May Day!!! Day one of the 2012 season of occupying in Albany. 61 degrees, overcast, breezy, and the ground still quite wet and soggy in spots after a fairly steady rain last night. After an almost non-existent opening day parade scheduled to begin at 12 noon, the afternoon rally and "teach in" beginning around 1 pm in Academy Park was also poorly attended. Maybe 150 Occupiers, and and almost equal number of state and local police (I exaggerate, but not by much) and members of the press hoping for some action. They were sorely disappointed, as were the rally organizers who had hoped for a larger and more enthusiastic turn out. Fair weather anarchists??? Short attention span??? Apathy??? Hope this is not a barometer of things to come and that the warm weather will bring out the crowds as they have been reported to have turned out in other cities. There does not seem to be the sense of inner city urban desperation here as elsewhere, and the turn out from the suburban "activists" was sparse. Maybe if it was a Saturday... Disinterest set in quickly and "the center did not hold" in spite of fervent calls to action by facilitators. Photographically, it was a slow day as well.
David
George
A guy from the gay and lesbian group
Came home for a while for lunch, and will return to Academy Park for the hoped for big rally at 5 pm. Everything is in place for a real protest. Will report back then.
Then:
Got back to the park at about 5:50. 58 degrees, overcast and there was a darkness of the spirit in the air. Same 150 or less people were there. Fewer cops and reporters. Even they realized the air was out of the balloon. Hung around for a few hours, till I couldn't take it any more and went home. Got the feeling that this might be a last gasp for the Occupy Albany people. Wasn't even thinking about them any more till I turned on the local news showing live shots of the last stragglers being arrested for refusing to leave the park after the 11:00 curfew. A pathetic display of negative attention seeking behavior as PR stunt. Civil disobedience for its own sake, or rather as a last gasp of relevance, an unmistakable sign of capitulation. They were lucky that the local media had nothing better to do at the moment and aided and abetted the "movement" in perpetrating the perception that they went out with a bang rather than a whimper. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hope the coming of warm weather and summer vacation will bring out the fair weather friends of Occupy, and prove me wrong.
Sadly, Pablo
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