I think there are good points being drowned out due to bad presentation in a few areas. I went down to (what's left of) Occupy San Diego to see what was going on last weekend. There were the occupiers clustered around a blood stain, which had been claimed as the blood of a young lady getting cracked by the cops as they raided the encampment in the Civic Center plaza. There wasn't any marching, just people standing around. There were more cops than protesters, but they were also just clumped in groups. I was a amused by subtle tension of everyone just standing around, but afraid (or unwilling) to go near each other.
The ground was wet from being power-washed. I saw some open jars of peanut butter from the few people on the outside with actual signs. Only a couple protesters seemed to be open to talking to myself and my gf.
We asked some cops what happened, and they were quite friendly to us. They told us about how one shop owner had to close her business down for good, since people robbed her store in the plaza. The cop said it was due to people "having nothing to do" with the movement, just there to cash in on the mob of people. One officer said he agreed with their message and thought it was needed, but mentioned that the real OWS crowd was only there for about two weeks, then the looters and troublemakers came in.
On November 4, we took another gander at the brave souls still camped out on the sidewalk in the rain. I saw one lady with a sign in a poncho. Kinda hard to keep the momentum up when, as the officer told us, about 50 people had been arrested.
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I can definitely see these protests as the symptoms of a nation frustrated to the core with how things are going--first the Tea Partiers, now the OWS people. Banks play fast and loose with toxic mortgages, then they screw up only to get bailed out? That ain't right, no matter what your political orientation is. My personal beef is with the health industry and insurance companies, but I'll admit I haven't done too much research into how the health insurance industry operates, so I'm not sure I can articulate what the problem there is.