Occupy COMO created an official statement for the movement at its general assembly Tuesday night. The statement is available on the group’s website and Facebook page.

“It’s a hybrid of the statements from New York and St. Louis, with a little Columbia twist,” participant Clayton Shannon said.

Shannon said the statement lets people know the movement is invested in people’s rights and the primary concern is that people are able to represent themselves. He said the statement is general, but he feels it is better to be general rather than too specific.

“We’re all here for a variety of reasons,” participant and MU student Jacob Moor said. “But we tried to narrow it down to some main reasons.”

At the bottom of the official statement are three bullet points, “We are here because our First Amendment rights allow us to peaceably assemble and grant us freedom of speech,” “We, the 99 percent, are tired of having our decisions made by the wealthiest 1 percent” and “We stand in solidarity with occupations around the world.”

The Occupy COMO movement can usually be found at Eighth Street and Broadway, seven days a week. The group’s general assemblies take place at 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Moor said the group began having general assemblies during the first week of the movement, which began the Monday after Occupy Wall Street started in New York.

Shannon said the general assembly meetings represent direct democracy, and if a person is there, he or she has a voice. Because there is no hierarchy, it is difficult to get an accurate sense of the movement from a single person, he said.

Shannon said he sees a lot of generalization in the news, and the media presents a sense of motivation that is not homogenous.

“Every person you speak to represents themselves,” Shannon said.