Stray factiods of insterest:
The US Marine Corp has an organiztion that is providing security and support for the Occupy movement : OccupyMarines.org
40-60,000 troops will be coming home for Christmas from Iraq to 9.5 % unempolyment, no jobs and families that have been surviving on food stamps for two years. Expect more vets to be members of Occupy as time goes by.
Call these Occupy people anything you want but the truth is they are are a varied lot in age and demographic and are highly educated:
Occupy Wall Street Demographic Survey Results Will Surprise You | TPM Idea Lab
Most have jobs - they just feel raped by the system they had nothing to do with building and that isn't working for them.
They're not going away: They will likely fade some during the winter (it gets cold) but they already are working with unions and other organizations to cooridnate activites in the Spring. They are planning to be back with a vengence. They are not going away.
The whole concept of protest is to inconvience people, including themselves, to show the depth of there anger and commitment. That's the point. They put themselves in your way, get arrest, get release and do it all over again. Until things change.
Police and govermental violence will only make them stronger. In Oakland they've been back with more people and more depth of feeling every night since the police attacks.
1% percent of the population, even the 1 richest percent, cannot govern the 99% of the rest of the population if that 99% refuses to be govened by them.
How long do you really expect police department who have had their unions crushed, their health care cut, their pensioned stolen and their co-workers laid off to actually do the bidding of the the bosses that did this all to them ? Police are the 99% too.