Cape & Islands News

Occupy "Blue Meany" Octopus marches in Hyannis

Cape Cod "Occupy" protesters caught a few eyes Saturday

   (L-R) Cape Cod Occupiers Lee Roscoe (Brewster), Beth Verani (Cotuit), Mary Zepernick, as Miss Democracy (Yarmouth), and Elaine Dickinson (Harwich) standing across the street from the Bank of America.

By Paul Rifkin

The Blue Meany at Bank of America.

Don Cox, an occupier from West Barnstable.

Rob and Margaret Moir of Brewster.Saturday morning, January 28, a "Blue Meany" Octopus , made out of blue recycling bags, representing the ugly, grasping power of corporate “persons”, moved along the street and sidewalk by the Bank of America on Barnstable Road in Hyannis.

One person was the head of the Octopus and 8 others  used “wands” to guide the movement of the tentacles. 

At the end of each tentacle was a sign and or symbol for what the ugly corporation sucks in America like an oil rig, Congress, the Federal  Reserve Bank, military contractors, the courts, media, etc.

Others in the Occupy and Move to Amend movements supported the street theater with chanting, holding signs, banging tambourines and blowing kazoos. 

The action was directed against the Supreme Court's decision affirming corporate "personhood" and campaign money as free speech.

That protest was nationwide, but the Cape group was at the John J. Moakley United States Courthouse on Northern Avenue in Boston for a rally with speakers and street theater.

The goal is to amend the US Constitution and is sponsored by Greater Boston Move to Amend.

Here come the cops

When the Octopus (made up of Cape occupiers and several young men from Occupy Boston) decided to occupy the Bank of America property, the Barnstable police (see below) quickly arrived and suggested they needed to get off Bank of America property or face arrest. 

They proudly marched away back onto public sidewalks.