Highland Park Residents Help Occupy Los Angeles

The leaders of Occupy Los Angeles report that their movement--a grassroots protest modeled after the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street campaign--is getting stronger by the day.

As of Thursday, around 70 tents occupied the lawn of the Los Angeles City Hall on 200 N. Spring Street. The protesters--ranging in age, race and ethnicity--held picket signs, formed small drum and guitar circles and implored oncoming traffic to join their cause.

Some, who had been living on the lawn of the city hall for almost a week, slept in their tents, while others mulled about a small book exchange that had been established.

The camp was mostly calm, with many of those on hand recovering from an earlier "Make the Banks Pay" protest at California Plaza--during which occupants and more than thousand additional protesters attempted to spread their message of corporate accountability.

Among their ranks was Tina Gulotta-Miller and her husband Charles Miller.

Gulotta-Miller, a member of the Highland Park Neighborhood Council, said she was their to lend her voice to the chorus of citizens who were concerned about the nation's economic policies.

"Every bank we marched by we were shouting 'shame on you!'  Gulotta-Miller said.

"Every house is struggling and there's no growth," she continued. "It's a very precarious position to be in."

During her visits to Occupy L.A's, Gulotta-Miller has donned a mask from the film V for Vendetta and held up a sign that read "9x11 = 99 - This is our 9/11."

Miller said the '99' referred to the percentage of the population that was impacted by the financial moves of the wealthiest one-percent. She added that the nation's current economic strife and the resulting protests were causing a shift in the consciousness of many American citizens.

In addition to marching, Gulotta-Miller said she and her husband were helping to supply the protesters at the camp with food and water.

Joe Briones, a 29-year-old film major at Los Angeles City College, said the Occupy L.A. movement isn't going to slow down any time soon.

"This is not going to fizzle out, this is the movement everybody has been waiting for," he said. "Everybody talks about reform, reform, reform--but nobody ever gets the government back to represent the people. This is going to accomplish that."

Briones, a Glendale native who says he now "occupies L.A.," said the goal of the movement was to build consensus among the 99-percent of the population who feel they are subject to the whims of the world's financial leaders.

He said the protesters plan to continue taking incursions into the city, much like the march on California Plaza, and have been directing the movement through general consensus. 

"We're not about sticking here, we're about direct action and taking the message to the city," he said. "So, daily, we have incursions into the city, to make our voice heard and increase the voice of the movement."