Occupy KC Rally -- Ilus Davis Park / City Hall -- 10/30

Occupy KC Rally -- Ilus Davis Park / City Hall

The occupy KC rally at Ilus Davis Park right next to city hall had a great turnout. From 2:00-4:00pm, we had various people speaking to the crowd, and then around 4:00pm the march began. I have some images and videos from the event to share.

Here's the courthouse which faces the park:

Although we had a permit which allowed us to rally at Ilus Davis Park, and we specifically clarified beforehand that the sprinklers would not be on, when everything was set up in the grass, the sprinklers 'accidentally' were turned on by Parks and Rec., and ended up getting everything wet, even though they were aware of the upcoming rally for weeks.

We had to move everything onto a narrow area, but we got creative and put some stuff on top of the sprinklers, because some of them were still getting people and our equipment wet: It took at least 20 minutes for Parks and Rec. to turn off the sprinklers after we got into contact with them.

Here's the crowd gathered around the stage:

This is the stage where speeches/announcements were given on, which has the First Amendment inscribed on it: I really wish my camera allowed me to videotape for a long time, because most of the speeches that were given were epic.

I took these right as the march began: But right before it began, we had a decision to make. We had a permit from the city which allowed us to march in the streets, but the police told us that they would arrest anybody who walked in the street. We took a vote, and had about 90% who said they would march in the street and risk being arrested. Those who didn't want to had the option to march on the sidewalk.

No more than 60 seconds after we took to the streets and chanted "Whose streets? Our streets!", 4 cop cars showed up with their sirens/lights on. They came out and tried to tell us that this was our one and only warning to get on the sidewalk, and everybody ignored them and stayed on the streets. So what did the cops do? They got in their cars and left!

We marched into some of the nearby neighborhoods, and the march route was somewhere between 1-2 miles. When cars were piled up behind us, we would chant "Let them pass", and we would get on the far right lane so they could get by us.

During the march, some local news stations stopped by, but unfortunately I was out of memory on my card so I couldn't photograph/videotape them. Here's the short piece that KMBC News did on the rally: