Like ants near an ant hill, hundreds of businessmen trickle in and out of Government Center, passing the myriad students walking to one of the three schools in downtown Miami while parents walk their children to one of the nearby parks, libraries, or restaurants. Thousands of people travel through the area in front and side of Government Center, but not many pay attention to the twenty tents erected behind it. If someone were to turn to the campsite they would be greeted by a small, dirty park harboring a hand-grown “peace garden,” signs combatting the unfair domestic economic system, a piece of cardboard erected by sticks and duct tape that reads “peace city” in colorful letters, and a community of local Miamians eating, talking, or planning their next protest.
Occupy Miami is a “leaderless consensus movement” that uses nonviolent protest to inform the public that the economic elite, the “1%”, gains political and economic power through the false promises to and exploitation of the lower 99% of the United States. Its members can often be seen marching to and from the torch of friendship on Biscayne Boulevard holding signs that read things like “give the money back” or “justice.”
So who are the members of Occupy Miami? They’re the local Miamians from Overtown, Hialeah, Kendall, and Liberty City who are tired of being stepped on by the upper class and are ready for change. The history of Miami is littered with the suppression of the local Miamian’s voice but he won’t tolerate it anymore; so he sits in his tent, waiting for the change he has craved for too long.
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