Albuquerque protesters 'Occupy Wall Street'
Posted at: 10/01/2011 7:03 PM
| Updated at: 10/01/2011 9:17 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
About two hundred protesters marched on Central Avenue near UNM this afternoon to demonstrate against corporate greed.
It wasn't Wall Street, and Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon didn't show up, but the event tied in and harmonized with the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations that have filled New York City the past two weeks.
Albuquerque's protest was one of many across the country. No person was arrested during the city's protest.
In New York City, police said they arrested more than 700 protesters at the Brooklyn Bridge.
In Albuquerque, the police and protesters had a cordial engagement.
Albuquerque police blocked traffic while marchers chanted "Whose street - our street,” as they abandoned sidewalks and walked Central Avenue alongside traffic.
"I expected it to be, like we were gonna occupy the bank, but we've been marching up and down the street," said protester Paula Bauman. "Now it looks like we're settled here cheering our victory."
Soon the marchers headed back toward Girard Blvd. on the eastern edge of the campus, chanting, "This is what democracy looks like!"
Many marchers brought homemade signs to the rally.
"My sign says, ‘Burritos Not Bombs,’" said one young man identified only as Burrito Man. "It's an appeal to the populist movement, that food is better than war."
The marchers called themselves 99 Percenters.
They accused the other 1 percent of being corporate greed-hogs who profited from the federal bailout.
"I believe that health care is a basic human right," said marcher Nancy Denker. "We are being abused, sending all that money overseas for wars, and corporate greed is just killing the country and most of the people here."
Marchers from all walks of life shared the same sentiment.
"I have an undergraduate degree and a law degree, and I still feel economically depressed," said protester Heba Hewa-Kramer, who marched beside her husband Kameron. "I still feel that I have to take certain jobs to ensure that I have health care and that my children get an education, and that's just wrong."
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