Occupy Columbia Day Five Update - October 19, 2011

Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. was our second action and what an action it was. This time we paid a visit to some of the local offices of the firms that we believe crashed the United States economyand damaged the world's economy in the process. Before we left the State House we were thrilledto have the head of the Columbia police department speak to us, Chief Scott.

I would think that Columbia has had more help and support from our local law enforcement agenciesthan probably any occupation in the country. Chief Scott made sure we all understood how to make the march a success from a safety standpoint and that also we had every right to use theFirst Amendment. In addition to the help in making the march work, Chief Scott walked with us,and from what I heard was sympathetic to the movement. Considering all the police brutalitythat has been documented and uploaded onto the internet, I was extremely pleased to have the Chief march with us in civilian clothes and not against us.We first headed down Main St. alternating between some of our usual chants. My favorite "Tell mewhat democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!" was used several times. The first stop was outside Wells Fargo.
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Of course we wanted to tell Bank of America what was on our mind.

Then just around the corner is Merrill Lynch. Coincidence or not, there were TWO Homeland Security SUV's parked outside their building.

Columbia is fortunate (?) enough to have two Bank of America buildings but when we got to the second it looked as though it was Sunday morning. Customers found the doors lockedand the ground floor offices were deserted. A little bit of a victorious feeling came over some of us.