Rose Parade Occupiers Are Bringing Their Own Floats and Audience

The annual parade of gigantic floats made out of flowers just got underway in Pasadena, and this year's Tournament of Roses has an added contingent from the Occupy movement tagging along at its tail, as well an extra audience of occupiers watching from home. Live streams have become a key tool in popularizing the Occupy movement, and there are many capturing the parade and its Occupy contingent Monday. According to the Los Angeles Times, about 200 occupiers showed up early Monday morning to prepare for their march immediately following the last entry in the parade, in which they'll carry a giant plastic octopus and a huge replica of the Constitution. They've been warned they face jail time for disrupting the parade itself, but the protesters won't run afoul of the law if they follow immediately behind. And that presence should get a few more eyes on the parade than would normally watch. In addition to whoever might be tuning in to the normal broadcast of the parade on stations such as KTLA, the Twitter hashtag for #occupytheroseparade is full of links to the kinds of live streams that have helped popularize other Occupy actions such as November's huge march in New York. For the Rose Parade and Pasadena, that means expanded coverage of the annual event, even if it comes from a trailing vantage point and, most likely, an iPhone camera. 

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