LA Demonstrates

Demonstrators with ‘Occupy Wall Street’ march to One Police Plaza, headquarters of the New York Police Department, on September 30, 2011 in New York. The demonstrators marched against alleged police brutality and are protesting bank bailouts, foreclosures and high unemployment from their encampment in the financial district of New York City.

Los Angeles activists are planning a Saturday march on city hall in solidarity with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

The “Occupy Los Angeles” demonstration is part of a coordinated national effort to call attention to many issues: record profits for financial institutions as tens of thousands of homeowners lose their life savings; job creation and better access to quality healthcare; cuts in government money for education.

According to the group’s website says the peaceful demonstration will start at 10 a.m. at Pershing Square before marching to City Hall. The site asks marchers to bring sleeping bags, food, supplies and friends. A general assembly to plan the march will take place Friday evening at 7 p.m., also at Pershing Square.

The marchers’ slogan, “We are the 99 percent,” calls attention to the fact that they are not part of the 1 percent of Americans who hold a vast portion of the nation’s wealth. Another slogan, and the tagline on the group’s website is “The revolution is happening, it’s just not in the news.”

Social media sites have helped to generate support for demonstrators in New York City who call their protest “Occupy Wall Street.” For two weeks hundreds of them have camped out in a park near the nation’s financial center.

Authorities have arrested about a hundred. There’s no word on how long the Occupy L.A. protest might last, but organizers are asking demonstrators to carry sleeping bags and tents.

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