Was it the young, self-described anarchists who got arrested after tossing newspaper boxes into K Street to block traffic during a raucous demonstration Wednesday? Or was it a middle-aged jobless woman from Miami who traveled here in a chartered bus to lobby her senator?
The answer, of course, was both. But the differences were telling, and they highlighted the challenges facing the left-leaning spectrum of American politics as it tries to capitalize on the newfound energy of the Occupy movement.
No fewer than three liberal protest encampments were operating downtown from Monday to Friday. Two, at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, were part of the national Occupy movement. The third was set up temporarily on the Mall in front of the Smithsonian Castle by a national coalition of labor unions and liberal groups.
Each of the three had its own ideas about how to achieve social change. The different groups are cooperating a bit but are wary of one another.
Many Occupy activists worry that labor unions want to co-opt them into traditional electoral politics. One McPherson Square protester said there was a risk of becoming “drones for Obama.”
The established liberal groups love the commitment and enthusiasm of the more radical protesters. But they’re keeping some distance for fear of being discredited if the Occupy folks get in trouble with the law, as some did last week in the first major wave of arrests in the Washington demonstrations.
The group claimed it was to provide a warm gathering place but officials said no permit had been obtained and it was therefore illegal and must be dismantled.
About 20 protesters refused to leave the shed Sunday and more than 50 park police officers, including a half dozen on horseback, surrounded and cordoned off the site.
Several demonstrators climbed onto the roof to avoid arrest, shouting slogans about justice and equality, but all were eventually removed by 8:35 p.m. and the wooden shelter was taken down, according to reports.
In Texas, the body of Darwin Cox, 23, was found in the “Occupy Denton” encampment by university and city police at about 5 p.m. Saturday.
The cause of death has not been determined, pending toxicology results, but his fellow comrades described him as a kind and idealistic homeless man who battled drug addiction all his life, according to reports.
The eight-tent Texas protest site was shut down voluntarily by protesters after Cox’s death but they planned to hold a candlelight vigil at the site Monday evening to commemorate him.
The occupations in D.C. and Denton, Tex., were sparked by the Occupy Wall Street movement which set up camp in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17, calling for an end to financial greed and inequality as well as greater social justice.
The New York movement was kicked out of its home during a pre-dawn raid by NYPD on Nov. 15 and it is now against the rules to sleep overnight in the privately owned public park.
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