LANCASTER – Residents walking or driving by any of the big banks on The Blvd Saturday morning were greeted by a group of Occupy Antelope Valley demonstrators who waved signs, passed out information, and commanded residents to close their bank accounts and open them at credit unions, instead.
“You are being abused by corporate greed!” Angel Warner told passing motorists. “Get rid of the corporate greed and corruption and put America back into the people’s hands that built this great country! Put it back into the 99 percent, the people that work hard everyday that built this country and make the money for these greedy so and so’s!”
“MOVE YOUR MONEY OR LOSE YOUR MONEY!” the group chanted.
Some drivers honked their horns while others pumped their fists in support of the group.
“This is a brave group,” said one man walking by who gave the group a “thumbs up” sign.
Demonstrators marched the length of The BLVD on both sides, stopping for about 5-10 minutes at each of the big banks (Chase, Union Bank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America) to shout their message. They passed out fliers to bank customers as they exited.
Many bank employees simply stared out their glass doors at the group. However, employees at one bank, Wells Fargo, locked the doors as the group approached.
“LOCK IT UP! LOCK IT UP!” the group chanted.
The demonstration was the second one for Occupy Antelope Valley, which held its first march last week. Read the story here. Occupy AV facilitators say Saturday’s march was part of a national call to encourage people to transfer their money out of the big banks and into credit unions and community banks.
“A lot of the credit unions are national credit unions, but the difference is that credit unions are owned and controlled by their members and they’re not for profit as opposed to the big banks,” said Occupy AV facilitator Devin Letzer. “You have more say over how your money is used, it’s cheaper for you, usually it will pay better rates, and they don’t have nearly as high fees. So that’s the main message of moving your money.”
According to the Credit Union National Association, 650,000 Americans joined credit unions last month — more than in all of 2010 combined. Letzer says this proves that the “Move Your Money” movement is catching on, and said that Occupy AV was leading the local movement by example.
“A number of people in the group today have already done it,” said Letzer. “There was a man in front of Chase who cut up his cards today… even if today is just a start, that’s progress.”
Immediately following the march, the group headed over to the American Heroes Park on Elm and Kettering, where the group plans to begin an ongoing occupation.
Initially, Occupy AV plans to have a presence in the park daily during the park’s hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Each night there will be a General Assembly at 7 p.m., open to everyone, which will determine when and if Occupy AV will attempt to hold the space beyond those hours.
The occupation will continue, indefinitely, in solidarity with the other occupations all over the world. For more information on this movement, visit the group’s face book page.
The AV Times will be following this story and will bring you more updates on the ongoing occupation in future news stories.
William says
Apropos of nothing or maybe it is. I love reading Maureen Dowd’s columns and today’s was a hoot. It was her observations at a high priced shoe store’s sample sale.
From the article – “In a sumptuous book celebrating his 20th anniversary, Christian Louboutin explained the eternal erotic allure of high heels: “It’s because it gives the woman’s foot the same curve” and arch “as pleasure does” in the boudoir.
A guy from Wisconsin commented-
The Ultimate Chick Flick
THE WIZARD OF OZ – 2 women fighting over a pair of shoes.
From another guy- “If it fits, it’s ugly”
Blossom says
Why would this worldwide movement be about Rex Parris? There were no signs about Parris thats just crazy. If you don’t want to join don’t, just don’t be so arrogant as to believe is about small town Mayor, is OWS is about Mayor Bloomberg? If you believe it’s Republican or Democrat you are missing the whole point. No one is OCCUPY defends any political point view it’s global.
William says
Thank you. Some in Lancaster are so provincial.
John Howard says
This is mostly bandwagoners looking for another reason to bitch about Lancaster and R Rex. If it was truly an Occupy organization it would take place in other places in the A.V. Not just the BLVD where it’s full of family owned and operated businesses who are just as frustrated by the situation as the REAL occupiers. By creating a ‘scene’ they only dissuade the community from supporting local businesses. People in the group were presenting signs that expressed matters about Section 8 and “Screw Rex”.. How is that related to Occupy? It’s not.. they have an ulterior motive and this is just the current bandwagon for them to try to express their frustration about Rex and the City of Lancaster. Fine.. call a horse a horse, but don’t try to mask it as an Occupy group when in fact it’s nothing more than a Get Rex Out Of Lancaster gathering.
Jo says
Must be a whole new group of rex haters then, as I don’t recognize any of the usual suspects. Hey, Maybe David G coordinated it from his jail cell in the LA mens prison. Maybe he used his bail money to hire a bunch of out of town actors to take up the gauntlet? I mean, there couldn’t be that many different groups that hate rex, could there?
William says
Well, John, how do you feel about a new tax on stock trades and stiffer regulations on Wall Street and Elizabeth Warren replacing Scott Brown as a Massachesetts senator and moving money from the big banks in general? I know. It’s a trick question.
Rick says
It’s not about Parris, but don’t kid yourself, he is the 1%, and he’s he’s a Fascist.
Blossom says
And you know all this how? Cuz your really out of it, isn’t Heroes Park in the AV? Who are you decide where any American should exercise their right to free speech, don’t tread on me!
Eric Moore says
I believe that BLVD is the right place to protest, as far as I have been able to tell, most of the business there are getting some kind of money from the City, isn’t that the reason we are all upset? The goverment using our funds to finance this big cats? I said most because there are hard working business owners there, specially the ones that have been around thru good and bad times, but, really just look at the BLVD and you can tell who the BIG CATS are, the ones with the most expensive and fancier store fronts, make no mistake there is a lot of CITY MONEY being spread around, MILLIONS and MILLIONS AND MORE MILLIONS.
Matt Keltner says
Eric,
…and guess what? Palmdale had to spend millions to lure Macy’s to the A.V. Mall. Why no protest there?
Matt Keltner says
According to information I have saved from someone on the Palmdale Planning Commission, the City of Palmdale spent about $5 Million to attract Macy’s and millions more have gone from the City to the other anchors and the owner of the mall itself (Forrest City) as well:
——
Regional Mall – Estimated total jobs created 1,200. $2,000,000 – loan to Forrest City (repaid)
$12,000,000 – assistance with land acquisition and assembly
$1,851,035 – reimbursement to Dillard’s for public improvements; paid over time calculated based on 50% of the sales tax generated from the site (but paid with tax increment); created 225 jobs. In excess of $2.1M in sales tax has been received by the City.
$5,000,000 – rehab loan to Forrest City to attract Macy’s as stabilizing anchor for regional shopping mall; est. 130 jobs and 110,000 sf rehab. Macy’s generated over $36,000 in revenue for the City during their first 2 weeks of being open in Palmdale.
——-
So, as far as the BLVD is concerned, what is Lancaster doing that is any different than what Palmdale did with the mall?
Eric Moore says
I don’t know but, I am having a hard time comparing Macy’s with the I don’t remember the farcy fart theater they just opened on the BLVD I am glad Mayor Lancford knows how to get real business to Palmedale, and he does not have to resort to promoting go-cart races to attract business to the mall or Holoween parties and then go in public and anounce to the world that he had 35,000.00 people in attendance, pittyfull if you ask me. someone somewhere said that the bill was at $210 million as of 2010, I am appriciating our Mayor more and more everyday….
Blossom says
Matt; no one said u can’t protest @ the mall, you pick place & others will pick theirs. Why is it people sitting @ their warm house want to tell people who are out doing something where they should do it. I mean really??? No one said Palmdale is doing anything different than Lancaster.
William says
Why did Fresca II move to the Mall instead of the BLVD if the BLVD is so great? Did Mayor Ledford pay them to move like Parris tried with the Chevy dealership?
Look at how many businesses moved to Palmdale; Mervyn’s and Circuit City before Parris and before they closed, Smart n Final, Fresca II, and there may be others.
Palmdale is the PREMIERE city in the Antelope Valley and much credit goes to Mayor Ledford. Crime is lower and property values higher and the Mall is way, way more of an attraction without having any events than the BLVD which looks almost deserted some afternoons.
Eric Moore says
Well Matt, you made my point, Mayor Ledford is actually doing something for Palmdale, all Lancaster is getting is a big bowl of nonsence, their BLVD is going to look like thier Factory Outlet pretty soon, when these guys squize the town dry, good luck with your new infrared camara flying plane, that should be sometning when freedom of information lets this characters show your sorry butts doing what evers is what you do in the “privacy” (yeah, right, if you live in Lancaster) of your home. I honestly believe that the Occupy people pick the right spot for this, I am not sure how safe they will be in Lancaster, get those video camaras out, specialy if you see that D’arrrico guy.
Jo says
Yeah. Solyndra cost us what? 600 million? Why not ask Cheney to give us the BANK money back? A trillion? But that was your guy, so that was OK, right Bob? Where the hell where you when the Dick and W show was in town?
Bob says
you have a choice whether or not to patronize those “greedy corporations”… did you have a choice whether or not the gov’t blew millions (billions) of taxpayer money? I still say: take the protest to the Capitol. That’s the real enemy.
Blossom says
You protest where you want, don’t tell us where do ours, this AMERICA
Kathe says
Bob, if you’d like to have an influence on how Occupy Antelope Valley does things, come to a GA meeting – they’re held every night at 7 p.m.
If you’re prefer to just gripe from your comfy chair, well, it’s not likely you’ll influence anyone.
Bob says
Instead of wasting time picking on banks because of all the “corporate greed”, this whole protest should be held on the steps of the Whitehouse, and the state Capitols… our own government is wasting more of our hard earned money than anyone else. Demand that Obama get our “Solyndra” money back.
William says
The protests should rightly be at the Reagan Library. Whenever you hear someone say that the wealth gap increased astronomically in the last 30 years, or wages have been stagnant the last 30 years, or CEO compensation to worker ratio has hugely increased in the last 30 years, etc., etc. guess who was president 30 years ago?
We’ve had one crises, scam, fraud, crime, scheme, etc. after another ever since Reagan let the ‘greed genie’ out of the bottle. The S & L fiasco, junk bonds, dot coms, Enron, sub-prime and so on. These haven’t been the normal business cycle recession but greed inspired shameless activities since Reagan. The republicans wanted a ‘free market’ and no regulations except the ‘free market’ wanted Washington to bail them out when they gambled and lost. How about that?
AVCitizen says
Now you’re blaming Reagan? Even Obama doesn’t blame things on Regan from 30 years ago (he blames it all on Bush instead).
So you are saying that the big bad republicans are the source of all the country’s problems. Did Obama fix anything? Did the Dems fix anything when they were in control?
Blossom says
The protests should rightly where the persons desires to protest, not where you decide is the right place. Who are you to think you have a right to tell another American where to protest? Isn’t this still AMERICA? There are countries that tell people when & where they can protest & we don’t choose live there.
Anon says
Blossom.. please try to form complete sentences without missing words. It makes it difficult to read your comments. So far, you’ve added nothing to this thread except “This is America… I can protest if I want to”. Yeah, you can. No one argues that. But it sure looks like you’re just protesting without fully understanding everything, just to have something to do.
William says
There are political parties here that do the same. Remember the 2008 republican convention and how protesters were herded into a fenced area away from the festivities?
William says
Yes. Yes. And yea. I know you are myopic but the trend that got us here started with Reagan and the people who supported him. It didn’t begin with Obama. Clinton interrputed the downward trend but ‘W’ with the help of a republican majority in Congress returned us to the downward spiral.
mike says
How about we ask G.W.B. and Cheney for the more than 4000 soldiers that were killed be returned back to their families, ALIVE!!! and return all the TRILLIONS of dollars that were SPENT in these wars that were started based on LIES!!!!!