{"article":{"id":250452,"heading":"Interview with Nathan, arrested at Long Beach Port shutdown","author":"Rockero","created":"2011-12-17 19:00:51","modified":"2011-12-19 19:13:22","last_modified":"Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:13:22","article":"\n
\r\nTRANSCRIPT\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Today is Thursday, December 15th, 2011, and we are in San Bernardino. Can you tell me your name?\r\n
\r\nNS: Nathaniel Sierdsma.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: How old are you?\r\n
\r\nNS: I'm 18.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: What do you do--or, are you working now? Or what's...\r\n
\r\nNS: Not right now. I'm out of work.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: OK. What is your involvement with the Occupy movement?\r\n
\r\nNS: I've recently been helping a lot with the San Bernardino and San Bernardino Valley movement. I kinda helped get those up and running. And Ontario, I was also down there helping. For the latest action, I went down and helped Riverside.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: You're talking about Monday, right?\r\n
\r\nNS: Yeah.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: So what happened on Monday?\r\n
\r\nNS: Well, Monday, we--a big group went out there. I'd say at least a thousand people.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Down to Long Beach, right?\r\n
\r\nNS: Yeah, there in Long Beach ports. And we were trying to shut down the ports. There was maybe twice as many cops out there. They just surrounded us.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Uh-huh.\r\n
\r\nNS: And in the long run, I guess, they got me surrounded. I ended up getting arrested down there.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Oh, OK. In the video footage and in the photos, it looks like they treat you pretty rough. Were you hurt?\r\n
\r\nNS: I was a little sore. It was really over a lot faster than--than looking at it. I could see, looking back on it, it was quite brutal.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: So how did the police treat you when they took you in?\r\n
\r\nNS: Oh, they spent the whole time just cracking jokes about the Occupy movement. It's kinda sad to see the way they were about it.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: They were hating on you?\r\n
\r\nNS: Yeah.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: How did the other prisoners treat you?\r\n
\r\nNS: They all saw me on the news! And they just kinda gave me props for that, I guess.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: They're all down with the class war, huh?\r\n
\r\nNS: Yeah.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: So did that experience affect how you think about the police?\r\n
\r\nNS: At least in Long Beach.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Are they part of the 99%?\r\n
\r\nNS: They choose not to be.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: So, yesterday you were in court--we went to go get you. Can you tell us what happened yesterday?\r\n
\r\nNS: Well, the public defender told me basically I had to stay there if I didn't plead--or if I didn't plead guilty and take what they gave me, so I plead guilty. They dropped one of the charges and they gave me staying at the scene of a riot, which gives me thirty days CalTrans work and three years' summary probation.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: You have to pay any fines or anything?\r\n
\r\nNS: Yeah, I think I have some court fines, and I have to pay some money to actually do the CalTrans work.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: How are you gonna deal with that?\r\n
\r\nNS: I don't know. I'll have to figure something out.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Do you think they're trying to keep you out of the movement?\r\n
\r\nNS: Yeah, they're trying to intimidate us. They're terrorists by nature. That's all they do, they try to get you to give up on what you believe in.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Are you gonna stop occupying?\r\n
\r\nNS: No, absolutely not. I'll be out here until this movement gets something accomplished or they permanently take me out of the picture.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Where would you like to see the Occupy movement going?\r\n
\r\nNS: Eventually, I want us to see--have enough power, and enough voter power present to actually get our own political system running. Maybe we could make it a political party so we could have our own candidates that we sponsor. And a big part of it is we wanna encourage voter registration, and it's kinda hard to pick Republican \/Democrat when they're all paid off.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Mm-hmmm. A lot of folks have really personal experiences that drive them to wanna make a better world, to make a change. Why do you, personally, occupy?\r\n
\r\nNS: Well, for the longest time, I been kinda doing my own research, and I've learned a lot through the years about how bad our situation is and why we're here. And, just, I've always had a personal conviction to try and stand against that.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: I notice you--you rock them cammies. Can you tell me about that?\r\n
\r\nNS: Yeah, this is actually my brother's BDU. I was wearing it for him when I went down.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: So your brother's in the service?\r\n
\r\nNS: He was.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: Did he--discharged, or...?\r\n
\r\nNS: No he just ran his service term.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: OK, so he's out and he's safe and at home and everything?\r\n
\r\nNS: Yeah.\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: OK, cool. Is there anything else that you would wanna add?\r\n
\r\nNS: Um, occupy everything!\r\n
\r\nROCKERO: All right, great, thanks for talking to us.\r\n
\r\nNS: All right. Thank you.\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"rockero420@yahoo.com","link":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/oS4Kmak8aKw","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"December 15, 2011
\r\nLONG BEACH - On December 12, 2011, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Long Beach, Occupy Riverside, and many other people closed a terminal at the port of Long Beach. Only two people were arrested, and one of them, Nathaniel Sierdsma, speaks about his experiences.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2011\/12\/250452.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}