As many as 300 people took to the sidewalks in Downtown Berkeley Saturday as part of a demonstration sparked by the Occupy Wall Street movement to protest social and economic inequality and corporate greed.
Joining what Occupy Wall Street declared the worldwide “International Day of Action,” over 100 protesters gathered at around noon in front of Bank of America — at the corner of Center Street and Shattuck Avenue — to begin a march that grew to include hundreds more and filled the sidewalks of the Downtown area.
“All walks of life, all religions, people with no religions — everyone is welcome to join us,” said UC Berkeley junior Bo-Peter Laanen, one of the facilitators of the group’s daily general assembly meetings.
A man waving a large American flag, a woman carrying a sign that said “Grandmas against greed,” a few people burning dollar bills and parents with young children were just few among the many that participated in the march that began a little after noon. The group walked down Center toward the Saturday Farmer’s Market, located between Milvia Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way and eventually made its way back to the Bank of America.
Along the way, protesters stopped outside of Chase Bank, Citibank and Wells Fargo and chanted slogans such as, “Banks got bailed out; we got sold out” and “The people united will never be divided.”
The Occupy Berkeley protest was originally scheduled to begin Saturday, but the group decided to begin occupying the Bank of America area a week early and has had at least 10 people sleeping there each night since.
As the march grew Saturday, people remained on the sidewalks and — for the most part — followed traffic lights. Berkeley Police Department officers trailed along on bicycles and on foot and directed traffic as people crossed the street.
“The police have been very conscious, but we have told them that we are a peaceful group not here to start violence,” Laanen said. “To be honest, violence on the part of the police only makes our movement grow, and they don’t want that to happen.”
Around 1 p.m., as a man played the drums and people danced, the crowd stopped at the edge of Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park and chanted, “All day, all week, occupy Berkeley.”
After protesters returned to Bank of America at 1:15 p.m., several people from the crowd went up to speak using what protesters call “the people’s mic.”
“I come from Occupy L.A.,” said Ashe Guzman, a life coach from Los Angeles. “The movement over there is really big, and I think it’s because it’s centralized. I encourage everyone to go to Occupy San Francisco.”
The general assembly, which met around 3 p.m. Saturday, decided that, in addition to occupying Bank of America, some people would also occupy the park on Saturday night. About 10 to 15 people volunteered to start sleeping in the park.
The “International Day of Action” was supposed to take place in over 950 cities in 82 countries, according to the Occupy Wall Street website.
“We want to see 5,000 people surround Berkeley’s Bank of America, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy the space for a few months,” according to the Occupy Berkeley website. “Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices. It’s time for DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY, we’re doomed without it.”
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[ With such a transparent house, you might want to be careful about throwing stones. ]
Unlike you, child, I’m not some pathetic progressive cloistering himself
in Berkeley because of his inability to make it in the real world.
Since I graduated, I have not only worked all over the US, but in
Europe, Asia, Mexico, and the Middle East as well. I also work for a private-sector employer, and have to justify my existence to our company’s customers and investors on a regular basis, unlike some ward of the State who by his own admission is still hanging around Cal. You’re clearly the operating from limited experience and a stereotypical point of view. But then again, we know that the “diversity” that self-styled progressives crow over only applies to skin color and sexual preferences, not to political ideas or life experiences…
The fact that certain college students think they are part of the 99% is laughable, and a sign of their own utter cluelessness.
What is your percent?
As usual, you have no reply of substance.
Certain college students *are* part of the 99%. I have no doubt that some of those protesting are future 1-percenters, though.
What does “I Can Haz A Voice?” mean? And I’m delighted to hear that the police are “very conscious.” Berkeley’s tradition of dim-witted lunacy is alive and well.
idiots
“occupy the park” = let’s all have a camp-out!!!
The City of Berkeley needs to pass an ordinance outlawing camping overnight in public parks. And then the BPD needs to actually enforce it.
“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
Yay! You can cut and paste Shakespeare! But what does Macbeth’s self-pitying soliloquy have to do with this news story?
It’s called context–ever hear of it?
He’s implying that the protestors are “poor players.”
In the context of the soliloquy (which Guest quoted in toto) it’s life that’s the poor player. The parallel he’s trying to draw makes no sense.
Citibank had about 2 dozen people arrested for trying to close their accounts at a branch in Manhatten. Seems like NYPD’s inability to understand the fundamentals of law and law enforcement far surpasses that of UCPD/BPD.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/10/24-people-arrested-for-trying-to-close-accounts-at-citibank.html
I mean the local force is just a bunch of bush league ass clowns next to this. Isn’t anyone at UCPD from the big time? Surely you jackasses have at least one person who trained at LA County Sheriff detention facilities.
Plus this: Regent Russell Gould was Sr. VP at Wachovia…
“The purchase of Wachovia by Wells Fargo and Company
was completed on December 31, 2008. Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia after
a government-forced sale to avoid a failure of Wachovia.” Exposed to risky loans, such as adjustable rate mortgages acquired during the Golden West acquisition, Wachovia began to experience heavy losses in its loan portfolios during the subprime mortgage crisis
Good stuff there Mr. Gould!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wachovia#2007.E2.80.932009_financial_crisis
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regbios/gould.html
also:
C’mon Trolley M, where you at?
This here thread is tailor made for your lame attempts to mock persons whom you don’t even know.
You haven’t really articulated any type of coherent position, just the usual emotive, disjointed post.
And there’s certainly nothing emotive about your repeated variations on “You goddam kids get off my lawn,” is there, Mr Angry White Guy?
Thanks for making clear that your thinking is constricted by your own stereotypical view of the world.
With such a transparent house, you might want to be careful about throwing stones.