The fate of Nickelsville. The sweep and the arrests.
Port police enter Nicklesville to arrest those who have chosen to "make a stand."
There were a few cigarette butts on the ground in the commons area of Nickelsville, late in the morning of Wednesday, September 30. Janice Connelly, of the Women in Black, picked them up. “Don’t you guys have a can,” she asked. “This is not alright.”
They always put their cigarettes, smoked to the filter, in a can. They kept the area clean. And even on the day the port police were to close the camp down, it was still not alright to leave them on the ground.
The procecure to evacuate the homeless camp had been communicated to the residents of Nickelsville on Sunday by Port of Seattle Police Chief, Colleen Wilson. The park would be closed on Tuesday. Any vehicles in the parking lot on Wednesday would be impounded. There would be three warnings to leave before anyone was arrested. And the port police would make the sweep as peaceful as possible.
Wednesday morning the Nickelodeons, as they call themselves, held a meeting. There was a show of hands by those who were going to stay and be arrested.
Ed Mast, a man with a home, who had become a supporter of Nickelsville, asked, ”those of us who aren’t Nickelodeons, can we make a stand and risk getting arrested?”
“Anyone who can make a stand, is welcome to make a stand,” was the response.
Was he planning on being arrested?
“I can be,” he said. “I’m available to be. I’m not excited about it.”
That afternoon he would be one of the 12 people taken into custody by the port police.
The meeting ended in a prayer for the survival of the camp and the people who lived there, “I pray that we will succeed in what we’re doing. I know we will succeed if we’re together.”
They took their possessions out in bags, sacks, and suitcases. They put them in a van the police had given special permission to be in the parking lot.
They left the tents up. One simple explanation was, “this is Nicklesville.”
This was, in fact, the 9th home of Nickelsville. They’ve moved eight times throughout and around Seattle and adjacent unincorporated areas in the past year.
Nickelsville Organizer, Scott Morrow, speaking at the meeting said they would look for other land. “People have been willing to help,” he said, “but it’s going to be a tough couple of days.”
The few hours left were spent waiting, talking, or sitting in silence.
Photographers and journalists came. City Attorney Candidate Peter Holmes, and City Council Candidate Sally Bagshaw came and spoke one-on-one with several Nickelodeons, in a show of support.
Officials from the port arrived and at 1 p.m. and addressed the residents.
The media was instructed to stand behind a blue line painted on the grass outside the camp.
When everyone who would leave the camp had voluntarily walked out, twelve people remained.
About 35 officers, some trained in civil disobedience, arrived in two rented school buses.
“It looks like an awful lot of officers” Sgt. Tuttle of the port police force said, “and it is a lot.” The large force was in preparation for an anticipated demonstration that never materialized.
After three warnings through the radio of a squad car, informing those left in the camp that they were in violation of illegal trespass in the 2nd degree,the port police entered the camp, and searched the tents. It appeared that everyone waiting to be arrested was waiting out in the open.
There were two to four officers for each. They took their time. “In a process like this, it’s good to slow things down. We have time to make sure the process goes smoothly,” Sgt. Tuttle said.
The officers spoke with those being placed under arrest. They patted them down, and one by one, they were led out of the camp.
Those outside the camp cheered each one and called out each name as they were escorted past.
Corporate Media Officer Charla Skaggs said they would be brought to port owned property to be processed. If anyone had an outstanding warrant they would be remanded to the jurisdiction of the warrant. The rest would be released.
No one taken into custody had a warrant out, and everyone was “released almost immediately,” according to Skaggs.
The port had offered to provide transportation upon their release. But those arrested had prepared for their own.
Skaggs added that any property left at the site would be tagged and stored. “The residents have been told how to contact our office to claim their belongings.”
“We have worked very hard to avoid getting to this situation,” she said. The port had held meetings, and worked with the city andcounty to find an alternate place for the people of Nicklesville to live.
The port, she said, has “facilitated those efforts. We don’t want to kick them out. We want to find another location.”
They had even offered port transportation to move the entire camp. But the Nickelodiansrefused to move until they could find a permanent place. Skaggs said churches had offered temporary locations.
At a nearby parking lot, where those who left the camp had gathered, they were waiting for rides to 15 hotel rooms throughout the city, rented for a week by two women and some anonymous donators.
Some port police also provided transportation. Commander Tony Anderson, had room for three in his vehicle. “I think we have some people here who need some special care,” he said.
Teriminal 107 park will be closed until any possible environmental hazards can be evaluated, and the area that used to be Nickelsville can be cleaned and repaired.
Skaggs gives a conservative estimate of the cost of maintenace and other resources spent by the port since July 23, when the camp was established, including the cost of the sweep at about $75,000.
There are more details to this story coming in. Please look for the final version with updates and possible corrections on Monday on the front page of Cojourn.net. I should also have a photo gallery up sometime this weekend.
-Scott Sands
Scott,
Thank you for you’re tremendous effort to educate and inform your readers about the plight of the homeless. Within our political environment there are no simple solutions.
The first step is to research and inform; Cojourn is an integral part of this process.
To the readers of Cojourn let it be known that Scott began his day early in the morning as Nickelsville began to wake up and reported as the moods and tensions built through the day. Most the popular media appeared, later, for the highlights and sound-bites.
Solid journalism Scott; thank you.
Matt Durham