A segment of Occupy Wall Street protesters applied for a permit to be in the annual Rose Parade on January 2nd. They should be applauded for their application -- it was an uncharacteristic submission to hierarchy. But the people who really deserve applause are the parade officials who rejected their application.
But now the Occupiers, who never take no for an answer, plan to follow behind the police cars that conclude the parade. Officials are aware of this, and an article by Penny Starr of CNS News said:
“They will be allowed, just like any other spectator or any other demonstrator, to fall in at the completion of the parade behind our four police cars that trail the parade,” Riddle [Lt. of the Pasadena Police Department] said. “That doesn’t give them placing, that doesn’t give them a permit – no permit is needed as long as they don’t infringe on other individuals that every year gather in the street and walk.”
The Occupiers plan to make a "human float" -- whatever form that ends up taking, it should be an interesting spectacle.
Unsurprisingly, the Tea Party outclassed the Occupiers in their response. Starr's article states:
But Michael Alexander, president and co-founder of the Tea Party Pasadena Patriots and its political action committee, TEAPAC, said he doesn’t think the protestors will have much impact and described the Occupy efforts as a “movement in decline.”
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Alexander said his group debated whether to stage a counter-demonstration but it was decided that it was wrong to “politicize” the beloved parade.
“America is entitled to one day without politics, whether it’s the Tea Party, the Democrats, the Republicans or the Occupy people,” Alexander said. “The Rose Parade is our parade and we deeply resent any effort to politicize it.”
“The real demonstration is going to be at the polls in November and at every other election in between,” Alexander said. “That’s where this battle will be fought -- not in petty street theater.”
Written by Mary Crookston
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