Occupy Fresno protesters have continued to gather at the Fresno
Courthouse Park for over a week. KMJ radio host Jim Franklin
criticized the lack of the group’s specific goal.
Sergio Cortez / The Collegian
Occupy Fresno hit the streets last week demanding change and a halt to corporate greed in over 400 cities across the United States and cities around the world. However, not everyone was thrilled by the protests.
The Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow as protesters from Merced to Visalia join in.
Local protesters have now set up camp at the Fresno Courthouse Park for over a week.
KMJ radio talk show host Jim Franklin said protesters do not know what they want and it’s obvious in what they are saying. Franklin said they are youth or misguided adults who really don’t understand the problem.
“If you’ve got a large group of people together and they can’t define why they are there and each one has separate things of what they’re angry at, you’ve got a mob,” Franklin said.
Catherine Steele, 62, said she is there for the people of America and the 99%.
“We found that this is the kind of movement that’s constructive,” Steele said. “We can use this energy that has built up because of the anger that we feel toward our own government and corporations, toward the people that basically robbed us.
“There are so many issues; there are so many things that have gone wrong,” Steele added. “That’s why you see the diversity in signs, you see the diversity in people, age, race, ethnic background, culture, it doesn’t matter, we’ve all been affected.”
People frustrated with unemployment, lack of health insurance and not making enough money to live off of hope Wall Street and the one percent will hear them.
“I’ve lost my retirement because of the stock market, because of Wall Street. I’m going to work until I drop. I have no health insurance because I can’t afford it,” Steele said.
Scott Marsh, 31, said he is angry with the banks for not giving him a small loan to help with his two businesses. Marsh had to clean out his retirement savings just to get his company off the ground.
“I’ve followed all of the social prescriptions that my country asked of me. I was in the service eight years, proud of it every day. Went to college, got a couple degrees, started a couple of businesses,” Marsh said.
“If they’re really against greed, if that’s really what they’re standing against then that’s what they ought to be talking about. They need a unified voice,” Franklin said.
Franklin added that the protesters are making a lot of noise but they’re not getting anything done.
He explained that Wall Street is just doing what Wall Street does. They are just businesses that make money and invest that money back. Franklin said in order to solve many of these problems the people should look to leadership with the upcoming presidential election.
“What has built America is that American spirit of capitalism,” Franklin said. “Once you have a group of people that begin to say ‘somebody else owes me that,’ that’s socialism.”