Photo Series: OccupyHouston Silent Protest is a copyrighted article from the World Correspondents
OccupyHouston launched its silent protest coincidentally the same day as the corporate-sponsored Energy Day in downtown’s Tranquility Park, which is down the street from Enron’s former headquarters. A protester told me that the two events “just happened to have coincided”. It was a peaceful protest, with only occasional remarks from motorists, telling the protesters “to get a job”. Overall, there seemed to be more support from the passers-by than conflict.
The organizers had spoken with a police officer after a couple of laps around the park. A high ranking officer told the organizers that they were allowed to walk through the Energy Day event. This took place amid curious onlookers attending the Energy Day event, which had tents on the park premises where vendors and sales reps were handing out pamphlets and brochures regarding sustainable energy products. With kids both in the protest and corporate-sponsored event, it seemed like a typical and pleasant weekend in downtown Houston—of course with a dash of politics.
Reading the signs that the protesters carried, you can tell that there wasn’t a centralized focus in their message, but rather a smorgasbord of issues ranging from human rights and the environment, to calls for President Obama’s impeachment and demanding that corporations be left out of politics. The size of the protest wasn’t as big as the Occupy Wall Street protests going on in New York City, but they got their message across, at least in the midtown area.
The protest was launched in synchronicity with at least 400 others around the nation.
