Occupy L.A. Takes on City Hall

Listen to the full audio story

Download the MP3

KIM: Well I think it’s like 7 or 8 in the morning.
SHELBY: I think it’s about 9.30 I’m not even sure, I think my phone’s dead.
JOE: I believe this is the north side of City H all. You’ve got your grassy knoll and it’s scattered with tents and people involved in the movement.
K: We have every basic need we could hope for.
J: Food and water.
K: A food tent that’s run solely on donations
S: We have a lot of peanut butter, I’ve noticed some bread. I’m eating pumpkin seeds right now.
K: It’s very much like living in a small community except you’re outside in tents.
K: Many people have different reasons for being here. Some of them want the end to the Federal Reserve.
S: I’m doing this so I people could be aware of what’s going on get people to stop living in their little shells and to expand themselves and to get to know people.
K: That’s one of the reasons why I’m here. I want an education and my sister owes 50 thousand dollars and now what the hell is she going to do? She works at Michael’s.
K: The main thing of it is an end to the corporate greed and an end to the corporations making decisions for us.
KYLE: Did it rain on you guys last night?
J: Last night? A sprinkle, yes.
RUBY: And I guess they said it was going to rain today so that’s why everyone has their tarps up. So we just set up along the side walk. And so at about 5 o clock in the morning someone wakes everybody up so that they can start moving people to the grass.
K: We could all sleep there as long as we leave 4 feet for the passersby to walk through.
S: I don’t want to deal with that. So we moved our tent around 5:45
K: 5 or 6 somebody usually comes around and tells everyone they can move back on the grass because it’s so uncomfortable.
R: But the cement’s not that bad to sleep on. You know when you sleep on the floor and it straightens out your back, it’s kind of like that.
K: It’s pretty weird to see moving tents sliding over to the grass.
S: They’re still in the process of organizing, still trying to get the hang of things.
R: During the day they have little groups and little forums. I know at 5:30 the Demands meets over there, and the Police Brutality meets over there.
S: It’s so awesome how everyone’s coming together I love it.
K: Everyone’s here in I would say unity, you know, we all have our disagreements, we all have our different opinions.
R: Everyone’s here for different reason but here for the same cause: to help the people out and wake up America.