Bonuses Make AIG Offices Quite the Spot for Protests
Eric Richardson
[Flickr]
Protestors stand outside AIG's offices at 777 S. Figueroa on Monday evening.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Insurance company AIG's Downtown offices at 8th and Figueroa have become a popular protest site in the wake of news that the company just paid out $165 million in bonuses after taking government bailout funds.
Bearing banners calling for the bonuses to be cancelled and proclaiming capitalism an organized crime, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and ANSWERLA held court during yesterday's evening commute.
Today at 4pm the Los Angeles Civil Rights Association will take its turn out front, calling for the financial company to donate the bonus money to job creation and health care programs.
While the issue of the company's bonuses has much of the country outraged and even garnered a statement from President Barack Obama, that didn't translate into protestors. Yesterday's protest was very lightly attended, with sixteen individuals outside the AIG offices at 5:30pm. Four news cameras covered the scene, all with vans ready for live shots.
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HarryinLA on March 17, 2009, at 01:35PM – #1
If there were hundreds out there protesting then I would say this was news worthy but a group of 20 or so individuals from an unknown party is NOT NEWS.
Neel Sodha on March 17, 2009, at 03:32PM – #2
Yeah..16 people protesting is actually just noise and not a 'movement'.
Justin on March 18, 2009, at 10:59AM – #3
I agree, this isn't news. The protests to come tomorrow will be, however.
jonfrum on March 18, 2009, at 01:59PM – #4
Neel Sodha, then get off your butt and join them... or are you more of the spectator type?
Naturallawyer on March 18, 2009, at 04:34PM – #5
Clue to the protesters: real capitalists opposed the bailout in the first place. It was the socialists that enabled this bonus fiasco, not the capitalists.
Seriously, nobody thought it would be a bad idea to give billions of dollars to businessmen that just ran their businesses into the ground?
David Kennedy on March 18, 2009, at 07:22PM – #6
Yeah, I'm a little puzzled why this was selected as a worthy post given the small numbers participating and the fringe nature of the group. Describing the group as 'popular' seems empirically false. There are likely more media people covering the 'event'.
Also, as pointed out, the incoherence of the protestors' position seems self-evident. A little more editorial rigor might be in order.
By the by, when do blgdowntown readers get to vote on which content they find most useful?
Eric Richardson (@blogdowntown) on March 18, 2009, at 10:09PM – #7
David: I was referring to its popularity as a place for protests, not to the popularity of those protests. I thought it was pretty funny to see only a 4-1 ratio between protestors and news trucks. Perhaps you read something different into the story than I had written.
Dan Goshin on March 18, 2009, at 10:24PM – #8
Every movement starts with one person standing up for what they believe in.
Its disappointing to see such criticism of people doing just that as we sit here typing away with snark.
To me this exemplifies the seriousness or lack-thereof that many of us view the current economic situation and the latest bonus fiasco. Perhaps television, the internet and radio have distanced the realities of what's occurring around us.
David Kennedy on March 19, 2009, at 08:28AM – #9
Eric, your sense of humor must be very dry. I had no idea you were joking. Not sure how you can make that more apparent. Must be the delivery.
Dan, actually, my comments were offered in all seriousness. Criticism is at the heart of a free society. If these protestors' ideas have merit, the marketplace of ideas will bear that out. I doubt it.
Also, you seem perfectly unaware of this group's history or agenda. They ain't Ghandi or MLK. There is nothing honorable about them. Don't allow your frustrations with the present economic and political situatiion to be captured by these thugs.
Bethany Quinn on March 30, 2009, at 01:16PM – #10
This was one of almost 100 protests all over the country, collectively thousands of people participated.