OCCUPY SD

A fellow classmate and myself attended the Occupy SD a few days before the protested were "kicked out". Both the classmate and I were somewhat unaware of exactly what was going with the Occupy movement. After visiting downtown San Diego, I can say that I had quite the experience getting to know how both the protesters and the law enforcement feel about the whole movement.
Unfortunately, most of the young protesters we met were long time homeless youth. One young man was able to verbalize coherently his opinions in regards to the event. I was intrigued by some of the things he was saying such as how he felt that that economy does not effect him since he has been homeless for nearly a decade and was more concerned about how the economy and political corruptions will effect his children and future generations. I expressed to him that it seemed that maybe the Occupy movement in San Diego seemed to be dwindling and he agreed. He said that it was fairly unorganized in San Diego. Another protester also mentioned that it had become more of a place for homeless to congregate rather than a protest of the ongoing corruption. As he and some of the other "occupiers" told us that many of the people there were either drunk or on some sort of drugs.
On the other side of this event, we spoke to some law enforcement officers. It did take us several attempts to finally be able to talk to someone, we were finally pointed in the direction of the Sargent who could actually talk to us. He was very careful about how he worded things, but seemed overall friendly. When asked how he felt about this whole situation his first word was boredom. However, there were moments of physical violence, disrespect, and disgust, as described by the officer. The conflict between the two groups was very clear between the two groups. However, I feel that the conflict between the two seems unnecessary. Sometimes the police are out of line for their aggression and sometimes its the protesters misplacing their anger and frustration. I see that the greatest flaw for the occupiers in San Diego is their lack of some sort of leadership. The lack of leadership has lead to disorganization and an overall diminished cohesiveness aimed at a greater cause. Due to this they themselves are begin to see conflict within their group and the police don't take them serious because of this. I don't see the occupy movement in San Diego having much power to contribute to the greater movement. The drive for change I think is there, but the needed organization and power has clearly diminished.