A Very Elk Grove Protest

There were no tents or arrests at Occupy Elk Grove’s first protest Wednesday evening. Motorcycle cops helped clear traffic for the handful of polite professionals and retirees marching from Colton Park to Highway 99, then quickly got out of their way.

But while the event lacked the drama of the occupations in New York and Sacramento that inspired it, marchers voiced plenty of impassioned complaints about America’s faltering, lopsided economy.

"People need to speak up and speak out for those families that are being kicked out of their homes and suffering silently," said Kathy Green, a teacher from Galt. "Half my neighborhood just disappeared last month—short sales and foreclosures."

Gary Pruitt owned a furniture consignment store on Franklin Blvd until it went under three months ago—a loss he chalked up partly to Citibank policies he said allowed customers to claim refunds on credit card purchases months after making them.

“I kind of blame Wall Street having free rein for the mess we’re in today,” Pruitt said.

A registered Republican, Pruitt said he recently visited the Occupy Sacramento encampment at Cesar Chavez Park.

“I was surprised that people weren’t hippies as they’ve described them,” he said. “Most of them were middle-class, well-educated people. A lot were college students who were upset that they didn’t have any jobs even though they’re graduating.”

No 24-hour campout

Bearing signs reading “Take back democracy” and “We bailed you out, now you bail us out,” marchers first gathered at the park for a quick planning meeting.

Co-organizer Mark Miller brought up the multi-day campouts being held in cities around the country.

“Those are all metropolitan areas and since we’re in a small suburban area, that might not catch on,” he said.

“Who is for a 24-hour occupation in Elk Grove?” he asked. Not a single hand went up.

Instead, protesters wound their way down Laguna Springs Drive’s manmade curves to Laguna Blvd and up onto the highway overpass. Chants of “We are the 99 percent” and “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out” met with both blank stares and honks of support from evening commuters.

One young man leaned out of his car window to pump his fist.

“Keep doing what you’re doing,” he said.

David Sullivan, a marketing agency owner visiting his parents from San Francisco, stopped to chat with protesters.

“You expect to see this in San Francisco, but not in Elk Grove,” he said. “I’m supportive. The message is still undefined, but maybe that’s OK. People are just upset and still trying to figure out what to do about it.”

On the overpass, Ed Hass, 56, pressed a sign reading “The middle class: too big to fail” against the chain-link fence, aiming at the eyeballs of highway drivers.

Hass said his older brother died of cancer at age 55, after contracting the disease at a time when he lacked health insurance.

“It was like, ‘We can’t do anything for you, so you’d better just die,’ " Hass said. “That’s the state of our healthcare system.”

Hass said he was disappointed at the turnout—about 10 people at the park, and eight by the time protesters reached the highway. “For a town of 150,000, this is pretty sorry.”

Movement, backlash growing

But Jim McRitchie, an Elk Grove resident whose Corpgov.net website seeks to change corporate practices by mobilizing investors, said the protesters holding ‘Occupy’ events nationwide “have already won.”

“They’ve already focused attention on the divide between the extremely wealthy people and the rest of the people,” he said.

McRitchie campaigns for shareholders of publicly-traded companies to vote against CEO compensation packages totaling $12 million or more. Fewer than two percent of corporations who reported holding the nonbinding votes by June 2011 saw their compensation plans rejected. With the Occupy Wall Street movement gaining ground, he said, maybe that number will grow next year.

As the Occupy Elk Grove group starts to become active, both the larger Occupy Wall Street movement and the backlash against it are growing. Protests have spread to countries around the globe—even to Antarctica, according to some reports.

They’ve also spawned an opposing Tumblr site, We Are the 53 Percent, where contributors call the protesters lazy whiners. In Sacramento, the city council Tuesday rejected occupiers’ request to be able to stay in the park overnight despite its official closing time of 11:00 p.m., and The Sacramento Bee published an editorial saying protesters were “wear[ing] out their welcome.”

The Elk Grove marchers overall seemed undaunted by their paltry numbers. They plan another show of force Saturday at .

“I want people to know that no matter how small you are, it all counts,” said Grandmothers for Peace director Lorraine Krofchok.