This past Saturday, supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement set up shop on the Southeast corner of State Street and Court Street equipped with tents, banners and a drum set. This satellite movement, one of the many spawned by the original “Occupy Wall Street,” is evoking the sympathies of local government and law enforcement in a way its parent-protest has not.

Occupiers in Manhattan have been protesting corporate greed for more than a month now. The little-protest-that-could has picked up considerable steam, inspiring sympathy protests far and wide — from Tokyo to little ol’ Binghamton. To bystanders, the implications of the small group occupying the grassy knoll in the heart of Downtown Binghamton is not so clear, but the Binghamton city brass has taken notice.

“This system puts profit over people and our planet, it has put us in a dire situation and I stand with all those fighting to change it,” said Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan, in a statement to Pipe Dream. “It’s an uphill battle, but the Occupy movement is turning heads and catching on, from the largest cities to the smallest towns.”

Mayor Ryan is a Democrat’s Democrat, and his sympathies should come as little surprise, but the demeanor with which he and his police department have treated the protest has been admirable. No arrests have been made, and for the foreseeable future, the occupiers will continue protesting, unmolested, in the lot next to Pasquale’s.

While the Binghamton variation on the Occupy Wall Street Movement is obviously much smaller than its New York counterpart, the Binghamton Police Department has reacted calmly — a refreshing show of pacifism to people who haven’t been disruptive or broken any of the rules that were set for them. But Binghamton is only one of the many Occupy Wall Street hotbeds, and the State Street colony can only garner so much attention.

But the ever-growing movement has spanned the U.S., breached international borders and crossed the oceans. And while media coverage was sparse initially, the voices of the Occupy Wall Street movement are resounding in newspapers and social media around the world.

So now that Occupy Wall Street has the world’s attention, it’s time to take that attention and run with it. Protesters across the globe have joined the fight, including those right here in Binghamton, but the movement’s supporters are ultimately looking to its epicenter in Zuccotti Park to see what kind of moves to make.

If the protests in Binghamton were able to make our local government speak out against economic inequality, it is up to the larger scale versions of Occupy Wall Street to bring its current strength to bear on specific issues and goals and push them to the forefront of American political discourse, while they still can.