Thursday, October 06, 2011

Occupying San Antonio

It came to occupy Travis Park!



¡Puro San Antonio!



I was in the area, so I made it down to the "Occupy San Antonio" protest in Travis Park today. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I think it was something more than what was there. I mean, it was hardly an occupation.




That picture above was taken at the corner of Navarro and Pecan, and the smallish crowd of corporate-greed-hatin' protesters was at the far end by Jefferson Street. Here's a closer shot:



Not much of a takeover. I mean, the homeless dudes were still wandering around without fear of bumping into nary a protester.

I don't know if they had more people earlier in the morning, but I think this is about it. I got there just in time, because they were breaking up to do a march through the downtown streets (crying out about injustices, I'm sure). To their credit, the organizers were reminding the participants that this was a peaceful protest, and while they were marching they were to make sure they kept to the sidewalks and cleaned up their own trash.

As they departed Travis Park, I snapped a few pictures. And, though their numbers seemed very small for a city of our size, they did seem to get into the spirit of the protest and even showed a bit of creativity in their costumes and signage.

(Disclaimer: I'm a fairly conservative guy, and I think this protest lacked focus and existed just for the sake of having a protest; but the participants were polite and well-behaved for the few minutes I saw them, and they didn't seem as off-putting as some of the stuff I've seen Zombie post. But, then again, Zombie lives in San Francisco, and she has a lot of insanity to document.)




Here's an image of a guy who thinks we need to bailout firefighters, and that Governor Rick Perry is a slut. Well, I'm not sure what the message here is (I assume he's talking about the people who have been fighting the recent Texas wildfires, but I did not know they were bankrupt and needed a bailout), but I kind of like how he used actual fire to burn his sign a little as a visual aid.




Here's a picture of the crowd as they filed up to begin their march. I don't know what the red crosses are supposed to signify, but several people had them on their clothes. I don't care to look it up right now, so if anyone knows the meaning of the crosses, pop on into the comments section and let us know.




This guy got pretty creative with his outfit. He's supposed to be dollar bill that's been shot up by gunfire and is bleeding profusely. I assume he means this to be military gunfire and that he's protesting any and all wars, but I can't be sure. I guess the gunfire could be gang-related, but I'm not sure whether he would be for or against that kind of thing.




You're a grand old flag!

Oh, and there's dollar-bill guy, as he looks from the back.




Equality for all! It don't matter if you're red, yellow, brown, or ---- blue?




"Fyre Teechurs! Cloze Skools!"

Clever.




"Free hugs" from SAnonymous

I don't know, would you take one from him?




Demon of Greed
+
Demon of Arrogance
+
Demon of Corruption on Wallstreet
=
Demon of Bondage on Mainstreet

Ooooookkaaaaaaayy.




Just to remind you that your ass is occupied.




"Ar yst
More Freed-
om No war!
We are care
bears love the
world! Care!"

Best headscratcher.




"Hey Obama
Did GE give
you Crabs?!"

Second best headscratcher.




"Ok, Kids,
who
broke the
country?"

Dunno. Stimulus, maybe?


I wish them well on their journey. They seemed a bit radical, but not too much. And, as I said earlier, they were very polite. And I appreciate that.

5 comments:

Sabra said...

Looking at their FB page, they are claiming to have had 250-300 people. Their photos look pretty much like yours, though. (https://www.facebook.com/occupysanantonio)

I think I just lost 50 IQ points trying futilely to find the meaning of the crosses, to no avail. Might go down tomorrow to check it out. They're camped in Hemisphere Park, which I'm guessing is like HemisFair, but for the clueless.

Albatross said...

They're camped in Hemisphere Park, which I'm guessing is like HemisFair, but for the clueless.

Hilarious! Thanks for sharing!

Dave said...

Oh how I wish I had taken my camera down to visit that fun group. Great pictures.

I'm going to assume that picture you posted of the lady dressed in the US flag diaper was probably her most flattering view.

richard mcenroe said...

I'm sorry, but that photo, the "V" reference looked more like an "O"

Albatross said...

I'm going to assume that picture you posted of the lady dressed in the US flag diaper was probably her most flattering view.

I missed the frontal, so I'm assuming that was her best side. It certainly was her most spangled side.