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Occupy Wall Street Protesters Target Obama 'Jobs Czar' and GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Protesters bring their Occupy Wall Street message to General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt's Connecticut home Saturday. (Photo credit: The Connecticut Post)

Occupy Wall Street Protesters Target Obama 'Jobs Czar' and GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt

"In the land of the free they tax me but not G.E.!"

Occupy Wall Street protesters vented their frustrations in front of General Electric CEO and White House "jobs czar" Jeffrey Immelt's tony Connecticut home Saturday, the Connecticut Post reported.

Nearly 80 protesters gathered in front of Immelt's front lawn to chant anti-corporate slogans, having been bussed in from Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. They were joined by local labor unions and protesters from other nearby Occupy demonstrations.

"In the land of the free they tax me but not G.E.!" an invitation to the "field trip" read. "General Electric made billions last year; they paid no taxes, outsourced thousands of jobs, and got over $3 billion in tax refunds! Join us on a FREE bus-trip to G.E’s CEO’s front lawn to see how our friends in the 1% live."

Earlier this week, The Blaze reported that Immelt said he sympathized with the Occupy protesters.

“Unemployment is 9.1 percent. Underemployment is much higher than that, particularly among young people that don’t have a college degree,” Immelt said. “It is natural to assume that people are angry, and I think we have to be empathetic and understand that people are not feeling great.”

The New Canaan Patch reported protesters chanted, "No jobs, no peace! No jobs, no peace!" in front of Immelt's $5.25 million home.

"It's time that corporate titans like Jeff Immelt know how tough it is for those of us without multi-million dollar bonuses," said Jon Green, executive director of the Connecticut Working Families Party, which helped organize the protest. "Immelt needs to understand how eliminating thousands of jobs and not paying taxes is hurting ordinary Americans."

Protesters said they didn't even know whether Immelt was home, but said they wanted to make their voices heard.

“It’s not the kind of home where you can just look in the window and see if the TV is on,” Green said.

GE spokesman Andrew Williams hit back at the protesters' claims about eliminating jobs.

“The protesters certainly have a right to share their opinion, but they don’t have a right to their own set of facts," he told Forbes. "The fact is that GE is investing in America. Since 2009 alone, GE has announced more than 10,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs and this week, GE announced that it will build its 16th new factory in the U.S. since 2009.”

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