Sunday, January 15, 2012

2012-01-15 "San Diego Occupiers Stranded in Texas by Greyhound Anti-Occupy Bus Driver" by Patrick Gokey
[http://soldiersforthecause.org/2012/01/15/san-diego-occupiers-stranded-in-texas-by-greyhound-anti-occupy-bus-driver/]
13 occupiers from San Diego en route to Washington D.C. to attend Occupy Congress were left stranded in Amarillo, Texas. The bus driver, Donald Ainsworth, locked the occupiers in the bus and called the police to have them removed because of his anti-occupy beliefs. The police apologized but had to remove the activists because of Greyhound’s policy that allows bus drivers to remove anyone for any reason.


2012-01-15 "Day 2 of OSD On the Road to Occupy Congress – Thrown Off the Greyhound"
[http://obrag.org/?p=52661]
It appears our brothers and sisters from Occupy San Diego who are on their way to Washington DC to “Occupy Congress” were rudely thrown off the Greyhound bus by an unsympathetic bus driver. This was in Amarillo, Texas in the middle of the night, Saturday, Jan 14th.
Here is a report from Michael All-In Ponsler:
[begin excerpt]
“Don Ainsworthy, Greyhound’s most psychotic driver really screwed up tonight. This man was completely rude to all passengers waiting to board and when he saw our Occupy logos he made several negative comments.
Once we were on the bus this guy began shouting at people to sit down and shut up. This did not go over well with any of the passengers, but I made it clear that we will not be treated so disrespectfully.
He then came back and told me to get off the bus. I refused.
The driver exited the bus, locked us in the bus for over an hour while he called the police.
Police officers boarded the bus and agreed that the driver was being inappropriate. Surprisingly, the police attempted to negotiate on our behalf.
The driver refused to allow us to stay on board and demanded that all the occupiers be removed. Of course, the police officers were required to support his “authority”.
We are stuck in Amarillo, TX until hopefully the next bus at 5:50 am.
If you care about people being discriminated against based on anything including political opinion call Greyhound corporate (not the Amarillo station) and let them know Don Ainsworthy must be removed from his position with Greyhound.
The local Greyhound desk staff and baggage handlers confirmed that this man is complained against repeatedly. The police also said they are here to remove passengers far too often and almost always due to this particular driver’s attitude.”
[end excerpt]
After local news arrived, the manager of Papa John’s pizza supplied them with pizza for dinner, and some supporters have offered to try to get airline tickets for the rest of the journey.
UPDATE: San Diego Occupiers stranded last night in Amarillo were back on the road to D.C. at 5:40 a.m. this morning on another Greyhound bus. At this point, lease call 800-442-8480 on MONDAY, to complain to Greyhound about the treatment of the Occupiers.
They got on the local news [http://www.newschannel10.com/story/16523077/occupy-protestors]

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