City College students march to Civic Center in Solidarity with OccupySD. Photo by Rick G.
At San Diego City College today more than a hundred students staged a walkout in solidarity with Occupy San Diego. After holding a rally at Curran Plaza where many students spoke to an enthusiastic crowd, about 150 protesters marched from the campus, down B Street, chanting and addressing pedestrians and onlookers, to the Civic Center Plaza to join the Occupy Movement protesters.
After a brief greeting and words of support a young student grabbed a bullhorn and encouraged the crowd to follow him to Bank of America for an impromptu rally. Dozens people, mostly students from the college followed him back up B Street, with the SDPD right on their heels, where they stopped on the sidewalk in front of the bank. After being told to make sure to keep a pathway open on the sidewalk about 3 dozen people poured down the steps into the entryway area of the bank.
After a few tentative minutes, as we all wondered what the response would be from police about the protesters being on private property, the young protesters sat down in front of the doors. The security guard inside the bank locked the door to the lobby and although they did let a few people in intermittently most customers that approached were turned away.
At one point three young men dressed in suits tried to enter the bank and were also turned away, but as they left they smiled and raised their hands in support of the sit in. As a couple of tellers left the branch office with their lunches one of them also stated he was part of the 99%.
As long as Frank and I were there the protesters, although loud, were peaceful, as were the police. After we left I heard via twitter that the branch office shut down early due to the sit in. We Are The 99 Percent!
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I love it!! — especially the posters they left behind. Great work OSD!