United/div­ided: Occupy Asheville shakes up local protest culture

[Editor’s note: The Occupy movement’s unusual nature makes it hard to generalize about the group’s aims, beliefs and even actions. In developing this story, Xpress spent months talking with a variety of folks both inside and outside the movement. Nonetheless, there are doubtless other participants whose views differ from those presented here.] In Asheville, a […]

Council gives Occupy Asheville camp Feb. 17 deadline, supports keeping water system

In a Valentine’s Day meeting, Asheville City Council voted to evict the Occupy Asheville encampment in front of City Hall, one of the last remaining in the country, on Feb. 17. Council also unanimously backed a resolution supporting the city retaining control of the water system in the face of a state study. (Photo by Bill Rhodes)

Impasse over Occupy Asheville camp continues

Last night, Occupy Asheville’s coordinating council agreed on a letter asserting its camp in front of City Hall is “a representation of the people’s natural rights.” While not explicitly rejecting a proposal by Asheville City Council to voluntarily decamp, the letter didn’t accept it either, leaving an impasse over the fate of the camp heading into Council’s Feb. 14 meeting.

A deal between the city and Occupy Asheville? Maybe.

At the longest Asheville City Council meeting in recent years, the debate over the Occupy Asheville encampment was front and center. Motions both to create a permitting process for the camp and to ban it outright failed narrowly. In the end, Council agreed to put a resolution opposing corporate personhood on the Feb. 14 agenda, alongside a motion to give campers a deadline to leave. But, there will be porta-johns.
(Photo by Bill Rhodes)

Locals gather to demand federal investigat­ion into banking industry

About 15 people gathered Jan. 19 in Pritchard Park across from the Bank of America and Wells Fargo offices in downtown Asheville to protest Wall Street’s involvement in the foreclosure crisis and to demand that President Barack Obama hold the big banks accountable by ordering a federal investigation into their practices. photo by Jake Frankel

Asheville police arrest Vets after midnight in Veterans Day protest downtown (UPDATED)

Based on reports from the Asheville Police Department and from two citizens on the scene, Asheville police arrested three Veterans just minutes after midnight on Nov. 12 for violating the city’s 10 p.m. park curfew, in a vigil that began Friday night of Veterans Day before the curfew and continued until the arrests occurred. (Image from video by Matt Johnson.)

Occupy Asheville protester arrested for passing out fliers

Under a city ordinance banning advertisement “by the distribution of samples or printed matter within the city,” the Asheville Police Department arrested Helen Roberts,an Occupy Asheville participant for distributing fliers at a Nov. 2 rally. Roberts says the fliers she distributed were pie charts endorsing the protest’s positions, and that she was not soliciting donations.