While the Republican elite boozed and schmoozed with media at the RNC Welcoming Party inside St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field, several hundred demonstrators took to the streets in light rain demanding an equal share of America's wealth.
On Sunday evening, protesters from the Tampa Bay area and beyond marched from Mirror Lake to the “Event Zone,” a huge, barbed-wire enclosed area near Tropicana field. They chanted “We are the 99%!” and held signs condemning Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Florida Governor Rick Scott. They banged drums and snaked through several blocks of the downtown area, empty except for hundreds of police posted at intersections along the pre-approved parade route.
There were no arrests.
This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2012.