Occupy Pasadena changes tactics as other cities ‘evict’ protesters
By Justin Chapman, Pasadena Weekly, 11/17/2011
Following two days of meetings, teach-ins and seminars with their counterparts in Los Angeles, members of Occupy Pasadena are changing tactics to include marches through parts of the city, the Weekly has learned.
On Sunday, the Occupy Pasadena General Assembly, which meets at 3 p.m. Sundays at Memorial Park, announced on the group’s Web site that protests and marches will now take place at 6 p.m. Fridays. Each event will begin at the corner of Lake Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, where protesters will march west to Old Pasadena then turn around and walk east to Paseo Colorado in Midtown Pasadena. A rally there will use a so-called “human microphone,” where one person says something into a microphone and the crowd repeats it to amplify the message.
“We are all part of changing this nation’s story from a ‘me first’ to a ‘we first’ perspective,” said local community activist and organizer Patrick Briggs, who described the Nov. 5 Bank Transfer Day — in which people were urged to withdraw their savings from banks and place them in credit unions — as “inspirational, positive and effective.”
So far, protests in Pasadena have been peaceful events without incident, but not all cities have been as tolerant. Police in Oakland, Philadelphia, Vancouver and Dallas, among other cities, have recently taken drastic measures to remove Occupy members in those communities.
In the announcement about the new strategy, the Occupy Pasadena General Assembly wrote, “In solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Movement and the 99 percent, we march to reclaim our public space so we can re-imagine and reform ourselves together as a human community. Our intent is to spread awareness that we are here and invite community members not only to watch us but join us as well.”
Protesters not affiliated with Occupy Pasadena have said 40,000 peaceful protesters plan on forming a “human float” to “occupy” the Rose Parade. They are denouncing the militarization and corporatization of the parade and calling for the separation of corporate money from the electoral process.