Update: The event is beginning shortly. We'll post a few highlights from our Twitter account (@crosscut) while it's going on. The hashtag will be #occupyxcut.
The Occupy Wall Street movement gained energy and ammunition this week after police hit and critically injured an Iraq War veteran — possibly with a tear gas canister — on Tuesday night. Twenty-four year-old Scott Olsen was participating in Occupy Oakland when he was hit in the head. A video circulating online showed another officer lobbing a tear gas canister at a group that rushed to his aid, as Olsen lay on the ground, bleeding from the head. His condition was upgraded to fair overnight, Reuters reported today (Oct. 27), and protesters there are calling for a general strike.
Seattle has been fortunate to escape any violence around the occupation of Westlake Park, but there is intense interest about the movement and the concept of corporate citizenship. Tonight Crosscut will present a panel on Occupy Seattle — its origins, tactics, and implications. Please join us at 6 pm at City Hall to talk more about the future of the movement and how it will affect our region and our country.
The panel will feature Yes! Magazine Executive Editor, Sarah van Gelder; Hanson Hosein, director of the UW Master of Communication in Digital Media program; independent journalist and Occupy Seattle Media Working Group member Mark Taylor-Canfield; and Crosscut contributor Jordan Royer. Moderated by Crosscut Associate Editor, Berit Anderson. The event is co-sponsored by City Councilmember Mike O'Brien.
If you go: Crosscut Presents: Understanding Occupy Seattle, Thurs, Oct 27th at 6 pm at City Hall's Bertha Knight Landes room. Free and open to the public, registration recommended.
