Whether success in gaining attention is good for the movement remains to be seen, but LA is taking the protests seriously. 1,200 school children (kindergartners to lower elementary) near the protest areas have been trained on how to lock themselves into school, with enough food and water to last the night. Almost all the mom and pop diamond merchant in the diamond district near the Staples center are planning on closing. Mailboxes and hundreds of newspaper vending machines have been taken from the street.
LA Times.
CNN.
What remains to be seen is if protestors attention grabbing tactics, and the focus on confrontation and battle with the police, succeeds in bringing mainstream America on board, or simply makes them begin to worry about the fate of their children in schools where block bloc anarchists are likely to roam "liberating" personal property.
