It’s hard not to be Occupied pre-occupied, with stuff like this going on…
In the wee small hours of the morning today, Occupy San Jose protester Shaun O’Kelly, 27, “scaled a three-story wall in the San Jose City Hall plaza…hanging a sign from the ledge and vowing to remain up there,” as the Mercury News reports.
KQED News intern Daniel Gamberg conversed with Mr. O’Kelly today. An edited transcript follows the audio:
Audio: Occupy San Jose wall-climber Shaun O’Kelly speaks out
Shaun O’Kelly, from up on a wall
The last couple of times they arrested people, they’ve taken all the tents down, and the occupation was kind of shut down for those moments. As long as I’m up here, it will continue, non-stop. They can’t ignore us. They have no choice but to see us now. I know the media’s been trying to make a point not to give it as much coverage. Now they can’t turn a blind eye to us anymore.
When this first started we in the city had an agreement we’d keep it to five tents, and we kept it to five tents, and then they served us an eviction notice, and since then they’ve been causing us nothing but problems. It’s a big waste of money for them to be messing with us when there’s St. James Park and the rest of San Jose that’s plagued with criminals.
I joined up with this because I’ve been transient or homeless for the past couple of years. I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Here’s video of Julian Kennon, 24, a political science student at De Anza College, hoisting supplies up to O’Kelly:
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