Occupy

On Thursday Oct 6, I was on the hunt for a story to meet my Friday deadline, which had already been extended from Wednesday. I heard over breakfast there was a protest going on in downtown and felt it could work out for a story.

That is all the information I had, so I began combing the grid to find this group of unsatisfied citizens.

After finding a fire drill near the capitol and circling numerous blocks, the line of protesters finally crossed right in front me. This was "Occupy Sacramento" an extension of "Occupy Wall Street," which has been going on in New York City for weeks now.

I had found my story and even though I had no idea what the protest was about, I would soon find out.

After parking, feeding the meter and running across Capitol Park I caught up to the march and was able to interview a few participants about what was going.

“We lost our home due to unfair lending practices caused by the big banks,” said protester Carlos Fernandez. “I am exercising my voice to speak out against the corruption on Wall Street and the unfair distribution of wealth in our country.”

A lot of participants seemed to be there in the name of future generations, the need for jobs and benefits.

“I am a grandparent,” said protester Chris Niehaus, “My son-in-law works 40 hours a week. He’s got no pension, no health benefits and my daughter had to drop out of state university because the tuition is too high. I am down here for my granddaughter.”

Interesting enough the protest has been popping up in hundreds of cities all over the Unites States and lacks any real leadership. Many protesters said they found out about the protest though Face book or other social media; much like the protests in Egypt.

Over the next few days the protest seemed to die down and lose its momentum, in Sacramento anyways. By Friday around noon there seemed to be only about 50 people “occupying” Cesar Chavez Plaza, some with tents and families while others attempted to rally the crowd with bullhorns. Sometimes it seemed there were more police officers around than protesters.

Though I may agree with many of the reasons for protesting, it seems the time could be used to work shop ideas for fixing problems rather than simply marching and occupying a park.

It would seem that this could be another one of those protests that happen every year, protesters get together, say they are unhappy with the way things are and then go back to work.

Maybe this will work out though, maybe the protest in all it’s various shapes and forms will pan out our for the 99 percent.