Occupiers Can't March in Tournament of Roses Parade

Although an Occupy Wall Street protest group in Pasadena, Calif., tried to get a slot to march in the Rose Parade on Jan. 2, officials with the parade said no. The group now plans to march down the street behind a group of police cars that mark the end of the parade.

In November, the Occupy group announced its plans to “occupy” the parade, but the Pasadena Tournament of Roses provided a statement on Wednesday to CNSNews.com saying that protesters would “not be taking part in the Rose Parade” because only official entries, approved by the tournament well in advance of the event, can take part in the event.

Also, Lt. Plhunte Riddle of the Pasadena Police Department told CNSNews.com in a telephone interview: “The Tournament of Roses has the exclusive authority to issue permits for the entries in the parade. Occupy has not been issued a permit.”

Instead, the activists can walk down Colorado Boulevard along with countless other people who throng the streets when the parade concludes.

“They will be allowed, just like any other spectator or any other demonstrator, to fall in at the completion of the parade behind our four police cars that trail the parade,” Riddle said. “That doesn’t give them placing, that doesn’t give them a permit – no permit is needed as long as they don’t infringe on other individuals that every year gather in the street and walk.”

Although the group is not part of the parade, its Web site OccupytheRoseParade.org says, “Float #44/#99 will be our float with visual displays including a 250 foot ‘We the People’ U.S. Constitution, a 50 foot ‘We The Corporations’ version, a giant ‘Goldie Sachs’ Wheel of Fortune exhibit, a Wall Street ‘Occupy The Octopus’ (Occupy The Vampire Squid) representing Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citibank(i.e. Wall Street) and much more,” the Web site states.

Read more at CNSNews.com.