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More Than 1,000 March to City Hall as Occupy LA Gets Underway Downtown

By Katherine Davis and Eric Richardson
Published: Saturday, October 01, 2011, at 11:02AM
Occupy LA Eric Richardson / blogdowntown []

11:30am: Participants in Occupy Los Angeles march toward City Hall.



DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — More than a thousand protesters marched to City Hall this morning as part of Occupy Los Angeles, a demonstration against "corporatocracy" held in solidarity with the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protest in New York.

The event began at Pershing Square, where participants gathered to make signs and organize themselves.

Many protesters arrived with ready-made signs, other’s borrowed cardboard and art supplies to make signs at the last minute. Supporters of the group spoke to lay ground rules--no violence and no breaking any laws, they said. The group established their own security team to help keep the peace, and coordinated logistics with LAPD as the march and rally progressed.

Volunteers from the National Lawyers Guild stood up before the group to brief protesters on their legal rights in the event that police should become involved. Rough relations between police and protesters in New York’s demonstration have generated a lot of attention.

“I started watching the feed [of the New York protest] when the cops maced the girls in New York and I have been watching it ever since,” said supporter Tiffany Tabares who was inspired by the Wall Street protests to join in today’s event.

The crowd left Pershing Square around 11 a.m. and began marching down Broadway towards City Hall chanting “They say ‘cut back,’ we say ‘fight back!’” and “Jail them--yes! Bail them--no! Corporate fat cats have to go!” The procession—which kept to the sidewalk—was about eight city blocks long and slowed car traffic along Broadway. Many business owners stepped outside to watch or wave as the crowd passed.

The crowd included protesters of all ages and backgrounds.

Ana L. Hernandez, 19, donned a Guy Fawkes mask, a symbol that is quickly becoming associated with the Occupy movement. "All of these people—all of the taxes they've paid—that's just going straight to the banks to help people that don't need help," she said. "We need to help the people that need the help and not the people that already have money."

Michael Meloan, 60, works as a tech consultant and a writer. He said that he has felt the effects of the ecomony, but knows many more who have been “severely affected.” He hopes the Occupy movement will become “viral” and gain momentum as it spreads across the country.

"I think it's a chance for the left to mobilize in the way similar to how the Tea Party has mobilized, and I think we on the left have not done that very effectively,” Meloan said. “I think the whole financial establishment has taken advantage of us in an incredibly egregious way. I think people are angry and I hope they become angrier and more demonstrative.”

As of 4pm, several hundred participants remained on the South Lawn of City Hall listening to speakers and poets. The Occupy LA organizers have called for protesters to remain at City Hall indefinitely.

blogdowntown will be using our Live Updates to keep track of developments throughout the day.

» Live Updates — Last: Yesterday, 04:02 PM

  • 04:02PM Six hours after the event started, still a steady stream of arrivals. Only spotted a handful of tents so far. (ERIC)
  • 04:01PM Roughly 200 people from Occupy LA still sitting around City Hall's south lawn, listening to speakers using a portable PA system. (ERIC)
  • 02:47PM South Lawn version of Occupy LA is very pastoral. This is probably what City Hall looked like in the 70's. (ERIC)
  • 02:23PM Now that the LAPD went there is done, Occupy LA folks are moving over to City Hall's south lawn. (ERIC)
  • 12:06PM Things are pretty peaceful and stable at City Hall. Heading out to load photos, but we've got Katherine on-scene talking to folks (ERIC)
  • 12:06PM It will be interesting to see how numbers settle out during the day. You've already got people leaving and new people showing up (ERIC)
  • 11:45AM It's a good change. Much more room on the north side of the building, set back from the sidewalk. (ERIC)
  • 11:43AM They're moving everyone to the City Hall north lawn. (ERIC)
  • 11:42AM The march is extremely well organized. Their folks are keeping people on the sidewalk, having dialogue with LAPD, etc. (ERIC)
  • 11:38AM City Hall police officers have the crowd confined to the edge of the Spring Street steps. That doesn't seem sustainable. (ERIC)
  • 11:24AM Marchers are spread out along the sidewalks, so it's hard to accurately estimate the crowd. Maybe 2k. (ERIC)
  • 11:15AM Occupy LA gets marching. We'll be doing live updates at (ERIC)

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Conversation

Simon Hartigan on October 01, 2011, at 12:08PM – #1

Just another downtown parade, nothing too special about it.


Simon Hartigan on October 01, 2011, at 12:13PM – #2

Oh and... "They took our jobs!" "Dey took errr jerbs!!!!!" "DUrka DURRR!!"


User_32

downtown vibe on October 01, 2011, at 01:16PM – #3

I think they are here to see our elected officials.

I'm sure our Mayor and Councilpeople will be glad to answer all their questions!


User_32

downtown vibe on October 01, 2011, at 02:30PM – #4

Send out the Mayor so he can discuss why he let his campaign donors take control of the City pensions and why the taxpayers will be covering losses. (Ex Los Angeles Police Foundation Board Member is now in jail for New York Pension Fraud)

Then send out the Councilman who was taking bribes while at the LA Unified School Board..He's also accused of funneling millions through non-profits.

Then how about the Councilman who has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to his family and friends through the Cultural Affairs Department. (And rigged bond contracts for his friends costing the City tens of millions of dollars)

Then maybe the ones whose drug of choice is Community Redevelopment Money.... see (bribe guy above) and add pusher of Eli Broad Museum and Farmers Field. ($53 million for parking structure and $1 million for Architecture Firm Office)

Yes I'd like to see them face the public and discuss these issues with a straight face.


User_32

downtown vibe on October 01, 2011, at 02:40PM – #5

And then send out the elected City Controller/Keeper of Secrets, who this week claimed that SHE JUST DISCOVERED all this corruption and wants to make a new law requiring ALL civil service workers to report abuse!

Zuma Dogg is running for Mayor. I think we should hear what he has to say....


User_32

Morthos on October 02, 2011, at 12:16AM – #6

Sooo...Why are they protesting in front of city hall on a weekend when nobody is working? Why not the financial district? I mean, if you are pissed at the banks, well...protest at the banks then. Its only common sense.


Zuma Times () on October 02, 2011, at 01:12AM – #7

Thank you, very much, for thinking of me, on this topic. My initial concern, was that Occupy LA was a stunt by politicians, using people as their puppets, to point fingers AWAY from them, and TOWARD those mean, old people on Wall Street. (WHICH they are.) So, ASSUMING, this is a REAL, grass roots effort, of a non-political-backed, real-people, really organizing; first of all: IF SO, A DREAM COME TRUE DAY FOR ZUMA DOGG! AMAZING! THANK YOU, VERY MUCH! My addition to the dialogue is, YES: Wall Street executives ARE, what I believe to be the reason we are suffering staff and service reductions in Los Angeles. (THE WHOLE EDGE OF BANKRUPTCY MESS!!!)

HOWEVER, it must be noted, most emphatically, it takes TWO (2) to tango. And it is; a) the elected officials at the state and local level who created the laws that allowed it to happen. b) These elected officials who took money from the Wall Street connected "equity capital" firms. Then c) appoint these connected Wall Street cronies to the CalPERS & LACERS (State & Local pension funds.) Then money is d) invested in, "overly-risky, non-investment grade, alternative investments on Wall Street and in real estate. (Phony LLC and real estate scams of these capital equity firm cronies.) The capital equity firms (placement agents got $50-$100 MILLION a pop, to broker these deals, that went on to lose BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars in state and city treasury, general funds. (YES, these losses are reimbursed out of the municipal general funds.

So it all adds up to the elected officials and cronies rolling bigger dice than any Vegas addict, under the worse odds. But it didn't matter, because if they LOST, the losses were paid back, anyway. And got a "kickback" from the house.

AND NOW, the country has lost it's foothold in the global economy over this. Had it not have been for the losses in the '08 crash, in these, "overly-risky, non-investment grade, alternative investments," things would suck, but they wouldn't be miserable and insufferable, economically speaking.

AND, it's STILL happening.

Go to Google and do a search for "Zuma-Dogg Pension-Fraud". Posts will appear.

Thanks for asking.

Zuma Dogg http://ZumaDogg.com


User_32

Dixon on October 02, 2011, at 11:02AM – #8

Occupy LA video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRIXTo2jq1I&feature=uploademail


William Crandell on October 02, 2011, at 11:20AM – #9

The Grand Prize for most imaginative sign goes to the creator of: MY ASS HURTS!


User_32

LAofAnaheim on October 03, 2011, at 12:13AM – #10

Agreed with @morthos. Why are they occupying City Hall? If they are truly watching the NYC protest, they are to protest at the Financial District.

This protest makes no sense to me.


User_32

Tony Hoover on October 03, 2011, at 11:12PM – #11

I think the reason why they chose City Hall is because that is public property and they can stage there as long as they want with few issues as long as they remain peaceful. There is no public land at the Bank of America Tower, Cal Plaza or Wells Fargo so there is really no place the group can stage themselves overnight.

The city can't give protestors a permit to demonstrate on PRIVATE property (I believe that the park at BofA Plaza is private property). The only place that many people can stage themselves for an ongoing basis is in a PUBLIC park. That's the irony of the situation. Bunker Hill was designed by corporate America to keep the "riff raff out - in the minds of corporate America they accomplished just that this week.



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