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Sunday, May 20, 2012
Local workers join nationwide movement with Occupy Sacramento
by Brandon Darnell, published on October 6, 2011 at 6:10 PM
Storyline: Local views on larger issues
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Protesters took to Cesar Chavez Plaza Thursday to fight what they say is the richest 1 percent of Americans controlling 50 percent of the country’s wealth – and they plan to “occupy” Sacramento for at least a week.
“I’m out here to fight for the people so we can get power back from the corporations,” said Neph Garcia, a diesel mechanic from Woodland.
“The 1 percent is making the decisions, and the 99 percent suffers from those,” he added. “We have to be free from corporate decisions. The politicians are pretty much their puppets.”
About 300 protesters with Occupy Sacramento assembled at Cesar Chavez Plaza downtown on Thursday morning before setting off on a march around the Capitol, chanting slogans such as “banks got bailed out, we got sold out.”
Police on horseback and bicycle kept watch over the marchers, occasionally blocking traffic as they crossed streets. Protesters stayed on the sidewalks, as they did not have a permit to demonstrate on the streets.
Christopher MacDonald, a spokesman for Occupy Sacramento, said there is no set time for the occupation to end, and the idea is to raise awareness of the issue as well as stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street group and others like it across the country.
Occupy Sacramento is not directly affiliated with other groups around the country, he added.
Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Andrew Pettit characterized the protests as peaceful, estimating that on Thursday afternoon the number of people demonstrating at the plaza was around 150 or 200.
“They’re obeying the traffic signs and rules, they’re not disturbing businesses and they’re even staying in the crosswalks,” he said.
Earlier in the day, some demonstrators tried to enter a couple of banks, but the doors were locked, and no demonstrators got in, Pettit said.
By Thursday afternoon, no arrests had been made, and no additional police patrols were called in.
“We’re using our existing patrols and diverting some of them downtown,” Pettit said.
Sacramentan Pedro Leon, who operates a printing press for the California Department of Justice, said he came out to show his support for the movement.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “We thought we sent the message when we elected Obama and others, but that message is not being heard.”
Leon said the ultimate goal, as he sees it, is to allow Americans to once again embrace the American Dream.
“It’s no longer what my parents had,” he said. “Then, a father could work and support his family comfortably. Now, you can’t even do that with two incomes.”
Other protesters said they shared the frustration of their compatriots in other cities, with Sacramentan Jacob Mendez, a student assistant, saying the U.S. economy is “one-sided” and characterizing big business as “corporate fascists.”
Sacramento stay-at-home mom and activist Krystin Leonhardt said she is upset that oil companies, banks and big agriculture businesses are “posting record profits” while schools can’t afford supplies.
“I’d like to see our government recognize that they represent us, not corporations with big money,” she said. “People are starting to take power, and they’re realizing there’s power in numbers.”
According to the Associated Press, labor unions joined the fray Wednesday when they gave their support to the activists.
The Local 1000 chapter of the Service Employees International Union supported the Occupy Sacramento movement.
"I encourage everyone to support these demonstrators in Occupy Sacramento and Occupy Wall Street because we need an economy that supports middle class families," Local 1000 President Yvonne R. Walker said in a press release.
"The Occupy Wall Street movement has done a great job of drawing attention to income disparity in this country and the need to create middle class jobs,” she added. “We need to do what we can to support them here in California."
The union represents about 45,000 Sacramento-area workers, and SEIU spokesman Jim Zamora said between 12 and 20 union members were staffing a tent and first aid station throughout the day, handing out water and other items to the protesters.
“It’s not a Democrat or a Republican issue,” said Diana Bennett, a protester from Roseville who works as a bookkeeper. “People are really standing up to the corporate money running this country. We’re fighting to get it back.”
Cesar Chavez Plaza closes at 11 p.m. and reopens at 5 a.m., according to Pettit. Demonstrators may be cited or arrested if they stay in the park while it is closed.
MacDonald said protesters planned to stay in the park and were talking with police on Thursday afternoon.
“We want to work things out,” he said, “but this is a full occupation, so we want to stay.”
Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow him on Twitter @Brandon_Darnell.
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The American dream once was about a passion to succeed, not a passion to greed. We are a failure due to the lack of being able to relate to the employees living a poor life. Business owners and politicians have molded their life styles based on their personal needs not the employees needs.
I have seen many businesses go broke due to how they spent their money on themselves. The same way our Politicians are spending tax dollars.
By the end of a couple weeks, the CEO often can't believe how much they don't know about their employees and difficult it is to do the jobs that they are paying their employees minimum wage to perform. Every episode I have seen shows the CEO dumbfounded and shocked over the financial struggles their employees encounter on a daily basis because they are so out of touch with what it means to be the working poor. What they should really do is make those CEOs live on their employees' wages...that I would like to see!
Being an American is definitely not what it used to be. I'm not quite sure what the "American dream" means anymore...it's all pretty depressing if you ask me!
There are some good books on the subject . . .
“Exactly correct,” Bondi said.
This is an Astroturf protest if I ever saw one and who's backing it with $$$?
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/10/07/some-%E2%80%98occupy-sacramento%E2%80%99-protesters-lash-out-at-questions/
The first option is do nothing. The second is to enforce the laws. In that case, the police will almost always enforce the laws.
http://sacpd.org/dailyactivity/view.aspx?publish_date=20111007
11-289148, Assault on an Officer, 400 block of Bannon St, 1600,
Police were attempting to clear the sidewalks where subjects had set up camp. One of the subjects began to physically attack an officer. Additional officers arrived to assist. The suspect was tased and taken into custody. Arrested for assaulting an officer was Hector Gomez, 27 years old.
This was an attack on an SacPD officer but it was not on the news, and the protesters went peacefully to jail last night and some of the local outlets are making it out to look like they were dangerous.
Can we really expect any of the major news outlets to present a balanced view of what's going on down there? This is sacpress's chance to live up to it's design: community based journalism. We need sacpress and independent journalism now more than ever.
I have full support for the First Amendment, as well as all the others still on the books. You misinterpret my comments. I never once said Occupy Sacramento doesn't have the right to protest or demonstrate. All I said was that the demonstrators drew a line in the sand, and the police had to make a decision, since it was impossible to ignore Occupy Sacramento.
There is a law, and police will enforce it. Is that law Constitutional? That might be debatable.
Please re-read my comments. As a journalist, I am not giving my opinion on Occupy Sacramento, nor am I supporting one side over the other. Consider it an analysis of the situation as I saw it.
That the park has closing hours is a fact, not opinion. That the police enforce the laws is a fact, not opinion. That the protesters very loudly made their intentions to go against that law is a fact, not an opinion.
Nowhere in my comments will you see opinion, except possibly on my assertion that more often than not, police will enforce the law, as to not do so is to give official approval of something – which is not a job for the police, but for elected officials held accountable to the people.
And a word of clarification: I never said the police were forcing their hand, but that the protesters forced the police department's hand when some of them essentially said, "We are going to violate this ordinance."
If you don't like the ordinance, that is an entirely different subject on which I will not give my opinion here in case I end up covering it.
People are sick and tired of their government being dominated by these elites and selfish groups...across the board people have seen this country's institutions all get rotten to the core. We just watched our Supreme Court uphold that Corporations are people and deserve the same equal 1st Amendment rights....that is pathetic. This is why people are taking to the streets in mass protests. Call them whichever of the 4 words you like: hippie, communist, socialist, marxist...these people in reality can be called whatever you want but they are just standing up against this gambling away with people's rights and livelihoods.
They do know, the media jumped on them when protesters were still in process of organizing and discussing specifics...they really are trying to form consensus, so you have to take the ignorant media portrayal with a big grain of salt. Do you really think our sensationalist media makes a genuine effort to understand what is going on in the movement? I watched the reporters zip in and out, seemingly deliberate in trying to catch shots of the most ignorant people they could find. I have met some amazing people there and there are some very real issues that are being worked on at the plaza. Any movement will take time for consensus to build and to put forth people that are skilled and comfortable in articulating the messages of the people.
For now, as far as I know there is the working draft which seems to be fairly consistent with the NY declaration which can be found here:
http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-city/
Second, SIEU attending the protest is complete hypocrisy... Calpers made 20% last year off those "fat cats" on Wall Street... If they're serious about their protest, they should forfeit their pensions.
I just don't see what is so difficult to pick an idea (or two or three) and FOCUS!
Sea Shepherd stands against the whaling industry, the NRA wants to protect gun owner rights, the Tea Party is against taxation and excessive government intervention, why can't these guys get their act together and say "we are here because of X we want to see Y in place to accomplish z".
Instead we get this lame excuse "We are a new kind of revolution and blah blah blah" Yeah, if you are angry about something, you should know damn well just what it is you are angry about and what you hope to do about it!
It isn't the media's fault that they can't get their sh!t together.
They should go for all the issues, campaign finance, ending these stupid wars on terror, the war on drugs, actually have our basic needs guaranteed rather than left to the mercy of 'invisible hand'. We citizen's should be advocates for our basic vital necessities and this includes the environment as well. This movement is not just another 'special interest group' but the public outrage that their government is being dominated and manipulated by elites and corporations so that no public interest is being served.
They’re angry, they insist they’re not going anywhere soon, and they demand their voices be heard. Just don’t ask them what it is, exactly, they would like to see done.
I’m not saying the lack of a cohesive message means the protests are insignificant. And I certainly don’t begrudge them exercising their First Amendment rights. Yet, there are certainly those on the left who begrudge the Tea Party exercising its First Amendment rights.
If there is any common theme to the Occupy protests, it is anger at big corporations and, in more general terms, capitalism. In the worldview of the protesters, life is a zero-sum game and corporations have gotten fat at the expense of the middle class by buying political influence — all well and good, until one considers some of the glaring contradictions involved.
The protesters have organized their efforts using social media such as Facebook and Twitter, two of the more remarkable and successful start-up corporation stories in recent memory. And to while away time in between thumping on bongos and chanting the slogan of the day, the denizens of Chavez Park bury themselves in various smartphones, iPads, iPods, and MacBooks. The last three, of course, are popular products from Apple, a juggernaut of raw capitalism with a stock that trades around $370 per share. You’ll find plenty of McDonald’s bags and Starbucks cups strewn throughout the park – both behemoth corporations – and both benefiting from the debit and charge cards of the protestors.
In short the protesters rail against the evils of corporations and capitalism, while at the same time happily enjoying the fruit of its vine.
Hypocrisy is evident even with the government workers protesting the very corporations paying the taxes to keep them employed and supplied with generous benefits.