Lone Counter-Protester Sticks Up For American Capitalism

There were some 60 protesters in the downtown Walnut Creek shopping district Wednesday evening.

Or, you could say, there were 59 + 1. (OK, those are not precise numbers. Your Patch reporter did a crowd estimate at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday.)

This Wednesday's event drew a one-man counter-protester countering the anti-corporate-greed slogans of at Mount Diablo Boulevard and North Main Street.

"The top 10 percent wage earners are paying 71 percent of the income tax," said Jeff Elfont of Walnut Creek, who runs an investment management firm. "How much more do they think the top 1 percent should pay?

"All these signs are things they can't get," said Elfont, shaking his head at some of the slogans from the Occupy Walnut Creekers. Elfont had a sign reading, "Global economy means global jobs," and another: "Corporations = Jobs."

He exchanged good-natured verbal jabs with the majority protesters.

Shortly before 5 o'clock, Elfont excused himself and said, "I'm going to run. I've got work to do."

Elfont crossed Mount Diablo Boulevard and Occupy protester Carl Martineau of Berkeley looked after him and saluted Elfont's courage in the face of larger numbers. Martineau came from Berkeley and said, "I think when people out here protest, it has more impact … when it affects an affluent community, it (a bad economy) is really bad."

"I'm outraged by corporate America and what they're doing to the economy," said Ellis Goldberg of Danville.

Occupy Walnut Creek protests will continue from 4 p.m. till darkness next Wednesday and beyond, said Kathy Klein of Lafayette: "We've come to Walnut Creek and we may be here for a while."