I made the rare weekday appearance at the Occupy DC site in McPherson Square, where they held a noonday action against the Bank of America. There weren't as many people hanging around as on the weekend but they were pretty dedicated, even though it was cold and windy.
The number of tents have grown exponentially since my last visit. It also rained a couple of days this week so some of the tents were shielded with tarp in an effort to ward off any further rain.
Unlike the Occupy movements in other cities (like New York and Phoenix), the Occupy DC people have been on pretty good terms with the police. That's because the Occupy DC people have made every effort to keep trash to a minimum and they've even seeded grass on some of the ground that had worn away with the tents and the rain.
Here's the People's Library, which now has a canopy erected over it in order to protect the books.
There were also plenty of new signs around McPherson Square. On top of that people were in the process of creating yet more signs, which means that the Occupy DC movement had plenty of signs for anyone who wanted to use one for a demonstration.
People did other things when they weren't demonstrating including yoga, drawing on sidewalks, talking to visitors, and even blowing bubbles. The Organize DC people had added some cool features like a speaker's stage that reminded me of the Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park in London and a pyramid. (I honestly don't know what the significance of the pyramid is.)
The major action that day was a demonstration to the Bank of America on K Street. The Bank of America is one of the banks that were bailed out by Congress in 2008 and have recently struck a nerve when it announced that it was going to start charging a $5 monthly fee for its debit card users. I shot a couple of photos along with a video that includes footage of a man who closed his Bank of America account and he celebrated by burning the receipt.
I left around 4 p.m. because the cold and wind really got to me (plus I'm still recovering from surgery so I really don't want to push myself too hard health-wise). I ended up missing the flash mob that took place that evening at Union Station (which was the site of a $100 a plate fundraiser that was attended by the CEO's of Wal-Mart and Northrop Grumman and other former Bush Administration officials).