Angst in New York   Tolerance in LA

© By Larry Alger for the WallStreetSwinler.com

Sat Oct 8, 2011 Downtown Los Angeles

 I arrived before 6 AM in down town LA to bring a few donations I’d read on the Occupy Los Angeles blog that I had and they needed.  I dove around City Hall looking at the encampment of tents, tarps, and sleeping bags trying to find anything that looked like HQ.  A lone police cruiser with a single officer was all the police presence I saw in the 15 odd minutes of circling the block and things look very quiet.  Since I found nothing sticking out and no one seemed to be moving around yet I knew there was one place I could go to eat a great breakfast, the legendary Pantry Café at 9th and Fig.

About half an hour later I headed back to City Hall and there were now some people milling around so I stopped and asked them where donations were being accepted.  I was directed to the Media tent and parked the van and found some folks to help me unload the stuff I’d brought for them.  After some quick conversations with the folks who gratefully accepted my donations and had helped me move it all, I realized I had to find a place to park my truck, and then come back and find out what was what, and who I needed to talk to about Occupy LA to get the real skinny.

I got back before 8AM and started walking around taking some photos of the tent city that had sprouted on the lawn of City Hall. 

I flashed back to my teen years during the 60s when LBJ was president The Movement was all about the Viet Nam War.  I thought holy cow-a-bunga, Mayor Sam (Sam Yorty) and Chief Parker, who’s name is on the LAPD Parker Center HQ right around the corner, must be turning over in their grave to think that the city has allowed this kind of discourse and demonstration to go on RIGHT ON THEIR FRONT LAWNS!  Parker would have had his crew out busting heads and jailing all these people. Locally, this may be the biggest part of the story so far.  I guess we have come a long way in 40 odd years after all.

After another photo-op tour I was finally introduced to Brian Rich and Clark Davis at the Media tent.  We sat down to talk and after just a minute or so Clark was called away to handle a pressing issue and Brian Rich and I talked for about 10 minutes.

I asked Clark about my surprise on the lack of police presence and he said the basically the LAPD and the city were supporting the movement and that all of them felt as positive about it as they could.  The his phone went off and he excused himself.  Brian took over telling me that over the last 10 years Americans have been divided and now that divisiveness had reach the point where Americans, the 99%ers, have begun to come together to make their voices heard.

He went on to talk about the logistical challenges and praised both the city government and the LAPD for actually being gracious hosts.  He continued that the citizens of LA have rallied to help make it all possible by donations of all the food, water and even the chemical toilets.  It is not costing the city a single cent he said.

My big question to him was when will OccupLA begin to develop voter registration efforts and he told me that has been discussed, however the immediate challenges of the logistics of caring for the people at hand is consuming all the time and resources this small crew of patriots can muster.   He asked that if you have blankets, tents, folding chairs or tables or even old sets of dishes, cups, glasses and silverware they need them as paper plates and styrofoam cups are not practical for a long term occupation.  See what they need at their blog http://occupylosangeles.org/

And if you are in Southern California, come down and catch the vibe, see what they are all about, and hey bring an old blanket, towel or a gas can (they run on generators) filled with gas as you can.

The full interview can be heard on the Youtube video posted here:

http://youtu.be/9lj-QqV7bZI