Occupy San Francisco

Occupy San Francisco

This past weekend on November 12, 2011 at 2:30 pm I went to the financial district of San Francisco where Occupy San Francisco was happening. Everyone was preparing for a march for Solidarity with Egypt that was planned to occur at 3 pm. I interviewed three different people, two females in their mid 20’s and a male in his late 30’s. Even though all appeared to be different, their messages were very clear and similar. I began by asking each separate person to tell me why they are here and what they were hoping to achieve. They all explained to me that even though they are the majority of people (99%) they are being moved around like cattle by the 500 families that currently hold most of the money. It was mentioned that it is not fair and that the wealthy should be taxed higher rates. Also, the male in particular mentioned that people against Occupy the World are stating that these are unorganized events that state no clear message. But the male stated otherwise, he said that if one just looks around everyone is holding a sign that clearly states his or her message and everyone agrees with the general message mentioned earlier. The male also stated that a protest this large has not occurred since the hippie movement and even though this is such a large event, it cannot be compared because currently this movement can make changes. The hippie movement was not successfully because their main issues were drugs and peace. But the male stated that right now there are legit reasons that have nothing to do with illegal or impossible events.

The first female also compared Occupy San Francisco to Occupy Oakland. She stated that what is going on there is madness and she states that the police are making it worse. They are going in undercover and starting violence and showing a false image of these protests to the world. But in San Francisco it is not like that, just recently a group of people stood in front of the crowd holding hands to show that they were not there to be violent, they just wanted to state their opinion. The female mentioned that when she went to check out Occupy Oakland she got off the train took one look and turned out. She mentioned that it looked like a huge trauma occurred, people were running around, being violent and it looked like a crazy house
The second female I spoke to was born in North Africa and moved here three years ago. She spoke about how proud she is that this movement is occurring. She mentioned that it is an amazing revolution spreading all over the world. She said that she is so proud that even people in Africa are revolting. This all started with a small shop owner standing in front a courthouse, lighting himself on fire to get attention and be heard. She says she cannot believe that people have to do that to get attention from higher powers and even though this man was later identified to have mental issues, this female mentioned if it was not for him, who knows where this revolution would be right now. Lastly, she mentioned that it is interesting to watch the spread of this revolution just from living in San Francisco because she noticed that in the beginning protesters would stand in areas where many tourist did not see them, but not they are every so the message gets clearly sent not just to locals but to people visiting as well.

I tried to interview a few policeman but they appeared busy preparing for the upcoming march that despite what the people said, appeared to become very hostile.

People are there fighting for their rights and an important resource which is money. People feel they are being oppressed and cheated so they are revolting to feel like they are doing something to stand their ground. It is great that people are voicing their opinion, and I strongly believe they should continue the only thing I would change is the violence aspect. I understand when people protest, environment becomes hostile and stuff happens but I wonder if there was no violence how much more stronger the message would come across. Or maybe if it was not for the violence the message would not be noticed