Occupy Sarasota

Today I visited Occupy Sarasota.

There was a lot of foot-traffic, but it was all people trying to get their picture taken with the statue, not people coming to talk to the protesters. (That's the city's statue, not the protester's.)

They don't seem to have much enthusiasm:

Or that many people, I count 16 in this picture:

Strangely, there was still some media interest:

This sign caught my attention:

It reads:

"I want you to stop being afraid
Of other Americans
Of other religions
Of speaking out"

I'm always afraid of being physically attacked when I visit these protests.

Another interesting sign:

"Vagrant = One who lives on the street and is a Public Nuisance"

According to Occupy Sarasota, Occupy Tampa is a bunch of vagrants:

I agree!

Just to give you some perspective on how small Occupy Sarasota is, a few streets away people were listening to a band play in front of the public library:

And walked through the streets at the local farmers market:

There were several hundred people, maybe even a thousand. They were out buying organic vegetables, eco-friendly clothing, French crepes, and sushi. (I'm not kidding, they had a place selling sushi.)

I heard people making wry observations, like how awkward it is to come out of the marina in a strange city and be dressed inappropriately. It sounded to me like the 1% had staged a much more successful counter-occupation.