Another Visit to Occupy Sacramento

Wanting to get a better sense of this Occupy movement, I returned to Caesar Chavez Park in Sacramento on Saturday, November 5. This day's event was the Boycott the Bankster's march on two local banks.

I saw that the Industrial Workers of the World - the Wobblies - is still around. They had set up a table with informational literature. I counted only three of them, each carrying a flag. One flag had the iconic Che Guevara image in black against a red background, with the words "Hasta La Victoria Siempre." Another flag, with red background, had "IWW" and its logo crudely drawn on it. I didn't recognize the red and black third flag, but found on a later Internet search that it was the Anarchist Communism flag.

Yeah, just try your anarchy in a communist totalitarian state. Che would have had you executed on the spot.

I saw a few Guy Fawkes masks.

And profanity.

Speakers with bullhorns gathered the people around and gave them instructions for the march. Stay together. Don't smash any windows. Don't enter the banks.

The crowd then took off for the banks. Staying to the back, I struck up a conversation with another photographer, and thus found a kindred spirit, a conservative who just wanted to check out this Occupy thing. We discussed politics and economics as we walked.

The crowd briefly lined up outside the Bank of America building, but soon made its way to Wells Fargo Bank, which had plaza outside the entry more amenable for an assembly.

The gathering was largely peaceful. However, at one point a speaker started to rail about the money inside the bank belonging to The People, and for a few moments I wondered if some of the protesters would demand entry. The Wells Fargo guards had locked the doors and were allowing only bank customers inside. (How many customers saw the protest and avoided the bank?) But things cooled off and the crowd went back to listening to speeches and chanting and singing songs.

A few California Highway Patrol troopers and Sacramento Police officers on bicycles were monitoring events.

The protest was winding down and I decided to leave. I walked by two Sacramento Police officers and told them that I greatly appreciated them for what they do. They smiled and said thank you.