What a beautiful day for a parade. It was 80 degrees!

Occupy the Rose Parade: 5,000 Protesters, Giant Octopus Fail to Make Live TV

Apparently the 70-foot octopus float carried by an estimated 5,000 Occupy L.A. protesters at the end of today’s Rose Parade wasn’t awesome enough for KTLA, the premiere local station covering the event.

Reporters gushed over marching bands, floral arrangements and even a police horse brigade led by LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. But after float No. 43 had passed the finish line, the cameras shut off.

“Raw video” of the unofficial Occupy entry has been relegated to a corner of KTLA’s website, because…

… the station is surely aware of the immense national (and international) interest in the parade-ending spectacle. It is, after all, Occupy’s much-anticipated answer to carrying its last three months of momentum into the new year.

Unlike the usual motley crew of nutty picketers at the end of the parade, the Occupy the Rose Parade endeavor was thousands-strong, with 250 feet of visuals. Aside from Octupy, protesters carried two huge U.S. Constitution scrolls, cardboard houses tagged with “foreclosure” and a “1 percenter” in a throne.  

 

The Associated Press: Occupy protest follows 123rd annual Rose Parade
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The 2012 Tournament of Roses brought its flowery floats and strutting bands to a worldwide audience Monday under clear blue skies, and in its wake came a scruffier parade — hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters.

The 123rd annual New Year’s Day event, with the theme “Just Imagine,” flowed along downtown Pasadena to the cheers of hundreds of thousands of sidewalk spectators.
An estimated 40 million people viewed this year’s procession of 44 floats, 16 marching bands and 22 equestrian troupes on U.S. television.

On the heels of the two-hour parade came anti-Wall Street protesters in a pre-arranged demonstration.
The thunder of the retreating marching bands mingled in the air with chants of “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out” as the Occupy the Rose Parade demonstrators retraced about 1.5 miles of the 5.5-mile parade route before veering off for a rally near City Hall.

They carried a 250-foot-long banner that said “We the People” to represent the U.S. Constitution. Some also held a 70-foot-long octopus made from recycled plastic bags that represented the tentacles of perceived corporate greed.

“This is about getting money out of politics,” said Greg Stevens, a 38-year-old public health lecturer at the University of Southern California. “I support everything this movement is about.”
As the protesters marched by, some Rose Parade spectators yelled “get a job” while others snapped photos and cheered.
“It’s kind of crazy but kind of exciting,” said Alana Olvick, 26, of Valencia, Calif.
The ragtag group of protesters made an interesting comparison to the slick, glittering Rose Parade offerings.

“It’s contradicting the parade,” Olvick said. READ MORE…

 

And while you can’t win them all, if they’re not talking slanderously at all, that’s when we should really begin to worry. Here’s an article from a B Journalist that titles his effort to mirror the big boys with the title of his piece beginning with the word “Despite…”

Despite few disruptions Rose Parade 2012 was truly magnificent

“…Even though all preparations were intact and the event was also planned meticulously, things didn’t turn out the way it was expected. Turned out some protesters ended up disrupting the fleeting march, the group Occupy ended up at the Rose Parade carrying signs drawing attention to their cause of income inequality, and dozens of protesters planned to march at the end of the parade with an Occupy Octopus “live” float constructed of plastic bags.

People were highly disappointed to witness this disruption, especially those who had come in from such far-flung areas in advance and even had taken up the most strategic places to view the 5 1/2-mile parade route.”

 

Here’s a generous and honest excerpt from the detoxing from bad cops and city “Privatitis”, of all places, Burbank, which is become truly a reborn city when once any one with anything on their traffic record dared not drive through Burbank, the infamous Burbank P.D. has made necessary changes and the officers there are actually very, very nice now. And it seems, so are the journalists.

Thousands turn out for 123rd annual Rose Parade – Burbank Leader

“…The event this year was punctuated by a demonstration: The group Occupy the Rose Parade carried signs drawing attention to their cause of income inequality, and dozens of protesters planned to march at the end of the parade with an Occupy Octopus “live” float constructed of plastic bags.

That prospect appeared not to dent the enthusiasm of thousands of parade-goers, many of whom spent the night camped out on air mattresses and in sleeping bags to claim coveted positions along the 5 1/2-mile parade route.

 

:…”I saw the Occupy people following the parade, and they seemed like a peaceful group so I decided to join them,” said Pasadena resident Michael Cornwell, 78, who lives near the parade route.”

 

“It’s great they’re using this forum to get the word out,” said Chris Hansen, 48, of Pasadena, who watched the parade with his 8-year-old son Jake. “I’m glad he’s seeing this.”

 

And Look! From the LA TIMES:

Rose Parade 2012: Sunny skies, smaller crowds and an Occupy march – latimes.com

“…Carla Watson held a bright green sign that said “retired teacher 99%” with a rose and an American flag attached.

She and a friend, Nancy Kredell, 69, who said she was a parade princess 51 years ago, planned to join Occupy protesters during the middle of the parade route.
“We believe in the Rose Parade, but we believe that it is time for the people to be heard,” said Watson, 70.”

 

Now isn’t that a sweet human interest angle? Gotta love it.

Occupy protesters and organizer Mark Lipman (orange shirt) march along Colorado Boulevard during the 123rd Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, Jan. 2, 2012. Several hundred Occupy protesters marched at the end of the Rose Parade in a prearranged demonstration.
Credit: AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chi

 

AFP: Cheers, boos for occupy protesters at US parade

“…Demonstrator Mark Lipman said the media had “done a good job putting a fear factor in people’s minds of what they can expect from us, but we are a peaceful, nonviolent movement, and we’re a very creative movement.”

“We understand the tradition of 123 years that people are looking forward to enjoying .. and we don’t want to disrupt that in any way,” he added.”        (Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.)
                         

And from The Huffington Post.  Although elderly woman came all the way from New York City to come to the Rose Parade, 78-year-old Josephine Clare, gets the Honorary Little Old Lady From Pasadena Award:

Protesters Occupy The Rose Parade  
“…Raul Plata, a parade-goer from Washington, D.C., told the Huffington Post that he was impressed with the Occupy the Rose Parade marchers.

 

“To me, it was a surprise that they were so clever to take advantage of a free opportunity to show off their case, which is change in the world,” said Plata. “I think the very long Constitution was a very unique and impressive. Maybe they’ll keep on taking advantage of world-wide promoted events.”

Bystander Logan Chandler, who came to Pasadena from San Diego to watch the parade and the game, was less enthused. He told The Huffington Post, “I get it. Money runs everything, but I think the protest is pointless. You need to vote and push legislation to really make change.”

But protester Josephine Clare, a 78-year-old poet and translator from New York, had a different view of the morning’s events. “I thought it was very successful,” said Clare. “It’s very important that there be a reaction to the abysmal, abysmal economic and political state of things.”