All types of protesters have hopped on the Rose Parade band wagon, and now the Occupy movement is about to join them. What better plan to get a gigantic captive audience than a showy parade that zillions love to watch, especially when it’s all been worked out in advance in a peaceful, legal way?

L.A. Times:

[T]his year, Tournament of Roses organizers and Pasadena police are gearing up for something different as Occupy protesters, fresh from their encampments across the country, plan to converge on Pasadena. Like activists in the past, they are hoping to widen their impact with an estimated domestic TV audience of 50 million people and about 700,000 people along the route. [...]

Protesters intend to march with large banners that decry wealth inequality in the United States and to unveil a few colorful “floats” of their own, including a giant people-powered octopus, said Pete Thottam, an Occupy spokesman. The octopus will be made out of recycled bags, stretching 40 feet from tentacle to tentacle, and is designed to represent the stranglehold that Wall Street has on the political process, he said.

Others will carry large blow-ups of the Constitution, one with the words “We the People” and the other “We the Corporations,” he said. Planned speakers include Cindy Sheehan, an antiwar activist who lost her son in the Iraq war, local Occupy activists and possibly leftist documentarian Michael Moore.

An Occupy spokesperson said there will be people participating from Seattle, Portland, Oakland and New York, and of course, Los Angeles… maybe even thousands of people. Mic check!

Speaking of Occupy Los Angeles, there’s an interesting new privatized wrinkle afoot. The L.A. Times is reporting that the protesters who were arrested can avoid court trials by paying $355 to a private contractor for– wait for it– free speech lessons.  See the irony there?

No, I’m not kidding:

Los Angeles Chief Deputy City Atty. William Carter said the city won’t press charges against protesters who complete the educational program offered by American Justice Associates.

He said the program, which may include lectures by attorneys and retired judges, is being offered to people with no other criminal history and who were arrested on low-level misdemeanor offenses, such as failure to disperse. [...]

But a civil rights attorney who has worked closely with the protesters called the class “patronizing,” and said the demonstrators who were arrested are the last people needing free-speech training.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure the Occupy movement is well aware of how the First Amendment works. However, maybe some of the more violent police officers around the country should be offered the opportunity to pay a private company for classes, too.

Oh, and by the way:

The bulk of Occupy protesters — those who were arrested on the night of the LAPD eviction — were held on at least $5,000 bail and locked up for two days.

“Spending that much time in jail was definitely punishment enough,” she said.

The powers-that-be here in L.A. might want to take a few lessons themselves.