What's going on, Albuquerque?

Photos & Video from Occupy Burque

It's hardly the usual crowd -- the Occupy Burque demonstration going on right now is full of 20somethings and hipster UNM students seemingly lamenting a lack of economic opportunity and the growing inequality in our country.

The signs they held marching along Central read:

"I am not your serf."

"Money for people's needs, not war."

"Banks too big to fail. People the right size?"

"My tax dollars paid for those tasers."

Here are a few photos I snapped this afternoon. Video by cosmomow below...

Visit the Occupy Burque Flickr group.

Tags: burque, occupy

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Permalink Reply by cc on October 1, 2011 at 8:53pm

Thanks for covering it, Chantal. Great showing up!

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Permalink Reply by Zuzu Petals on October 2, 2011 at 7:32pm

I admire them. Too many young people who desire a better education, or health care, for God's sake, are getting ground up under the wheels of the rich. They deserve much better -- take that tea party.

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Permalink Reply by RunLikeADog on October 3, 2011 at 8:47am

At first I thought this was a joke. Then I saw it on the news. In D.C., the protestors were really experiencing hardships by eating donated food, having to plug their laptops into portable gas generators and conserving battery life on their iPhones and iPads.

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Permalink Reply by contrastlife on October 3, 2011 at 9:01am

I think we could drink beer together.

I saw one report where the guy quit his job so that he could join the protest.

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Permalink Reply by Zuzu Petals on October 3, 2011 at 9:45pm

But, that strategy worked so well for Sarah Palin.

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Permalink Reply by Balletmom on October 3, 2011 at 9:23am

The protesters in NYC were arrested for blocking the Brooklyn Bridge after being asked repeatedly to stay on the walk way. My son lives in Brooklyn and they made him late to a job interview in Manhattan- he could not get thru on his bike and was hassled by some protesters for actually going to try to find a better job. Understand your frustration but think before you speak and act. Better education? State university is free to majority of people. Better health care- then get the government out of it- I work in health care and deal with the state and federal government daily. All they do is waste money and delay care. When I call to get approval and the whole office is on a break to have a baby shower, that's a problem.

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Permalink Reply by Paula Manning-Lewis on October 3, 2011 at 12:45pm

State university is free to majority of people? Really? Where is this? My husband and I went to a state university and have a growing $80,000 student loan debt that we still cannot afford to make payments on 10 years AFTER we graduated. My husband was told repeatedly while in college that if he taught in a low income school for 5 years that all of his student loans would be forgiven. H taught at West Mesa high school for 6 years. 93% of the kids on free/reduced lunch. Didn't happen and we are still fighting to make it happen.

I was out at the protest on Saturday and it wasn't just a bunch of young kids out there. There were young kids, middle aged parents and older grandparents out there, Army veterans and others.

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Permalink Reply by Zuzu Petals on October 3, 2011 at 9:47pm

I'm sorry your son was harassed.

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Permalink Reply by Dawn Janz on October 8, 2011 at 3:00pm

It's free? Which state? Why am I paying tuition then?

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Permalink Reply by Crosley on October 3, 2011 at 12:21pm

"At first I thought this was a joke. Then I saw it on the news. In D.C., the protestors were really experiencing hardships by eating donated food, having to plug their laptops into portable gas generators and conserving battery life on their iPhones and iPads."

Yeah, those kids should just shut up and be satisfied with being powerless pawns in a game played by politicians and corporations to keep people enslaved and silent! We don't know how good we have it, we spoiled kids who have iPads and iPhones!

Sounds to me like another Baby Boomer who doesn't get it. Boomers, here's the news flash. You didn't graduate from college into a world where making $24,000 a year in a dead-end, cubicle-farm job was the best job you can get and one you're lucky to have - and on $24,000 a year you still won't be able to move out of your parents' house, because your education cost you $40,000 (or more) and you have to pay the loans off. You aren't staring down a future where it is unlikely you will EVER be able to buy a home, get married, have children, or take vacations.

Kids today aren't graduating into a world where there is no student loan debt; where "good jobs" pay $8,000 a year and that's ample for not just a person, but a FAMILY to live on; where houses in good neighborhoods cost $20,000 and the school district is just fine; where a reliable, well-built car costs $5,000. And, where jobs don't involve pushing a mouse across a mousepad 9+ hours a day in some fluorescent-lit cube farm.

You guys had it great! Good for you! It's not great anymore. Corporations are raping the environment, the economy, and the political system. They hold all the cards and we are all basically living at their whim. They have bought the politicians and so political change is impossible. The Baby Boomers who championed deregulation, who allowed corporations to run free and unencumbered, who refused reform of the financial system and the political system, now can't retire because they have no money and therefore are not creating good job openings for people in their 20s and 30s. It was "all about you" and now there is no room left in the American Dream for the rest of us. THAT is what those "spoiled kids" are protesting. And I hope they go on protesting it. I wish I could have been there with them this weekend.

If you don't understand why those kids are out there, it's because you are living off the hard work and labor of others and benefiting from a system that enslaves the voiceless and economically powerless so that you can sit in your tract home and post snarky things about "kids these days." Congratulations. I hope that makes you feel good.