The great slogan Occupy protestors wore on their tee-shirts, with tape over their mouth: If Money is Speech, Poverty is Silence. Outside they wore baseball uniforms saying “Tax Dodgers.”
Occupy protestors kicked out of CPAC
(Credit: Jumoke Balogun)WASHINGTON — During Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s much-anticipated speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), “Occupy” protestors conducted a silent protest that erupted into a chanting match between protestors and conservative conference attendees.
In an overflow room next door to the main ballroom broadcasting Romney’s speech, about two dozen protestors stood in front of the monitors attempting to block the view, according to two conference attendees in the room.
Two college students from New Jersey, Matt Bowe and Kevin Spiley, gave Hotsheet the play-by-play.
“They weren’t tall enough to block the screen, but it was still annoying,” Spiley said.
The crowd started to yell at the protestors, who covered their mouths with tape and wore shirts that read, “If money is speech, poverty is silence.” Bowe said people started to shout the protestors down by saying, “‘You smell, get a job’ — you know, the usual stuff.”
Hotsheet witnessed the protestors being escorted through the maze of conference rooms, down an escalator, through a hotel bar and out the side doors of the sprawling hotel.
By that time, the “Occupy” protestors had torn the tape off their mouths and loudly chanted, “We are the 99 percent.” The group of protesters were college students from different parts of the nation who said Romney’s policies would only benefit the nation’s elites.
“Romney says ‘I’m not concerned about the very poor,’ and I’m here to say he should care, I’m one of them,” said Joe Gallant, a recent graduate of George Mason University. “I’m working two jobs and still can’t make it.”
As the protesters were escorted out, conference participants shouted back, “We pay your rent,” and moved into the hotel lobby and perimeter hotel bars chanting, “Get a job.”
The Occupy movement has not received much attention at CPAC, but both radio host Laura Ingraham and commentator Ann Coulter made jokes about it.
Ingraham opened her speech with with a jab at the group. Referring to about 100 protestors outside the hotel hosting the conservative conference, she said, “You might not have seen them, but you smell them.”
Occupy DC Protests The ‘1 Percent’ Outside CPAC 2012
Huffington Post, February, 10, 2012
WASHINGTON — The Conservative Political Action Conference drew crowds of protesters on Friday, as members of the Occupy Wall Street movement and labor groups demonstrated against the annual confab as a powwow for the “1 percent.”
Inside the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., students affiliated with Occupy silently interrupted a speech by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. The protesters, wearing “We are the 99%” stickers over their mouths and shirts that read “If money is speech, poverty is silence,” were escorted from the building by security.
While leading figures in the conservative movement continued to meet inside, outside the hotel the atmosphere was more raucous, with several hundred people rallying at noon beneath a giant inflatable “fat cat.” They held signs, chanted, and set up a few tents at the bottom of the hotel’s winding driveway.
But when protesters began marching up the driveway shortly after noon, several D.C. police officers impeded their path and instructed protesters — and members of the media — that they needed to move back. Police said the driveway was private property and that those still on it risked arrest. The protest began moving back down the driveway as CPAC attendees watched from the sidelines. Police continued to keep protesters and members of the media off the driveway but allowed the protest to spill off the sidewalk, blocking the street.
The protest saw a number of outlandish attendees, from the Brooklyn “Tax Dodgers,” a faux baseball team who satirically support former Massachusetts Gov. Romney, to “Candidate Walmart,” aka Ben Waxman, who said he was standing up for a corporation’s right to run for president. It also drew a mix of Occupy protesters, union supporters and members of local groups.
“We’re protesting CPAC’s propping up of policies that don’t force U.S. corporations to pay their fair tax share, and really promote obscene income inequality in this country,” said James Adams, a coordinator with Occupy DC. “The dreams of Americans who make up the 99 percent are being squashed by CPAC and their poster boy, Mitt Romney.”
Although protesters expressed concern on issues from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to foreign policy, most said they were focused on economic policy.
“We’re trying to create more jobs here in the District, and we feel by holding Congress and big corporations accountable for not paying their fair share of taxes, they can create more jobs by doing so,” said Dwayne Devoe, another member of Occupy DC. “A lot of them are talking about creating jobs, but at the end of the day, what they’re saying doesn’t really relate to their message.”
Jeanae Paul, a member of Good Jobs Baltimore, said she was trying to call attention to the plight of the jobless. “I’ve been unemployed for over a year now, and it’s been really hard,” Paul said. “I’ve been going on interviews, but there’s no jobs out there. They’re non-existent. And it’s hard to feed my family, it’s hard to buy clothes, to celebrate the holidays.”
Paul said she made the trip to Washington because she wanted the Republican candidates for president to hear stories like hers. “It’s important to let them know that we’re people, too,” she said. “We want to be heard. You know, they need to know the real stories, instead of listening to what their 1 percent is saying. Because we’re the 99 percent.”
Brendan Duke, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, an organization of 2.1 million members, told The Huffington Post that there were 600 protesters on hand, including 300 unemployed workers from the D.C. area. He said the protest was scheduled to last until 2 p.m.
Most CPAC attendees simply walked around the rally, but several stopped to speak with protesters.
Byron Sanford, a Catholic University student who supports Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), seemed sympathetic. “I agree with Occupy Wall Street on one of the things they stand for — I think corporations are ripping off the American people,” he said, admitting that he was actually more comfortable with the atmosphere outside the conference. “I feel much better out here.”
Others were less impressed.
“I’ve been to a couple of these things, and it’s pretty typical — it’s the same slogans,” said John Sexton, who writes for Verum Serum, CPAC’s 2012 Blog of the Year. “Individually, they can be very reasonable, but in groups, you’re not thinking.”
Another protest outside CPAC is planned for Friday evening.
Michael Calderone contributed to this report.
Occupy demonstrators target Romney with protest of CPAC speech
A small group of demonstrators staged a silent protest during Mitt Romney’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. Security guards for the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, where the annual gathering of conservatives is being held, quickly threw the protesters out.
Joe Gallant, 22, was among the group. Gallant said the protesters moved to the front of an overflow room where attendees were watching Romney’s speech, taped their mouths, and revealed T-shirts that read, “If money is speech, then poverty is silence.”
“We were just trying to get our point across that there is too much money in politics,” Gallant said.
Trade unions and community groups staged a larger protest outside the hotel. The demonstrators tried to approach the hotel building but were turned back by police. The crowd chanted the Occupy movement slogan, “We are the 99%,” but only a few members of Occupy D.C. were present.
Monique Covington, 24, a member of Our DC, a community group working to bring jobs to the city, said she was protesting plans to cut entitlement programs. She said she has been unemployed for five years and supports herself and her son on food stamps and other benefits.
“They cut that, people are going to be dying without food and water,” she said.
Small groups of CPAC attendees came out to watch the protesters, and some tried to debate with them. Patrick Richardson, 21, a business student from Ohio, asked protesters for their thoughts on a flat tax.
“I’m by no means the 1% yet, but I aspire to be,” he said.
Union members plan to return to CPAC again early Friday evening, and Occupy D.C. is planning another protest for the conference’s final day Saturday.
ian.duncan@latimes.com
Labor, Occupy D.C. protesters target CPAC
Hundreds of protesters converged on the Marriott Wardman Park hotel this afternoon to protest the Conservative Political Action Conference, saying the group represents the growing gap between the rich and the poor.
Occupy protestors and others, including this group from New York dressed as “Tax Dodgers,” staged a protest in front of the Marriott Wardman Park hotel Friday, which was hosting the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. (Bill O’Leary – The Washington Post) Carrying tents, giant inflatables and banners, the group swarmed the hotel entrance around noon.
The protesters represented various unions, progressive groups and Occupy D.C. — timing their event to Mitt Romney’s planned speech to thousands of conservatives attending the conference.
“I’m here to tell Mitt Romney and CPAC to stop giving tax breaks to the rich, and create good jobs for the 99 percent,” said John Butler, an unemployed District resident who is part of a group called Our DC. “We want them to see us, hear us, feel us.”
John Butler, foreground left, of Our DC, marches with Occupy protestors and others up the driveway of the Marriott Wardman Park hotel as they protest the CPAC convention going on inside on Friday in Washington. (Bill O’Leary – The Washington Post) The protesters, including representatives from the Teamsters and United Auto Workers, erected giant tents on the sidewalk as well as a one-story inflatable designed to resemble a “fat cat.”
But District police and hotel security maintained a heavy presence, largely keeping protesters confined to the sidewalk. About 12:30 pm, dozens of protesters suddenly marched up to driveway toward the door of the hotel, but police cars and officers quickly formed a barrier preventing them from entering.
A few CPAC attendees hurled insults at the protesters, such as “get a job,” but most appeared amused or quietly watched the demonstration from hotel grounds.
“I think its good to see people express themselves,” said Bryn Mahan, 23, of Virginia Beach. “Its not a demonstration I agree with, but its great to see people passionate.”
Additional demonstrations are planned later Friday, and some conservatives have expressed concern about the potential for violence.
Late last year, hundreds of Occupy DC protesters trapped conservatives attending an Americans for Prosperity conference in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
But District police have since adjusted their tactics to become more observant of the protests.