Bloomington protesters occupy streets

Democracy looked like a group of about 50 protesters marching the wrong way on College Avenue to the Justice Building on Saturday.

As they streamed past cars that changed lanes or stopped, they chanted.

“Show me what democracy looks like.”

“This is what democracy looks like.”

“Whose streets?”

“Our streets.”

Saturday’s march led Occupy Bloomington protesters from their makeshift home in Peoples Park to the old courthouse on the square, the Justice Building and back. At the front of the line, six Occupy Bloomington “radical cheerleaders” led the chants.

“G-R-E-E-D. Corporations don’t fool me. You greedy, yeah, yeah, you greedy.”

It was the first march they cheered at, said protester and cheerleader BW, who declined to give her full name. They’d had practice in the park and wrote all the cheers together.

They dressed in red and black — BW’s outfit complete with a red Christmas bow on her back — unintentionally mimicking sorority rush participants’ color scheme.

“I think they subconsciously wanted to be radical cheerleaders,” BW said.

Before the march, groups of girls participating in rush walked past the park.

“Come march with us,” Logan Flores, an Ivy Tech Community College student, yelled at one group.

From the middle, one girl yelled, “Hi” back.

“Why do you hate me right now?” Flores said as the girl passed.

“I hate you all the time, Logan,” she responded.

“Is it because you’re in front of your friends?”

She smiled, shook her head no and kept walking.

In front of the Justice Building, Flores stood on the sidewalk behind the other protesters as they chanted, “Free all the prisoners.”

“I’ll stay out of that one,” he said. “Free most of the prisoners.”

With the Justice Building the last stop, the protesters marched home. As they reached Peoples Park, Occupy IU media liaison Justinian Dispenza stopped to talk to one man filming the march on his phone. Dispenza had walked in the march, calling out to people and offering chai tea. But he had something different to say to the videographer.

“I make $14 an hour, took a shower and cut my hair,” he said to the camera, “and I’m still pissed.”

“Sometimes it’s important to engage with people who hate you,” he said.