Planners of ‘Occupy Baltimore’ view screen listing committee options at organizing session Monday in Charles Village. (VoB Photo/Alan Z. Forman)

PARTICIPANTS  PLAN TO CAMP OUT  OVERNIGHT
IN McKELDIN SQUARE, PRATT STREET AT LIGHT

‘Approved media’ only to be allowed to film

BANKS GOT BAILED OUT, WE GOT SOLD OUT
— Mantra of the occupiers

UPDATE (Tues. Oct. 4 @ 9:45 p.m.):  PEACEFUL HARBOR PROTEST DRAWS FEW PROTESTERS.  Critical mass reaches estimated 50 by evening, far cry from more than 800 that promised to attend in Facebook signups.

SEE ALSO, INTERVIEWS WITH PROTESTERS FILMED AT McKELDIN SQUARE TUESDAY OCT. 4 BY BALTIMORE PHOTOGRAPHER BILL HUGHES  (click here)

Hand-lettered ‘Occupy Baltimore’ signs at Light St., Inner Harbor, looking south from Pratt St., Thurs. Oct. 6. (VoB Photo/Bill Hughes)

By Alan Z. Forman

When “Occupy Baltimore” banned a Baltimore Sun reporter from its planning session Sunday night it wasn’t because a majority of participants wanted her to leave, “it was the minority,” a facilitator for the anti-Wall Street demonstration that has spread south to Charm City told Voice of Baltimore Monday evening.

Utilizing a consensus-based decision making process, the group has held planning sessions the past two nights at a church in Charles Village to organize a sit-in protest set to begin tomorrow in McKeldin Square at Pratt and Light Sts. in the Inner Harbor.

Scheduled to run from noon-5 p.m., “the protest could continue indefinitely,” one of the prospective demonstrators, Umar Farooq, told VoB in an interview at the second planning session.

As many as 800 have signed up on the group’s Facebook page, some indicating their intention to camp out overnight.

Farooq, a freelance writer who publishes IndyReader.org, an online blog, said at least 200 protesters — a number similar to the group size at the Sunday and Monday Charles Village meetings — would “probably participate” but that it was unclear “how many will camp out.”

CAMPING OUT FOR WEEKS

Protesters in New York City — the origin in mid-September of the anti-Wall Street movement that has now spread nationwide — have been camping out for weeks, undeterred by the arrest of more than 700 of their number Saturday for blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge.

On Monday, New York City protesters made up to resemble zombies lurched along the financial district, with arms outstretched, yelling “I smell money,” and “End the war, tax the rich.”

In Los Angeles, some 100 protesters camped out over the weekend in front of City Hall. In Chicago, they pounded drums in the Windy City’s financial sector, near the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Protesters near the Gateway Arch in St. Louis waved signs reading, “We want the sacks of gold that Goldman Sachs stole,” and “How did the fat cat get so fat?”

Celebrities Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon joined in the protest at Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park a week ago, the actress on her way to Italy, filmmaker Moore to hype his new book.

LIKENED TO TEA PARTY MOVEMENT

The protest has been likened to the political Tea Party movement, but with a liberal perspective, and to the so-called Arab Spring in the Middle East that has had a democratizing effect on totalitarian governments in such countries as Libya and Egypt.

From Maine to California the movement has attracted people of nearly all types and ages; however in Baltimore most appear young, and nearly all are white. At the Charles Village planning session Monday, only a handful of participants looked to be other than college-age or after-college individuals.

The demonstration’s purpose in Baltimore? Ask any handful of protesters and you’ll get a handful of different answers.

However on one thing all agree — with their colleagues in New York and L.A., as well as other cities that have joined the bandwagon: Corporate greed is ruining America and must be stopped.

Plus they seemed to easily agree despite divergent opinions, on how to conduct the demonstration that will begin here tomorrow, recognizing minority views in the face of majority disagreement.

REPORTER ASKED IF SHE COULD STAY

The Baltimore Sun reporter, Andrea F. Siegel, who was expelled from the group’s planning session Sunday night, was not required to leave until “she identified herself as a reporter and asked if it was okay for her to stay,” one of the facilitators, Lexie Mountain, told VoB at the Monday night meeting.

“It wasn’t a majority” of participants that wanted her to leave, said Mountain, a self-described “novice facilitator” for the group, “it was the minority.”

Attention to minority wishes was evident at the Monday meeting on other issues as well, such as how many committees to organize, which ones to merge, and again regarding the press, whether or not to allow reporters to attend the planning sessions and the demonstration as well.

The group voted to allow only approved documentarians and videographers, which included a woman who identified herself as an employee of Johns Hopkins University with her own film company, and two students of Stevenson University who said they were there to chronicle the event for a school project.

ATTEMPTS WENT UNCONSIDERED

Attempts by Voice of Baltimore to be recognized went unconsidered Monday night, nor was a reporter from The Sun acknowledged by the facilitators. When a request for further discussion of media participation was voiced by David Fouts, a participant in the proceedings, it was overwhelmingly voted down.

Fouts told VoB the Sun reporter ordered to leave Sunday “was not asked in a pleasant way,” and added that he “felt weird” Monday when a young man “got shut down trying to send a cellphone picture to his friends.”

Facilitators and participants agreed to set up a section at the Inner Harbor demonstration where people who did not wish to be photographed could gather, and that the “approved media” would have to agree not to film them.

Facilitator Mike McGuire then drilled the group on a signature chant: “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out.” The group participated enthusiastically.

But how that translated into “specific goals” for the Baltimore demonstration remained unclear.

‘NO AGREEMENT ON A SHARED SET OF GOALS’

“We came here tonight to talk about logistics for the action,” facilitator Mountain reminded the group, acknowledging that, as yet, “there is no agreement on a shared set of goals, no cohesion.

“So many different people, with so many different goals,” she reiterated.

“Goals can be established once we’re out there,” suggested one person, seconded by another. The group expressed agreement by waving hands and snapping fingers.

When Mountain summarized, “The general consensus is, this is basically targeted at corporate oligarchy,” the finger-snapping was drowned out by applause.

In Zuccotti Park, the New York Times reported Saturday following the Brooklyn Bridge arrests that “one woman gave a pep talk to what looked like a new recruit.”

‘IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU’RE PROTESTING’

“‘It’s about taking down systems,’” she told the novice. “‘It doesn’t matter what you’re protesting,’ she said. ‘Just protest.’”

The back-to-back evening planning sessions were held at St. John’s of Baltimore United Methodist Church, a centuries-old facility in the 2600 block of St. Paul St. known as the “2640 Space,” which the church makes available on an as-needed basis to community groups and theaters.

Some of the protesters expressed concern about whether or not the Tuesday demonstration would require a permit from the city, which must be requested weeks in advance but was not applied for because of the last-minute planning of the event.

But others seemed undeterred. “The more people there are in one place, the harder it is to break up,” said one young woman.

One way or the other, when they attempt to “Occupy Baltimore” at the Inner Harbor, they will find out Tuesday.

alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org

READ VOICE OF BALTIMORE’S OCT. 8 ARTICLE ON THE WASHINGTON D.C.  ‘OCCUPY TOGETHER’ PROTEST AND WATCH PHOTOJOURNALIST BILL HUGHES’ INTERVIEW WITH POLITICAL ACTIVIST RALPH NADER  (click here)