Wall Street Protesters March to the Homes of the Super Rich
Wall Street protesters marched along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan Tuesday, to the homes of some of America's biggest corporate mavens in a sign of growing frustration with the super rich.
According to the Associated Press, protesters marched along the confines of New York City's swanky East Side, two abreast, in order to avoid being cited for marching within the region without a permit, as well as to avoid blocking traffic.
Passing the homes of News Corp. media mogul Rupert Murdoch and J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimond, the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters ventured into neighborhoods inhabited by some of the richest 1 percent of the nation's population.
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Upon reaching the building where Dimond lives, protesters shouted "Where's our bailout?" as well as "How do we end this deficit?" and "Tax the Rich."
Dimond has become a symbol of Wall Street greed and what is perceived to be its exploitation of the poor. He is connected to the federal government's bailout of the failed Bear Stearns investment bank.
Dimon is also viewed unfavorably by those angered by the incredible profit margin of major financial institutions while the poor and middleclass continue to face austerity.
In January 2011, J.P. Morgan announced that its profit had surged to 48 percent in 2010, while consumers continued to struggle in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
Protesters have held their demonstrations in lower Manhattan, near Wall Street, for over three weeks. The march on New York's wealthy neighborhoods has raised the optical rhetoric to a whole new level, and indicates an increasing frustration by protesters in what they perceive to be a stubborn insensitivity to their cause.
Some have taken umbrage to the recent statements by Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain, who addressed the protest in the Wall Street Journal, by saying:
"Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!" Cain said.
The former CEO of Godfather's Pizza continued, "It is not a person's fault because they succeeded, it is a person's fault if they failed. And so this is why I don't understand these demonstrations and what is it that they're looking for."
