Today is Black Friday, and that means that most stores are having big sales to try to draw in customers. The Occupy Orange County Irvine and Santa Ana groups both decided to hold a protest march at South Coast Plaza, a large high-end mall in Costa Mesa. Since many stores were opening their doors at midnight this year, the march started at around 10:30pm in front of the Best Buy, and continued until after 1:30 am.
The lines were, predictably, very long:

The Best Buy line was gigantic, and the dozen or so Occupy Orange County protestors who were there walked up and down the line, chanting and handing out fliers.

Most of the protestors who weren’t handing out fliers were tied together by a rope:

The rope was a part of a human art project by Occupy Orange County, Irvine. At the front of the rope line was Web, dressed in a suit and holding the end, happily leading the rest of the protestors. The goal was to illustrate how the 1% lead the 99%.

After the Best Buy’s doors opened and the line shortened, the marchers headed over to the Old Navy, and then to the main mall itself, protesting in front of the Macy’s Men’s store and walking around the side of the mall.


The protest started out with about a dozen Occupy Orange County, Irvine protestors in front of the Best buy, and then grew in size when a dozen or so Occupy Orange County, Santa Ana protestors joined them around 12:30am.

The march was entirely peaceful. While each store typically had their own private security guards at the entrance to the stores, the protestors and the guards left each other alone, and there was functionally no police presence around the march at any point.
Reactions to the protestors from the people in line was mixed. Some cheered or otherwise showed support, many jeered, and most were simply wondering who these people were and what “Occupy Orange County” was.
More pictures
See my Occupy Orange County – Black Friday March photo gallery for all of my images from the night.