BP Protest Flash Mob Blocked, Not Deterred

This was put on youtube after the event

Update from the scene, but Patti MacKenzie:

I was in this location today just yards from the barricade in the top photo from 12:15 to 12:35. People were sad that they could not create an image of an oil slick in black umbrellas across the BP Bridge.  However, whistles blew at 12:15 which instigated the opening of umbrellas and sitting down on hot pavement near the barricade.   Snacks were shared, conversation ensued and the crowd waited under the hot sun smiling and sweating.  At 12:35, whistles blew again and the crowd stood, lowered umbrellas, and proceeded on their way.

The success of a flash mob rests on secrecy, but it wasn’t a flash mob that blocked the BP Bridge on Friday, it was the Chicago Blackhawks ticker-tape parade and rally.

The idea was to converge on the BP Bridge in Millenium Park, open black umbrellas and sit down, thus simulating in a view from above an oil spill on the bridge. The mob was to last about 12 minutes, and then as all good flash mobs do, it would disperse. A silent, quiet, symbolic kind of protest over an environmental catastrophe that will mark us and our ocean for years.

Was it planned to coincide with the Blackhawks’ long-awaited Stanley Cup win? Whether or not the flash mob initiators thought of that, that’s what happened.

When the protesters, including some Hawks fans, arrived on Friday at 12:15 p.m. they found access to the bridge was blocked by a barricade, but some of them found a place to open their umbrellas anyway.

Most of the protesters attributed the bridge closure to BP, the police, or the City, as a measure to stop the protest.

A call to 311 revealed the official reason the bridge was closed was because of the Blackhawks parade and rally. The bridge department confirmed that the closure was in response to the celebration, not the flash mob protest.

Here is the tweet stream about the BP Bridge flash mob including  Foursquare, Twitter, Gowalla and even HuffPo. TimeOut Chicago has a great photo gallery from the protest and flash mob.

Related articles by Zemanta

• BP ‘Flash Mob’ Protest Gets Sidelined By Blackhawks Parade (huffingtonpost.com)
• BP Flash Mob to Take Place at Millennium Park Friday (chicagotalks.org)

This story was edited after it was initially posted to include the photo of the protesters with their umbrellas open.