Occupy Congress happens tomorrow, with Occupiers from around the country making the trek to Washington, D.C., for a day of protests and visiting with their elected officials. One group, Occupy San Diego, ran into trouble when their Greyhound bus driver gave them the boot in Amarillo, Texas. The story made the local news, in the report below.
The OB Rag, out of Ocean Beach, California, had been following their trip with posts from Eugene Davidovich, whose photo is above. He writes that the bus driver challenged them about how they’d managed to buy tickets. From the OB Rag:
After the second “sit down and shut up”, several passengers began to voice their concern about the hostility and disrespect coming from the driver. One of those voicing a concern about the luggage was Michael Ponsler. He asked the driver why he was being so rude and disrespectful.
The driver spun around, and shouted, “Who said that?!”
It was me, Michael calmly responded.
“You, off my bus!”, the driver shouted.
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Michael explained to the driver that he was part of a group traveling together, that he had done nothing wrong, and was simply inquiring about the bags and customer service. This seemed to outrage the driver even more and he began to shout, “all of you Occupy people, off my bus!”
The Occupiers spent the night in the Amarillo bus station before getting on a bus Sunday morning. It sounds like they made the best of it, though it was also kind of a drag. “One girl was refused her shoes when she got kicked off the bus,” Misty Hanna wrote on Occupy Amarillo’s Facebook page. “She is now shoeless and stranded in a bus station. If anyone can get a pair of shoes to her, she wears 8 1/2.”
Meanwhile, sympathizers around the country pressed the cause enough that Greyhound tweeted it was aware of the “Occupy Congress situation.” After they got underway again, the OB Rag reports, the riders were welcomed in Oklahoma City by fellow activists bearing coffee and food for the road.
(H/t @tourville)
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