"Occupy Long Beach" Plans Saturday Rally, Occupation To Begin at Lincoln Park

"There's something happening here.
What it is ain't exactly clear..."
Buffalo Springfield (Stephen Stills), "For What It's Worth," 1967

(Oct. 14, 2011) -- Following a series of embryonic meetings in Bluff Park, "Occupy Long Beach" is preparing to "maintain a significant presence" in Lincoln Park next to Long Beach City Hall starting Saturday afternoon Oct. 15.

A release from Lee Salazar states:

In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and inspired by the events going on around the world, citizens of Long Beach and surrounding cities are getting together to permanently Occupy Long Beach," .

On Saturday, Oct 15, the Occupy Long Beach movement will peacefully assemble, march and begin to occupy Lincoln Park. The first planned event will be a rally at 11:00 AM, immediately followed by a march to The World Trade Center and Long Beach City Hall. Meet us at Lincoln Park, on Pacific Ave. between 1st and Broadway.

About the movement, local organizer Tamarra Phillips says, "We are a grass roots, local movement in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street... we are the 99%."

Jai Hudson adds, "It is compassion and unity to the fullest... and we’re all coming together. I’m real proud of Strong Beach right now."

In protest of political and economic injustice, and to promote human rights, civil liberties, and democracy, the group will maintain a significant presence in Long Beach. Everyone is also encouraged to share and exchange ideas with the group. General Assembly starts in the park at 6PM nightly.

Organizers have established a presence in cyberspace at http://www.facebook.com/OccupyLongBeach, http://www.occupylbc.org/, http://twitter.com/OccupyLongBeach and http://occupylongbeach.webs.com/

Occupylongbeach.webs.com states:

Until we recieve concessions for our grievences we will occupy the public spaces of Long Beach's financial districts and city hall.

Who we are

We are in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and other occupations across the globe. This is a nonviolent, non-partisan movement.

So inspired by the events going on around us, citizens of Long Beach and surrounding cities are getting together to OCCUPY LONG BEACH...

THE OCCUPATION STARTS ON SATURDAY!

11:00 AM Rally at occupation site,

Noon March through downtown financial district,

1:30 PM Open mic, music, teach-in + more at occupation site. (Details to follow.) #occupylongbeach #occupywallstreet #occupytogether

A YouTube video recites Occupy Long Beach's Statement of Purpose:

The website adds:

We are the majority of individuals who are fed up with being subordinated to the will of the top one percentile. We wish to assemble protests within a broad base among the general population to rescind the rights granted to corporations and financial institutions by the rascals who control our government, who are those who run our corporations and banks. We are the sovereign and it is time our public outcry and participation pick up the tools of democracy and use them...

An Occupy Long Beach Facebook page includes the following dispatch this morning (Oct. 14):

URGENT! PLEASE CALL THE MAYOR AND VICE MAYOR!

We are writing to implore you to stand up for Occupy LB. We have been doing everything in our power to follow the model set by Occupy LA, and transparently work with the city to find a way for everyone to be comfortable with the occupation. Elected officials at city council meeting provided us their verbal support. Non-elected officials did not provide... their support. We want the city to support our 1st amendment right to freedom of assembly, as many cities around the nation already have. We need your support to make this happen. It is crucial that you reach out to your elected officials TODAY. We will be occupying tomorrow, Saturday, October 15th, and we need support today in order to make this happen. The two most important phone calls are to Bob Foster, the Mayor, and Suja Lowenthal, the Vice Mayor. Please also contact your District representative below if possible. Thank you for your support!

Occupy Long Beach first made its presence known at the Oct. 4 City Council meeting, when a speaker. Tamara Phillips, used the period for public comment on non-agendized items to state why she's taking part in Occupy Long Beach actions. Her remarks drew responses from a number of Councilmembers.

To hear the exchange on-demand, click here.

Developing.

Note: An earlier version of this story misstated that the group's embryonic meetings took place in Bixby Park when they actually took place in Bluff Park.