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Anti-Corporation Protesters Head West To 'Occupy Venice'

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Another Southland neighborhood can now be considered "occupied" territory.

KNX 1070's Ed Mertz reports four weeks after demonstrators began to camp out on Wall Street in New York City, a local group has now decided to Occupy Venice.

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"I don't think we're late at all, I think we're right on time," said one protester. "We've been getting ready for this for a long time."

There may be sunshine and palm trees, but the members of Occupy Venice are doing anything but relaxing in the latest protest in a movement that has taken hold in hundreds of U.S. cities.

The protest laid claim to the Windward Circle in Venice on Sunday even as police officers patrolled the area both on bikes and in vehicles on the surrounding streets.

"We're planning our future together without relying on people outside our community," one man said.

"No matter how much we petition our government, they ignore us because they are bought and paid for by the financial interests," said another protester.

One of the aims of the effort is aimed at getting lawmakers to "rewrite the laws that give corporations the same rights as people," according to the official Occupy Venice website.

"We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments," the group's mission statement reads.

As for the ever-shifting locations and faces of the Occupy movement, Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans said the protesters must use the movement's loose-knit style to their advantage.

"You know, power gets to be really amorphous and say you can't find me and hold me down," she said. "Let's become the amorphous, let's become all of the demands."

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