"This is not a protest. This is a movement"
Click photos to embiggen. Scroll down for updates. Latest update 7:30 PST.
10:30 What a glorious day for a
11:00 Leaving the area, I passed half a dozen determined males dressed all in black with the lower half of their faces covered with bandanas heading towards the gathering. They did not look peaceful.
11:20 Splinter animal rights group marching down Robson.
11:30 Four or five occupiers spotted helping lift motorized wheelchair over curb for woman passing by. This is by far the most polite, sunny 'protest' I've ever been to. Most of the people here are not hardened protesters as the media wants you to believe. I bet this is a first time for most of these people.
11:45 And on yeah, that thing that is pissing off the right about the occupiers being "mostly beautiful 20 year olds", it's true! (No wonder there's so much anger and frustration with corporation-loving conservatives.) But there's so much more here. So much beauty in the faces, the correctly-spelled signs, the healthy lifestyle bodies, and of course the smiles.
12:15 Crowd keeps getting bigger and bigger. Impressive. Even comes with signers.
2:45 Crowd thinned out considerably. Still marching? Speakers have been thanking the cops all day. For their part, the police seemed to be almost enjoying themselves, talking animatedly with the crowd, big smiles all around. Which brings me to the media. What assholes. Don't believe anything you read or hear from the media. It's all lies from a pathetic bunch of liars and corporate lackeys. Rant over.
3:15 Speaker announced that the crowd was as large as 5,000. The media is reporting 2,000.
3:30 Crowd has changed over the course of the day. Young people now dominate the crowd. Speakers are augmented by tunes blaring over loudspeakers. Spontaneous dancing breaking out all over the crowd. The Beatles' "Revolution" brings out the best in the dancers. Around the corner, an impromptu dance is happening to a couple of drummers. Primitive and cool. Occuparty!
4:30 That's it for me, at least for now. I'm exhausted. Watch some CFL, throw back a beer or two, then back at it.
7:30 Due to noise restriction laws (I'm guessing) the sound system was shut down at 7. No worries. Boomboxes were handed out to the crowd, rigged so they receive wireless broadcast direct from the mics. Called Decentralized Sound, this is an ingenious method to keep the speeches going and heard.
2 comments:
Thank you!
Good photos, thanks for this post.
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