Occupy San Diego

I went to Occupy San Diego last wednesday and I was very excited. I had been wanting to go an Occupy protest since the movement began but never could get down to one. As we walked up to the protest, I was a little concerned because there was not a lot of noise nor any indicators that a protest was occurring nearby. We actually had to ask a few people were the protest was. When we finally found it, it appeared that there were more police than protesters. I did count the amount of police officers and they totaled 17 (not counting the cops that were just standing on the sidewalk nearby).However, I am not absolutely sure how many protesters were there because there were some young people there who were just running around but sat with the other people who were clearly participants. The rest of the people appeared to be homeless with the exception of 2 of the people with whom we spoke.

While we spoke to 4 people at the protest, 3 of them provided a great deal of information to me. The first was a protester who was dressed in a jean jacket, american flag bandana, and blue jeans. He told us that he was an unemployed carpenter and that he had been out of work since last December. He was joined by another protester who was "working" the protest passing out fliers. The two of them told us that they were there because they were fed up with the actions of big businesses, banks, and the government. At the end of the conversation, they told us that this protest/fight would go on for a while, saying that it would be our fight and our children's fight.

The last person we spoke to had a cart of food and was giving out free bagels and butter/cream cheese. This intrigued me so I went to talk to him. I asked him where he got the food from and he said that it was mostly donated to them. He said random people and churches would donate the food to them. AS the conversation continued, he began telling us about some people he referred to as "Anonymous." He said that they were computer geniuses that were part of the Occupy Movement. According to him, they scared big banks once over the summer and even once had an "altercation" with the Mexican Mafia. He also mentioned that some of them come to Occupy protests and silently and covertly monitor the treatment of the protestors. His description of these people is what stood out to me most. He said that they come dressed completely in black, with their faces completely covered. He said that if a protester was to speak to them, they would not speak back but move their fingers as though they were typing so let them know that they were "Anonymous." He referenced the movie "V For Vendetta" to provide a better description of their dress. That was highly interesting to me.

These conversations helped to show exactly how big the issues of class and employment are in our country. It also showed how intertwined they are. The population of the protesters alone was homeless people for the most part. These people are not part of the upper class or the middle class even. Also, the people who were employed by the companies in the buildings around the area were all just walking by as though the protest did not concern them at all. The police were even somewhat detached from the protest as they were just lined up on "perimeter" talking with one another. The protesters actually wrote on the ground in chalk that the police were part of 99% with them. However, I think that because the protesters were mostly the homeless and unemployed, the police and "business people" felt that they were nto in the same class as the protesters and, therefore, did not need to be apart of the protest. Even the set up of the protest would cause these people to literally look down on them. As the protest was in the center of some office buildings, it was at the bottom of the steps to these buildings. So many of the employees of those corporations actually looked down on the protest from their office buildings.