As ErikO wrote briefly earlier, last night was tough on the smallish group of protesters occupying Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis. At about 4:30 am, the overnight occupiers were roused from their sleep by police officers. They were ordered to leave the park and move to the sidewalk. Most complied begrudgingly and moved supplies and food to nearby cars. Four to six people that refused to move were issued citations.
Here is one report:
After rumors about cops showing up around 10pm Tuesday night, we stuck it out as a group late into the night.
The next day, my friend Carmalene reported that 15 cop cars and vans showed up around 5am Wednesday, October 5. Police issued warnings and six citations to the remaining participants and were asked to move to the sidewalks until the park re-opened. At 6am, the group reconvened back inside the plaza.
We want the St. Louis Police Department to know that we are here for them too. We need allies on every level of the system....
Stay positive. There is lots of love and strength in this movement, and I am truly proud of my brothers and sisters.
The movement has been getting good local press:
Here's a really good piece from the Riverfront Times today.
It's unfair to call OccupySTL an anti-Tea Party movement because it's attracted people from all political stripes, says LeClair. An anti-greed movement may be more appropriate -- be it political, economic or environmental in ignoring climate change data.
In speeches last night, several of the organizers compared the movement to the peaceful protests in Tunisia and Egypt this past spring that ushered in regime change.
The obstacle, admits LeClair, is that the Arab protests had an easily defined goal of bringing down dictator. The Occupy movement has yet to come up with a list of official objectives, but here is how LeClair sees them: 1) Get lawmakers to reform the current system, or 2) Scrap the nation's current economic model for something that's more egalitarian.
The protest continues today at Kiener Plaza, and according to organizers, will last as long as it takes.
Obama was in town last night for a fundraising event that cost $25,000 a plate. (I'm the 99% that can't afford that price!) Here's some local television reporting on joint OccupySTL protest of Obama's visit and activists challenging the President on tar sands oil.
Tonight, big numbers are expected for a march with Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) to Bank of America.
Tonight the protesters will face another hurdle as the 10 pm curfew at the park nears. Will police attempt to evict them? As many have observed, 500 people is as good as a permit. Getting those numbers into the night will be a challenge, but there is a lot of young energy in this movement. Nearly 3500 people "like" the Facebook page for OccupySTL, a site that has been up barely a week.
Something bizarre happened with the Facebook page.
Dear St Louis. Facebook has decided to change the name of our community page here to "Kiener Plaza" from OccupySTL, and will not allow any of the administrators to change the name back, citing a rule that if a community page has more than 100 likes, then you cannot change the name. Yet, FB changed the name themselves after the likes reached over 3000 this morning. Make of this what you will, but this seems to be a concerted effort to destabilize our movement. Stand Strong.
We need to be prepared to organize without relying on corporate-controlled media. Remember when Egypt switched off all the internet and cellular service? It didn't stop people from gathering in Tahrir Square. Are we ready?
See you in beautiful downtown St. Louis! We are the 99%.