While police clashed with protesters in cities across the country on the two-month anniversary of the Occupy movement, the members of Occupy DC had a different goal in mind on Thursday: Don’t get arrested.
About 300 protesters marched to Georgetown’s Key Bridge to highlight unemployment and the need to repair the country’s infrastructure, and while they drew stares and stopped traffic as they marched downtown, police said they’d experienced no major problems and that the day had gone smoothly.
“We’ll speak and make a ruckus, but we’ll try not to tie up traffic,” said Sam Jewler, a 23-year-old Occupy organizer, adding the movement would not associate with anyone who tried to block the bridge.
| Occupy DC lists ‘demands’ |
| The Occupy DC encampment articulated its “demands” Thursday after two months of criticism that the movement has had no clear objective. Protesters submitted recommendations for eliminating debt and balancing the federal budget to the congressional supercommittee that is laboring on a deficit reduction proposal. The movement’s recommendations include: |
| • raising taxes on the wealthy, |
| • closing corporate loopholes, |
| • more government jobs, i.e., a program modeled after the Depression-era Works Progress Administration, |
| • ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, |
| • erasing student loan debt, |
| • refinancing all underwater mortgages. |
| Opponents called the recommendations unrealistic. |
|
“You can’t just gloss over [entitlement reform] when your talking about cutting spending on military and corporate benefits,” said David Almasi, executive director of The National Center for Public Policy Research. “That’s the 800-pound gorilla in the room.” — Liz Farmer |
It’s a far cry from Occupy protests across the country, some of which have seen hundreds of arrests. In the District Thursday, protesters marched behind a Metropolitan Police Department car, and some even shook hands with officers after the protest.
“There’s too many people here who can’t afford to be arrested,” said Michael Patterson, a 21-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska, who’s been at Occupy DC for 42 days.
But protesters still managed to draw attention as they marched through Georgetown to the bridge. Chants of “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” grew louder as they passed bank branches on M Street, with employees quickly closing their doors as protesters shouted at them. Shoppers paused outside of Dean and Deluca to take photos on iPhones and stared from the windows of Georgetown Cupcake as Occupiers waved signs and shouted slogans like “We are the 99 percent” and “Whose DC? Our DC!”
Several local labor unions and activist organizations joined in once protesters reached the Key Bridge. Our DC, a group of unemployed District residents who advocate for more jobs for city residents, unveiled an enormous sign on the bridge that read “This bridge needs work — so do we!” The group had been planning the protest for some time, but joined forces with Occupy to increase visibility.
| Examiner Archives |
|
|
|
|
MPD Capt. Jeffrey Herold said he’d had a “nice conversation” with protesters before the march and that the department hadn’t made any arrests. “It’s the way we expected it to happen — they kept to their part of the bargain,” he said.
mailto:[email protected] “>[email protected]
</p>
