Occupy Kansas City held a rally and march from Ilus Davis Park in downtown Kansas City on Sunday afternoon. At its peak there were approximately three hundred to three hundred fifty people participating in the rally and march.
The march started from the northeast corner of the park. Occupy Kansas City had a permit from the city to march in the street, but apparently the Kansas City Police department vetoed that idea. Marchers were warned by Occupy Kansas City that the police could arrest anyone marching in the street. Most of the marchers took to the street.
A number of police cars, with lights and sirens, appeared shortly after the march turned east. After a few minutes the officers gave up on trying to get the marchers out of the street. They left as quickly as they appeared.
Show Me Progress: What did you think of the day?
Ron McLinden: You know, it was interesting. I, I thought there might be a bigger turnout. But, my guess is that were probably about three hundred people and, and that’s a good turnout. Uh, the march, I was, uh, surprised to learn that City Hall had okayed it but the police had said no, at least that we couldn’t march in the streets. And, uh, we marched in the streets anyway and the police followed along with us for about four blocks and then just left us alone.
Show Me Progress: Uh, uh, what do you think today’s event accomplished?
Ron McLinden: You know, what does anything, what does anyone accomplish? I don’t know. Well, there, there certainly was a media presence there and maybe part of the accomplishment will be whatever they choose to put on the air this evening. Uh, I think there was a good, um, a good spirit of coming together from people from a lot of different perspectives. Uh, maybe still not as many minority faces as the group would like, but, uh, you know, that, that will come along. Um, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s hard to know, there’s so many issues involved in this Occupy movement.
Show Me Progress: But hasn’t the, the dialogue, you know, the dialogue has changed since the Occupy movement has started.
Ron McLinden: And somebody retweeted an article just yesterday, I think, some, something on a national blog or in the press that tracks the, the occurrence of words in, in, uh, cable and other news media. And over the past few weeks it has gone from the word debt being the dominant word to the words Wall Street and occupy being dominant words. So, the, the movement has finally gotten the attention of the mainstream media. Uh, to what extent it has gotten the attention of the people that, that, uh, have offices in the capitol building in Washington and the people who are making the decisions in the, in the corporate board rooms, I, I don’t know yet.
[....]
Um, I think this movement has gotten some criticism for not having a focus and from my perspective that’s okay. I interpret the movement as evidence that there is widespread dissatisfaction among the American people, American people of all stripes, all political stripes, all races and creeds and, and socioeconomic status, that the country is headed in the wrong direction. I think there have been national, there are national polls that track that and the, the percent of the American people that believe we’re headed in the wrong direction is, has been trending upward I think.
So, the fact that, uh, people are coming together, albeit in a pretty disorganized factor, fashion, uh, is a good thing and we can only hope that, uh, some positive change will come out of it.
Photos and interview transcripts at Show Me Progress:
Occupy Kansas City: rally and march from Ilus Davis Park (October 30, 2011)
Occupy Kansas City: rally and march from Ilus Davis Park, part 2 (October 31, 2011)