Regarding “We Were the 99 Percent” about Occupy Salt Lake [March 6, City Weekly], I think that Salt Lake City and its police force treated Occupiers very considerately. The encampment in Pioneer Park was allowed more than a month’s run until someone died there. The front-end loaders arrived for the eviction only because Occupy chose to make a public demonstration after many hours notice to pick up their belongings. Salt Lake City Police Chief Burbank then negotiated with them about an alternative part-time venue. I can remember when police would simply have squelched any such protest within the first two hours.
The U.S. demographic breakdown that Occupy asserts is also incorrect: It’s not 1 percent versus 99 percent, but more like 1 percent, then about 83 percent who, although not holding great power, prosper comfortably within our system, then 15 percent who struggle not to splash into an impact crater of failure, and finally, the 1 percent who have landed hard on the streets, with nowhere to go and little hope of a future.
It is that 83 percent who ensure no significant changes will be made in the American political or economic systems during the foreseeable future.
I am sorry. The Occupiers may feel good and believe they can change the world. A more realistic assessment is that they are totally ineffective despite their good intentions and individual acts of kindness.
JESSE BAKER
Ogden
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