"Occupy Miami" Camp-Out Will Begin Oct. 15, 700 Arrested In New York

They came. They saw. They arranged to convene at a later date.Ar-Miami-geddon didn't happen, but more than a hundred "Occupy Miami" protesters did meet on Saturday in Bayfront Park downtown. They agreed to gather again this Saturday to plan a camp-out beginning on October 15.With 700 protesters arrested on Saturday...

By Michael E. Miller

October 3, 2011

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They came. They saw. They arranged to convene at a later date.

Ar-Miami-geddon didn't happen, but more than a hundred "Occupy Miami" protesters did meet on Saturday in Bayfront Park downtown. They agreed to gather again this Saturday to plan a camp-out beginning on October 15.

With 700 protesters arrested on Saturday in New York, and similar demonstrations underway in a dozen other cities around the country, Miami could soon be a node in a national citizen uprising. But what do protesters here want?

When we asked organizer Daniel Lopez on Friday, he couldn't quite say.

"We are protesting many things," he said. "There are just too many issues at hand to get specific at the moment."

Demonstrators in NYC have slammed the corporate take-over of American politics (see Citizens United v. FEC) and the nation's growing inequality.

Video footage of Saturday's "Occupy Miami" meeting, however, shows protesters in the Magic City are angry and ambitious, but have yet to rally around a single message.

Part of the problem is this neon-lit pleasure strip in which we live. "Occupy Wall Street" has a natural enemy in the epicenter of the financial crisis. What does Miami have to rail against?

Debt. Lots of it, from the voices on the video.

Whether or not that will be enough to bring Miamians out in force in two weeks, we'll have to wait and see.

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Michael E. Miller was a staff writer at Miami New Times for five years. His work for New Times won many national awards, including back-to-back-to-back Sigma Delta Chi medallions. He now covers local enterprise for the Washington Post.

Contact: Michael E. Miller