Milwaukee Occupied: Loud Protest Ends Peacefully

As dozens began pouring into Zeidler Square on Saturday morning, tension and excitement spread through the crowd. What began as a quiet, laid back morning with about . When the call to march rang out, the docile crowd was instantly energized and chants, drums and megaphones began blaring from the park.

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement had officially arrived in Milwaukee.

Randy West from Milwaukee said he participated in the march because he has had it with corporate control by major banks.

“I’m unemployed and it’s BS that the banks, especially Bank of America, throw surprise fees at us. Chase Bank and the super-duper rich have the all the money and we have nothing, they owe us,” West said. “I’m tired of it, of living under check to check. I’m tired of it."

: Scenes from the street

Despite speculation that many people would be coming from out of state for the protest, it seemed the overwhelming majority of people were from Milwaukee and surrounding suburbs.

Protests go down in a peaceful manner

Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn was cool and calm during the demonstrations Saturday. He took time to pat a few police horses on the nose, and sipped coffee while demonstrators assembled outside Chase Bank and Associated Bank.

Flynn said he didn’t have an estimate on the total crowd size, but did say the afternoon’s festivities had gone smoothly.

“Our goal has been twofold: to protect life and property and to protect the right to peacefully assemble and exercise First Amendment rights,” Flynn said. “People are exercising their rights today in an orderly way, and we’re here to make sure they do so safely. It’s a fairly large crowd, but one that is certainly manageable.”

Anne Schwartz, the spokeswoman for the Milwaukee Police Department, said police made no arrests during the protest.

Protesters circle downtown

The march started around noon with organized chanting of, “We are the 99 percent.” Protesters walked east on Michigan Street, then north on Water Street, back south on Water Street and finished their march west on Wisconsin Street, making a full circle back to Zeidler Park.

Dozens of officers lined the streets standing guard in front of the banks as the rally continued. Other officers on horseback, motorcycles and bicycles kept traffic from getting close to the march.

The protest as it happened

The protesters made organized stops at three intersections for demonstrations, which included placing crime scene tape in front of several bank entrances as well as a sit-down movement as an example of “nonviolent” protesting.

“We need more and stronger unions to turn this around,” one protester said. “We need jobs, but not just jobs — we need good jobs where you can make a living. … Are we going to be the last generation whose children cannot hope to do better than us?”

'Today is our day. Now is our time'

While some have questioned the purpose and motivation for the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, speakers at the event made very clear what they were there to do.

“Why do we have to fight back? Because they’ve made trillions in profits, they’re sitting on billions of dollars of cash,” one speaker said during a demonstration on the corner of Wisconsin and Water streets. “Where are the jobs? We want to know Wall Street, we want to know big banks — when are we going to see justice?

"Corporations, big banks and Wall Street have concentrated the economic and political power — and the 99 percent, all of us here, we are saying, ‘no more.’ Today is our day. Now is our time," the speaker continued. "We’re here to fight back, to take to the streets so that we can confront the wealth and income inequality. It makes a mockery of our democracy, it makes a mockery of the idea that we have an American dream.”

Peter Seely, an Ozaukee County resident who works full time on an organic farm outside of Plymouth, said he participated in the protest because he agrees that many things are wrong with the way the government operates.

“It’s time that we change how our system works, (and) we need an uprising to help create that change,” he said. Seely participated in Occupy Washington for four days, and is happy to be supporting the cause locally.

A couple from Wauwatosa participated in the protest, touting signs that read "Grannies against Greed.” Both are retired, and their son has a full-time job in California. Then why did they come to the protest?

"We're retired, we're taxpayers, we own our home — but we're concerned about the generations to come,” they said.

Kenosha County Supervisor Rob Zerban enjoyed the sunny fall weather to join the demonstrators and shake hands with other “99 Percenters.” Zerban is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan in the 2012 election.

“Our politicians aren’t standing with the people, they’re standing with the 1 percent who are actually hijacking the wealth of America and hoarding it,” Zerban said. “I hope to bring some representation back to the people.”

Zerban said a fix to the issues facing the “99 Percent” would be to outlaw lobbying, and removing money from politics by holding publicly financed elections. He said the point of the “Occupy Milwaukee” demonstration was to said a message to politicians — a message Zerban is hearing loud and clear.

“It’s going to send a strong message to our elected officials that the people are frustrated and fed up that they don’t see common sense being applied in Washington D.C.,” he said. “They’re just being hijacked by corporations.”

A statue with a solution?

Debbie Davis, on leave from her teaching position with Milwaukee Public Schools, came dressed as the Statue of Liberty and balancing on stilts despite the heavy winds tossing her around at her roughly 12-foot height.

“The Statue of Liberty was a gift inspired by our aspirations for a government for, by and of the people, not a government of the corporations, of the 1 percent,” she said. “It’s supposed to be freedom of justice for all, not for the 1 percent. … (It’s about) trying to take back our economy, trying to take back our democracy.”

Davis is part of a movement that started in Milwaukee in 2009 called the Milwaukee (Area) Time Exchange, which shifts the focus from using money to instead using “time” as a purchasing tool — a fair idea considering time is a “currency” we all have, she said. The idea is that people can “purchase” needed services by earning credits per service hour they give to someone else.

While the idea of a time exchange might not be something that will take hold anytime soon, an an overwhelming message coming from the protest was the desire for jobs and a more balanced wealth system.

Chants from the crowd begged the question, “What’s in your wallet?” while another group shouted back the answer of, “Nothing!”

As a Service Employees International Union Local 150 representative said: “I’m out here to bring jobs back to the community. We need our jobs here and we need our people back to work in this community.”