Gainesville is officially occupied.
Occupy Gainesville started its occupation of the city Wednesday at 8 a.m. at the Bo Diddley Community Plaza.
Protesters peacefully marched to Wells Fargo and Bank of America to persuade people to close their bank accounts and educate them about banking in America.
After 20 years, Coral MacDonald, 47, closed his account with Bank of America.
"In the last six months, I've been feeling my poor relationship with Bank of America," he said.
MacDonald said bank officials wouldn't allow him to enter the bank holding his flag, which read "occupy or live a lie." He gave it to another protester and walked in to close his account.
He said he has been planning on closing his bank account since he saw the increased debit card rates six months ago.
He walked out, cut his then-unusable card in front of his old bank and threw it away.
MacDonald said he has moved his money from Bank of America to a credit union and is trying to encourage his 18-year-old daughter to do the same.
Juan Diaz, 47, turned in his resignation letter to the state government four weeks ago and officially resigned Wednesday after 22 years as an engineer.
"I believe professionalism and corporatism are corrupted at every level," he said.
He would not say which government agency employed him.
Contractors who worked with his state government agency, he said, went against regulations, specifications and standards of the government.
The state gave $200,000 to a contractor who didn't deserve the money on a project Diaz was working on, he said.
"The shift I have seen since a year ago is about cutting the agencies and shift [of] the money and resources to the private sector by mandate of Rick Scott," he said.
Diaz said he didn't want to quit initially.
"My integrity was constantly being pinched, and I couldn't stand it anymore," he said.
Diaz said he heard about Occupy Gainesville over the Internet.
Another protester, Eddy Arenas, 32, said he found about the Occupy Wall Street movement from videos on the Internet.
"We have a personal responsibility," he said. "We can't just keep pointing fingers at the ruling elite ... we put ourselves in this position."
Arenas said he understands the Gainesville Police Department has city ordinances to follow when the time comes, and he appreciates how cooperative the GPD has been.
"The most important thing we are getting from this is the connections we've made from so many great people who care about fixing the problems that affect this world," he said.
UF students are joining the occupation movement across all college campuses.
Skye Schmelzer, sophomore psychology major, organized Occupy UF along with two other students.
Schmelzer also got UF included in the Occupy Florida Colleges coalition.
"People are pissed off and they are taking a stand," she said.
At time of publication, Occupy Gainesville had a permit that allowed protesters to stay overnight at the plaza Wednesday night.
Occupy Gainesville's general assembly decided to fulfill the permit, said Maya Garner, a protester.
Since the general assembly fulfilled the permit, it has forfeited its ability to reapply and receive a longer permit, she said.
"The general assembly will decide tomorrow [Thursday] evening if they will stay Thursday night," Garner said. "If they decide to stay in the park tomorrow night, it will be in civil disobedience."
Occupy UF will have its first meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday at Turlington Plaza to organize.
