During yesterday evening's Occupy Wall Street protests (a.k.a. #OccupySF, if you're social media savvy), six members of the reportedly hundreds-strong group of protesters came prepared for an actual occupation—a cuddly sleepover occupation. Bay City News reports the six well-prepared protesters came armed with sleeping bags, pillows and a desire to sleep overnight on the floor of a Chase Bank branch on Market Street.
As expected, the police were having none of it: After repeatedly warning the protesters, six of them—heroes we will now refer to as the "Chase Bank Six"—refused to budge and were subsequently booked for trespassing. All were cited and released. At least one protester left the Chase branch in high spirits and told the crowd to "rock on.".
(Sidenote: We can actually see the logic of choosing Chase here: The bigger Wells Fargo branches downtown are nothing but cold granite floors, whereas most Chase branches have recently been remodeled and feature new carpet, flatscreen TVs and free coffee. The very same amenities that help lure financially clueless customers in to their megabank would also make it a pretty nice place to crash for the night.)
Meanwhile, twitter chatter indicates that another protest will take place tonight. That protest will meet at an #OccupySF encampment at 101 Market Street at 6 p.m. before moving to attempt to occupy the Federal Reserve building on the Embarcadero. If you're feeling sympathetic, said encampment at 101 Market could use some camping supplies.
