Mark Donahey Incident at Grace Place on the night of 12/6/11

[Tony]

Okay so there was a incident at Grace place where Mark D. aggressively assaulted Brian (Organization Committee). Mark went to Grace place supposedly to make sure that the homeless people had a place to sleep. Mark D. talking to Melody was waiting outside of Grace Place 15 before they were allowed to enter. He was able to enter Grace Place and then got into an argument with Brian after being asked to leave. Mark D. in his anger threw a cup of tea at Brian, and came at him aggressively. Brian grappled with Mark D. and was able to get him outside of the front set of the inner doors and Mark fell in the process. Mark D.then gets up and starts swinging at Brian. Brian again grapples with Mark and gets him outside of the second set of doors onto the sidewalk in front of Grace. Mark grabs Brians clothing and trys to keep hitting him. Then crash into a tree and a car in the process. Droug and Michelle get the two apart and Mark leaves and returns with brake fluid which he had set by the tire of his car. He then dowses Brian and Doug with Brake Fluid and says "I'm going to kill you." Brian then dials the police and makes a report over the phone about the incident while still bating Mark away. Brian has an order of protection on himself and Mark Donahey is not allowed within 50ft. of Brian.

Now guys please stop blowing up Brians phone. You know the situation now.

[Ella Mae]

Thank you!

[Makhno]

Well, that is a bit different from Mark's version of events:

Occupy Chicago Members Treating Homeless Like Crap?
by ciwp » Mon Dec 05, 2011 1:13 am

To all Occupy Chicago members:

Over the past two weeks I have personally heard stories from a number of homeless people staying over at Grace's place who state that both Brian and Seth (who are keyholders for some reason at Grace's) are acting like little Napoleons over there and arbitrarily deciding:
who can and can not stay there, and how many can stay on any given night;
what time people can arrive in the evening;
arbitrarily waking people up in the middle of the night and kicking them outside into the rain (this happened on the night of Dec. 3);
DENYING PEOPLE FOOD even though there is (according to people who are in a position to know this for a fact) a lot of donated food at Graces that is so old that it is ROTTING!;
HOARDING CLOTHING AND OTHER DONATIONS and not allowing homeless people to obtain any of our donated materials which were expressly donated for use by HOMELESS OCCUPIERS!;
Denying Occupiers access to the Grace's Place kitchen so that we can prepare hot food to take to HQ for all the homeless folks out there who are holding down the fort while we have our GAs!;
And generally making it obvious to anyone with any sense of decency that neither Brian nor Seth can handle the responsibility of the position of keyholder/security at Grace's.

I went tonight at 11:45PM to walk over to Grace's on my way home. There were 6 people standing in the cold for no reason while Brian sat inside and refused to let anyone in, even though he had already let a few people in. I knocked on the door and he sat there and pointed at his watch and said "ten more minutes". I said "bullshit" and knocked again and he came to the door but would not let us in. He waited until 12:00 midnight on the button to open the door. I introduced myself to him as a member of the housing committee and I asked him what committee he was on. "Organizations" he replied. So I asked him: "You are a member of the Organization Committee?" He stated: "I AM Organizations"!

I told him that I had heard some very bad things about his treatment of homeless people at Grace's from several people. He responded by telling me that I wasn't allowed in Grace's and that if I didn't leave he would call the police! I said: "You are prepared to call the police on an Occupy Chicago committee member?" and he had someone get him his phone and he started to pretend to dial the cops. Not wanting to start a big ruckus at Grace's, I left.

Obviously, this man can not handle the responsibility he has usurped at Grace's.

I was also told that last night, Dec. 3rd, apparently Brian let people in "early" - about 11:00. Seth, who was downstairs doing who knows what, came upstairs about an hour later and while everyone was asleep, started whooping and hollering that they weren't supposed to be there so early, and then he MADE EVERYONE GET UP, GET DRESSED, AND THREW THEM OUT INTO THE COLD to wait until 12:00 midnight exactly, when he let them back in again!

These two men must be removed from their positions at Grace's IMMEDIATELY and we need to have someone capable of handling this job put in their place. I myself will be happy to assist and can start on Monday night if necessary. I will be bringing this issue to every single GA from now until this happens, and I have already notified the Food/Organization Committee and the Housing Committee. The Housing Committee has clear jurisdiction over all things housing. Neither Brian nor Seth are Housing Committee members (nor should they be allowed to be).

This type of treatment is just what homeless people get every day at every crappy shelter in Chicagoland. The idea that volunteers from Occupy Chicago would be allowed to treat homeless people like this is absolutely disgusting and reprehensible. And this has been going on for WEEKS!

Mark Donaghey
Housing Committee
Committee for an Independent Workers Party