Politics

Who is at Zuccotti Park?

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Recent surveys of the Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park have found that not all of them are "hippies to hot chicks." So who are they? Interestingly, two percent of them make half of what the reviled one percent makes. And nearly a third say they will support violence to achieve their objectives (whatever those might be).

The Week very helpfully compiled the findings:

  • 64 percent of those in the Occupy Wall Street movement who are under the age of 35, according to a survey of 1,619 people that visited OccupyWallSt.org. The survey was conducted by Baruch College professor Hector R. Cordero-Guzman and business analyst Harrison Schultz.
  • 20 percent over the age of 45, according to the same survey
  • 26.7 percent who are enrolled in school
  • More than $75,000 annual salary that 13 percent of the survey-takers take home, according to Cordero-Guzman and Schultz.
  • More than $150,000 annual salary reported by nearly 2 percent of the survey-takers ($343,927 adjusted gross income needed to be in the "extolled and excoriated 1 percent of richest Americans")
  • 15 percent of the demonstrators who are unemployed, according to a different survey, this one conducted by veteran pollster Douglas Schoen via in-person interviews with 198 people at Manhattan's Zuccotti Park
  • 18 percent of demonstrators who call themselves "part-time employed/underemployed."
  • 53 percent of demonstrators who say they have previously participated in a political movement, according to Schoen's survey
  • 98 percent who say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their aims
  • 31 percent who say they would support violence
  • 8 percent who say they are unsure of what they would like to see the movement accomplish
  • 44 percent who say they want to "influence the Democratic Party the way the Tea Party has influenced the GOP"
  • 32 percent who consider themselves Democrats; nearly the same amount (33 percent) say they don't affiliate themselves with any political party.
  • 56 percent of demonstrators who say they voted in 2008
  • 74 percent of those who voted that say they cast a ballot for Obama in 2008
  • 51 percent of demonstrators who now say they now disapprove of Obama
  • At least 25 percent who says they will not vote in 2012