On what is probably the closest to the official Occupy Phoenix sites I could find, I was not surprised to see a message from someone named Mark, who was a bit disappointed in not only the turn out but the enthusiasm of the people at the protest. This is the message he posted less than a day ago –

Mark says:

October 22, 2011 at 1:54 PM

Dear occupy Phoenix,

I have been a participant since day one. My last day of support was today. I see no enthusiasm for this movement in Phoenix. Only a handfull out there with thier boots on the sidewalk with signs talking to people , the rest kicking back eating,drinking,socializing. I really see no sign of a serious protest. I can no longer support this movement when here in Phoenix the 99% at the park shows no “URGENCY” this is why we are in the shape we are in.”OCCUPY PHOENIX IS A BUNCH OF LAME POSERS”

While I haven’t been as supportive as Mark, at least by his definition, I was down at the park on Saturday and Monday of last week and I intend on going down tomorrow. While I am a cynic and I have my own little issues with how things have been handled overall, saying there is no sign of a ‘serious protest’ and then saying the folks at the park are a bunch of ‘LAME POSERS’ is over the top and wrong.

Like I said I was there Monday from around 9am to 1pm. For about two hours of that time I was videotaping and taking pictures to post on Chaotic Fringe. If Mark was there at that time, and I have no way of knowing if he was or not, why didn’t he approach me? That might sound like a snarky statement, but if Mark was so down for the cause, as he implies he was, it would seem to be reasonable to think if the same person was around for 2 hours without interacting with anyone and videotaping what was going on, just basic human curiosity would make one wonder who was the guy with the camera. Paranoia might make something thing I was up to no good with the camera and would probably want to approach me to ask what I was doing. So if Mark was talking to people, as he implies in his post, I never talked to him.

I was approached by three people. There was a woman who asked me if I wanted water. There was a man who sat down next to me, mentioned how hot it was then asked me some general questions about Saturday night. The third person was a woman who actually talked with the man first and I kind of got caught in their conversation. The only other person I talked to, and I approached them, was Sylvia because I wanted permission to use the footage I shout of her speech for the site.

There was an instance where a person who was a reporter for a site announced he would videotape people’s stories if they wanted to get the message out. Only one person talked to him, however when the local media arrived, the ones that have broadcast stations, well didn’t things change. People were more than willing to go before the cameras. It wasn’t like people were mobbing to get in front of the cameras, but folks were more than willing to make the protest seem more energized than when the cameras weren’t there.

While I don’t argue that people were sitting around, maybe some were not fully waving signs at the crowds, I wonder what is Mark’s definition of a ‘serious protest?’ Is there a protest manual somewhere? Are things supposed to be done a certain way or it loses protest creds? I ask the question, mostly in a sardonic way, because it is the opinions of someone like Mark that has kept me away from committing myself to organized protests. As I said, I was there on Monday, and if Mark wanted to get his message across about his thoughts on the protests, to get others to come down, I and some of the other ‘non-traditional’ reporters who were down there would have been the people to speak to.

While I didn’t have ‘boots on the ground’ I was busy trying to gte local and national media to see what was going on in Phoenix. Was I successful? In the grand scheme of things no I wasn’t, but I did get, so far, at least 100 people to see one of the three videos I posted, got well over 100 people to read the articles I wrote on Chaotic Fringe and I had one local news anchor actually link to me on Twitter. That doesn’t count the people on my Facebook page that shared a link or passed along pictures I took. So while I might not have been downtown with feet on the ground for over a week, I think I did do a good job in getting the message out. It wasn’t great, in my humble opinion, by Internet standards but as far as what I could have accomplished in foot traffic, I did good.

Also, being the nosy reporter I am, I didn’t just assumed because people were sitting around they were socializing. While you were marching the sidewalk, I know some people were on the phone trying to secure water and food, some were trying to get in touch with city council members to get their voices heard, some were trying to get the livefeed working or getting updates to the site. Some people were comparing notes and then going to the police to clarify issues about where and how they could sleep in the park.

Oh yes, and there were people just shooting the breeze, but you do a disservice in saying people there were lame because of what you envisioned the movement should be. Believe me, my initial reaction to the Occupy movement, and this was the first few days of the Wall Street occupation, was that the disorganized band didn’t have a clue how to do a protests. I have been in protests and this was not how it ‘should be done.’ The thing is it wasn’t for me to organize. This was a whole different movement with a whole different way of doing things. After a while I could see where they were heading. It’s the same with Occupy Phoenix. I can see some bits of the operation I don’t like, some ‘spokespeople’ who, in my opinion, are starting to co-op the movement, but the whole point of the movement is to do things in a different way.

So I sympathize with your anger at what you perceive to be a lack of interest in the cause because you don’t think enough people are waving signs. That’s fine and if you can’t work with that, you have to do what you must do. I am taking my own path in helping out. I might not be there waving signs, I might not stay the whole day, every day, but I do what little I can by getting the message out over the Internet.