WFAA ran a piece last night about Child Protective Services taking an 11-month-old from the Occupy Dallas encampment behind Dallas City Hall yesterday; per Rebecca Lopez, investigators "already had an existing case." But between that and the news about a registered sex offender occupying one of the more than 60 tents downtown, Occupy Dallas early this morning posted to its website some ... well, not ground rules, not exactly. More like guidelines, suggestions for those doing the camp-out or considering moving to the great outdoors.
One thing of note: The group is asking all comers to register at the Welcome Tent. The reason:
Along with which group(s) they currently work with, they'll be asked to indicate which tent they currently occupy. Each tent is numbered so we can quickly locate people and also so we can keep track of when there are vacancies in donated tents.The lengthy list also gives non-Occupiers some idea of how the group's operating, now that they're down there for the longish haul:
All Occupiers receive 3 meals a day. We have power and internet access on site. We have a library on site with well over a hundred books. We host teach-ins on various topics that have included CPR & First Aid, Critical Thinking Skills, Meditation, Civil Disobedience, and more. We also have on-going classes; one of our most popular was Yoga. We protest every day but Sunday, except when our camp is threatened by weather or protesters decide to support other events. The current focus of our protests have been bailout banks responsible for many aspects of our economic crisis. We are entirely nonviolent, but have utilized direct action techniques in the past which have led to arrests. We have a friendly relationship with the Dallas Police Department and we intend to maintain it. The DPD has shown respect for our procedures by attending GA meetings and entering stack to answer questions. Several members of our occupation are members of the homeless community, including one of our workgroup liaisons. We do not consider homelessness a problem and any citizen of Dallas that is homeless and is willing to actively support our cause is welcome.Read the whole thing here.
