Occupy Salt Lake City is a protest and demonstration that began on October 6, 2011 in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah

Utah

Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...

 and based in Pioneer Park. This protest is based on the Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...

 movement that started in New York City on September 17. The Occupy Salt Lake City mission is to stand in solidarity with the those also protesting in Wall Street, the United States, and around the world.

Background

The protest in Salt Lake City began with two demonstrations in the same day, one starting at 10 am and another at 6 pm. This protest began in front of the Utah State Capitol and marched through downtown by the financial district, passing by the office buildings of Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and the Federal Reserve.The movement in Salt Lake City began with organization meeting at the amphitheater in the downtown Salt Lake City Library with about 80-300 people in attendance. The day of the protest, the Facebook page of Occupy Salt Lake City had almost 7000 followers.
Utah public officials showed support for the protestors rights of peaceful protest and free speech, such as Congressman Jason Chaffetz and Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker. The encampment was officially evicted by police on November 12 when a homeless man was found dead in his tent due to a drug overdose.

Cooperation with city officials

City officials faced rumors recently that they would not renew the protestors city permit to camp in Pioneer park. After one of the Occupy Salt Lake City organizers receive a letter from the city, he published a post expressing concern over possible forced removal from the camp location by the city police. However, after discussions with city officials and Occupy organizers, the rumors were proved to be false. The issue was a miscommunication and was quickly resolved. The Chief of the Salt Lake Police Department commented on the issue and stated that there has never been any intention to stop protestors, and has praised Occupy SLC organizers for their great cooperation with the police and city officials. One organizer commented and hopes to avoid any civil disobedience, however, stated that disobedience will occur if protestors were forced to leave.

Conflicts

There have been some concern over reports about safety in amongst the protestors in Pioneer Park. One protest organizer stated that there were growing internal conflicts when it came to fights between people, sexual harassment, threats, and grafitti. Also, over the last month there was concern over whether or not the protests would get in the way of the local farmers market that is held every saturday in Pioneer Park.

Expansion

The Occupy movement in Utah started to grow in October and November 2011 with a new campsite in Salt Lake City in front of the Federal Reserve Bank Building and new demonstrations appearing in the cities of Ogden and Park City.

See also

Occupy articles

• Timeline of Occupy Wall Street
  Timeline of Occupy Wall Street
  The following is a timeline of Occupy Wall Street which began on Saturday, September 17, 2011 as an occupation of Wall Street, the financial district of New York City and is an ongoing demonstration....
  
  
• We are the 99%

Other Protests

• 15 October 2011 global protests
  15 October 2011 global protests
  The 15 October 2011 global protests were part of a series of protests inspired by the Arab Spring, the Spanish "Indignants", the Greek Protests and the Occupy movement. Global demonstrations were held on October 15 in more than 950 cities 82 countries. The date was chosen to coincide with the 5...
  
  
• 2011 United States public employee protests
  2011 United States public employee protests
  In February 2011, a series of public employee protests began in the United States against proposed legislation which would weaken the power of labor unions. By March, eighteen states had proposed legislation which would remove some collective bargaining powers from unions, along with another five...
  
  
• 2011 Wisconsin protests
  2011 Wisconsin protests
  The 2011 Wisconsin protests were a series of demonstrations in the state of Wisconsin in the United States beginning in February involving at its zenith as many as 100,000 protestors opposing the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill. Subsequently, anti-tax activists and other conservatives, including tea...
  
  

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