Skateboarders were getting some air in Freedom Plaza on Thursday night. There was a shoeless man with a long gray ponytail meditating on a yoga mat. Others gathered in the White House adjacent park to bang on a giant drum as rap blasted from a speaker hooked up to an iPad and a group of friends chatted as they sat in a circle of folding chairs outside a giant camping tent. A few yards away, a couple laid on sleeping bags snacked on Nutella, watching a half dozen volunteers erect a giant blue tarp with the words “DEMOCRACY,” “COMMUNITY” and “DIGNITY.”
So ended the first day of Occupy D.C.
The movement that began in New York City a few weeks ago spread to the nation’s capital this week, and everybody was very excited to be there. Everyone just had a different reason why.
There were anti-war protestors, demonstrations against Guantanamo Bay, Ron Paul supporters, marijuana legalization supporters and anti-bank protestors.
In stark contrast to the heated — and sometimes violent — battles between NYPD officers and activists in New York, the more protest savvy MPD police officers acted mostly as escorts. Just after one of the officers snapped a cell phone photo of the protestors outside of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the officers stepped out of the way, allowing protestors to try their luck at knocking on the locked doors to the building.
After their stop at the Chamber, the march continued up to K Street, where they linked up with a group of demonstrators who had set up a camp at 15th and K Street.
Video of the protest below.
