Occupy Boston, Interviews and Media

Edit: This thread represents Boston OWS before the riot police moved in. The protesters attempted to camp out in an area not authorized - that's the MSM official line anyways. /edit

Finally getting around to this thread. I went to Occupy Boston this past Friday night. At 9pm there were maybe 300 people on site, with a presence of 6 police officers standing out of the way. Bank of America is close by and its offices partially look down on the park.

The location of Occupy Boston is in a central location right next to South Station and not too far from a highway entrance ramp, so the protest is getting good visibility in high traffic area.

I talked to about a dozen people, and came away with themes that are much debated on ATS and have been covered in MSM recently.

1. People have different agendas (in no order)

a. Spread the wealth of 1%
b. FOX news lies - no truth in journalism
c. Forgive, fix student loans
d. Job creation
e. Need a new party system, democrats and republicans are broken. Voting is useless.
f. End anonymous corporate donations
g. End wars

2. No one wants politics involved but understands that is needed for change. No other solutions offered.

3. Decentralized messaging is good because harder for politicians to grasp on to.

4. The protest itself is loosely organized on purpose so people have a chance at different roles and they move between roles every few days, like:

a. Food tent
b. Media tent
c. Sign usage tent
d. Propaganda tent
e. Logistics tent

5. Attendees were recent college grads, union workers, current college students (Harvard, MIT, UMass, Uni Boston), former military, homeless people and kids with nothing to do.

6. An open bullhorn could be used to get on stage and rant or educate. There were issues with people overstaying their welcome on the bullhorn.

7. I saw pot being smoked and people jamming out to guitars in the back, away from the stage and the hardcore protesters.

8. I spoke to a police office who said he agreed with the protesters as he has children of college age and worries about their future. He encouraged his eldest son to attend the protesters. More, he was worried about the homeless and drug taking element that infiltrated the protest because it requires the law to get more involved. The officer worried about young girls camping in the park with this new element in the mix.

He wondered who provides the protesters with electricity and who authorized their stay, the mayor or governor. Furthermore, he was positive the protests would get violent, he said with the new seedy element in the mix and with enough time, people will get hurt.

Cop also though protesters were in the wrong place, he felt the Boston Common would be better because high rises surround the Common, the State House sits at the top of the Common and protesters could attract more people and more eyes to their causes.

I spoke to another cop who didn't want to talk, he was texting the whole time (hiding it in his gear, but I saw it).

9. A unknown party (at least to the people I spoke to) donated a larger than life bronze Gandhi statue.

10. Italian media was on seen that night interviewing protester as I was.

11. An MIT chemistry student was running the media tent. The official website is: occupyboston.com...

My general impression was these are smart kids who sound like much of us do on ATS, they have their eyes open to political issues and fallacy of current US politics. They have real needs, and are generally worried about their future. And while yes, many were not poor (fancy gadgets, schools attended), they are tomorrows leaders and they feel like they are doing something positive.

Pamphlets I collected but will not scan unless asked to do so (it's busy work but I have them for those interested).

A. History of Wall Street: a brief history of colonization in that area.

B. March and Rally To Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad: info on a march to get US troops, contractors and bases out of Afghanistan now.

C. Columbia Vive Welcomes Adil Melendez: the two faces of Columbia, human rights cause

D. Security Culture: an interesting handout on how to look and act smart in public gathering, a Dos and Don'ts list. What to do if arrested. I might hang on to this pamphlet.

Lastly, some pictures I took. I kept out the pictures with people's faces that asked not be shown, others did not care. If you see a face, they don't care about it being public and on ATS.

Oh yeah. Most people did not know of ATS, but a few did and just winked at me.

I have way more pics but the process of resizing and posting here is tedious. If members would like to see more I'll happily do it, but not sure how much traction this thread will get and if will warrant the time. Or if it does get traction I can post the rest of the pics throughout the thread.