I haven't talked or thought about the Occupy movement in months. About three weeks ago I went to the park where Occupy Phoenix was supposed to be. There were a handful of people there, and by handful I mean five, but their presence was so non threatening there were no police in the area. During past visits, even with small numbers of Occupy protesters there was a visible police presence.

The Occupy movement had a questionable premise from the start. Being a leaderless movement allowed for an organic and fluid adaptation for policy. It assured no one personality or special interest could take over. Unlike the Tea Party movement, a special interest conglomerate couldn't come in with money and influence and take over the movement. The flip side of the philosophy was outside influence could define the movement, which is what happened. When a more organized front was needed, the leaderless movement stayed adamant in not having a leader, or at least having a set goal, and the movement floundered. To me, the Occupy movement getting on Time magazine's Person of the Year issue was the death of the Occupy movement.

When the Occupy movement got championed by the press, there was a distinct feeling of 'what's next' from people covering the various occupations. The problem was there was no plan, no formulation and no goal as to what the Occupy movement was about. As a movement, there were a lot of missed opportunities to capitalize on their press, but it was squandered because the basic narrative many people needed wasn't there. It may have been against everything the non leader movement was about, but to the rest of us who wanted to help, not having a goal or focus made it difficult to support the group wholeheartedly. The local Occupy movement desperately wanted to think of themselves as being with the larger coverage. If it happened in New York, Washington, LA or Oakland they were quick to post words of encouragement. The thing was, the local movement was never as organized as the bigger cities, never had the press as the larger cities had. The lack of organization hurt their cause, and without a spokesperson the message was easily formed by people who didn't have their best interest at heart. Another problem with the local movement is an unwillingness, to put it bluntly, align themselves with folks who have a better track record dealing with PR and the press. I know Move On and a few labor organizations tried to link with the group, but were shut down. Around November there seemed to be an effort to try and join forces, but this was around the time violence in places like Oakland were getting headlines. It seemed that the local movement wanted the same type of headlines, so they tried to have confrontations with the police. While it did get them press, it wasn't the press the group needed.

During the holidays, there were no outreach programs, no volunteers for shelters or food drives. Things that might have put the movement back in the spotlight and give them a positive look were either rejected or not acted upon. I knew of people on Facebook who jumped on the Occupy bandwagon from their various cities, which were not the big media areas. By the end of the year you could see their interest wane.

Around the end of the year I visited the San Diego Occupy movement, hoping to get a different perspective of the movement. I was told by a friend who lived in the area that the San Diego movement was nothing but homeless people. While I wanted to think otherwise, I knew from visits to Occupy Phoenix it was possible, to keep numbers up, homeless people might be employed to man the post, as it were. Sure enough, when I visited Occupy San Diego the people there were more concerned about holding down the plot of land than educating the public. When I got into a discussion with a woman who questioned how 'down I was with the cause,' implying because I was black I should be more active in their movement, I was not amused.

Honestly I don't know what I feel about the movement now. I think it got a discussion going, but this feeling of accomplishment will last, what, maybe six months more if we're lucky. Other events, such as SOPA, Keystone and Komen for the Cure fiasco, have shown more proactive action than Occupy has seemed to accomplished. The reason, of course, is because those were set goals where results could be seen and they were immediate. The Occupy Phoenix folks still say they are fighting the fight, but they are so few that the police don't shadow them as much. The public have forgotten who they are and never knew what they were about, except for a plot of land.