MONTEREY, Calif--
A tale of two Occupy protests on the Central Coast.
You know of Occupy Santa Cruz, which police raided and shut down, Thursday. Police arrested six people and crews cleaned up eight tons of trash.
We haven't talked as much about Occupy Monterey. Demonstrators rallied at Colton Hall supporting the elderly and their caretakers, Friday.
And as you just read, there are big differences between the two groups. Occupy Monterey said the biggest difference is how it all began.
"From our very first general assembly, our Occupy movement decided we wanted to work with the city and we like Monterey," said Alan Haffa, Occupy Monterey. "We support Monterey. We're Monterey residents and the city took the same attitude towards us so we've been able to work cooperatively with them."
Occupiers said waiting to start their movement on the peninsula might have helped them as well.
"It gave us the opportunity to sort of take it to what some of us see as the next level which needs to be more dialogue, more an exchange of ideas, maybe an opportunity to encompass a broader spectrum or demographic of our community," said Timothy Barrett, Occupy Monterey.
Demonstrators said while the operations from city to city might be different, their overall message is the same.
"We want to make our economic system more equitable," said Haffa. "We want to get rid of crony capitalism and we want to make our electoral system fair by getting big money our of it."
Occupiers said police raids like Thursdays in Santa Cruz, or Friday morning in Boston may force a change in what's next for the movement.
"The occupy movement is moving into possibly a new phase where it's more about an exchange of ideas in that violence is really not the point," said Barrett.
