"Occupy Rose Parade" A Failure On Any Measure
Occupy protesters march at the end of the 123rd Tournament of Roses Parade on Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena Monday, January 2, 2012 [ctrl-click HERE to see "Occupy Rose Parade" slideshow]. Image Credit: SGVN/Staff Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz/SXCITY
"Occupy Rose Parade" A Failure On Any Measure
On observation, the Occupy Wall Street's attempt to gain sympathy and support for their movement ended up being a complete failure on most any measure one wishes to apply to the display and its execution.
First off, very little media attention of their actual display and end-of-parade walk for the first mile and a half of the five and a half mile parade route was to be found on a Google search of "Occupy Rose Parade" - total postings and RSS feed pick-ups show only 24 listing Results. Any New Media writer knows that when one self-publishes, one must self-syndicate in order to increase Google search results on the title or subject of any article ... 24 item Results after 24 hours of an event is weak by any standard, let alone the platform the Rose Parade provides to a world audience. An estimated 40 million people viewed this year's procession of 43 floats, 16 marching bands and 22 equestrian troupes on U.S. television alone.
The first Rose Parade took place in 1890 and was attended by 2,000 people. The attendance has grown to around one million parade goers lining Colorado Blvd. over the last few years.
Upon reading the stories leading up to the actual event, the "Occupy Rose Parade" organizers were hoping for tens-of-thousands of people turning out to participate in their side-bar, soft sanctioned, end-of-parade event. The initial projections provided by spokesman and organizer Peter Thottam estimated that 40,000 Occupy Movement (OWS) sympathizers would attend the demonstration but in hours before the parade, settled on the number of 3,000 demonstrators which the MSM press services of AP and Reuters picked-up and used as the template for all of their postings used by newspaper and television news broadcasts on the subject.
Actual estimates of the people who marched in the parade came to about 400 people. The official policy of the Pasadena Police Department is that they do not issue crowd estimates but when pushed, the Pasadena Police Department estimated that no more than 400 "Occupy Rose Parade" protesters marched the route and were joined by people from the crowd leaving the parade event, which made the actual protest seem larger.
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