Occupy Seattle members have sent out a press release declaring their intention to protest an upcoming speech by Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, at a University of Washington event in downtown Seattle next Wednesday.
And if any member is about to get arrested, a new Android-based app will help them notify a lawyer, family and friends with one touch.
(With update from Occupy Seattle's "media committee.")
The emailed press release states “Occupy Seattle plans major march, protest and occupation actions” at the UW event, which is being put on by the university’s Foster School of Business at the Sheraton in Seattle.
The Seattle group is apparently becoming more organized on at least two fronts. In addition to sending out a press release and establishing a contact email (occupyseattle.media@gmail.com, although we have not received a confirming email or phone call yet), the grouped voted to hold a tent ceremony for Saturday and to camp at the community college on Capitol Hill overnight, according to the Seattlepi.com.
(Update 10-27-11: the "Media Committee" responded to our email at the above address. 'Anna' replied around midnight saying, "No one monitoring this email box has email capabilities on their phone." However, the media committee has set up a media hotline that Anna said rings all the phones of all committee members.)
“The SEC, our judicial system and our elected officials refuse to hold corporations like JP Morgan Chase accountable for their actions,” the group's press release states. “It is up to the 99 percent to demand accountability from people like Jamie Dimon.”
‘I’m getting arrested!’
Stating that the development of the Android-based app was inspired by “a real Occupy Wall Street incident,” the apparent developer Quadrant 2’s app allows users to type in a message that will be sent to a list of phone numbers when the big red target icon in the middle of the app is touched.
The Website for the app states:
“Alert your lawyer, loved ones, etc ... that you are being arrested with a click. I'm Getting Arrested enables anyone, with one click, to broadcast a custom message to SMS numbers in the event they are arrested. Very easy to setup and operate. Instructions under help menu. … Free to the other 99%.”
In house testing at KPLU showed the app worked as advertised, although any message can be put into the app. The developer says they are working on a version for the iPhone.
Arrests coming faster
Slate reports on its blog, The Slatest, that police in cities around the country are fed up with Occupy Wall Street-style encampments and are increasingly cracking down on protesters who refuse to vacate public spaces.
Slate reports:
More than 100 were arrested in Oakland on Tuesday, and 53, including a state senator, were rounded up in Atlanta. Those raids, along with others in smaller cities across the country this week, have brought the total number arrested in Occupy protests nationwide to between 1,500 and 2,000, the Los Angeles Times reports. About half of those arrests have been in New York, while the other half have been spread far and wide.
