You Need To Listen

At about 7:50pm thirteen Occupiers since named “The Amarillo 13” which were headed to Occupy Congress for the Jan. 17, 2012 event were kicked off the bus by the driver, Don Ainsworth. They apparently were boarding the bus and the driver noticed the Occupiers t-shirts and was rude to not only the Occupiers but also the other riders. They were on the bus for about 5 min. One of the Occupiers questioned why their bags were not loaded up and the bus driver told them to sit down and shut up. The driver then locked all the passengers including the Occupiers on the bus for over an hour until police arrived. The Occupiers and other riders were getting restless. The police arrived and attempted to negotiate with the driver to be reasonable to no avail. The driver only kicked off the thirteen occupiers and stated that “Occupy will not occupy this bus.” The driver also stated that Occupy was not wanted here or in D.C.

The Occupiers state that they were not doing anything to promote the removal. They were not doing any mic checks or being disorderly. The individuals paid upwards of $500 to ride Greyhound from California to D.C. Greyhound stated they will do the Occupiers a “favor” and allow them to board the next bus.

During the ordeal they misplaced one of the Occupiers tickets. Greyhound would not re-issue the ticket so they asked for donations via PayPal to fund the purchase of another ticket. After a few hours one of the Occupiers realized that he had the lost ticket. They raised around $100 of the $700 dollars needed to purchase the new round trip ticket. After the ticket was found they let the donators know via the live stream that they would put the money toward food or refund any donations if the donator wanted the money returned.

Shortly after the incident fellow occupiers watching the live feed of the ordeal sent about 20 boxes of pizza to the Greyhound terminal. In addition to sending the pizza others supporting the Amarillo Thirteen called the Greyhound corporate office, the Amarillo terminal as well as the CEO of Greyhound to express their discontent with the way the Occupiers were treated. The Amarillo Thirteen are asking individuals not to call the Amarillo Greyhound office but to wait until Monday and then call the corporate office at (800) 231-2222.

The Occupiers are able to get their tickets exchanged for another bus. The next bus is expected to arrive at 5:50am. At this point they have been able to stay inside the terminal. At about 1 am a new employee arriving for his shift seemed to request that they leave the terminal but they were able to stay after some discussion. From the reports they will be arriving in D.C. on Jan. 16, 2012 in time for the Jan. 17 event after experiencing an eleven hour delay.

UPDATE: The bus with The Amarillo Thirteen has left the terminal at 5:47am with no issues. They turned off the live feed while in transit. I will post updates as they come in.

Below Road 2 Congress has put a link to their updated itinerary

UPDATE: At 12:50pm The Amarillo 13 announced that they spoke with a representative from Greyhound on the phone. The Greyhound representative has stated she needs to talk to management but they will do everything they can to make up for the inconvenience their driver imposed on them. They will not be sure of the possible refunds until Monday as the executives are out of the office. The group has formed a committee to determine what an appropriate request from Greyhound will be.

UPDATE: At 5pm Road 2 Congress posted that Greyhound has provided a “hot bus” with only three stops on the way to D.C. The stops are Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville, TN. They should be arriving at D.C. at 3pm on the 16th.

UPDATE: 8:45pm The Amarillo 13 has left Memphis in route to Nashville.

UPDATE: The Amarillo 13 is expected to arrive in D.C. between 1:30pm and 2pm

UPDATE: The Amarillo 13 has arrived in D.C. at 1:25pm eastern time Jan. 16, 2012.

Amarillo 13 Live Stream:

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