’99 percent’ gather at UNLV

February 2, 2012 by Haley Etchison 

Some come to campus to escape worsening Occupy L.A. scene

A faction of the Occupy movement has begun meeting twice weekly on the UNLV campus.

The group holds general assembly meetings Sundays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Courtyard.

On Sunday, Jim Duensing spoke to a group of supporters who stood alone or sat at tables in groups of two and three in the courtyard.

A mic plugged into a small amplifier sat on a table next to Duensing, but he spoke without it, telling the gathering of about 30 not to be tricked by what they might hear in the media.

“If we’re going to see any sustainable change, people have to turn off their televisions,” Duensing said, after the gathering dispersed.

He spoke as part of a movement called Kill Your TV, which asks people to think critically about American society rather than accept what newscasters tell them as fact.

Sunday was business major Kevin Saldana’s first time attending an Occupy function. He stood apart from the group, listening to Duensing talk.

“I always kind of believed some things were happening,” Saldana said. He explained that he has been aware about inequality issues internationally for a long time but that he is starting to think inequity and even human rights problems are on the rise in the U.S.

“You shouldn’t be working 60 hours a week to be impoverished at the drop of a hat,” Duensing said to the group.

His speech was littered with this kind of exhortation to resist the power of the “1 percent” — the richest Americans who, the Occupy movement claims, wield inordinate influence over policy and society.

Duensing lectured his audience with authority, but in the style of the movement, he did not identify himself as a leader.

“I guess I’m just a member,” he said.

Among the other members present on Sunday were Chris Linn and Jessica Rigler-Linn, a married couple who identify wholly with the ideals of Occupy’s “99 percent.”

The two moved from Occupy Los Angeles to Occupy Las Vegas’ “Area 99” encampment on Paradise Road, where they live in a tent.

“They’re coming down big-time on us in Occupy L.A.,” Rigler-Linn said. “… We basically came here not to get arrested.”

Rigler-Linn said that before her father died, he predicted the “next American Revolution.”

“I knew that this was coming long before it came,” Rigler-Linn said.

Contact Haley Etchison at news@unlvrebelyell.com.