Occupy Kansas City March - October 9th

Yo, I just came from the Occupy Kansas City rally and it was awesome. I showed up later in the day right before the march started, and we headed out from the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank and marched all the way to a big fountain in the plaza and back. There were over 500 people in the march, and the line of people was incredibly long. You know when you're sitting in front of a train that's passing on the train tracks and it takes forever for the whole thing to pass? That's what drivers experienced when we would cross the street

I haven't got around to uploading my videos of the march up to YouTube, but I've found a video of the march online. Here it is. I interviewed a few people, took pictures of signs, took videos of the march, so once I upload that stuff to YouTube I'll post it here.

People were chanting "We are the 99%", "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out", "Show me what democracy looks like? This is what democracy looks like", and a few other things. I actually lost my voice on the way back.

There were no encounters with the police on the way there, but on the way back a police van and a cruiser showed up. They honked and fist-pumped a little bit to show their support, but they ended up taking some people aside that were walking in the street and talking to them. Everybody started chanting "Let them go!" and "The whole world is watching" (because of the live feed), and they ended up letting them go. They were really cool about the whole thing. The police show up around 17:00 into the video.

We had tons of support from people driving by, everybody would honk and show their support. No drivers/pedestrians had anything negative to say about our protest, in fact the only encounter that would come close to resembling that was some dude who flipped us off because we were walking across the street and taking forever to get all of us across.

It was a really fun rally, and people are camping out there overnight. There are going to be more marches in the future, and I'll try to keep you guys updated. One thing that's going on soon is the group is going to march to all of the nearby politicians offices, and present them with a petition to sign that says they won't accept any corporate money and will oppose legislation that endorses corporate money in politics. Politicians that refuse to sign the petition will have their names posted on the occupykc website, so we will know who is corrupt and who is not.

reply to post by TupacShakur


I wanted so much to be therre in Kansas City with you guys. However my schedule wouldn't allow it. I decided to spend what time I had working on the Ron Paul campaign in my local area. I will be looking forward to your video. Thanks for the update.

reply to post by redrose123


Don't worry, that's not going to be the last big rally/march. If you ever want to drop by, just drop by because people are going to be camped out there 24/7 for a while, probably a few weeks if not more.

You can find their Facebook page and get updated on upcoming events and stuff like that, plus people post pictures/videos there too.

I attended my local occupy event today in Des Moines. I took pics, vids and talked to a lot of people. I wrote a thread about it but won't derail your thread to post a link.

It is great to see people get involved regardless of their political stance or economic situation. Hope to see more soon!

So they're gonna start labeling certain politicians as corrupt? and make a list of it too???

I just wonder how many people on ATS realize that these occupy protests/rallies are aimed at further disruption of our already struggling national economy, that one of the leading organizations behind all of this is Anonymous, and that videos have been released in which Anonymous threatens to "erase" the NYSE from the internet which is a criminal terrorist act in itself. And so, I wonder how many people on ATS who support the occupy protests realize that they are in fact supporting and possibly participating in an act of economic terrorism and sabotage of the American financial systems.

I've been following the OWS rallies since day one. The most popular chant of the protesters is "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out". What the protesters fail to acknowledge in their chanting is the identity of the organization that bailed out the banks and that sold out the people. Against all opposition from the people, the Democratic Party bailed out the banks, time and time again. In doing so, the Democratic Party is the one that sold out the people of America by throwing the American tax dollars to the wolves.

So why is it that the people march in protest against the ones that got bailed out instead of against the ones that did the bailing out? Surely the people cannot be so naive as to believe that the politicians didn't suspect that the banks would misuse the money that they received from the bailouts.

reply to post by Gwampo


Dude, if a politician doesn't pledge that he won't accept corporate money and won't vote against legislation endorsing corporate money funding politicians, what does that tell you? That he's not corrupt?

I'm not even 2 miles from there and heard nothing about it. Sucks, I would have liked to attend. To bad those of us who refuse to be part of social networking cant get any real time info.

reply to post by Underworlds

I just wonder how many people on ATS realize that these occupy protests/rallies are aimed at further disruption of our already struggling national economy, that one of the leading organizations behind all of this is Anonymous, and that videos have been released in which Anonymous threatens to "erase" the NYSE from the internet which is a criminal terrorist act in itself. And so, I wonder how many people on ATS who support the occupy protests realize that they are in fact supporting and possibly participating in an act of economic terrorism and sabotage of the American financial systems.

Nah dude I actually talked to one of the Anonymous members there, and he was just a regular guy joining in on the protests, except he had a mask on.

I've been following the OWS rallies since day one. The most popular chant of the protesters is "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out". What the protesters fail to acknowledge in their chanting is the identity of the organization that bailed out the banks and that sold out the people. Against all opposition from the people, the Democratic Party bailed out the banks, time and time again. In doing so, the Democratic Party is the one that sold out the people of America by throwing the American tax dollars to the wolves.

Yeah....I don't think very many people there supported the bank bail-out, hence the anger towards it.

Being close to Kansas City and loving the Missouri way of life....

I kind of throw up in my throat a little seeing the posts lauding the march and having Ron Paul signatures.

Having a propaganda signature of a Republican and claiming to agree with the marching public seems sickening.

I know...don't flame me for disagreeing with your current angel of politics. Just saying, the rebel attitude and your Ron Paul sig's are a juxtaposition that makes me puke alittle.

reply to post by ludshed


Well if you want to go down there and see what's going on, you can just show up any time and there will be at least a couple dozen people there camping out. During the daytime, especially during events that are planned for the day like speakers and stuff like that, there will be a lot more people.

You missed out though, this march was a lot of fun.

reply to post by MissPoovey


Ron Paul is not comparable to any of the other corporate puppet, Bilderberg attendee, phony politicians. I agree with him on most but not all of his stances, and think he would make a great president and could fix lots of the issues with this country. Plus his positions on issues also completely seperates him from the rest of politicians that are running for President.

And do you know that Ron Paul doesn't get his campaign funding from corporations?

I am amazed that every four years there are people that say this candidate is going to be different.

Please just examine the Republican party's votes against the average person. Now ask yourself if another Republican will be different than the last 25 years of Republicans?

reply to post by MissPoovey


Please tell me which other Republican candidate has wanted to end all wars immediately, end the Drug War, audit the Federal Reserve, predicted the economic collapse, and constantly preaches about the Constitution and our rights that are being eroded?

Ron Paul is not your run of the mill, smooth-talking, come-and-go politician. If you can't clearly see that from the debates, then I'm sorry. Now let's not turn this into a poltical debate, remember, the OP is about Occupy KC, not Ron Paul.

Much like the tea party, which really sprung up after Dr. Paul's 2008 campaign, how long before the OWS protests are taken over by big money. In the Tea Party case, it is the Koch Brothers, in the OWS case it is going to be Soros most likely. Neither the Koch's or Soros has America's interest at heart, they are just in it for them selves. Dr. Paul has some some awesome ideas, he also has some really screwed up ones, unfortunately I do not believe him likely to get the GOP nod, and if he did, Obama would crucify him. The repubs really need to get off of their high horse and bring a realistic candidate, or for someone like me, I will be forced to vote for Obama again. Please remove religion from politics, and Romney is not the answer to you problems, he is the question, he has no idea what he believes.

You are quite correct.
Let's not derail the thread with politcal jargon.

I am happy the citizens are protesting here in KC. More power to them. The KC Fed director (Hoenig) is the only one who ever disagreed with Bernanke. And finally retired because of policy.

reply to post by BubbaJoe


I don't think so dude. The thing about these protests is that there isn't a leader, the people themselves are the leader. You, me, your neighbor, a 20 year old college student, an 83 year old man, they're all the leaders of the occupy movement. If some guy tried to make himself the leader of the occupy movement, he wouldn't get very far.