NEW YORK CITY: Occupy Wall Street (OWS) marched into its third month on Friday after protests in several US cities led to clashes with police, as well as the arrest of 250 people, in the movement’s New York City epicenter.
Thousands of activists protesting against alleged corporate greed marched across New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge on Thursday in a show of force after being evicted from their home base in a Manhattan park earlier this week.
The protests were part of a “Global Day of Action” to mark the movement’s two-month anniversary, with hundreds of demonstrations planned across the country to protest against the “one percent” of political and business elites.
Police evicted protesters in Los Angeles and Dallas, arresting dozens of people in the latest crackdowns on the tent camps that have sprouted in several US cities, which local officials view as a health and public safety hazard.
“We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!” chanted the crowd on the Brooklyn Bridge, which organizers said was 20,000 strong. New York City police refused to offer a crowd estimate.
Union activists and students joined the movement’s hardened members for the march, which was kept to the bridge’s pedestrian walkway—allowing evening rush hour traffic to proceed unhindered under the watchful eye of police.
Trucks and cars honked their horns in support of the demonstrators, who carried small electric candles in a festive atmosphere.
The feel-good evening came after a day of acrimony between protesters and police outside the New York Stock Exchange, where clashes led to more than 200 arrests, according to a New York Police
Department (NYPD) spokesman.
Chanting “Wall Street’s closed!” “We are the 99 percent” and “Whose street? Our street!” about 1,000 demonstrators engaged in a tense face-off with hundreds of police, including many on horseback.
The stock market opened on time but protesters managed a 45-minute blockade outside. Police eventually in-tervened to break through, establishing a corridor to escort traders and workers.
The ensuing clashes sent police and protesters clattering to the ground. Police repeatedly clubbed one man with a baton, while several protesters were handcuffed and dragged into police trucks.
AFP
