Atlantic City Weekly has obtained the grass-roots movement Occupy Atlantic City’s “Declaration of Occupation,” which you can read in its entirety below. The declaration was crafted within the past week or so.

Here it is verbatim, from a member of the group. (Atlantic City Weekly did not edit this “declaration,” as it comes straight from the Occupy Atlantic City group. To reach the group, its new e-mail address is OccupyACnow@gmail.com.

Occupy Atlantic City Declaration of Occupation

This is our notification that in solidarity with the Occupy Wall
Street movement, Occupy Atlantic City has been established. We will be
occupying Atlantic City, long-term, with an indefinite,
around-the-clock occupation of public space. Our occupation is open
to everyone, regardless of race, sexuality, creed, gender, class,
… disability, military affiliation or demographic background. The First
Amendment to the Constitution is our permit.

We are NOT a political movement. We do not and will not endorse any
politician or political party. All individuals are welcomed to engage
in dialogue with us and/or join us.

Our presence comes to Atlantic City to raise awareness about corporate
greed and corruption within the major banks as well as to bring
attention to a multitude of community interests (including, but not
limited to: assisting the homeless population,
assisting our education system to meet the needs of students and
teachers and decreasing violence in our neighborhoods).
General Assemblies, teach-ins, A People’s Library, skill-sharing
workshops, free entertainment, and other activities will be offered in
a family-friendly “safe-space”.

We will educate the local community, regarding issues of National
interest that have and are contributing to the collapse of the economy
and to the saddening reversal of the American Dream. We will take
every step possible to help address all issues that are contributing
to the cycle of poverty and to the demise of the hard-working and
increasingly unemployed “middle-class”.

We encourage and promote diversity, equality, and non-violence. We are
committed to having a drug-free, alcohol-free, weapon-free,
violence-free, bigotry-free occupation. We are committed to
promoting ecological sustainability.

The city will not need to clean up after Occupy Atlantic City, nor
will taxpayers have to pay for overtime police work, as police
presence will not be necessary (although, it is welcomed). We
encourage the city to allow us to do our part by voluntarily assisting
park cleaning services. We encourage the city to use money that would
be used for extra police presence/overtime and for additional park
cleaning services to instead be put towards educational
programs/supplies needed in the Atlantic City School District.

We make decisions by consensus and we are committed to working
together to address our concerns by creating and sharing solutions,
and by implementing specific, detailed plans of action that will turn
our collective vision into a reality.

We would appreciate your support as we exercise our First Amendment
Right (under legal supervision) to peacefully assemble. We would also
be thankful for letters of support and/or open dialogue with you. We
welcome all voices.

We are the 99% and we have arrived in Atlantic City. Join Us!

Sincerely,

OCCUPY ATLANTIC CITY

ATLANTIC CITY — We told you momentum was growing at a rapid pace for the planned Occupy Atlantic City this Saturday Oct., 15, at 12:45pm (at New Haven Beach in Ventnor).

First, the Occupy Atlantic City group ALREADY has a new logo (a different one since this morning; see it at left) and second, AC Weekly columnist Geoff Rosenberger talks about it in his current column, which just went live on the ACWeekly.com site a few moments ago. (Read it here.)

We’d also suggest you check out this week’s cover story interview with Stephen Stills who talks about some of the woes going on within America.

Find out more about Occupy Atlantic City on their Facebook page.