Refund California Action Results in 11 Arrests.

by Robert Stuart Lowden Sunday, Oct. 09, 2011 at 1:28 AM
rlowden@earthlink.net

First Major Arrests of Occupy LA Associated Protesters Photo Set 1 of 2

 Refund California A...
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October 6 was the 6th day of The Occupy LA actions. The Refund California Campaign, MakeBanksPay and and the ACCE ( Alliance of Californians of Community Empowerment ) along with the SEIU union staged a protest and march in and thru the downtown Los Angeles financial district.The march went past Chase, HSBC and eventually surrounded the Bank of America at Figueroa and Seventh Streets. 11 people were arrested for occupying the BofA branch. The police presence was somewhat larger than what was in evidence in all of this present weeks actions.The crowd attempted to enter Chase but was rebuffed by resident security.

The stated goals of the Refund California campaign are .......

Fix Housing to Fix the Economy

Enact a widespread mortgage principal reduction program, creating 300,000 California jobs and injecting over $20 billion into the economy.

Pay Fair Share

Close property tax loopholes, increase taxes on top 1% and corporations, stop ripping off taxpayers with financial schemes like interest rate swaps

Stop Destroying Neighborhoods

Stop foreclosure blight, support small business lending and create jobs. Reinvest profits into putting people back to work and rebuilding our economy.

Rose Gudiel,a La Puente homeowner was present at the protest along with her family. She had been arrested the day before for participating in a peaceful sit - in at the Fanny Mae office in Pasadena. Today she has a meeting scheduled with Fanny Mae to negotiate her loan while the eviction of her family and disabled mother has been halted for the time being.

The actions were attended by a high number of union members. Due to this the organization and coordination of the protest was very tight.

After the arrests, the crowd dispersed in an orderly manner while the police took one of the softest and most effective crowd control maneuvers that the reporter has seen to date.

Choreography was in the Los Angeles air..........The 99% had struck.