned out to be a Metrolink train, 3 subway lines, and a bus ride--each way.

I'm waiting now for my photos to finish uploading, but I'm kind of beat (and sunburned) and probably won't manage to put a post together until morning. We'll see.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Well here is the article from San Diego

http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/11785

And I am beat from ... reading policy all day.

[pinboy3niner]

17. Good story, Nadin!

And I like your photo of Mr. Reilly in his Screaming Eagle cap.

Coincidentally, I also wore my Screaming Eagle cap to the protest (along with my 'WE ARE THE 99%' T-shirt). Also had a nice chat with a guy wearing his Korean War Vet cap to the protest.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. He's 91

he jumped into D-Day, Holland, and yes, Bastogne... four major combat actions to be exact.

I joked with him that this was just a different battlefield. He liked my irreverent sense of humor.

I told him that hubby is a retired chief, did not add where exactly I got my sense of humor. He was too busy giving stickers to people.

[Liberty Belle]

6. He looks a lot like a priest who was arrested at the White House with CIndy Sheehan

Back during the 2005 anti-war march. I interviewed him for RawStory, not sure if he's the same clergyman or not.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. LA usually has well attended ones

but the fact that we had some in the East County here in San Diego is not insignificant.

Lord I am tired, it is starting to hit me.

[Cal Carpenter]

12. There were a bunch of clergy arrested that day in DC

I was arrested too (I'm not clergy though). I was thinking maybe you meant Walter Wink - he gave an incredible speech to us about what the whole 'turn the other cheek' thing is really about. But I just googled to see a picture to jog my memory, and it turns out he passed away earlier this year so it's not him.

I don't recognize this man in particular, there were almost 400 hundred of us arrested and a few thousand marching so I just don't remember. Wish I could help. You brought back some great memories, but none specific enough...

[roguevalley]

36. bless you for your service

[senseandsensibility]

11. Why, specifically, was he arrested?

It doesn't appear that the woman sitting by him was, and he certainly was not violent in the photo.

[Cal Carpenter]

13. They sat down in the street to block the entrance to Walmart

None of them resisted arrest, it was very peaceful. I happened to catch it live on ustream after seeing a link on Twitter.

[pinboy3niner]

16. RawStory posted the video taken by CrossXBones

The full video is nearly 2 hours, but you can see the arrests at about 1:37:00. It's about the 8th video down in this article (look for the bolded Update note mentioning CrossXBones):

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/23/watch-live-black-friday-strikes-hit-walmart/

[pinboy3niner]

14. Sheriffs issued a dispersal order and he was one of 9 who sat in the street, refusing to move

All 9 were arrested, one at a time.

[Tigress DEM]

19. Sometimes that IS the point, in order to have one's day in court and bring attention to the cause.

Protests are usually at the fringe of a location, like the public sidewalk around the store's parking lot. That is "fair game" and as long as you aren't blocking traffic or otherwise DIRECTLY impeding business your free speech isn't cause for arrest.

Sometimes lines are drawn and people cross them, trespass onto the private space and are warned by police that if they do not leave the area voluntarily, they will be arrested.

The 2005 arrest of Cindy Sheehan was like that. There was a barrier put up and people who were willing to be arrested had to pass that barrier and sit and wait for police to arrest them. People who did not want to get arrested but still were there to observe and support the other protestors had to stay behind that barrier.

I see in these photos a level of respect for this priest that was not present for the Sheehan protest. Those police were OK, but we were over 1000 people there, about 200 got arrested and we were chanting, "The whole world is watching!" right at the back gate of the White House. The front was off limits at that time.

[pinboy3niner]

20. My photos of the woman sitting by him being arrested:

And here they are, sitting in the street before the arrests...

[Fire Walk With Me]

23. Awesome, so glad you were there!

[senseandsensibility]

25. Where in CA was this?

Thanks for the photos.

[pinboy3niner]

26. Paramount, California

Southeast of L.A., near Downey. And you're welcome. I'll try to post a photo thread later. They took a long time to upload (127 in all), and I just don't have the energy or concentration to do anything right now.

[HeiressofBickworth]

24. I think it's against the law

to come between WalMart and the contents of your wallet.

***sarcasm***

[ProfessionalLeftist]

15. AP published the photo in their piece, too

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021874251

[littlemissmartypants]

21. Wow, that made me cry...

and looking at the worn seams of the pant pockets of the female officer... I would bet my tears on the possibility that she and her fellow officers could probably use someone to stand up for them and their "take home pay" as well as their health care, retirement, child care...you name it... what do you need me to stand with you for, I will do it, whatever it is... I am humanity, I sleep under your stars, you breathe my air, I should do no less ...

[roguevalley]

35. beautiful. you read my mind

[sabrina 1]

22. There are so many good people in the world. Sometimes that is easy

to forget. I hope he was okay and not hurt in any way.

:large

[dchill]

27. Well, here we go.

So many subtexts to that scene.

[pinboy3niner]

28. Another photo from the local paper, the Press-Telegram ***with the pastor identified***:

11/23/12 - Reitired pastor William P. Miller of the United Methodist Church was arrested for civil disobedience along with 8 others. Workers at the Walmart store in Paramount were some of many throughout Southern California that walked off their jobs today on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year as part of a nationwide union-organized protest. After a peaceful march where organizers broke the line to allow customers in and out of the store, 9 were arrested in a display of civil disobedience for refusing to exit the street. Photo by Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer

[Lady Freedom Returns]

29. I heard of so many stories around the nation, see photos, etc.

Why the blue blazes did the National News just do a Walmart friendly little blurt! I mean, come on! This stuff should be being seen on the news. It just ticks me off. Sorry for the rant.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. Study the Haymarket affair

If you notice the paper of record, the Chicago Trib, was very friendly to the bosses...there were labor papers. This is not new.

Hell local tv news cast was at Grossmont center, but what protest? So we did it, at ECM.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021874865

[pinboy3niner]

31. My photo of Pastor Miller being marched in handcuffs to the police van...

I tried, but wasn't allowed to take photos from the designated (and appropriately-named) "media area"--the MEDIAN in the middle of the street, lol! This was the best I could do from my vantage point to capture the pastor's arrest:

[Fire Walk With Me]

32. Great photos! And he has a satisfied expression. Good on him!

Thank you for being our window into this event!

[pinboy3niner]

33. Another good photo of Pastor Miller by the Press-Telegram's Brittany Murray:

11/23/12 - Reitired pastor William P. Miller of the United Methodist Church was arrested for civil disobedience along with 8 others. Workers at the Walmart store in Paramount were some of many throughout Southern California that walked off their jobs today on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year as part of a nationwide union-organized protest. After a peaceful march where organizers broke the line to allow customers in and out of the store, 9 were arrested in a display of civil disobedience for refusing to exit the street. Photo by Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer

http://photos.presstelegram.com/2012/11/photos-walmart-workers-protest-strike-and-get-arrested/#name here

[roguevalley]

34. they ... nuns priests rabbis have always done this for social justice. they follow

In the masters footsteps. The real ones. The rest... not so much. This is the dividing line between the genuine deal and the poseurs.

[99Forever]

37. Let it begin.