By request, I will do a quick rundown on yesterday's Occupy Hartford:
1. The crowd grew in size from my 5 PM arrival until my 8 PM departure.
2. There were adults, children AND babies present.
3. Cops were also present.
4. Many held protest signs.
5. Some stood on the Bushnell Park sidewalk and held up their signs for passerbys to see. One of these was a young boy who could have been between the ages six and ten. Instead of joining the other children (like Sir, my son who is six and was present) at play, upon his arrival, he took his sign and went right to the sidewalk to hold it up for passing vehicles to see. The unidentified man who was with him, was further down the street doing the same.
6. A unanimous proposal was passed about not smoking with so many children being present with the group.
7. They spoke about the morning's meeting.
8. The various "Breadown Groups" (or committees) were recognized as such: Expression, Finance, Food, Legal, Logistics, Media, Medical, Outreach, Research and Shelter. I was having a hard time hearing when I think they mentioned (and voted?) on having a Strategy group.
9. The lawyer stated: "I am not here to tell you what to do. I am here to make sure your rights to the Constitution are protected."
10. I overheard a statement that "One thing we don't want to see here is a failure to communicate." Eluding to the fact that this failure could prompt conflict with the police.
11. It was agreed that occupation would begin at most a week from Wednesday (10052011) and at least by Saturday (10082011). But upon my departure three hours in, they were still unsure.
12. From what I could see, aside from myself and another unidentified photographer, there was no "blatant" media representation. I did upload live video footage to www.keek.com, but am in talks with Keek now as to why my videos did not post.
~MissNikkiAnn, keeping you posted
