On December 3, last Saturday, Iowan protesters for the Occupy Wall Street movement flocked toward the Cherry Building on 10th Ave. in Cedar Rapids. There were about 50 people that came from cities like Des Moines, Cedar Falls, Clinton and Iowa City. They were protesting the new business that is going in the Cherry building in early 2012, creating about 25 new jobs. They were not protesting the new jobs but what these jobs would be creating. A business in the Cherry building is going to manufacture 5 Lb. surveillance drones, which are an unmanned aircraft cameras sometime used in wars.
The Cherry Building was holding a Very Cherry Holiday open house where people could visit and shop the buildings independent business on the same day the protest took place. One of the protesters said it was just a coincidence that they happen to gather there on that day and it was not done purposefully. I think a lot of people find that hard to believe because if there wasn’t something going on then they wouldn’t get the recognition that they were looking for or the publicity. Another person also commented on how come they could only muster up 50 people when people were coming from all over Iowa for this movement.
I happen to see this protest and it was actually the first one I have ever seen. My family and I were going down to the Czech Village and we happen to drive by the street that they were occupying. If you ever watch the news or Good Morning America you see protesters being dragged by police, people in masks, and a lot of yelling. That is what I was hoping for but it didn’t turn out exactly like that. There were about five police men down there watching the protesters so they wouldn’t get out of hand but no one was dragged. Some of the people though had masks on their faces and I thought I saw someone with a Guy Fawkes mask, which was pretty cool. Over all it was pretty awesome to drive through, but I would have been even better to see some big commotion that involved the police.
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